A graduate piano accompanying recital

The extended program notes include historical background on the composers and pieces being performed, as well as the analytical form regarding the works. Chapter One includes Piano and Violin Sonata in B flat Major, K 454 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, Opus 28 by Camille Saint-Saens, Nocturne by Aaron Copland, Violin Concerto No. 2 in D minor, Opus 22 by Henryk Wieniawski. Chapter Two includes selected songs from Die Schone Mullerin D. 759 by Franz Schubert, La Regata Veneziana by Gioacchino Rossini, selected songs by Henri Duparc, Cowboy Songs by Libby Larsen, Poema enforma de canciones by Joaquin Turina.

A graduate piano recital

PROGRAM The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I..............Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) Prelude and Fugue XXI in B flat major Prelude and Fugue XXII in b flat minor Sonata N. 11 in A major, K.331.......Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791) Theme and Variations Menuetto Allegretto Intermission Images Series II................................Claude-Achille Debussy (1862-1918) Poission d' or (Goldfish) Rhapsodies Op. 79 .................................Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) No. 1 in b minor No. 2 in g minor Etude in A flat Major, Op. 1, No. 2.....................Paul de Schlozer (1841-1898)

Aprendizagem criativa na aula de piano em grupo

The central focus of this thesis was to investigate creative learning in music at piano group lessons. Thus, the theoretical framework adopted was guided by two main principles: (1) creativity in the field of music education and (2) Piano teaching and learning. As a methodological procedure we used a research-action with students of the disciplines Prática de Instrumento Harmônico I e II, at the Music Education Undergraduate Course of Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN). This research-action was structured in four phases: 1) the identification of the starting points and the theme of creativity matters in piano group lessons, considering the context of a teacher training course in music; 2) the projection of actions, the definition of the objectives and the organization of instruments of data collection and analysis; 3) the realization of the planned actions; and 4) the evaluation of the results, the transcription, organization and analysis of the data collected through observation and interviews. Given the Creative Learning Cycle in Music, represented by the activities of composing, performing and criticizing Music, defended by Beineke (2009, 2013, 2015), we propose in this thesis a creative cycle of formation in music to promote creative learning in piano group lessons, in which teachers and students teach and learn creatively, expanding training opportunities in the field of Music Education. This was possible due to the joint experience of creative practices related to improvisation, elaboration of arrangements and musical compositions - elements that contributed positively to the learning process of the participants. But for this to occur, the planning, implementation and evaluation of the creative and pedagogical musical procedures adopted were decisive, considering the perspectives of students, their conceptions, musical creations, processes and collaborative exchange.

Aprendizagem criativa na aula de piano em grupo

The central focus of this thesis was to investigate creative learning in music at piano group lessons. Thus, the theoretical framework adopted was guided by two main principles: (1) creativity in the field of music education and (2) Piano teaching and learning. As a methodological procedure we used a research-action with students of the disciplines Prática de Instrumento Harmônico I e II, at the Music Education Undergraduate Course of Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN). This research-action was structured in four phases: 1) the identification of the starting points and the theme of creativity matters in piano group lessons, considering the context of a teacher training course in music; 2) the projection of actions, the definition of the objectives and the organization of instruments of data collection and analysis; 3) the realization of the planned actions; and 4) the evaluation of the results, the transcription, organization and analysis of the data collected through observation and interviews. Given the Creative Learning Cycle in Music, represented by the activities of composing, performing and criticizing Music, defended by Beineke (2009, 2013, 2015), we propose in this thesis a creative cycle of formation in music to promote creative learning in piano group lessons, in which teachers and students teach and learn creatively, expanding training opportunities in the field of Music Education. This was possible due to the joint experience of creative practices related to improvisation, elaboration of arrangements and musical compositions - elements that contributed positively to the learning process of the participants. But for this to occur, the planning, implementation and evaluation of the creative and pedagogical musical procedures adopted were decisive, considering the perspectives of students, their conceptions, musical creations, processes and collaborative exchange.

La guerrière: No. 2, ténor (ton original)

Augusta Holmès.

Paysages d'amour. IV. No. 2 en Sol. Parmi les meules

Augusta Holmès.

Nowhere Landscape, for Clarinets, Trombones, Percussion, Violins, and Electronics and “The Map and the Territory: Documenting David Dunn’s Sky Drift”

1. nowhere landscape, for clarinets, trombones, percussion, violins, and electronics

nowhere landscape is an eighty-minute work for nine performers, composed of acoustic and electronic sounds. Its fifteen movements invoke a variety of listening strategies, using slow change, stasis, layering, coincidence, and silence to draw attention to the sonic effects of the environment—inside the concert hall as well as the world outside of it. The work incorporates a unique stage set-up: the audience sits in close proximity to the instruments, facing in one of four different directions, while the musicians play from a number of constantly-shifting locations, including in front of, next to, and behind the audience.

Much of nowhere landscape’s material is derived from a collection of field recordings

made by the composer during a road trip from Springfield, MA to Douglas, WY along US- 20, a cross-country route made effectively obsolete by the completion of I-90 in the mid- 20th century. In an homage to artist Ed Ruscha’s 1963 book Twentysix Gasoline Stations, the composer made twenty-six recordings at gas stations along US-20. Many of the movements of nowhere landscape examine the musical potential of these captured soundscapes: familiar and anonymous, yet filled with poignancy and poetic possibility.

2. “The Map and the Territory: Documenting David Dunn’s Sky Drift”

In 1977, David Dunn recruited twenty-six musicians to play his work Sky Drift in the

Anza-Borrego Desert in Southern California. This outdoor performance was documented with photos and recorded with four stationary microphones to tape. A year later, Dunn presented the work in New York City as a “performance/documentation,” playing back the audio recording and projecting slides. In this paper I examine the consequences of this kind of act: what does it mean for a recording of an outdoor work to be shared at an indoor concert event? Can such a complex and interactive experience be successfully flattened into some kind of re-playable documentation? What can a recording capture and what must it exclude?

This paper engages with these questions as they relate to David Dunn’s Sky Drift and to similar works by Karlheinz Stockhausen and John Luther Adams. These case-studies demonstrate different solutions to the difficulty of documenting outdoor performances. Because this music is often heard from a variety of equally-valid perspectives—and because any single microphone only captures sound from one of these perspectives—the physical set-up of these kind of pieces complicate what it means to even “hear the music” at all. To this end, I discuss issues around the “work itself” and “aura” as well as “transparency” and “liveness” in recorded sound, bringing in thoughts and ideas from Walter Benjamin, Howard Becker, Joshua Glasgow, and others. In addition, the artist Robert Irwin and the composer Barry Truax have written about the conceptual distinctions between “the work” and “not- the-work”; these distinctions are complicated by documentation and recording. Without the context, the being-there, the music is stripped of much of its ability to communicate meaning.

Brechemin Piano Series February 14, 2013

Concert Program

Brechemin Piano Series February 13, 2014

Concert Program

Brechemin Piano Series February 12, 2015

Concert Program

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

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).

RACHMANINOFF AND MEDTNER: SELECTED WORKS FROM THE SOLO AND COLLABORATIVE PIANO REPERTOIRE

Sergei Rachmaninoff and Nikolai Medtner occupy a special place in the history of Russian music. Both composers were exceptional pianists and left us some of the greatest works in the piano repertoire. Although these composers shared many similarities, and were often compared, their musical languages and views on composition were very different. Unfortunately, Medtner’s music, which Rachmaninoff admired greatly, has remained neglected for several generations of performers and listeners. In my dissertation I will explore the similarities and contrasts in Rachmaninoff’s and Medtner’s music. Through these performances, I hope to encourage other musicians to discover the imaginative power of Medtner’s music. Of course, no such encouragement is needed for Rachmaninoff’s extremely popular music; however, the technical and musical challenges of performing that repertoire are an invaluable part of every pianist’s education. This dissertation project was presented in three recitals which were performed in Gildenhorn Recital Hall at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center of the University of Maryland on May 8, 2014, December 5, 2014 and March 21, 2016. The following pieces comprised the survey of Rachmaninoff music: Vocalise Op. 34, Variations on a Theme of Corelli Op. 42, Piano Concerto No 2 Op. 18, Selected Songs Opp. 4 and 8, and two Moments Musicaux Op. 16 - Nos 3 and 4. The following pieces were included to represent Medtner: Sonata for Violin and Piano Op. 57 in E minor “Epica”, Fairy Tales for solo piano Op. 20 No 1, Op. 26 No 3 and Op. 51 No 1, and Selected Songs Op. 6 and 15. My partners in this project were Lilly Ahn, soprano, Jennifer Lee, violin and Nadezhda Christova, piano. All three recitals can be found in the Digital Repository at the University of Maryland (DRUM).

Música de câmara de Rodil, Pla e Avondano: a flauta na 2ª metade do séc. XVIII e o estilo galante ibérico

O presente trabalho é uma abordagem teórica e interpretativa à música para traverso de António Rodil (c.1730-1787), Pedro Avondano (1714-1782) e dos irmãos Pla. A interação entre as duas componentes do discurso são fundamentos essenciais para uma global compreensão das obras, sendo por sua vez, foco central no tratamento do estilo galante ibérico. A dissertação esta dividida em 5 capítulos; 1. contextualização da prática musical em Portugal na segunda metade do séc. XVIII; 2. o percurso artístico do flautista António Rodil (c.1730-1787); 3. a música de câmara de Pedro Avondano (1714-1782) e a primeira obra conhecida para o traverso em Portugal A Collection ofLisbon Minuets for two Violins or two German flutes and bass (1766); 4. o traverso na obra dos irmãos PLA; 5. reflexões em torno das questões interpretativas.

The twentieth century jazz piano trio: the rise of an iconic jazz paradigm

Considerando a gravação de 1947 The Bud Powell Trio como a gravação referência de trio de piano de jazz moderno, esta tese centra-se no surgimento e evolução do trio de jazz moderno cujo líder é pianista. Começando por apresentar, uma resenha dos estilos e técnicas para piano de da época pre-Powell, esta tese investiga a génese dos trios de piano jazz e examina três dos mais influeciais pianostas de jazz e lideres dos mais legendários trios de piano jazz modernos: Bud Powell, Bill Evans e Keith Jarrett. Esta tese também abordará o paradoxo inerente a um sistema democrático - a expressão própria do individuo, em justaposição com a responsabilidade para com o todo – e a sua inequivoca analogia com o gestalt do trio de piano de jazz moderno. Desde a primeira gravação de um trio de jazz com pianista como líder em 1935, o trio de jazz moderno, evoluiu tornando-se um exemplo de democracia – um contexto de igualdade em que as funções rítmicas, harmónicas, e melódicas estão igualmente distribuídas entre os três instrumentistas, que são ao mesmo tempo solistas e acompanhadores. Esta tese sublinha a eficácia do trio de jazz moderno – o seu início, e porque subsiste – baseado na sua força e beleza estética; ABSTRACT: THE TWENTIETH CENTURY JAZZ PIANO TRIO – The Rise of an Iconic Jazz Paradigm by Susan Muscarella Designating Bud Powell’s 1947 recording, The Bud Powell Trio, as the modern jazz piano trio benchmark, here, this thesis traces the emergence and evolution of the pianistled, piano-bass-drums-comprised modern jazz piano trio. Beginning with a general overview of pre-Powell jazz piano styles and techniques, this thesis investigates the earliest, most salient pre-Powell jazz piano trios, and examines three seminal modern jazz pianists and leaders of legendary modern jazz piano trios, Bud Powell, Bill Evans and Keith Jarrett. This thesis also brings to the fore the paradox inherent in a democratic system – individual self-expression juxtaposed with responsibility to the whole – and its unequivocal analogy to the modern jazz piano trio gestalt. From the earliest recording of a primarily piano-dominated piano-bass-drums-comprised jazz piano trio in 1935, the modern jazz piano trio has evolved to become a paragon of democracy – an egalitarian playing field in which rhythmic, harmonic and melodic roles are evenly distributed among all three instrumentalists who have come to serve as both soloists and accompanists.