INNOVATIONS IN FRENCH CHAMBER MUSIC AND MÉLODIE (1886 – 1962) – A COLLABORATIVE PIANIST’S PERSPECTIVE

French chamber music in the last quarter of the nineteenth century displayed significant advances in musical innovations and technical developments. As the Parisian public began to favor instrumental music and mélodie over opera, vocal and chamber music with piano became one of the main genres to express French composers’ creativity and individuality. The composers Franck, Debussy, Fauré, Duparc, Ravel, Chausson and Poulenc were the major contributors to this unusually creative period in French music. French mélodies of this period blend precision with lyricism, and demand the performer’s elegance and wit. They show careful settings of the French language’s rhythmic subtleties and increased expressiveness in and importance of the piano accompaniment. The chamber works of this period demanded superior pianistic and instrumental virtuosity while displaying wide ranges of sonority, multiple tone colors, and rhythmic fluidity. The three recitals which comprise this dissertation project were performed at the University of Maryland Gildenhorn Recital Hall on 27 October 2006, All Nations Mission Church (Dayton, NJ) on 5 December 2009, and the Leah M. Smith Lecture Hall of the University of Maryland on 11 May 2010. The repertoire included Poulenc’s Sonata for Oboe and Piano (1962) with oboist Yeongsu Kim, French mélodies by Fauré, Chausson, Debussy, Ravel and Duparc with soprano Jung-A Lee and baritone Hyun-Oh Shin, Poulenc’s Sextet for Piano, Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon and Horn (1932-1939) with flutist Katrina Smith, clarinetist Jihoon Chang, bassoonist Erich Heckscher, hornist Heidi Littman and oboist Yeongsu Kim, Debussy’s Sonata for Cello and Piano (1915) with cellist Ji-Sook Shin, Poulenc’s Sonata for Violin and Piano (1942-1949) with violinist Ji-Hee Lim, Franck’s Sonata for Violin and Piano (1886) with violinist Na-Young Cho, Ravel’s Piano Trio (1915) with cellist Ji-Sook Shin and violinist Yu-Jeong Lee and Ravel’s Sonata for Violin and Piano (1927) with violinist Yu-Jeong Lee. The recitals were recorded on compact discs and are archived within the Digital Repository at the University of Maryland (DRUM).

SCHUBERT’S WINTERREISE AND THE PIANO TRIO IN Eb; TWO REMARKABLE WORKS FROM ONE REMARKABLE YEAR – 1827: A RECORDING PROJECT

During Franz Schubert’s penultimate year of 1827, he produced two profoundly important and mature works that are the focus of this recording project. The works are, in chronological order: • Winterreise (cycle of 24 songs on the poetry of Wilhelm Müller, 1794-1827) • Piano Trio in Eb Major, Op. 100, D. 929 A unique feature of the project is to present Winterreise in two poetic orders: as traditionally performed and published by Schubert, and in the final ordering published by the poet. The program notes accompanying the dissertation’s three compact discs have extensive information as well as comparative tables of Müller’s and Schubert’s final ordering of the cycle. There are significant differences in ordering, and ultimately the listener will determine which is more dramatically satisfying. Dark melancholy is the central emotion in Winterreise, which Schubert composed at various times throughout 1827 in a mood of corresponding gloom and distress. By contrast, the summer and fall of that year produced, in quick succession, the two glowing and remarkable Piano Trios in Bb and Eb, the second of which is included on these compact discs. The contrast between the trios and Winterreise follows the outward circumstances of Schubert’s life and health, a pattern of sorrow and later consolation and elation. The sound recordings for this dissertation recording project are available on three compact discs that can be found in the Digital Repository at the University of Maryland (DRUM). Winterreise was recorded in August 2009, at the University of Baltimore recital hall in Baltimore, Maryland with University of Maryland Professor François Loup. The trio, recorded in live performance in Baltimore in the spring of 2010, features two members of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra: Qing Li, B.S.O. principal second violin, and Bo Li, B.S.O. section cellist.

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.

LUCIANO BERIO’S NATURALE: A STORY COMBINING FOLK MUSIC AND ART MUSIC

The study of a score by a serious performer is a fundamental step in the process of arriving at a knowledgeable and deeply informed approach to performing a piece of music. In order to obtain this knowledge numerous aspects of the score must be taken into consideration. It is the intent of this dissertation to gather and analyze the information concerning Naturale, a work written by Luciano Berio in 1985 for viola, percussion and recorded voice, based on Sicilian folk songs. All the aspects surrounding Naturale’s existence are taken into consideration in this study. First, it is important to reflect on Berio’s compositional style and traits, the manner in which he relates his works one to another, what he sees in folk music and his own personal desire to intertwine art music and folk music. For Berio Naturale is not an isolated venture into the realm of mixing folk music and his own avant-garde style; it is instead one of many works resulting from his long-standing relationship with folk music. Another essential aspect in this case is the study of Sicilian folk music itself, and the sources used by Berio to find the songs by which he was inspired. The work is examined section by section with figures showing both excerpts of Naturale as well as the original songs with their translations. An analysis containing harmonic, thematic and formal aspects of the score was developed in order to arrive at a better understanding of the structure and pacing of the piece. For this research the author went to Italy to conduct an interview with Maestro Aldo Bennici, the Sicilian violist for whom Naturale was composed. This interview helped in the discovery of two more songs used by Berio that have not to this point been identified in any other document. Bennici’s outstanding testimony portrayed the expressive character of this music and the evocative imagery behind this score. I hope to bring this knowledge to other performers, that they may fully understand and appreciate the unique beauty and power of Berio’s Naturale.

A SURVEY OF FRENCH KEYBOARD MUSIC FROM 1880 TO 1950

French music flourished from the last quarter of the nineteenth century into the early twentieth century, especially in the genres of opera and orchestral music. Although French keyboard music enjoyed less popularity, being overshadowed by these predominant genres, prominent impressionist figures Claude Debussy (1862-1918) and Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) . . brought its revival to the French music. Scholars consider Debussy to be a frontrunner of Impressionism, and his influence had a major impact on subsequent composers. As a result of his popularity, other significant works by French composers seem to be overlooked by pianists and audiences and are not as often performed. Because keyboard works by Debussy and Ravel are a popular performance choice among pianists, I was eager to examine music by other French composers. Through my resea,rch, I found many great works that warranted further study and deserve a place in the keyboard repertoire. This recording project contains works by lesser-known French composers written between the years of 1880 and 1950, namely Emmanuel Chabrier (1841-1894), Gabriel-Urbain Faure (1845-1924), Charles Koechlin (1867-1950), Albert Roussel (1869-1937), Erik Satie (1866-1925), Francis Poulenc (1899-1963), Darius Milhaud (1892-1974), Robert Casadesus (1899-1972) and Henri Dutilleux (b.1916). Since piano repertoire is abundant, it is sometimes difficult to create a performance program. Therefore, it frequently becomes the default to choosing familiar repertoire rather than using the opportunity to expand the repertoire. As a pianist, I feel responsible to search for hidden musical treasures with which pianists and audiences alike are not so well acquainted. This recording project explores nine lesser-known French compositions written between 1880 and 1950. I expect this to be an opportunity to introduce both pianists and audiences to outstanding but unfamiliar works by French composers. This dissertation was recorded on two compact discs in Dekelboum Concert Hall at Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center of the University of Maryland. The recordings are archived in the University of Maryland Library.

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.

LibQUAL+ Survey 2004 @ Queen's University Library : analysis of results

Queen's University Library was one of 202 libraries, including 57 members of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), to survey its users in spring 2004 using the LibQUAL+ survey instrument. LibQUAL+ was designed by ARL to assist libraries in assessing the quality of their services and identifying areas for improvement. # Overall: Queen's scored higher than the average for all ARL participants and 1st among the 2004 Canadian participants. This relatively high rating is due to very high scores in the dimensions of Library as Place and Affect of Service. However, there is considerable need for improvement in the area of Information Control where Queen's rated well below the ARL average. # Affect of Service: Queen's strong overall ratings are supported by the many respondent comments praising customer service throughout the system. The ratings and survey comments indicate greatest appreciation by faculty and more experienced students (e.g. graduate students) for the instruction and on-site services provided by the libraries. The ratings also indicate that undergraduates, growing up with the web, want and expected to be able to access library resources independently and do not value these services as highly. The comments also indicated some specific areas for improvement throughout the library system. # Library as Place : All Queen's libraries except for Law ranked well above the ARL and Canadian averages. Overall, Library as Place ranked lowest in importance among the service dimensions for all ARL participants including Queen's. Comparative analysis of LibQUAL results since the survey began shows a decline in “desired” ratings for Library as Place. However, undergraduates continue to give strong "desired" ratings to certain aspects of Library as Place and a relatively high rating for "minimum expected" service. The comments from Queen's survey respondents and ARL's analyses of focus groups indicate that undergraduates value the library much more as a place to study and work with peers rather than for its on-site resources and services. # Information Control: This is the area in greatest need of attention. While it ranked highest in importance for all user groups by a wide margin, Queen's performed poorly in this category. Overall, Queen's ranked far below both the ARL average and the top three Canadian scores. However, the major dissatisfaction was concentrated in the humanities/social sciences (Stauffer primary users) and the health sciences (Bracken primary users) where the overall rating of perceived service quality ranked below the minimum expected service rating. Primary users of the Education, Engineering/Science and Law libraries rated this service dimension higher than the ARL average. The great success of the Canadian National Site License Program (CNSLP) is reflected in the high overall rating generated by Engineering/Science Library users. The low ratings from the humanities and social sciences are supported by respondents' comments and are generally consistent with other ARL participants.

Towards an intelligent score following system: Handling of mistakes and jumps encountered during piano practicing

Score following has been an important area of research in AI and music since the mid 80's. Various systems were developed, but they were predominantly for providing automated accompaniment to live concert performances, dealing mostly with issues relating to pitch detection and identification of embellished melodies. They have a big potential in the area of education where student performers benefit in practice situations. Current accompaniment systems are not designed to deal with errors that may occur during practising. In this paper we present a system developed to provide accompaniment for students practising at home. First a survey of score following will be given. Then the capabilities of the system will be explained, and the results from the first experiments of the monophonic score following system will be presented.

Tongue-tied?: An Active Analysis of Brian Friel's Translations

This article has arisen from a research-led production of Translations by Brian Friel for Queen’s University’s Tyrone Guthrie Society in February 2010. Drawing partly on a review of the existing critical literature and also from questions left unresolved by a previous experience of directing the play, the production sought to address through ‘active analysis’ (Merlin 2001) a number of research questions relating to the embodied nature of the rehearsal process and the historicity of Friel’s play. The analysis invokes Bergson (1910), Lefebvre (1991) and Worthern (2006) in establishing a performative correlative for insightful but more literary studies by Connolly (1993), Lojek (1994) and McGrath (1989 & 1999). A detailed account of the rehearsal process helps reveal the extent to which the idea of failure of communication is embedded in the text and embodied in performance, while an experiment with the partial use of the Irish language casts further light on Friel’s extraordinary device of rendering two languages through the medium of one. The use of music to counterpoint, rather than underscore the action, together with an achronological sequence of projected historical images inspired by Andrews (1983) provided me as director a means to challenge the audience’s presuppositions about the play. The sense of palimpsest, of the layered histories, that this evoked also served to highlight Friel’s use of the wider stylistic palette of Anglo-Irish drama, revealing Translations as a forerunner for Stewart Parker’s more explicit formal experiments in Northern Star. In rehearsal and performance Friel’s place in the continuum of the Irish theatrical canon became clear, as stylistic allusions to O’Casey, Shaw, Wilde and Beckett were embodied by the actors on the rehearsal room floor.

Logic feels so good-I like it! Evidence for intuitive detection of logicality in syllogistic reasoning

When people evaluate syllogisms, their judgments of validity are often biased by the believability of the conclusions of the problems. Thus, it has been suggested that syllogistic reasoning performance is based on an interplay between a conscious and effortful evaluation of logicality and an intuitive appreciation of the believability of the conclusions (e.g., Evans, Newstead, Allen, & Pollard, 1994). However, logic effects in syllogistic reasoning emerge even when participants are unlikely to carry out a full logical analysis of the problems (e.g., Shynkaruk & Thompson, 2006). There is also evidence that people can implicitly detect the conflict between their beliefs and the validity of the problems, even if they are unable to consciously produce a logical response (e.g., De Neys, Moyens, & Vansteenwegen, 2010). In 4 experiments we demonstrate that people intuitively detect the logicality of syllogisms, and this effect emerges independently of participants' conscious mindset and their cognitive capacity. This logic effect is also unrelated to the superficial structure of the problems. Additionally, we provide evidence that the logicality of the syllogisms is detected through slight changes in participants' affective states. In fact, subliminal affective priming had an effect on participants' subjective evaluations of the problems. Finally, when participants misattributed their emotional reactions to background music, this significantly reduced the logic effect.

The role of formal structure in liking for popular music

The effect of restructuring the form of three unfamiliar pop/rock songs was investigated in two experiments. In the first experiment, listeners' judgements of the likely location of sections of novel popular songs were explored by requiring participants to place the eight sections (Intro - Verse 1 - Chorus 1 - Verse 2 - Chorus 2 - Bridge (solo) - Chorus 3 - Extro) of the songs into the locations they thought them most likely to occur within the song. Results revealed that participants were able to place the sections in approximately the right location with some accuracy, though they were unable to differentiate between choruses. In Experiment 2, three versions of each of the songs were presented in three different structures: intact (original form), medium restructured (the sections in a moderately changed order), and highly restructured (more severe restructuring). The results show that listeners' judgments of predictability and liking were largely uninfluenced by the restructuring of the songs, in line with findings for classical music. Moment-by-moment liking judgements of the songs demonstrated a change in liking judgements with repeated exposure, though the trend was downwards with repeated exposure rather than upwards. Detailed analysis of moment-by-moment judgements at the ends and beginnings of sections showed that listeners were able to respond quickly to intact songs, but not to restructured songs. The results suggest that concatenism prevails in listening to popular song at the expense of paying attention to larger structural features. © 2012 by the regents of the university of california all rights reserved.

Here I am yet cannot hold this visible shape:The Music of Gender in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night

Music has always been used as an important dramaturgical strategy in Western theatre to create a holistic theatrical experience. In Shakespeare’s plays, music was employed as a unique dramaturgical device for various purposes. Twelfth Night distinguishes itself from among the many plays that employ music because it begins, ends and progresses with music. Music pervades Twelfth Night and is tightly interwoven into the thematic concerns of the play such as love and gender. Because of music’s elusive nature and the difficulty of discussing a musical aesthetics, Shakespearean music critics have approached music in the play as a theme or an idea. This paper hopes to develop upon older scholarship by introducing an alternate framework of considering music’s musicality through a musicological analysis of the songs in Twelfth Night. In so doing, the paper hopes to show how and why music can modulate our responses to the play and in particular, to the theme of gender, a problematic issue that produces the elusive and darker nature of this festive comedy.

Hall Of Mirrors:piano quartet for young musicians

for piano, violin, violin or viola, cello