Music Theses and Dissertations
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Item Four X Three: Unconventional Contemporary Chamber Music Trios Featuring Solo Trumpet(2024) Rye, Dylan; Gekker, Paul C; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Although the trumpet has been largely absent from the instrumental color palette used by composers of chamber music, the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries have spawned new conceptions of the trumpet in the context of the chamber music trio. Recent chamber music features extremely diverse instrumental combinations, producing novel compositional effects and technical demands on performers. A study of developing ideas about the trumpet in the chamber music environment tracks the trumpets’ growing acceptance in the chamber music sphere and its recent liberation from the confines of the brass family. Analysis of two twentieth century chamber trios with solo trumpet shows that advancements in trumpet design and technique have made the instrument suitable in many instrumental contexts, and that modern composers have used it to great effect in “neo-tonal” music. Examination of two twenty-first century chamber trios with unorthodox orchestration tracks contemporary composers' evolving use of the trumpet.Item A STUDY OF SELECTED COLLABORATIONS: PREPARING AND COACHING PIANO CHAMBER MUSIC FOR PERFORMANCE(2021) Su, Ying-Shan; Sloan, Rita; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Every devoted musician strives for excellence in performance. In chamber music rehearsals, it is crucially important that this same devoted musician should do more than simply get the music ready for successful performance. The work of rehearsal involves striving to fulfill the intentions of the composer, an effort which will hopefully satisfy both the musicians and the audience. It is equally important for musicians to learn more about shared leadership and collaborative teamwork, which lie at the heart of the chamber music genre as well as at the heart of the rehearsal itself. This entire process requires proper guidance towards the relevant information and knowledge and I feel that the type of learning and development acquired through a successful chamber music experience will benefit music students and encourage them to take ownership of their musical growth and long-term learning. However, a major roadblock to acquiring this knowledge is the lack of written pedagogical material. Therefore, in this dissertation, topics pertaining to music preparation and the rehearsal process involved in the three programs of selected piano chamber music as well as related coaching ideas will be discussed. Hopefully, the performances along with this document will contribute to the information available on how one learns to organize and prepare for piano chamber music performances in a more systematic and group-oriented way. The recital programs were presented on September 30th and December 8th, 2020, and March 30th, 2021. Recordings of these three recitals can be found in the Digital Repository at the University of Maryland (DRUM).Item When the Cello Speaks Alone: Cello Cadenzas in Chamber Music Duos(2019) Borowsky, Frances Grace; Kutz, Eric; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation explores chamber duo works in which the cello has one or more significant solo passages. Works studied are sonatas for cello and piano by Luigi Boccherini (1771), Anton Rubinstein (1855), Edvard Grieg (1883), Alexander Tcherepnin (1924), and Marcus Paus (2009); show pieces by David Popper (Hungarian Rhapsody, 1894), Sulkhan Tsintsadze (Five Pieces on Folk Themes for Cello and Piano, 1950), Joachim Stutschewsky (Three Hebrew Melodies, 1934), and Buxton Orr (A Carmen Fantasy, 1985); and two duos with violin by Zoltán Kodály (1914) and Bohuslav Martinů (1927). Short biographical notes are provided on each composer and cadenzas are analyzed for their role and placement in each respective composition. Works have been organized according to the following categories: improvised cadenzas, cadenzas that prolong harmonic tension, virtuosic cadenzas based on folk and ethnic traditions, cadenzas providing an introduction or transition, and reflective cadenzas. In the conclusions, it is noted that post-Classical era composers place the cadenzas in a variety of locations, including at the opening of the work, before the recapitulation, and between themes of the recapitulation. Some composers use the cello alone for transitions or to introduce material at the beginning of the piece or movement. Few of the cadenzas include previously stated themes, and most cadenzas discussed in this paper wholly abandon the traditional function of delay. In all of these, the inclusion of a cello cadenza augments the emotional and textural dimension and variety.Item House of Winter: Opera in One Act(2018) Pazdziora, Eric; Wilson, Mark E; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)House of Winter is a one-act dramatic musical composition, approximately 70 minutes in duration, with a libretto written by Dr. John Patrick Pazdziora. It is scored for four singers and chamber orchestra including strings, woodwinds, harpsichord, and frame drum. The opera combines music and text with thematic material evocative of Scottish folk songs in a narrative exploration of the experience of an elderly woman facing the end of her life and reflecting on her lost cultural traditions and identity through encroaching dementia.Item Adaptive Reuse: a chamber symphony for 13 musicians(2017) Wixon, Henry Ross; Gibson, Robert L; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Adaptive Reuse is a chamber symphony of approximately 14 minutes 30 seconds in four continuous movements and is scored for 13 musicians: 1 flute (doubling piccolo); 1 oboe (doubling English horn); 1 B-flat clarinet (doubling bass clarinet); 1 horn in F; 1 trumpet in C; 1 percussionist (quad toms and vibraphone); 3 violins; 2 violas; 1 cello; and 1 double bass. The piece explores the term “adaptive reuse:” the repurposing of old buildings to meet a community’s changing needs while preserving sites of historic value. Whether in the form of rustic tables made from reclaimed barn timbers or mixed-use developments that breathe new life into derelict industrial buildings, the notion of adaptive reuse combines our society’s increased awareness of the earth’s limited resources with our demand for authenticity. This concept is ideally suited to musical materials as well: since the Middle Ages, Western composers have reused their own music and the compositions of others or have simply found inspiration in older, more “learned,” forms throughout every stylistic period. The musical materials of Adaptive Reuse are drawn from my 2007 solo bass clarinet work Requiem for Dead Wood; I develop the original composition’s compelling motives through non-tonal and rhythmically asymmetrical explorations. The first movement, “Reclaimed Wood,” acknowledges the source material (Dead Wood) and the aforementioned repurposing of old construction materials into furniture or architectural details. The second, “Persons of Record,” divides the ensemble into two competing choirs, reflecting the attempts by impassioned speakers to sway community members at public hearings. “Request for Proposal,” refers to the solicitation of bids from developers; in this movement, I rework a second-movement countermelody through several guises (“proposals”) using a number of compositional schemes. As the subtitle “Old and New” suggests, the final movement conveys the dual outcomes of adaptive reuse: first, the ensemble coalesces into the only true climax of the piece for one shimmering moment—its new purpose—and second, the opening material returns, indicative of the preservation inherent to this type of development.Item An Exploration of Works Inspired by Spiritual Traditions in Contemporary Flute Repertoire (1981 - 2010)(2015) Shanley, Meghan; Hill, Mark D; Goldman, Aaron; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Composers are currently utilizing a vast number of technologies and extended flute techniques as expressive tools in spiritually inspired compositions. With the use of pitch bends, breath and wind tones, multiphonics, flutter tongue, and timbral trills, traditional flutes of different cultures are mimicked on the modern instrument more vividly than ever before. These extended techniques allow composers to combine their styles with religious traditions in an innovative manner and connect with audiences in fresh and original ways. This dissertation explores the different avenues of spiritual musical expression in contemporary flute repertoire through three thematic recital programs. The first program creates a soundscape of the musical traditions of five different faiths: Hinduism, Divination, Judaism, Buddhism, and Christianity; the second program consists of chamber works inspired by traditional Western belief systems; and the final program is made up of works written as social commentary on religious or spiritual conflicts, specifically on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, the Yom Kippur War, and the Trail of Tears. The following works are performed and discussed in this dissertation: Robert Dick – Techno Yaman; Michael Daugherty – Crystal and Trail of Tears; Howard J. Buss – Scenes from the Holy Land; Tōru Takemitsu – Air; Daniel Kellogg – Into Utter Forever and Divinum Mysterium; Christopher Rouse – Compline; Richard Toensing – Children of Light; Ruth Schönthal – A Bird Over Jerusalem; Leonard Bernstein – Halil; and Katherine Hoover – Winter Spirits.Item A Performance Study of Contemporary Chamber Music for Trumpet and Strings(2014) Yager, Harold E; Gekker, Chris; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The twentieth and twenty-first centuries have had a rekindling of the trumpet/strings chamber relationship that was once common in the baroque era. Not only is new music being composed, performers sometimes present works in a chamber environment that were originally intended for trumpet and string orchestra or works that did not originally include trumpet. This provides new life to the music, gives audiences the chance to hear something different in a trumpet recital, and allows the trumpet player firsthand experience with music he or she may have never had otherwise. Between new music and the reshaping of older works, now is an excellent time for trumpet players to expand their horizons. First Recital: January 30, 2012 Gildenhorn Recital Hall Gillingham: Tourbillon Cooman: Sun Songs Bartók: Selections from 44 Duos for Two Violins Ewazen: Trio Second Recital: February 20, 2012 Ulrich Recital Hall Presser: Three Duets Cooman: Chorale and Courante Koetsier: Duo giocoso Cooman: Lyric Trio Third Recital: December 9, 2013 Gildenhorn Recital Hall Hovhaness: Haroutian Ewazen: Quintet Taggart: Song at Sunset Bartholomew: Summer Suite This performance study has had tremendous positive effects. Most importantly, it has given me knowledge and recital suggestions that I will be able to offer my students. The ability to broaden their experiences as I have done is something I look forward to and believe to be extremely important. Students must learn to always be exploring different ways to reach their audiences, and they must be comfortable in all types of settings. Trumpet players too often do not expand their performances out of the realm of brass, robbing themselves of great experiences.Item Chamber Music in France Featuring Flute and Soprano, 1850-1950, and a Study of the Interactions Among the Leading Flutists, Sopranos, Composers, Artists, and Literary Figures of the Time(2006-05-10) Hayes, Susan Nanette; Montgomery, William L.; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation, together with the accompanying recital recordings, constitute an examination of chamber music for flute, soprano, and piano and for flute, soprano, and chamber ensemble written by French composers between 1850 and 1950. This examination includes an annotated bibliography of the music, a written document studying the interactions of the leading flutists, sopranos, composers, artists, and literary figures of the time, and two recitals of representative works from the repertoire of about 120 minutes, which were recorded during performances at University of Maryland in March of 2004. The text examines the various types of chamber works written during this period for flute and soprano, with and without additional accompaniment. The amount of repertoire written for flute and voice during this period by composers of a single nationality is exceptional in the history of music. The annotated bibliography lists about 100 pieces in the genre, a truly substantial repertoire. As a performer, I was intrigued by the possibility that several generations of highly gifted, individualistic performers may have inspired these composers to produce this tremendous outpouring of repertoire. With the proximity of so many great singers and flutists in Paris at the time, it can hardly be coincidental that so many composers, both the most well-known and some who are quite obscure today, produced so many exceptional works for these combinations of instruments with voice. Indeed, I contend that the composers were influenced both by specific musicians and by their contemporaries and colleagues in literature and the visual arts, who inspired them to give so much attention to the development of what would have been regarded as a small form. Part of my historical research has been to search for the intersections between performer, poet, and composer and to determine some of the ways in which they affected one another. A second purpose of my study is to develop an annotated bibliography of these works, thus providing extensive, useful information regarding first performances, instrumentation, vocal range, flute range, keys, time signatures, dedications, timings of the works, publisher, availability, and the relative merit of the works themselves. Many of the compositions for soprano and flute are, admittedly, of dubious musical value, but some are masterworks of the chamber music repertoire, and few are actively performed today. In addition, a large number of the pieces listed in the bibliography are out of print. Because so many of the composers no longer have a significant prominence, their works today lay generally unperformed and undiscovered. The annotated bibliography also serves as a reference guide for today's performers of this repertoire. A final purpose of this study is the performance and preservation through audio recordings of a number of works associated with this project. The recordings will serve as a means of documenting some of this remarkable music.