A navigation and object location device for the blind

Gemstone Team Vision

An investigation of the stability and diffusivity of flexible lipid vesicles for transdermal insulin delivery

Gemstone Team No More Needles

Identification and assessment of potential wind energy project sites in the State of Maryland

Gemstone Team Renewables

The Interloping Beguiler: for Bass Clarinet and Orchestra

The Interloping Beguiler is an nineteen-minute concerto in four movements for bass clarinet solo and orchestra. The title refers to the role of the solo instrument, which continually thrusts itself into the affairs of the orchestra, deceiving and diverting the members of the orchestra away from their task of performing a "serious" orchestral composition. The bass clarinet portrays a comical, cartoon-like character whose awkward, and sometimes goofy, interjections cause chaos. Attempts are made by various members of the orchestra, especially the horns, to regain control of the work, but the bass clarinet always succeeds in its distracting antics. By the final movement of the composition, the bass clarinet has propelled the work into a cartoon-like landscape of quickly changing textures, dissonant intervals, and overlapping themes. The first movement, Introduction, sets the serious tone of the music to follow, or so it would seem. The entrance of the bass clarinet immediately changes this texture with its out-of-rhythm alternations between high and low pitches. This gesture provides a glimpse into the personality of the bass clarinet, an instrument here to mislead the members of the orchestra. Deception truly begins in the second movement, The Interloping Initiates. The bass clarinet starts the movement with a driving theme and is immediately supported by the orchestra. As the movement progresses, the bass clarinet quickly begins altering the theme, making it more playful and cartoonish. A struggle ensues between the horns and the bass clarinet, with the bass clarinet catapulting the piece into a latin-inspired section. The struggle continues through to the end of the movement. The third movement, Calm, is exactly what the title suggests. A sectional form distinguishes this movement from the second movement. Throughout Calm, the bass clarinet behaves with decorum, except for very large melodic leaps. The seed of anarchy planted by the bass clarinet in the second movement comes to fruition in the final movement, The Beguiling Builds. Here, the bass clarinet sends the work into chaos with sections recalling Looney Tunes cartoons, Hollywood western music, and children's folk songs.

Civil Rights on the Cell Block: Race, Reform, and Violence in Texas Prisons and the Nation, 1945-1990

This study, "Civil Rights on the Cell Block: Race, Reform, and Violence in Texas Prisons and the Nation, 1945-1990," offers a new perspective on the historical origins of the modern prison industrial complex, sexual violence in working-class culture, and the ways in which race shaped the prison experience. This study joins new scholarship that reperiodizes the Civil Rights era while also considering how violence and radicalism shaped the civil rights struggle. It places the criminal justice system at the heart of both an older racial order and within a prison-made civil rights movement that confronted the prison's power to deny citizenship and enforce racial hierarchies. By charting the trajectory of the civil rights movement in Texas prisons, my dissertation demonstrates how the internal struggle over rehabilitation and punishment shaped civil rights, racial formation, and the political contest between liberalism and conservatism. This dissertation offers a close case study of Texas, where the state prison system emerged as a national model for penal management. The dissertation begins with a hopeful story of reform marked by an apparently successful effort by the State of Texas to replace its notorious 1940s plantation/prison farm system with an efficient, business-oriented agricultural enterprise system. When this new system was fully operational in the 1960s, Texas garnered plaudits as a pioneering, modern, efficient, and business oriented Sun Belt state. But this reputation of competence and efficiency obfuscated the reality of a brutal system of internal prison management in which inmates acted as guards, employing coercive means to maintain control over the prisoner population. The inmates whom the prison system placed in charge also ran an internal prison economy in which money, food, human beings, reputations, favors, and sex all became commodities to be bought and sold. I analyze both how the Texas prison system managed to maintain its high external reputation for so long in the face of the internal reality and how that reputation collapsed when inmates, inspired by the Civil Rights Movement, revolted. My dissertation shows that this inmate Civil Rights rebellion was a success in forcing an end to the existing system but a failure in its attempts to make conditions in Texas prisons more humane. The new Texas prison regime, I conclude, utilized paramilitary practices, privatized prisons, and gang-related warfare to establish a new system that focused much more on law and order in the prisons than on the legal and human rights of prisoners. Placing the inmates and their struggle at the heart of the national debate over rights and "law and order" politics reveals an inter-racial social justice movement that asked the courts to reconsider how the state punished those who committed a crime while also reminding the public of the inmates' humanity and their constitutional rights.

Ritualizing Barong and Rangda: Repercussions of a Collaborative Field Experience in Kerambitan, Bali.

The dance-drama called Barong and Rangda a ritual, is one of the vital events that breathes life in the small village, Banjar Tista, and extends beyond the boundaries of its "performance" area. In this thesis, I depend on Ronald Grimes' concept of "ritualizing" as a continuum in the context of my fieldwork in Bali, Indonesia. The ritual cycle and the collaborative fieldwork process are analyzed through the impressions of each fieldworker. Barong and Rangda is a well-documented dance-drama and part of the longer Calonarang story. This dance-drama is a mythological battle between the lion, Barong, and the witch, Rangda, and is performed authentically to create spiritual balance and cleanse its community members of evil. This ritual performance reaches beyond the time and place in which the performance originates and creates a ripple affect on the village members, those in trance, musicians and cultural outsiders alike.

The Evolution of the Russian Romance Through the Nineteenth and Twentieth centuries

This performance dissertation traced the evolution of the Russian romance from 1800 to the present. The Russian romance is a relatively unknown and greatly neglected genre of classical art songs. It is commonly believed that the Russian romance began with Dargomizhsky and Glinka proceeding directly to Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff. Forgotten are the composers before Dargornizhsky and Glinka, the bridge composers, and the post-Tchaikovsky and post-Rachmaninoff composers. This may be, in part, because of the difficulties in obtaining Russian vocal scores. While most of the musical world is acquainted with the magnificent Russian instrumental music, the "true soul" of the Russian people lies in its romances. I presented examples of the two different schools of composition, reflecting their philosophical differences in thinking that came about in the 1860s: (1) Russian National school, (2) Western European school. Each school's influence on generations of Russian composers and their pupils have been represented in the recital programs. Also represented was the effect of the October Revolution on music and the voice of the Russian people, Anna Akhmatova. The amount of music that could be included in this dissertation greatly exceeds the amount of available performance time and represents a selected portion of the repertoire. The first recital included repertoire from the beginning of the romance in the early nineteenth century to the beginning of the twentieth century and the second recital focused on the music of the twentieth century, pre and post, the October Revolution. Finally, given the status of Anna Akhmatova and her contributions, the third recital was devoted entirely to her poetry. The "Russian soul" is one of deep, heartfelt emotions and sorrow. Happiness and joy are also present, but always with a touch of melancholy. The audience did not simply go through a musical journey, but took a journey through the "Russian soul". With the strong response of the audience to these recitals, my belief that this repertoire deserves a prominent place in recital programming was confirmed.

Selected Solo Music for Saxophone by United States Composers: 1975-2005

This dissertation project identifies important works for solo saxophone by United States composers between 1975 and 2005. The quality, variety, expressiveness, and difficulty of the solo saxophone repertoire during these thirty years is remarkable and remedies, to some extent, the fact that the saxophone had been a largely neglected instrument in the realm of classical music. In twentieth-century music, including Jazz, the saxophone developed, nevertheless, a unique and significant voice as is evident in the saxophone repertoire that expands immensely in many instrumental settings, including the orchestra, solo works, and a wide variety of chamber ensembles. Historically, the saxophone in the United States first found its niche in Vaudeville, military bands, and jazz ensembles, while in Europe composers such as Debussy, D'Indy, Schmitt, Ibert, Glazounov, Heiden, and Desenclos recognized the potential of the instrument and wrote for it. The saxophone is well suited to the intimacy and unique timbral explorations of the solo literature, but only by the middle twentieth century did the repertoire allow the instrument to flourish into a virtuosic and expressive voice presented by successive generations of performers – Marcel Mule, Sigurd Rascher, Cecil Leeson, Jean-Marie Londeix, Fred Hemke, Eugene Rousseau, and Donald Sinta. The very high artistic level of theses soloists was inspiring and dozens of new compositions were commissioned. Through the 1960’s American composers such as Paul Creston, Leslie Bassett, Henry Cowell, Alec Wilder, and others produced eminent works for the saxophone, to be followed by an enormous output of quality compositions between 1975 and 2005. The works chosen for performance were selected from thousands of compositions between 1975 and 2005 researched for this project. The three recital dates were: April 6, 2005, in Gildenhorn Recital Hall, December 4, 2005, in Ulrich Recital Hall, and April 15, 2006, in Gildenhorn Recital Hall. Recordings of these recitals may be obtained in person or online from the Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library of the University of Maryland, College Park.

BACH TO BASICS: A PERFORMANCE STUDY OF THE SUITES FOR SOLO CELLO BY JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH, BWV 1007-1012

This dissertation project focuses on J.S. Bach's Six Suites and explores the ideology of the Suites as etudes versus concert pieces. It is my belief that the evolution of the rank of the Suites in a cellist's repertoire today represents more than just historical coincidence. My premise is that the true genius of the Suites lies in their dual role as !&I efficient teaching pieces and superior performance works. Consequently, the maximum use of Bach's Six Suites as pedagogical material heightens both technical ability and deeper appreciation of the art. The dual nature of the Suites must always be emphasized: not only do these pieces provide innumerable opportunities for building cello technique, but they also offer material for learning the fundamentals of melody, harmony, dynamics, phrasing and texture. It is widely accepted among academic musicians that Bach's keyboard music serves as perfect compositions -- the model for music theory, music form and music counterpoint. I argue that we should employ the Cello Suites to this same end. The order in which the Suites are presented was deliberately chosen to highlight the contrasts in the pieces. Because the technical demands of each suite grow progressively from the previous one, they were performed non-consecutively in order to balance the difficulty and depth of each recital. The first compact disc consists of the Third Suite in C Major and Fifth Suite in C minor (with scordatura tuning), emphasizing the parallel keys. The Second Suite in D Minor and the Fourth Suite in E-flat Major comprises the compact disc. Finally, in the third compact disc, the First Suite in G Major and the Sixth Suite in D Major (composed for the five string cello piccola, but played here on a four-string cello) highlights the progression of the Suites.

SELECTED VARIATIONS BY COMPOSERS IN GERMANY AND FRANCE

The Haward of Dictionary of Music (1983), defines variation as "a technique modifying a given musical idea." From the Baroque period on, the form and the techniques of variation were developed and enriched in Germany and France. Therefore, I presented the works of composers from these two nations. Even though there was a vast number of possibilities, I wanted to be scholastically fair and interesting in making my selections by choosing well-known pieces along with lesser-known ones. Haydn's well-known Variations in F minor consist of two sets of double variations which break into an improvisation fantasy. The first movement of Beethoven Sonata in A flat major, Op. 26, is a set of five variations on the composer's original theme. The variations are positioned in the first movement instead of Sonata-Allegro form. In 1861 Brahrns composed the Variations and Fugue, Op. 24, on the theme of Handel. Brahms displays a wealth of rhythmic, harmonic and textural contrasts in the variations. Chopin's E Major Variations without opus number are written on a Swiss influenced German folksong. Faure's Theme and Variations in C sharp minor, Op. 73, includes eleven variations. The work displays the composer's subtlety, grace and reticence. 12 Variationen iiber ein eigenes Thema were written by Alban Berg as a composition study with Schonberg. The Finale of Dutilleux's Piano Sonata, titled "Chorale with Variations", is written in an impressionistic style. A rich expressiveness is well blended in a classical form. In 1742, the remarkable Aria and thirty variations known as the Goldberg Variations were composed by J. S. Bach. The thirty Variations are unified by the bass line, which forms the foundation of the Aria. The pieces discussed above were presented in three recitals. Compact disc recordings of these recitals are available in the Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library of the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at the University of Maryland.

Three Voices in the Wilderness: Foote, Bloch, and Korngold in the Early Twentieth-Century America

Barbara Hanning points out in her book Concise History of Western Music, that "Twentieth-century American music was in large measure an extension of European music" (Hanning 1998, 515). My dissertation/perforrnance project features cello works written by three contemporary composers who lived in America but were connected to the European heritage in different ways; each contributed significantly to the development of American classical concert life, music education, and even popular culture. Programs of my performances are intended to illustrate their unique compositional styles. The first recital consists of five cello compositions of Massachusetts-born Arthur Foote (1853 - 1937): Drei Stucke fur Pianoforte und Violoncello, Op. 1; Scherzo, Op.22; Romanza, Op.33; Aubade, Op.77; and Sonata for Violoncello and Piano, Op.78. Foote was influenced by the German-trained John Knowles Paine at Harvard University; he composed music famous for its extensive chromaticism in both harmony and melodic line, and for clearly-defined formal structure. The second recital explores the music of Swiss-American composer Ernest Bloch (1880-1959): a short Meditation Hebraique, a Suite No. I for Violoncello Solo and the famous rhapsody Schelomo. Born in Geneva, Switzerland, and settling in the United States in 1916, Bloch is a composer deeply influenced by the European late-Romantic tradition and is also well-known for employing "Hebraic" elements into his works. The final performance comprises two other of Bloch's cello works and one cello concerto by the Austrian-American composer, Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897- 1957). Bloch's Voice in the Wilderness is a symphonic poem for orchestra and cello (accompanied by piano in this performance), consisting of six movements performed without pause. His Suite No.3 for Cello Solo is shorter and has a simpler style than the first Suite. Korngold was recognized as a child prodigy in his native Austria. After a Nazi-induced exile, he immigrated to America and became a film music composer in Hollywood. The Cello Concerto was used in the movie "Deception" (1 946), for which Korngold provided the film score. The impassioned harmonic language and lavish melodic lines inherited from the high-romanticism make this work one of comparative discordant beauty among other compositions of his time.

The Development of Piano Variations in the Romantic Era

The purpose of this study is to illustrate the development of piano variations as a genre during the Romantic era. In order to facilitate this examination of piano variations techniques, a brief look at the types of variation procedures used by composers of previous eras will assist in understanding developments that later occurred in the Romantic period. Throughout the Baroque era, composers preferred the fured-bass, fixed-melody, and harmonic forms of variation. The crowning achievement of Baroque keyboard music, Bach's Goldberg Variations (1725), contains examples of the "constantharmonic" method in its collection of 30 variations, each of which maintains both the bass and harmonic structure of the themes. While most composers of the classical period favored the "melodic-outline" form of variation, Haydn developed hybrid variation procedure that exhibits recurrence of material rather than repetition, alternating variation (ABABA), rondo variation (ABACA), and ternary variation (ABA). Haydn, Mozart and early Beethoven variations also exhibit simpler textures than do their Baroque predecessors. The nineteenth century produced numerous compositions that display variation techniques, some based on such older, classical models as melodic-outline variation and hybrid variation, others in the style of the character variation or fiee variation. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, Beethoven and Schubert used such classical variation techmques as melodic-outline variations and hybrid variations. Beethoven's late sonatas displayed such new means of expression as variation, fugue, and dramatic recitatives. The third movement of the Sonata in E major, Op. 109 (1820) has a theme and six variations of the melodic-outline type. Johannes Brahms was particularly fond of composing variations for piano. Among the best known examples of formal-outline variations are those found in the Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Handel, Op. 24 (1861). Character variations, in which styles are characterized by the retention and variability of particular elements, also flourished during the Romantic period. Cesar Franck's Variations Symphoniques (1885) are, perhaps, among the most important examples of free variations. This composition is a one-movement work consisting of three sections, Introduction, Variations, and Finale (all movements played "attaca"). This work combines two independent classical formal structures, the concerto and the variation.

The Scherzo in Selected Works for Piano

This performance project will cover performing issues in terms of technique in the scherzo. The Dictionary of Musical Terms defines technique as "the system of creating music, the musical slull to show personality by controlling tones that is not an abstract theory but a practical ability in composition or performance." My project focuses on techniques in fast tempos, specifically those found in the scherzo form and in concertos containing a scherzo character. The term scherzo has varied in its meaning and form throughout history. In the Baroque period, a scherzo was a work of light vocal or instrumental character. In the Classical period, scherzo still meant light in style, but it also indicated a quick tempo, often in 2/4 time. The scherzo was usually a single movement in a suite or multi-movement work. Like the minuet form, the scherzo contained a contrasting trio section. The scherzo was also standard in Romantic and post-Romantic symphonies and related genres. Because of the high degree of subjectivity in Romantic music, genres that stressed emotional content over abstract form developed rapidly. Some composers even wrote one-movement pieces entitled scherzo. These pieces became very important because they usually expressed a particular character or mood. The objective of my dissertation project is to research scherzo-like concertos, scherzo as single movements in larger forms, and scherzo as independent works. My first recital will consist of two concertos with a scherzo-like character. These are Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 9 i ?nl Major; K. 271 and Ravel's Piano Concerto in G Major. I will perform these works in December 2002 with a second piano. In addition, I will perform the Ravel with an orchestra in 2003. My second recital will consist of two parts. The fxst half presents multi-movement works with scherzo movements. The pieces are Haydn's Piano Sonata No. 3 in F Majol; Hob. WI/9, Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 10 in G Major; Op. 14, No. 2. The second half presents independent four scherzi by Chopin. The final program will also include multi-movement works containing scherzo and independent scherzo. These are Prokofiev's Piano Sonata No. 2 in D minor, Op. 14, Grieg Lyric Pieces Op. 54, Schubert Zwei Scherzi D. 593 and Copland Scherzo humoristique; Le Chat et la Souris (The Cat and the Mouse).

Selected Works from Character Pieces in the 19th - Early 20th Centuries

During the Romantic Era, the character piece flourished and became one of the most important genres. Even though character pieces existed as early as the eighteenth century, it was not until the nineteenth century that Romantic Era literary figures discovered that music was as powerful as any other artistic medium in expressing unspeakable emotions. The character piece allowed composers to express a definite mood, a programmatic idea, or a pictorial association. Character pieces often have titles that suggest briehess or casualness, such as a Beethoven Bagatelle, a Schubert Impromptu or Moment musicaux. Others have expressive programmatic titles, such as Schumann's Kreisleriana and Liszt's Apres une lecture de Dante. Ths dissertation was based on selected works from the nineteenth century and early-twentieth century in order to demonstrate the great variety of musical thought and stylistic development. I have examined composers from different countries and of different nationalities to establish what and how they contributed to the remarkable diversity in this genre. The selected works allowed for very personal programs. These concerts, in addition to being good combinations of pieces, are representative of the genre. The first program consisted of Chopin's Preludes, Op. 28; three pieces from Debussy7s Images Books I and 11; and Liszt7s Apres une lecture de Dante. The second program included seven of Beethoven's Bagatelles, Op. 33; Schumann's Kinderscenen, Op. 15; Poulenc's Mouvements perpetuels and Intermezzo in A-jlat Major; Faure7s Nocturne in B Major, Op. 33, No. 2 and Impromptu No. 2 in F Minor; three of Mompou's Canciones y Danzas; four of Villa-Lobos Prole do bebe Suite No. 1; and Albkniz's Navarra. The third and final program comprised four selections from Rachrnaninoff s Moment musicaux, Op. 16; five pieces from Grieg's Lyric Pieces; and Arensky7s Suite No. 1 for Two Pianos and Suite No. 2 for Two Pianos. I wanted to bring out nuances specific to the individual composers and show how their character pieces helped in shaping the Romantic Era. Even in the twenty-first century, an era of highly specialized musical tastes, the popularity and accessibility of character pieces stand out.

ELGAR AND MART&: THE CELLO WORKS AND MUSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF TWO REMARKABLE, SELF-TAUGHT, NATIONALISTIC COMPOSERS

The British Edward Elgar and Czech Bohuslav MartinB were two of the most prominent Nationalistic composers of their respective countries during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Their musical patriotism incorporates the unique paths of their lives as socially isolated and self-taught composers as expressed their outstanding Nationalistic compositions produced through the period of history encompassing the two World Wars.In the first chapter of this dissertation, a brief biography of Elgar is presented and the essential aspects of his formative years influencing him to become a self-taught musician are discussed. The second chapter demonstrates Elgar's musical characteristics through the study of a selection of his masterpieces. In the third chapter, a brief biography of Martinti is presented along with a history of his musical development, characterized by his social isolation during four different periods of his life-his residences in PoliCka, Prague, Paris, and then in the United States. The fourth chapter considers MartinB's musical characteristics as revealed through the study of a selection of his greatest works. In support of this doctoral project, I performed two recitals of cello works by Elgar and Martini3 at the University of Maryland, College Park. The first recital, accompanied by Susan Slingland and Hiroko Yamazaki, included three of Martini3's works, Sonata No. 2 for Cello and Piano (1941); Variations on a Theme of Rossini for Cello and Piano (1 942); and Sonata No. 3 for Cello and Piano (1952). The second recital, accompanied by Wonyoung Chang and Naoko Takao, presented Martini3's Sonata No. 1 for Cello and Piano (1939) and Elgar's Concerto for Cello and Orchestra Op. 85 in E minor (1 919).