College of Arts & Humanities
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The collections in this community comprise faculty research works, as well as graduate theses and dissertations.
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Item The Many Faces of Paul Hindemith(2006) WANG, SZU-YING; Stern, James; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The purpose of this project is to present selected violin pieces by Paul Hindemith (1895-1963) against a backdrop of the diverse styles and traditions that he integrated in his music. For this dissertation project, selected violin sonatas by Hindemith were performed in three recitals alongside pieces by other German and Austro-German composers. These recitals were also recorded for archival purposes. The first recital, performed with pianist David Ballena on December 10, 2005, in Gildenhorn Recital Hall at the University of Maryland, College Park, included Violin Sonata Op.11, No. 1 (1918) by Paul Hindemith, Sonatina in D Major, Op. 137 (1816) by Franz Schubert, and Sonata in E-flat Major, Op.18 (1887) by Richard Strauss. The second recital, performed with pianist David Ballena on May 9, 2006, in Gildenhorn Recital Hall at the University of Maryland, included Sonata in E Minor, KV 304 (1778) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Sonata in E (1935) by Paul Hindemith, Romance for Violin and Orchestra No.1 in G Major (1800-1802) by Ludwig Van Beethoven, and Sonata for Violin and Piano in A minor, Op. 105 (1851) by Robert Schumann. The third recital, performed with David Ballena and Kai-Ching Chang on November 10, 2006 in Ulrich Recital Hall at the University of Maryland, included Violin Sonata Op.12 No.1 in D Major (1798) by Ludwig Van Beethoven, Sonata for Violin and Harpsichord No.4 in C Minor BWV 1017 (1720) by J.S. Bach, and Violin Sonata Op.11 No.2 (1918) by Paul Hindemith. For each of my dissertation recitals, I picked a piece by Hindemith as the core of the program then picked pieces by other composers that have similar key, similar texture, same number of movements or similar feeling to complete my program. Although his pieces used some classical methods of composition, he added his own distinct style: extension of chromaticism; his prominent use of interval of the fourth; his chromatic alteration of diatonic scale degrees; and his non-traditional cadences. Hindemith left behind a legacy of multi-dimensional, and innovative music capable of expressing both the old and the new aesthetics.Item KOREAN DANCE AND PANSORI IN D.C.: INTERACTIONS WITH OTHERS, THE BODY, AND COLLECTIVE MEMORY AT A KOREAN PERFORMING ARTS STUDIO(2009) Ash-Morgan, Lauren Rebecca; Provine, Robert C.; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This thesis is the result of seventeen months' field work as a dance and pansori student at the Washington Korean Dance Company studio. It examines the studio experience, focusing on three levels of interaction. First, I describe participants' interactions with each other, which create a strong studio community and a women's "Korean space" at the intersection of culturally hybrid lives. Second, I examine interactions with the physical challenges presented by these arts and explain the satisfaction that these challenges can generate using Csikszentmihalyi's theory of "optimal experience" or "flow." Third, I examine interactions with discourse on the meanings and histories of these arts. I suggest that participants can find deeper significance in performing these arts as a result of this discourse, forming intellectual and emotional bonds to imagined people of the past and present. Finally, I explain how all these levels of interaction can foster in the participant an increasingly rich and complex identity.Item ASPECTS OF AMERICAN MUSICAL LIFE AS REFLECTED IN THE NEW MUSIC REVIEW AND CHURCH MUSIC REVIEW, 1901-1935(2009) Fitts, Elizabeth Crouch; Cohen, H. Robert; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The early twentieth century was a time of growth and important change in American musical life. However, many aspects of our national musical culture during this period remain largely unexplored. Among these is The New Music Review and Church Music Review (NMR) which from 1901 to 1935 offered a detailed chronicle of American musical life in some 404 issues and in over 16,000 pages. During its thirty-year publication run, the NMR was one of the most important music journals published in the United States and one that enjoyed "a high reputation for its able editorials and the excellence of its contributed articles." This dissertation examines the central and, in the main, previously unexplored topics treated in the journal's feature articles including attempts to define an American musical identity, the promotion of American music and composers, and the history and development of the organ and its music in the United States -- i.e., efforts to standardize the organ console, the controversy over unification of organ pipes, transcriptions, service playing, programs, and accompaniment for motion pictures and choirs. The journal also treats the history and accomplishments of the American Guild of Organists, problems relating to early twentieth-century American sacred music, the purposes of church music, musical reforms in the Episcopal and Roman Catholic Churches, the education of the clergy, congregation, choirmaster and organists in their responsibilities for the implementation of sacred music, and the selection of church repertory, especially hymns and anthems. There are four appendices: the first summarizes the NMR's articles on choral music, the second summarizes the NMR's articles on music education, the third lists the NMR's biographical sketches, and the fourth provides a descriptive list of the journal's contributors.Item Butch Morris and the Art of Conduction(2009) Stanley, Thomas Taylor; Witzleben, Lawrence; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Lawrence D. "Butch" Morris is a 62-year-old composer and bandleader who was part of a cadre of North American jazz innovators whose work began coming to public attention in the mid-1970s. Since 1985 he has developed, refined, and implemented a method for creating unique ensemble music using a patented vocabulary of conducting gestures. This novel strategy and the music it produces present an array of theoretical questions. Some of these have been simplified as questions of classificatory nomenclature: Is Conduction improvisation, interpretation, composition, or none of the above? How does Conduction as a system compare to other methods of structuring musical performance in real time? Other critical and social questions are addressed whose answers hinge upon the values and functions that sustain Conduction in the real world of monetized and competitive musicianship. Through interviews with Morris and members of his ensembles as well as observations conducted at numerous Conduction rehearsals and performances, my study documents Morris' art form as a new instrumentality that offers new ways of making and thinking about music. In the course of this study, a variety of materials and sources are used to describe how Conduction® was developed, what its historical precedents are, and how it operates in real performance situations. The explanatory implications of framing Conduction practice as a novel musical instrument are also examined. This new instrument has garnered a community of users with differential investments in and expectations for Morris' vehicle and how these investments and expectations have defined Conduction's place in the domain of musical performance and education. Supported by self-reporting and analysis, Morris' method is shown to arise from a pro-ensemble orientation that seeks to breathe new life into both the jazz big band and the classical orchestra by awakening and redistributing those core capacities most essential to the production of musical sound.Item Requiem for Chorus and Harp: Conductor as Composer, Composer as Conductor(2008) Culverhouse, William; Maclary, Edward; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Western music history is filled with composers who also conduct their own works, and conductors who also devote time to composing. This project will attempt to examine the experience of the composer-conductor by addressing the following questions: First, what is it like to compose a piece of music for a group one conducts regularly? How does one's experience as a conductor influence compositional decision-making? Second, what is it like to conduct one's own music? How does one's experience as a composer influence rehearsal planning and performance conducting? The inquiry will focus on the preparation for and performance on May 16 of three pieces: Advent Antiphons and The Transfiguration, both written for the St. Matthew's Schola Cantorum in 2000, and the Requiem for chorus and harp, begun in January 2007 and completed in April 2008, all with the composer conducting. The completed project will include copies of scores, a DVD of rehearsal excerpts, CDs and DVDs of the performance, and a text document examining the questions mentioned above. The text document will address biographical information on the composer-conductor, focusing on experiences relevant to the inquiry; composition and history of the St. Matthew's Schola Cantorum and of his relationship with them; information about the compositions themselves and the compositional process; and a discussion of the rehearsal process and performance of the pieces.Item Brahms Performance Practice in a New Context: The Bruce Hungerford Recorded Lessons with Carl Friedberg(2008) DiClemente, Ann Riesbeck; Davis, Shelley G; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)A product of the student-teacher relationship between Australian pianist Bruce "Leonard" Hungerford (1922-1977) and German pedagogue Carl Friedberg (1872-1955) are fifteen recorded lessons of more than twenty hours from February 1951 through May 1952, now part of the Bruce Hungerford Collection at the International Piano Archives at Maryland (IPAM). These lessons yield a remarkable repository of insight into Brahms performance practice, as Friedberg was a student of Clara Schumann and protégé of Brahms. Part I, Chapter One: Bruce Hungerford and Carl Friedberg: Introduction and Context presents biographical surveys of the lives and careers of Hungerford and Friedberg. Chapter Two: The Recorded Lessons consists of the lessons' genesis and nature, repertoire, and aspects of interpretation, technique, and performance practice, as well as Friedberg's first-hand accounts of a number of musicians, conductors, and composers from Bach to Busoni. Chapter Three: Brahms Performance Practice presents Friedberg's personal history with Brahms as musician, composer, and conductor, and focuses on the Brahms repertoire covered in the lessons. Analysis and commentary regarding the significance of the lessons follow. Part II: The Transcription of the Hungerford-Friedberg Lessons consists of the transcription and accompanying indices of the recorded lessons. Appendix A: Hungerford Memorabilia contains a biography by Thomas Stanback, published interview, and discography. Appendix B: Friedberg Memorabilia contains performance reviews, recital dates and programs, and compositional oeuvre with discography. Appendix C: Hungerford-Friedberg Memorabilia presents reproductions of selected photographs, letters, and documents from the correspondence and scrapbooks of the Bruce Hungerford and Carl Friedberg Collections at IPAM.Item Anton Bruckner's First Symphony: Its Two Versions and Their Reception(2009) Nishiwaki, Takuya; Ross, James; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Bruckner's First Symphony exists in two versions: the Linz version and the Vienna version. It has been taken for granted that the Linz version is to be used when performing the First Symphony. This fact seems to suggest the musical superiority of the Linz version over the Vienna version. For more than seventy-five years, the Vienna version has been completely forgotten even though this version is the final version Bruckner himself made of the work. Bruckner revised many of his symphonies, resulting in many versions. Among them, the Vienna version of the First Symphony is the only final version which is neglected. However, the Vienna version was the only available score of the work for the first forty years after its publication in 1893. This situation is unique in the modern reception of Bruckner's music. This thesis attempts to reappraise the validity of the current overt bias toward the Linz version by exploring both Bruckner's working method and the history of the modern reception of the First Symphony. Biographical facts show that Bruckner had a strong personal motivation for the revision which was not triggered by any external factors. I shall demonstrate that the Vienna version has been undermined in the twentieth-century reception of Bruckner's music through two separate modern critical editions. In particular, the main causes for the current bias toward the Linz version originated with the period of the first Bruckner Gesamtausgabe (1930-44) under the direction of Robert Haas. The political climate of the Third Reich had a major impact on shaping the text-critical ideology of the Gesamtausgabe. In addition, Haas was confronted with legal constraints that hindered his editorial work. As a result, Haas had to wage an extensive campaign to promote his editions, which eventually proved durable and affected the current reception of Bruckner's music half a century later. It will be shown that the Vienna version was forgotten more for ideological reasons than for musical ones. The thesis also discusses the rationale for the revision and practical issues about performing the Vienna version of the First Symphony. I will show that Bruckner's motivation for the revision was not promotion or publication of the work. The essence of the revision was related to his personal concerns about theoretical issues. In that sense, Bruckner revised the work for himself. In every sense, the Vienna version is unique in Bruckner's oeuvre. This study gives a new perspective and urges a reappraisal of the modern reception of the two versions of Bruckner's First Symphony.Item Ritualizing Barong and Rangda: Repercussions of a Collaborative Field Experience in Kerambitan, Bali.(2009) Tafoya, Xochitl Ysabela; Dueck, Jonathan; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The dance-drama called Barong and Rangda a ritual, is one of the vital events that breathes life in the small village, Banjar Tista, and extends beyond the boundaries of its "performance" area. In this thesis, I depend on Ronald Grimes' concept of "ritualizing" as a continuum in the context of my fieldwork in Bali, Indonesia. The ritual cycle and the collaborative fieldwork process are analyzed through the impressions of each fieldworker. Barong and Rangda is a well-documented dance-drama and part of the longer Calonarang story. This dance-drama is a mythological battle between the lion, Barong, and the witch, Rangda, and is performed authentically to create spiritual balance and cleanse its community members of evil. This ritual performance reaches beyond the time and place in which the performance originates and creates a ripple affect on the village members, those in trance, musicians and cultural outsiders alike.Item The Effects of Gender and Grade Level on the Compositional Processes of Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Grade Students(2009) Kurtz, Jonathan David; Carter, Bruce A; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of grade level and gender on the amount of time early adolescents spent on selected compositional processes (exploration, repetition, development, and silence). This study serves as an extension of the Kratus (1989) study that examined the compositional processes used by 7, 9, and 11-year-olds. For this study, 30 students in grades 6, 7, and 8 were given 10 minutes to compose a piece of music on an electronic keyboard. Following the composition time, students were asked to play their compositions two times in a row. The time spent on the compositional processes of exploration, development, repetition, and silence was analyzed quantitatively by the researcher and two independent judges. Analysis showed no significant relationships between grade level and the use of compositional processes. No gender differences were found, and all students in grades 6-8 were able create a composition to some degree. Although no significant main effects were observed, analysis of the mean time spent on the process of development indicates that a trend may exist in which older students spend more time developing ideas than younger students.Item Exploring the experiences of three teachers at a summer youth music camp: "As positive for the faculty as it is for the kids"(2009) Belin, Leah Rachel; Montgomery, Janet; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The purpose of this single case study ethnography was to explore the experiences of three music teachers at a summer youth music camp (SYMC) at a large university outside a metropolitan area on the East Coast. This exploration was intended to investigate the following research questions: (a) Why did the participants choose to participate in SYMC, (b) How did the participants benefit from participation in SYMC, and (c) How did the experiences of the participants relate to the professional and nonprofessional aspects of SYMC? Data analysis revealed two major themes: nonprofessional aspects of participation and professional aspects of participation. The professional aspects of camp were of more benefit to the participants and were a stronger motivation for participation than the nonprofessional aspects. The results of the present study held implications for SYMC as a learning community and as an opportunity for professional development for music teachers.