Return to search

The Viola in the Twenty-First Century: A Sound Recording and Performance Guide of Peter Daytons "Fantasy for Viola and Piano," Christopher Hallums "A Day in Monroe County," and Christopher Lowrys "Milestone Miniatures for Solo Viola" and "Suite for Viola and Piano"

The standard repertoire of the viola is quite small when compared to that of the rest of the string family; the instrument came of age in the twentieth century, which brought about the first important virtuosos and compositions for the instrument. In the twenty-first century, the repertoire of the viola continues to grow, and the author, being both a violist and composer, feels it is important to continue contributing quality music to the instrument, both through his own compositions and through working with other living composers.
The purpose of this research was to record a full-length CD of new works for viola and provide descriptions and performance guides of these pieces, as well as biographical sketches of their respective composers and a detailed guide to the recording and editing process. The project is in two main parts: the CD, which was entirely engineered, recorded, and edited by the author and performer; and the paper, which talks about the recorded pieces as well as a sort of practical guide to self-producing a classical CD. The featured pieces include Peter Daytons Fantasy for Viola and Piano, Christopher Hallums A Day in Monroe County, and the authors own Suite for Viola and Piano and Milestone Miniatures for Solo Viola. As classical music in general is not often self-recorded or self-produced like the majority of more popular musical genres, the author intends this project to encourage more performers to self-produce their own projects as well.
Each of the first four chapters offers insights into the compositional processes of the pieces as well as guides to successful performances of them; the first two chapters also give biographies of the composers, detailing their relationships to the author. The final chapter discusses the recording process, including the microphones and techniques used, as well as the methods used in post-production and mixing, and the challenges faced during the process. The author hopes this project will make a good case for all of these pieces as viable additions to the standard repertoire, and that more musicians will be inspired to make their own recordings.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:LSU/oai:etd.lsu.edu:etd-04072017-201600
Date02 May 2017
CreatorsLowry, Christopher Daniel
ContributorsLilleslatten, Espen, Heo, Jun, Constantinides, Dinos, Goldstein, Elias
PublisherLSU
Source SetsLouisiana State University
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf, application/octet-stream
Sourcehttp://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-04072017-201600/
Rightsunrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached herein a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to LSU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below and in appropriate University policies, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report.

Page generated in 0.0021 seconds