Contrasts: Quartets and Art Songs of the Nineteenth Century

The nineteenth-century Romantic era saw the development and expansion of many vocal and instrumental forms that had originated in the Classical era. In particular, the German lied and French mélodie matured as art forms, and they found a kind of equilibrium between piano and vocal lines. Similarly, the nineteenth-century piano quartet came into its own as a form of true chamber music in which all instruments participated equally in the texture. Composers such as Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms, and Gabriel Fauré offer particularly successful examples of both art song and piano quartets that represent these genres at their highest level of artistic complexity. Their works have become the cornerstones of the modern collaborative pianist’s repertoire. My dissertation explored both the art songs and the piano quartets of these three composers and studied the different skills needed by a pianist performing both types of works. This project included the following art song cycles: Robert Schumann’s Dichterliebe, Gabriel Fauré’s Poème d’un Jour, and Johannes Brahms’ Zigeunerlieder. I also performed Schumann’s Piano Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 47, Fauré’s Piano Quartet in C minor, Op. 15, and Brahms’ Piano Quartet in G minor, Op. 25. My collaborators included: Zachariah Matteson, violin and viola; Kristin Bakkegard, violin; Molly Jones, cello; Geoffrey Manyin, cello; Karl Mitze, viola; Emily Riggs, soprano, and Matthew Hill, tenor. This repertoire was presented over the course of three recitals on February 13, 2015, December 11, 2015, March 25, 2016 at the University of Maryland’s Gildenhorn Recital Hall. These recitals can be found in the Digital Repository at the University of Maryland (DRUM).

A docência no piano : representações sociais de professores de escolas de música em Taguatinga

Dissertação (mestrado)—Universidade de Brasília, Instituto de Artes, Departamento de Música, Programa de Pós-graduação em Música, 2015.

Community music: making social, community and music connections in Australia

Choirs are an important part of the social and cultural tapestry of any community. Participating, learning music and performing are key factors to joining music organisations such as choirs. Singing in a choir as a music activity within communities is found to be participatory and voluntary, providing an opportunity for civil expression, identity and connectedness. The focus of this paper involves three choirs from my wider research project ‘Spirituality and Wellbeing: Music in the community’ that started in 2013, in Melbourne (Australia). In May 2014, I visited three choirs for a week in the city of Warnnambool, a regional district in Victoria (Australia). I draw on Yin’s (2003) categorisation of case study methodology that is explanatory, exploratory and descriptive. I draw on observation notes and focus group semi-structured interviews to analyse and code the data using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. The findings include why people join choirs in regional towns, what they enjoyed that contributed to their wellbeing and why they want to sing about issues that make connections to social justice, the environment and the community. Though generalisations cannot be made to other towns or choirs, it is hoped that the findings may provide a vehicle for further dialogue where

A graduate piano recital : an analytical study

The purpose of this thesis is to provide a historical and musical analysis that illustrates characteristic features of musical compositions from the Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Twentieth century styles. The structural analysis of the pieces reveal the evolution in the musical expression regarding line, texture, form, and the technical skills employed by the composers through polyphonic, homophonic, and twelve-tone procedures. The works of this recital represent four different styles: The prelude and fugue among the important forms of the Baroque style; the sonata embodying the principles of balance and unity of the Classical style; the etude and waltz as representative of the Romantic style; and the nocturne as an illustration of the transformation of the melody, harmony, and rhythm in the music of the 20thcentury.

A graduate piano recital

The extended program notes include historical background on the composers and pieces being performed, as well as the analytical form regarding the works: Variations on "Ah vous dirai-je-maman," K. 265 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart; Sonata in C minor, op. 13 "Pathétique," by Ludwig van Beethoven; Consolation No. 3 and Funerailles by Franz Liszt; Fantasie in F minor, op. 49 by Frédéric Chopin.

An in-depth analysis of original compositions

The purpose of this thesis is two-fold. It presents six original pieces composed and arranged by the author, and it provides a thorough analysis of each. The compositions draw from many different musical genres: contemporary jazz, swing, funk, fusion, soul, neo-soul, and rhythm and blues. The applications of melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic techniques derived from these genres can be found in these original compositions. These compositions are inspired by -- and attempt to narrate --life experiences. Parallels between life and music are drawn and explained. By way of introduction, some information is given regarding the ensemble that first performed these original compositions. The ensemble comprised trumpet, tenor saxophone, keyboards, piano, electric bass, upright acoustic bass, drums, and percussion.

Exploring Armenian keyboard music : roots to modern times

The extended program notes include historical facts of the composers and characteristics of the pieces being performed. The thesis also includes information about Armenian composers starting from 18th to the 20th century, composition's historical background, brief biographies of the composers as well as analysis of form and structure. The graduate piano recital comprised the following compositions: Sayat Nova - R. Andriasian Yes Mi Kharib Blbuli Pes; Komitas - R. Andriasian Garun a, Shoker Jan, Dzirani Dzar, Gakavik; A. Khachaturyan Poem; A. Babadjanyan Elegy in Commemoration of A. Khachaturyan; E. Bagdasarian Humoresque, Prelude in D Minor, Prelude in B Minor; A. Babadjanyan Improvisation and Traditional from six Pictures; A. Babadjanyan Prelude and Vagarshapat Dance; A. Arutyunian Dance of Sasoon; A. Arutyunian - A. Babadjanyan Armenian Rhapsody for Two Pianos.

Youth Festival Music Performance : Deception Bay

Research Background - Young people with negative experiences of mainstream education often display low levels of traditional academic achievement. These young people tend to display considerable cultural and social resources developed through their repeated experiences of adversity. Education research has a duty to provide these young people with opportunities to showcase, assess and translate their social and cultural resources into symbolic forms of capital. This creative work addresses the following research question. How can educators develop disengaged teenager's social and cultural capital through live music performances? Research Contribution - These live music performances afford the young participants opportunities to display their artistic, technical, social and cultural resources through a popular cultural format. In doing so they require education institutions to provide venues that demonstrate the skills these young people acquire through flexible learning environments. The new knowledge derived from this research focuses on the academic and self confidence benefits for disengaged young people using festival performances as authentic learning activities. Research Significance - This research is significant because it aims to maximise the number of tangible outcomes related to a school-based arts project. The young participants gained technical, artistic, social and commercial skills during this project. This performance led to more recording and opportunities to perform at other youth festivals in SE QLD. Individual performances were distributed and downloaded via creative commons licences at the Australian Creative Resource Archive. It also contributed to their certified qualifications and acted as pilot research data for two competitively funded ARC grants (DP0209421 & LP0883643)

Sleeper [for laptop computer and live performer]

Sleeper is an 18'00" musical work for live performer and laptop computer which exists as both a live performance work and a recorded work for audio CD. The work has been presented at a range of international performance events and survey exhibitions. These include the 2003 International Computer Music Conference (Singapore) where it was selected for CD publication, Variable Resistance (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, USA), and i.audio, a survey of experimental sound at the Performance Space, Sydney. The source sound materials are drawn from field recordings made in acoustically resonant spaces in the Australian urban environment, amplified and acoustic instruments, radio signals, and sound synthesis procedures. The processing techniques blur the boundaries between, and exploit, the perceptual ambiguities of de-contextualised and processed sound. The work thus challenges the arbitrary distinctions between sound, noise and music and attempts to reveal the inherent musicality in so-called non-musical materials via digitally re-processed location audio. Thematically the work investigates Paul Virilio’s theory that technology ‘collapses space’ via the relationship of technology to speed. Technically this is explored through the design of a music composition process that draws upon spatially and temporally dispersed sound materials treated using digital audio processing technologies. One of the contributions to knowledge in this work is a demonstration of how disparate materials may be employed within a compositional process to produce music through the establishment of musically meaningful morphological, spectral and pitch relationships. This is achieved through the design of novel digital audio processing networks and a software performance interface. The work explores, tests and extends the music perception theories of ‘reduced listening’ (Schaeffer, 1967) and ‘surrogacy’ (Smalley, 1997), by demonstrating how, through specific audio processing techniques, sounds may shifted away from ‘causal’ listening contexts towards abstract aesthetic listening contexts. In doing so, it demonstrates how various time and frequency domain processing techniques may be used to achieve this shift.

Youth Festival Music Performance : Kingston

Research Background - Young people with negative experiences of mainstream education often display low levels of traditional academic achievement. These young people tend to display considerable cultural and social resources developed through their repeated experiences of adversity. Education research has a duty to provide these young people with opportunities to showcase, assess and translate their social and cultural resources into symbolic forms of capital. This creative work addresses the research question, how can educators maximise the social and cultural capital they help young people acquire through live music performances and studio recordings? Research Contribution - This live music performance, built on existing artistic reputations of the artists, saw the lads support one of their local heroes from Brisbane Hip Hop music scene. In doing so they showcased what their three years of concerted musical engagement can achieve within supportive flexible learning environments. The new knowledge derived from this research focuses on the academic and self confidence benefits for disengaged young people using festival performances as authentic learning activities. Research Significance - This research is significant because it aims to maximise the number of tangible outcomes related to a school-based arts project. The young participants gained technical, artistic, social and commercial status during this project. Individual performances were distributed and downloaded via creative commons licences at the Australian Creative Resource Archive. This performance also contributed to their certified qualifications and acted as pilot research data for two competitively funded ARC grants (DP0209421 & LP0883643)

Synchronous learner support for music sequencing software

In the field of music technology there is a distinct focus on networking between spatially disparate locales to improve teaching and learning through real-time communication. This article proposes a new delivery model for learner support based on a review of technical and learning services, pilot research using remote desktops to teach music-sequencing software, and recent education research regarding professional development. A 24/7 delivery model using remote desktops, mobile devices and shared calendars offers a flexible real-time addition to the learner support services already on offer. Treating every user of the service as a potential expert, the model aims to deliver universal support situated in a personalized context, which will serve the technical and education requirements of teachers and learners.

The making and placing of The Escalators

The band The Escalators together with the music uniquely composed for it and a subsequent CD and DVDs was the work that emerged from my period of research. The areas of interest that were investigated were sampling, minimalism, stasis, the work of David Lynch, as well as a desire to produce new and innovative music. The above concepts defined the bands composition and makeup. While each may be regarded as a discreet concept with its own boundaries in my work they seamlessly intermingle resulting in that which is unique to The Escalators sound. The research methodology used for this work was practice led research.

Access to meaningful relationships through virtual instruments and ensembles

This workshop focuses upon research about the qualities of community in music and of music in community facilitated by technologically supported relationships. Generative media systems present an opportunity for users to leverage computational systems to form new relationships through interactive and collaborative experiences. Generative music and art are a relatively new phenomenon that use procedural invention as a creative technique to produce music and visual media. Early systems have demonstrated the potential to provide access to collaborative ensemble experiences for users with little formal musical or artistic expertise. This workshop examines the relational affordances of these systems evidenced by selected field data drawn from the Network Jamming Project. These generative performance systems enable access to unique ensembles with very little musical knowledge or skill and offer the possibility of interactive relationships with artists and musical knowledge through collaborative performance. In this workshop we will focus on data that highlights how these simulated experiences might lead to understandings that may be of social benefit. Conference participants will be invited to jam in real time using virtual interfaces and to evaluate purposively selected video artifacts that demonstrate different kinds of interactive relationship with artists, peers, and community and that enrich the sense of expressive self. Theoretical insights about meaningful engagement drawn from the longitudinal and cross cultural experiences will underpin the discussion and practical presentation.

Music is a Wordless Knowing of Others : Resilience in Virtual Ensembles

Music making affects relationships with self and others by generating a sense of belonging to a culture or ideology (Bamford, 2006; Barovick, 2001; Dillon & Stewart, 2006; Fiske, 2000; Hallam, 2001). Whilst studies from arts education research present compelling examples of these relationships, others argue that they do not present sufficiently validated evidence of a causal link between music making experiences and cognitive or social change (Winner & Cooper, 2000; Winner & Hetland, 2000a, 2000b, 2001). I have suggested elsewhere that this disconnection between compelling evidence and observations of the effects of music making are in part due to the lack of rigor in research and the incapacity of many methods to capture these experiences in meaningful ways (Dillon, 2006). Part of the answer to these questions about rigor and causality lay in the creative use of new media technologies that capture the results of relationships in music artefacts. Crucially, it is the effective management of these artefacts within computer systems that allows researchers and practitioners to collect, organize, analyse and then theorise such music making experiences.

Technology in the lives and schools of adolescents

This chapter advocates a pedagogy where relationships form the basis for developing curricular and pedagogical ways of being with students. A relational pedagogy begins through considering the broad questions of: Where are music and technology in the lives the teacher and student? Where do adolescents make meaning through music and technology? How can teachers develop a community with their students through music and technology? We argue that relationships should be placed at the center of pedagogical and curricular decision-making. Through this approach, music educators are better equipped to make space for and honor student agency and learning through harnessing the ways adolescents intuitively engage with music and technology.