Post-1945 Danish Piano Trio Literature: A Recording Dissertation

This recording dissertation surveys post-1945 literature written for piano trio (violin, violoncello and piano) by ten Danish composers. The literature was first considered for inclusion by searching a database provided by the Danish Music Information Center (www.mic.dk). Scores were rented from the publisher Edition Wilhelm Hansen AS, or purchased from the publisher Samfundet til Udgivelse af Dansk Musik. An additional score published by Viking Musikforlag was used as well. The music was then studied and evaluated for selection. During the selection process, the following criteria were considered: 1) quality of the compositions; 2) recognition of the composers at the national or international level; 3) whether the compositions had been previously recorded; and 4) variety of compositional styles. The selected works are written by Niels Viggo Bentzon, Vagn Holmboe, Anders Koppel, Herman D. Koppel, Bent Lorentzen, Anders Nordentoft, Per Norgard, Michael Nyvang, Karl Aage Rasmussen, and Poul Rovsing Olsen. The selected compositions were practiced, rehearsed, and performed under direct supervision of the composers and other expert musicians. In order to better understand the compositional style of each composer, relevant books, articles, and recordings were researched and studied. This recording dissertation is supported by a written document. A subjective preference for program balance was exercised to determine the order of recorded works. The written document is divided into chapters defined by composer, following the order of the recorded document, which include the composers' biographies and notes referring to the recorded compositions. The recording took place at the Manzius Gaarden, Birkerod, Denmark during three sessions: July 31-August 2, 2002, March 2 and 3, 2003, and June 2-4, 2003. The music for this dissertation was recorded by the members of the Jalina Trio; Line Fredens, violin, Janne Fredens, cello and Natsuki Fukasawa, piano. Aksel Trige, a well-respected recording engineer, was engaged for the recording and editing. Additionally, a Hamburg Steinway concert grand piano was rented and a Joseph Guarnerius filius Andreas Cremona violin (1706) was provided by the Augustinus Fonden, Denmark. The cellist used her own instrument, Vuillaume of Paris (c. 1850). The expense of this recording was partially paid by generous grants from the Augustinus Fonden, the Solist Foreningen af 1921, and the Dansk Musikerforbunds Kollective Rettighedsmidler. The compositions selected for this recording dissertation are assumed to be previously unrecorded, with the exception of Poul Rovsing Olsen's Trio II.

TEACHING AMERICAN CIVIL WAR MUSIC IDSTORY WITH MODERN EDITIONS OF PERIOD MUSIC FOR FULL CONCERT BAND

This dissertation explores a method of teaching the history of Civil War music and musicians through modern full-band editions of original brass band music. In the study of music history the period of the Civil War is rarely discussed, or at best, mentioned only if a student takes a specific course on the history of bands and happens to look deeply into the background of some of the early band pioneers such as Patrick Gilmore, who served in the Union Army as a bandmaster. The history of the musicians, bands, and music performed during the Civil War deserves study to provide a way for students and audiences to learn this history. This project includes lesson plans that can be used with the arrangements of the period music as well as select published music that is also representative of the period. Included with the historical information are four arrangements of original brass band music now scored for full concert band. Each arrangement includes a section scored for brass only with optional brass band parts. Historical information is provided on the Civil War period bands and how each side used them, on the composers of the music, and also on the individual compositions. The historical information can be used to supplement the lesson plans to teach the history, as well as for program notes for audiences. The research involved locating information on both Union and Confederate bands available in books, other dissertations, articles, and interviews with Civil War music historians. The original brass band music is scored for full band. This method will allow teachers and conductors to highlight this period of wind band history and to share it with both students and audiences. Included with this project are photos and video footage taken during a visit with the 1st Brigade Band of Watertown, Wisconsin, an historical organization dedicated to recreating the music and performances of an actual Civil War era band.

SAXOPHONE SONATAS 1980-2010

The purpose of this dissertation project identifies contemporary solo saxophone literature, specifically sonatas between the years 1980 and 2010. The overwhelming majority of repertoire written during these thirty years consisted primarily of either multi-movement or through-composed character pieces. By limiting the selected repertoire to sonatas one can still investigate the breadth of the literature that has helped validate the saxophone in the realm of classical music in a format that has seemingly fallen out of favor with composers. The saxophone had developed a unique voice by the middle of the twentieth century in both Europe and in the United States. European composers such as Claude Debussy, Florent Schmidt, Jacques Ibert, Darius Milhaud, Alexander Glazounov, Erwin Schulhoff and Bernard Heiden recognized the potential and beauty of the instrument, while the saxophone had found quite a different niche in vaudeville, jazz, and military bands in the United States. If not for the dynamic performances by concert saxophonist such as Marcel Mule, Sigurd Rascher, Jean-Marie Londeix, Daniel Deffayet, Cecil Lesson, Larry Teal, Eugene Rousseau, Fredrick Hemke and Donald Sinta, the timbral possibilities and technical virtuosity of the saxophone would not have been discovered. The awe inspiring performances by these soloists led to the commissioning of a multitude of works by composers looking to expand the sonic possibilities of this relatively new instrument. Through the 1970's American composers such as Leslie Bassett, Paul Creston, Henry Brant, Robert Muczynski, and Karel Husa were writing significant works for the saxophone, while European composers such as IngolfDahl, Edison Denisov, Alfred Desenclos, Henri Tomasi and Marius Constant were each making their own contributions, all leading to a significant quantity of repertoire that met the quality demands set by the performers. The compositions chosen for this dissertation project were selected after numerous performance, pragmatic, programming and pedagogical considerations were taken into account. The three recitals occurred on: March 7, 2010, December 10, 2010 and May 1, 2011 in either the Gildenhorn Recital Hall or Lecture Hall 2100.

Tracing Neoclassical Influences in selected solo and chamber music for the clarinet

The musical period of Neoclassicism began in the 1920's, between the first and second world wars. It was initiated by French composers and eventually spread to other countries. One of the most important themes to emerge from the movement was to escape from the formless, rather emotional music of the Romantic era and instead, emphasize balance, order, objectivity and clarity in musical form. Many popular clarinet repertoires are enjoyed by performers and listeners because the music is enjoyable to play and easy to listen to. In particular, classically influenced clarinet music is quite interesting because it features musical elements from both the past and contemporary musical styles. For instance, some composers have integrated preexisting, more traditional styles of composition with lighter styles of modern culture such as popular music and Jazz. It is difficult to discover purely neoclassical clarinet repertoires even though many composers created their pieces during the neoclassical era. What we most commonly find are both neoclassical and non-neoclassical influences in compositions from that time period. Thus, I aim to trace the influence of neoclassicism in selected clarinet repertoires that exist today. It is my hope that increased awareness and knowledge about accessible clarinet music may encourage the general public to develop a deeper interest in a wider sphere of clarinet music, beyond what is considered popular today. The works performed and discussed in this dissertation are the following: (Recital I) Duo Concertante by Darius Milhaud; Sonata by Leonard Bernstein; Sonata for Two Clarinets by Francis Poulenc; Duos for Flute and Clarinet, Op. 34 by Robert Muczynski; Dance Preludes by Witold Lutoslawski, (Recital II) Sonatine by Arthur Honegger; Time pieces by Robert Muczynski; Suite for Clarinet, Violin and Piano by Darius Milhaud; Sonate for Clarinet, Flute and Piano by Maurice Emmanuel; Tarantelle for Flute, Clarinet and Piano, Op. 6 by Camille Saint-Saëns, (Recital III) Sonatina by Joseph Horovitz; Suite from L'histoire du Soldat for Clarinet, Violin and Piano by Igor Stravinsky; Contrasts for Clarinet, Violin and Piano by Béla Bartók The recitals that took place on December 1, 2012 and on April 25, 2013 were performed in the Ulrich Recital Hall of the Clarice Performing Arts Center in College Park, Maryland. The recital that took place on November 2, 2013 was performed at the Gildenhorn Recital Hall of the same performing arts center.

African-American Composers for the Concert Saxophone: A Look at Three Prolific Composers

African-American composers within the field of classical music have made very profound contributions to the literature. In the field of chamber music, Scott Joplin, William Grant Still, Adolphus Hailstork and other composers illustrious composers have created an established and well-documented body of repertoire for many orchestral wind instruments. The saxophone repertoire, however, has not been developed as fully due to its limited tradition as an orchestral instrument and its prominence in the tradition of jazz and popular music. African-American composers in particular appear to be significantly under-represented within the standard concert saxophone literature. My personal experiences with saxophone repertoire in academic settings, solo recitals, conferences and in surveys of standard repertoire from nationally-recognized saxophone teachers support this assertion. There are many African-American composers who have made substantial contributions to the body of repertoire for the concert saxophone. This dissertation examines the works of three prolific African-American composers for the concert saxophone; Dr. Yusef A. Lateef, Andrew N. White III, and Dr. David N. Baker. All have composed more than five separate works featuring the concert saxophone. This project comprises three recitals, each dedicated to one of the three composers selected for this dissertation. Each recital presented will present their compositions featuring the saxophone as a soloist with various types of accompaniment. The project also includes newly-created piano reductions of Dr. David Baker's works for saxophone and orchestra made collaboratively with Baker and arranger John Leszczynski.

Polish Violin Music in the 20th and 21st Century

The purpose of this dissertation is to promote Polish violin music written in the 20th and 21st Century. My recitals included many lesser-known compositions and composers which I strongly believe deserve to be better known and more often performed. The search and preparation of those pieces, for which recordings and music scores are not easily found, was a very exciting and stimulating process. Much Polish music written in the 20th and 21st Century is interesting, expressive, beautiful, and deserves to be more often performed. Performing 20th and 21st Century music opens new perspectives in two directions: musically and technically. Performer and listener are, in many cases, unbound from tonality. Composers are looking for new sonorities and exploring such performing techniques as varieties of harmonics, quarter tones, extreme dynamics, complex rhythms, and usage of a wide range of registers. An important part of Polish music is Polish folklore. The little town of Zakopane is known for Polish traditional clothing, food, architecture, dance and music. Also, most prominent Polish luthiers including Wojciech Topa, whose instrument I am playing, have been making their instruments in Zakopane. This little town in the Tatras Mountain has been an inspiration for many Polish artists including Iwaszkiewicz, Witkacy, Karłowicz, and Szymanowski. Those composers used such folklore elements as folk scales, popular tunes, and imitations of the sound of the folk band with characteristic folk dance rhythms. Other musical genres where folk elements are strongly present are the compositions dedicated to young musicians, with a specifically educational purpose. Among composers who wrote educational music were Grażyna Bacewicz, Witold Lutosławski, and Henryk Mikołaj Górecki. This approach makes the works more easily understood by young performers and, at the same time, broadens their understanding of Polish culture and prepares them for the challenges of contemporary music. This has been an exciting project for me because, on the one hand, it allowed me the challenge of performing compositions that are lesser-known and often consist of musical language new to me while, on the other, it brought me back to my roots and the country of my mother tongue.

The Catford Riddim on the 202

This presentation is about a song, ”Catford Riddim” by the A-Team, a group of grime artists from South London, specifically about how it came to be played, perhaps a bit too loudly, in the back of the 202 bus one January morning on a teenager’s mobile phone. As an illustration of how social networks and technological networks converge, the ”Catford Riddim,” insisting on the music’s own provenance from the SE6 postcode, shows the formation of a local ethnoscape in the global networks of peer-to-peer file sharing and online DIY distribution sites such as MySpace. Contesting the narrative of online social networks as routes to fame, I suggest that on the contrary they illustrate the emergence of local, even insular, ”scenes” of musicians, events and audiences.

Musikalische Teilkulturen

Die relativ geschlossene Welt der mitteleuropäischen Tonalität ist mittlerweile längst nicht mehr in Kunst und Unterhaltung geschieden, vielmehr im Zeitalter der Medien in eine lange Reihe musikalischer Teilkulturen zerfallen. Diesem Phänomen war die Jahrestagung 1982 des Arbeitskreises Musikpädagogische Forschung gewidmet, deren Ergebnisse den vorliegenden Band füllen. Wenn auch — unter anderem durch die kurzfristige Absage einiger grundlegender Referatthemen — beileibe nicht alle Fragen des vielschichtigen Problemfeldes hinreichend beantwortet werden konnten, so darf dennoch konstatiert werden, daß auch offene Fragen die eminente Bedeutung des Tagungsthemas keinesfalls geschmälert haben. Dies hat sich gerade in dem erneut versuchten Dialog mit musikalischen Praktikern (einem Jazz- und einem Punkmusiker, einem Chorleiter, einem Komponisten Neuer Musik, dem Leiter einer Mandolinengesellschaft, einem U-Musik-Redakteur) im Rahmen einer Podiumsdiskussion erwiesen. (DIPF/Orig.)

Confusing Culture and Politics: Ulster Scots Culture and Music

In Northern Ireland of the mid-1990s, many were caught off-guard by the comet-like arrival of a previously unarticulated Ulster Scots identity, replete with its own folk traditions. The article exploits the author’s position as Traditional Arts Officer of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland from 1998 until 2003 to offer an auto-ethnographic reflection on the literature on cultural politics in Northern Ireland since the outbreak of the Troubles, informed by extensive fieldwork with arts administrators and with contemporary Ulster Scots musicians. The article gives a close reading and historical contextualisation of the Ulster-Scots musical revue On Eagle's Wing, which was developed during this period. The article uses the concept of "suture" articulated by Lacan and developed by Laclau, Mouffe, and Žižek to explain both the potential for Ulster Scots culture to enter political discourse out of a seeming vacuum and its subsequent difficulties, offering an original interpretation of the role of culture in the contemporary trajectory of Northern Ireland politics.

Exploring Children's Stereotypes Through Drawings: The Case of Musical Performance

Drawings of 'a person' and of 'a person playing music' were collected from children aged seven to eight years and 10-11 years to discover whether children's musical representations would reflect gender differences evident in musical learning and performance, and the increased gender rigidity with age found in instrument preferences. As in previous drawing studies, same sex figures were overwhelmingly portrayed, although older girls drew more opposite sex figures than the other children. All except the older girls overwhelmingly drew same sex musicians irrespective of the gender stereotype of the instrument portrayed. The older girls drew similar numbers of male and female figures playing masculine instruments. Fewer feminine instruments were drawn by older than by younger boys. The increased gender rigidity with age accords with the results of the preference studies, but gender stereotyping was much weaker. This is discussed in relation to what the different methodologies measure.

A experiência barroca e a identidade local na Semana Santa de Campanha, Minas Gerais

Este trabalho analisa a formação de uma sensibilidade barroca em Minas Gerais a partir da orientação participativa e altamente emotiva das festas coloniais, cujo legado se mantem presente nas festas religiosas de muitas antigas cidades mineradoras do estado. Enfocando as celebrações da Semana Santa na cidade sul-mineira de Campanha, o texto mostra como este evento anual era organizado pela Irmandade do Santíssimo Sacramento, passando então às mãos de uma comissão local após a extinção da irmandade. Se até meados do século XIX, havia músicos semi-profissionais contratados para tocar e cantar nas celebrações, a música foi assumida progressivamente por grupos de amadores. Assim, a festa passou a ser entendida como uma produção local e a cada ano a população renova o seu orgulho campanhense, ao contemplar sua capacidade de produzir um evento tão ‘maravilhoso’.

This paper analyses the formation of a baroque sensibility in the State of Minas Gerais (Brazil) that derives from the participatory and highly emotive orientation of the colonial festivals, the legacy of which is still present in many former mining towns in the region. By focusing upon the Holy Week celebrations in Campanha, a small town in southern Minas Gerais, the text shows how this annual event was organized by the Confraternity of the Holy Sacrament, but was then transferred to a local committee after the confraternity was made extinct. If up to the mid 19th century there were semi-professional musicians to perform for the celebrations, responsibility for the music was slowly taken over by amateur groups. In this way the festival came to be understood as a local affair, and each year the population renews its pride in itself for its capacity to stage such a ‘marvelous’ event.