THE CROSS-CULTURAL INFLUENCE OF THE FORMATION AND EVOLUTION OF PIANO PEDAGOGY AT THE SHANGHAI CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC
Year of Dissertation:
2012
This study evaluates the cross-cultural influences on the formation and the evolution of piano pedagogy at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music (SCM). It examines the principles of the teaching approaches of the four major professors of the first generation and the cross-cultural influences that informed their pedagogy. In addition, the discussion includes a review of pianist Fou Ts'ong and his contribution to the SCM. The narrative concludes with a brief look at the present faculty of the SCM; a summary discussion of the ideas, approaches, and educational system present there; and, above all, the cross-cultural influence of Western music on the field of piano teaching and study at the SCM.
Theater Without Words: Music for Movement Theater by Bartók and Milhaud
Year of Dissertation:
2010
Virgil Thomson and Kenneth Koch: Text Setting in the Songs "Mostly About Love"
Year of Dissertation:
2009
The songs of Virgil Thomson, a major musical figure in twentieth-century America, go largely unsung. As a composer, Thomson took special care in setting words to music. This is evident in his more popular works, the operas set to librettos by Gertrude Stein, Four Saints in Three Acts (1928) and The Mother of Us All (1947). The success of these works supports the importance of a close examination of Thomson's song repertoire.
Richard Strauss's Violin Writing in His Early Years From 1870 to 1898--The Influence of The Violin Sonata
Year of Dissertation:
2010
The development of Richard Strauss's writing for violin from the early chamber music works up to the violin sonata, a milestone in his development, which foreshadows his compositional style for the violin parts in his tone poems. Performance suggestions and analysis of selected passages from the tone poems will demonstrate the relationship of those works to his earlier compositions. With an analysis of the Sonata for Violin and Piano Op. 18.
Contextual Transformations in Timbral Spaces
Year of Dissertation:
2009
This dissertation introduces a methodology for the analysis of timbral structures. The focus is on how to organize theoretical constructs based on timbral objects and their transformations in a musical composition. Transformational theory, artificial intelligence theory, music cognition, and psychoacoustics will serve as references while constructing multiple parallel approaches to the questions that arise from the perception of timbre-oriented music, i.e. electro-acoustic music, questions such as categorization and behaviors of sonic objects, processes that relate them, and challenges of new formal organizations. My intention is to supply analytical tools that are flexible and accessible enough to contribute to and coexist with pitch-based approaches. A generalized semantic theory of timbre is not the objective; this dissertation offers more of a cognitive exercise in how to uncover/discover contextual group operations in a timbral space
Julius Klengel (1859-1933) and Hugo Becker (1864-1941): Their Works and Legacies as Violoncello Performers and Pedagogues
Year of Dissertation:
2011
Julius Klengel (1859-1933) and Hugo Becker (1863-1941) were two of the most influential cellists of the late nineteenth century. Both were closely associated with the Dresden cello-school tradition of Grutzmacher and masters of interpretation of Romantic-period composers. However, very little has been written about their respective beginnings, concertizing careers and accomplishments, teaching styles and materials, compositions and editions, and philosophies relating to cello technique. Nonetheless, Klengel's and Becker's legacies and contributions to cello literature and technique continue to influence cellists today. Thanks to the memoirs of their contemporaries and students through an analysis of recordings, technical studies, perofrmance editions, and published compositions, this dissertation attempts to investigat the different aspects of their respective careers, illuminating the similarities and differences between these two German master cellists. This dissertation also revisits the evolution of cello techniques, performance practices, and repertoire just prior to the emergence of Casals's revolutionary teaching philosophies, which shaped the succeeding generation of cellists.
A HIstory of the New York Flute Club
Year of Dissertation:
2012
Abstract
A study and reconstruction of _The Passing Show of 1914_: The American Musical Revue and its Development in the early Twentieth Century
Year of Dissertation:
2010
"A Study and Reconstruction of _The Passing Show of 1914_: The American Musical Revue and its Development in the Early Twentieth Century" examines a subject that has been neglected in many fields, including those of music, film, and theater: the revue. Specifically, this dissertation offers a complete restoration of one of the earliest examples of the American revue, with a full score, the script in its incarnations, costumes, photographs, contracts, and a vast array of other pertinent information. This study stands as the earliest example of any musical comedy reconstructed with its original orchestrations, which in this case are by Frank Saddler, a legend in the business for whom no original work has been examined in depth. This revue is important for many reasons: it is the first musical comedy written by Sigmund Romberg, it is one of the most important starring roles for the female impersonator George W. Monroe, and it presents the Broadway debut of Marilyn Miller, one of the biggest stage stars of the 1920s. Significantly, the show uses a script with recurring characters who act out a plot, challenging the very notion of what constitutes the genre of the revue. Biographies of the creators and actors in the show are explored, as is the reception history of the show and its relationship with its major competitor, Ziegfeld`s _Follies_. Issues of orchestration, musical form, melodic and harmonic analysis, and the formulation of a musical hit are also examined. The result of this research indicates that The Passing Show was a series that relied on its audience`s knowledge of the complete Broadway experience--from operettas and ―straight plays to musicals and vaudeville--for references and for a sense of cohesion that the modern revue purposefully eschews. This study provides a unique window into the world of early American musical theater.
Focal Dystonia in Pianists: The Role of Musical Institutions
Year of Dissertation:
2011
This dissertation examines the role of musical institutions in the prevention and possible cure for focal dystonia through the possible collaboration between the medical, pedagogical, and performance professions. The first chapter will outline the medical profession's role in musicians' health, including the diagnosis and current treatment of focal dystonia. The second chapter outlines the pedagogical profession's role in the prevention of focal dystonia and includes an analysis of several pedagogical retraining programs seen through the eyes of the medical, pedagogical and performance professions. The final chapter covers the performance profession's role in focal dystonia, and includes interviews with the celebrated pianists Gary Graffman and Leon Fleisher.
Chappie Willet and Popular Music Arranging in Swing Era New York
Year of Dissertation:
2011
American popular music of the 1930s and '40s, commonly referred to as the Swing Era, saw established traditions of Broadway stage scoring and commercial dance band arranging intersect with the jazz tradition and the continued expansion of New York City's music publishing and recording industries. Music arrangers held an integral role within each of these fields, and the corresponding emergence of the large dance orchestra or "big band" as the primary vehicle for popular music resulted in significant visibility of their work. The music of these arrangers reflected and influenced popular culture through stage productions presented at the theater and nightclub venues of New York's Times Square district, where segregated black entertainment formerly offered in Harlem was now presented to largely white audiences on Broadway.