UMD Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/3
New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a given thesis/dissertation in DRUM.
More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.
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Item Contrasts: Quartets and Art Songs of the Nineteenth Century(2016) Brown, Elizabeth Lillian; Sloan, Rita; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The nineteenth-century Romantic era saw the development and expansion of many vocal and instrumental forms that had originated in the Classical era. In particular, the German lied and French mélodie matured as art forms, and they found a kind of equilibrium between piano and vocal lines. Similarly, the nineteenth-century piano quartet came into its own as a form of true chamber music in which all instruments participated equally in the texture. Composers such as Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms, and Gabriel Fauré offer particularly successful examples of both art song and piano quartets that represent these genres at their highest level of artistic complexity. Their works have become the cornerstones of the modern collaborative pianist’s repertoire. My dissertation explored both the art songs and the piano quartets of these three composers and studied the different skills needed by a pianist performing both types of works. This project included the following art song cycles: Robert Schumann’s Dichterliebe, Gabriel Fauré’s Poème d’un Jour, and Johannes Brahms’ Zigeunerlieder. I also performed Schumann’s Piano Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 47, Fauré’s Piano Quartet in C minor, Op. 15, and Brahms’ Piano Quartet in G minor, Op. 25. My collaborators included: Zachariah Matteson, violin and viola; Kristin Bakkegard, violin; Molly Jones, cello; Geoffrey Manyin, cello; Karl Mitze, viola; Emily Riggs, soprano, and Matthew Hill, tenor. This repertoire was presented over the course of three recitals on February 13, 2015, December 11, 2015, March 25, 2016 at the University of Maryland’s Gildenhorn Recital Hall. These recitals can be found in the Digital Repository at the University of Maryland (DRUM).Item The Emergence of Spanish Impressionism and its Interaction with French Impressionism in Music at the Turn of the Twentieth Century: selections from the solo and collaborative piano repertoire(2016) Yang, Harmony; Sloan, Rita; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)French Impressionism is a term which is often used in discussing music originating in France towards the end of the nineteenth century. The term Spanish Impressionism could also be used when discussing Spanish music written by the Spanish composers who studied and worked in Paris at the same time as their French counterparts. After all, Spanish music written during this time exhibits many of the same characteristics and aesthetics as French music of the same era. This dissertation will focus on the French and Spanish composers writing during that exciting time. Musical impressionism emphasizes harmonic effects and rhythmic fluidity in the pursuit of evocative moods, sound pictures of nature or places over the formalism of structure and thematic concerns. The music of this time is highly virtuosic as well as musically demanding, since many of the composers were brilliant pianists. My three dissertation recitals concentrated on works which exhibited the many facets of impressionism as well as the technical and musical challenges. The repertoire included selections by Spanish composers Manuel de Falla, Isaac Albéniz, Enrique Granados, Joaquín Turina, and Joaquín Rodrigo and French composers Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. The recitals were on April 30, 2013, February 23, 2014 and October 11, 2015. They included solo piano works by Granados and Albéniz, vocal works by Debussy, Ravel, de Falla, Turina and Rodrigo, piano trios by Granados and Turina, instrumental duos by Debussy, Ravel and de Falla, and a two-piano work of Debussy transcribed by Ravel. All three recitals were held in Gildenhorn Recital Hall at the University of Maryland and copies of this dissertation and recordings of each recital may be found through the Digital Repository at the University of Maryland (DRUM).Item Students as Historical Detectives: The Effects of an Inquiry Approach on Middle School Students' Understanding of Historical Ideas and Concepts(2004-11-23) Stout, Mark Joseph; VanSledright, Bruce; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)National tests of student achievement in history have been poor for nearly 100 years, yet instructional practices have remained largely static pedantic, teacher-centered, textbook-driven, and dull. This study investigates the use of a student-centered, inquiry approach in the teaching of traditional history content that moves beyond stereotypical portrayals of history teachers. This approach placed the interpretation of historical content in the hands of students through the analysis of primary source documents, images, maps, and statistical data as an alternative manner of learning history. Working in collaborative teams, students presented their interpretations in a variety of products and then compared their ideas to those of historians. In order to collect close-up data and to assess this type of approach, the researcher became the teacher of an 8th grade United States history class in a diverse middle school, examining this approach from both the perspectives of the students and of the teacher. Primarily qualitative in nature, data sources include a researcher's journal, student classroom discourse and assignments, interviews with students and a privileged observer, pre and post think-aloud-protocol readings of historical text, and a survey of student interests and motivations. These data were analyzed using open coding and an analysis of reading primary source text based on a continuum of reading strategies. Key findings suggest that students struggled initially with a shift in the culture of learning from traditional history classes and with reading sophisticated primary source text. The researcher found that by promoting a sense of confidence in his students and shaping the class into a community of learners, the students were able work collaboratively to develop deep understandings of both historical content and of the practices and tools of historians. They were able to negotiate difficult primary source text when the text was carefully selected for interest and direct connection to the learning objective, were analyzed in small chunks, and, when feasible, were analyzed in concert with visual images. The author also discusses the practical applications of such an approach from a teacher's perspective and implications for other stakeholders.