Music
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Item Quantifying Dynamic Pitch Adjustment Decision Structures in String Quartet Performance(2021) Tavani, Nicholas John; Salness, David; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)What does it mean to have a unique group sound? Is such a thing quantifiable? If so, are there noticeable differences between groups, and any correlations to the time each group spends together? It is important to note a caveat right off the bat: music is generally understood to be created by and listened to by humans, and thus any attempts at quantifiable answers to the above questions will be, at best, orthogonal to its main purpose. It is also clear from anecdotes and interviews with professional musicians that qualitatively distinguishable characteristics of group sound and interpretation absolutely do exist and are noticeable to the listener. Paul Katz, cellist of the Cleveland Quartet, describes the multiple layers of such a group identity: “When one spends that many hours per day and years together, there is a meshing of taste, an unspoken unification of musical values, an intuitive understanding of each other's timings and shapings, and even a merging of how one produces sounds, makes a bow change, or varies vibrato, that is deeper than words or conscious decision making.” This dissertation concerns itself with the general question of whether or not it is possible to detect and define, in a quantifiable sense, the patterns and elements of a unique group sound identity, specifically in the intonation domain. Original research was carried out, consisting of recording four string quartets with high-quality equipment under controlled conditions, to begin to answer this question.Item Tenebrae(2019) Fili, Michael Paul; Wilson, Mark E; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Tenebrae represents a complete musical setting of the texts prescribed for the Office of Tenebrae observed Thursday in Holy Week. In its complete form, Tenebrae is intended to be used liturgically, providing new musical material that is organic to the nature and purpose of the service while appealing to the modern aesthetic. The influence of several musical styles associated with these texts is intended to ground the new work with the service’s traditions. Selections of this composition are designed to be excerpted for concert performance or for use in other liturgical functions. The first half of the office consists of texts occurring in cycles of threes, each cycle bringing the service deeper into darkness. Musically, the change in tone is represented by a gradual increase in dissonance and a modulation in style. The texture at the beginning is simple, with little counterpoint and harmonies that track a melodic line in an approximation of the effect of parallel organum. The Lessons of the First Nocturn introduce references to Renaissance polyphony and the virtuosity associated with the Leçons de ténèbre. The music becomes denser and more agitated until reaching moments of aleatory and extreme dissonance in the Second Nocturn. The Third Nocturn presents a gradual return to the meditative sound world of the opening. At Matins consists of one large dramatic arc encompassing three smaller arcs representing each of the three nocturns. At Lauds consists of a fourth arc at the level of the nocturns, but presents a different aesthetic. At this point, the service descends deep into meditation as the church continues to darken. The music, then, must complement the service’s meditative qualities rather than create a distraction. As a whole, Tenebrae can be thought of as one large stylistic arc that begins in the meditative sound-world of Sacred Minimalism, proceeds to references to chant and organum, then to polyphony and Baroque style until it reaches a tonal space at home in the 21st century. The process is then loosely reversed as the piece ends.Item 13 Episodes for String Quartet(2019) Dizon, Quinn Gareth; Wilson, Mark E; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)13 Episodes for String Quartet is an original composition with an approximate duration of 38 minutes. A dramatic narrative unfolds over a 13-movement arch form as two intervals, a tritone and a perfect fifth, are presented and explored in different harmonic and melodic contexts. As these two opposing forces compete for the foreground, a gradual shift takes place from musical material that is audibly tritone based to material that is audibly perfect fifth based. To help realize the structure and content for this composition, I developed a computational method to generate and parse pitch-class sets based on user supplied interval content and filter criteria. I call this Binary Harmony. In this method, I generate sequences of pitches, where each dyadic adjacency in the sequence forms one of two provided pitch class-intervals. The principal musical material for each movement is generated using this computational method.Item Constrict-Depart, String Quartet No. 1(2017) Green, Bradley Stuart; DeLio, Thomas; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Constrict-Depart is a piece for string quartet in two movements that lasts approximately fourteen minutes. The title refers to an overarching sonic theme within and across both movements that consists of the constriction and subsequent expansion of a vacillating pitch band. In addition, the form of each movement is defined by the constriction and expansion of the string registers. The title also refers to a constant push and pull between a self-imposed binary categorization of sonic materials. The binary categories of sound being explored are defined as noise (aperiodic sounds) and pitch (periodic sounds). In this context, noise is classified best as a sound or collection of sounds that offer no perceivable pitch, or a cluster of pitches (either within the same register or multiple registers) so dense that individual pitches become imperceptible. By contrast, pitched sounds would be classified as sounds in which there is a definite and perceptible frequency, or group of frequencies. In the piece, these categories of sound are set as two extremes on a spectrum, with noise on one end and pitch on the other, and are juxtaposed as extremes, and also as collections of sounds that fall between the two extremes of the spectrum. The piece is composed with the use of time frames, and the graphic notation was created specifically to allow for a greater degree of performance freedom than is generally possible with standard notation, while still maintaining a fixed formal structure that keeps the order of sound events the same from performance to performance. Each performer is to read from the full score, and the performers are instructed to realize their parts independently of the ensemble and to not attempt to coordinate attacks based on the visual relationship between their part and another part in the score (except where indicated). This independence allows for the music to occur naturally as a result of intermingling individual realizations, as opposed to general coordination.Item Failure, Death, and Legacy in the Late Works of Shostakovich(2016) Bermudez, Joshua Adam; Haldey, Olga; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The years 1967-1975 were turbulent for Dmitri Shostakovich, who faced severe health problems and recurring doubts about his life’s work. This led to the development of a preoccupation with mortality during the final years of his life, a subject that was frequently represented in communications with friends, colleagues, and the public. It also became a recurring theme in his compositions written at this time, affecting his choice of texts for vocal works and elements of his musical style. The majority of the compositions from this period are unique in Shostakovich’s œuvre, featuring formal structures that often diverge radically from standard models, a harmonic language less tied to traditional tonality, and a frequent use of dodecaphony. The works of his final four years, though, largely dispense with these elements, pointing to a shift of focus from the tyranny of death to the redeeming quality of artistic legacy.Item Tracing Beethoven Through the Ten Sonatas for Piano and Violin(2016) Shapiro, Rachel Kitagawa; Salness, David; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Examination of Beethoven’s ten sonatas for piano and violin as a single arc, to uncover linkages between the individual sonatas and observe their stylistic evolution as a set, benefits from placing these works also in relation to the wider realm of Beethoven’s chamber music as a whole. During the years in which his sonatas for piano and violin were written, Beethoven often produced multiple works simultaneously. In fact, the first nine sonatas for piano and violin were written within a mere five-year span (1798 – 1803.) After a gap of nine years, Beethoven completed his tenth and final sonata, marking the end of his “Middle Period.” Because of this distribution, it is important to consider each of these sonatas not only as an interdependent set, but also in relation to the whole of Beethoven’s output for small ensemble. Beethoven wrote the last of his piano and violin sonatas in 1812, with a decade and a half of innovation still ahead of him. This provokes one to look beyond these sonatas to discover the final incarnation of the ideas introduced in these works. In particular, the key creative turning points within the ten sonatas for piano and violin become strikingly apparent when compared to Beethoven’s string quartets, which dramatically showcase Beethoven’s evolution in sixteen works distributed more or less evenly across his career. From the perspective of a string quartet player, studying the ten sonatas for piano and violin provides an opportunity to note similarities between the genres. This paper argues that examining the ten sonatas from a viewpoint primarily informed by Beethoven’s string quartets yields a more thorough understanding of the sonatas themselves and a broader conception of the vast network of interrelationships that produce Beethoven’s definitive voice. The body of this paper contains a full exploration of each of the ten sonatas for piano and violin, highlighting key musical, historical, and theoretical elements. Each of the sonatas is then put not only in context of the set of ten, but is contrasted with Beethoven’s sixteen string quartets, identifying unifying motives, techniques, and structural principles that recur across both bodies of work.Item Lament for String Quartet(2010) Park, Jun Hee; Moss, Lawrence; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This piece explores the changing nature of emotion focusing especially on the feeling of sorrow. The opening and ending parts of the first movement represent the overall motive of sorrow. The first movement opens with an augmented chord G-C#-F-B and from this chord the first violin expands upwards while the cello moves downwards towards the C chord (p.2). As the melody alternates between each part, there is a subtle change in harmony which creates tension and release and changes the sound color. In addition, ornamentation in each part reinforces the movement towards the C chord. This progression represents the inner emotion of lament. Sostenuto e largamente section (p.2) uses heterophony in order to express a feeling of chaos. Section Scherzando (p.4) uses the interval relationship M7 and m2, and is a respite from the overwhelming feeling of sorrow. The ending of the first movement (p.12) returns to create a second tension by every instrument ascending slowly, and the viola produces a distinctive melody derived from the previous chaotic section that ends on an Ab. The second movement contrasts with the first movement in order to express a concealed, not explicit, sorrow, and differs in both tempo and texture. The tempo is a waltz that is faster than the first movement. This produces a light, playful figure and a simple melody without much ornamentation. Imitation and canonic structure emphasize the individuality of the strings. The third movement merges material from the first movement rhythmic figure and the second movement pizzicato (p.17). It shows timbral change through con sordino, pizzicato arpeggio, and sul ponticello to display string techniques. An Allegro section (p.19) especially contrasts with Misterioso in rhythm and dynamics. In the Grazioso (p.22), random beats are accentuated by pizzicato arpeggio to de-emphasize the meter. Finally, there is a return to the ending figure of the first movement with con sordino (p.23) and sul ponticello in viola that articulates the internal tension and the timbral change to return to a voice of sorrow.