Browsing by Subject "Music"
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Item Albert Herring(2010-02-26) Alarcon, Amber; Not AvailableOpera by Benjamin Britten, libretto adapted from a short story of Guy de Maupassant by Eric Crozier. Jim Lowe, conductor. Marc Reynolds, conductor.Item An exploration of technological advancements in music as seen through the eyes of three music professionals(Texas Tech University, 2005-05) Martin, April DianeThe intent of this study is to examine and compare the perspectives of three musicians regarding technological changes during their respective careers in the recording industry, music composition, and music education. The interviewees were chosen based upon their expertise and experience in their musical fields as well as similarities of age and geographic location. The researcher used an approach in which unstructured and structured methods of interviewing were combined to gain the trust of the subject and to acquire information in as rich detail as possible. Interviews were recorded and then scripted to allow examination of possible respondent similarities and differences. The subjects interviewed were: Michael Henry Martin, a recording engineer; Dr. Sally Reid, a composer; and Dr. Ed George, a music educator. All three share several characteristics. For example, they live in a small area in West Texas isolated from larger Metropolitan areas. They are each well known in that community but do not necessarily enjoy a national reputation. They are all relatively the same age; they have had successful careers and are now retired or approaching retirement. Therefore, the researcher interviewed them to explore their differing applications of technology in and throughout their careers. By holding age and geographical location constant, the researcher examined similarities and differences in the respondent’s perspectives of technology application throughout their careers. Results indicated that technology did have an impact on all of the respondents’ career fields and lives. Each interviewee commented on how technology in music has affected their careers.Item Another kind of truth : a study of self-mythology in popular music(2013-05) Moench, Michael Creighton; Slawek, Stephen; Carson, Charles D.The connection between music and the formation of identity has been extensively explored in Ethnomusicology, as has the connection between music and the articulation of personal truth and knowledge. One peculiar artifact in the history of American popular music that raises many questions about both identity and truth is the interaction between musical performance and personal mythology. Many musicians have actively cultivated a mythic self--‐conception, while still others have gone to the lengths of creating an entire new name and history for themselves in their performances and recordings. My interest in this essay is to explore the production, transmission and modification of mythemes and mythology in conjunction with the production of musical sounds and other aspects of performative artistry. In particular I am examining the careers of Sun Ra, Jimi Hendrix, Sly & The Family Stone, Parliament--‐ Funkadelic and Prince in order to explore how and why these musicians created a coherent mythology in their art, or contributed to mythic, archetypal conceptions of themselves in the press and popular culture. Rather than analyzing the musical and visual productions of these artists as expressions contingent on the narrative or ideological intentions of their respective “myths”, or taking the reverse course of treating alter--‐egos and personal myths as superficial trappings of show business that coexists with the true essence of their art (e.g. the music itself) I am examining the recursive interaction between sound, image, and storytelling. Drawing on concepts from scholars of myth like Claude Levi--‐Strauss, Joseph Campbell and Bruce Lincoln, as well as scholars of Black Music history such as Paul Gilroy and Guthrie Ramsey, I intend to demonstrate that in art as in life, mythology is a vital part of how we perceive our world and ourselves. Furthermore, these examples illustrate that art is often a holistic experience where elements of sound, vision, and story are interdependent and can seldom if ever be truly separated.Item Approaches to the performance of the Odyssey(2010-08) Tosa, Dygo Leo; Beck, Deborah; Palaima, Thomas G.This report examines different approaches to the performance of the Odyssey. The first approach focuses on the internal evidence of the Odyssey, looking at how the Homer’s poems define the singer as a type. The second approach analyzes a selection of sources from the classical period that attests to the performance of the Odyssey. The third approach uses material evidence as a means to reconstruct the music of performance. The internal evidence provides a consistent model for performance that can be correlated with external context. This model can then be used to show how the Odyssey makes use of its own performance. These approaches demonstrate that the material of the poem provides the most compelling account of performance of the Odyssey. The Odyssey presents a consistent model of performance that describes the performer, the manner of performance, and makes use of performance in its own poetry.Item The architecture that built "The Live Music Capital of the World" : from Paleolithic caves to the Moody Theater(2016-05) McKeeman, Ryan Keith; Benedikt, Michael; Webster, Anthoy KThis thesis provides a fresh perspective on “The Live Music Capital of the World” from the vantage of its venues, their respective ritual practices, and the aural cultural values they represent through the aural experience of their architecture. These rituals and aural experiences draw upon a canon of archetypes from the history of architecture, many of which are well known to architectural historians for reasons other than aural experience, like their building technology, for example. As this thesis investigates the cultural significance of music in architecture, the venues for live music, the first chapter provides a contextual basis for the origins of music, arguing that music’s cultural significance in general is integrated and intertwined with our sociality as human beings. Like the control of fire, music fundamentally impacted the evolution of humans, allowing early human ancestors to engage in sensually rich and abstract communication that mimicked the novel social designs of the time period. In the second chapter, this thesis establishes a canon of archetypes in architectural history from Paleolithic Caves to late-nineteenth century Romanticism, providing examples as a form of case study. These examples demonstrate pivotal instances of the social, political, religious, and cultural power of music in architecture. In every case, it is clear that music specifically (and aural design more broadly) has been embedded within architecture and ritual practice since the beginning when humans inhabited the borrowed structures of caves, even before designing and building their own structures. Finally, in chapter three, the public and semi-public soundscapes of Austin are explored utilizing the theoretical framework of aural architecture developed by Barry Blesser and Linda-Ruth Salter. In an intimate account of specific “signature” venues in Austin, this thesis identifies aural features that originate from within the canon of archetypes developed in chapter two. The evolution of Austin’s live music venues illustrates an evolving set of cultural values related to where, when and how loudly live music ought to occur in our public spaces.Item The balance of souls : self-making and mental wellness in the lives of ageing black women in Brazil(2010-05) Henery, Celeste Sian; Vargas, João Helion Costa; Gordon, Edmund T.; Ali, Kamran; Visweswaran, Kamala; Cvetkovich, AnnThe dissertation explores new understandings about the uses of emotional work in the social struggles of racialized people. This project is a case study that analyzes how a singing group of ageing black women organized to improve the mental wellness of women in a low-income, peripheral neighborhood of the city of Belo Horizonte. This grassroots effort was a response to the women’s use of anti-anxiety medication, specifically Valium, and an attempt to attend to the women’s ongoing issues not addressed through the use of pharmaceuticals. The dissertation examines these women’s self-making as a critical window into how the embodied experiences of the interlocking forces of race, class, gender, age and place of residence are lived in the demanding material and psychological conditions of these women’s lives and the nature of the group’s healing work in their life narratives. Through considering these women’s self-making in discourses of madness, geographic landscapes of memory, musicality and performance, the dissertation investigates how the psycho-emotional transformations of these women illuminate the types of therapeutic work beneficial to anti-racist, sexist and age diversified modes of being and collective mobilization in the current social context of Brazil’s re-democratization. It also considers the group’s re-conceptualization of blackness and mental wellness as exemplary of and contributing to the personal and social work of black women’s struggle and praxis. The research methodology includes participant observation, interviews (structured and un-structured), oral histories, documentary photography and archival research conducted during an extended period (sixteen months) of fieldwork in Brazil.Item Bloodsong for mezzo-soprano, chamber orchestra, and fixed media(2015-12) Stonaker, Ben Floyd, 1981-; Welcher, Dan; Pinkston, Russell; Sharlat, Yevgeniy; Drott, Eric; Woodruff, PaulBloodsong is a fifty-minute monodrama in one act for mezzo-soprano, chamber orchestra, and fixed media. The piece was written for vocalist Ellie Jarrett Shattles and received its world premiere at the University of Texas at Austin in September 2015. Writing the story, libretto, and music for this piece led to certain systematic approaches and methods throughout the creative process that differed greatly from my previous work as a composer. The piece raises questions about organized religion and sexuality through the point of view of a crazed, blood-obsessed religious fanatic named Elizabeth who believes she has been called by God to seek out and murder hatemongers within congregations all across the South. Bloodsong offers a glimpse into her mind as she recalls moments throughout her life and her secret crusade that ultimately leads her to the conclusion that she must take her own life. These memories and musings are presented as a dramatic song cycle in five scenes that incorporate five of her most beloved hymns. This treatise provides a close examination of specific influences and agencies that went into the work’s construction. The first chapter explains important background information and technical considerations regarding the story, libretto, selection of hymns, and fixed media design. The second chapter provides a scene-by-scene analysis focusing on techniques and processes that illustrate specific interactions between various musical and dramatic elements.Item Burlesque : music, minstrelsy, and mimetic resistance(2013-05) Blake, Iris Sandjette; Seeman, Sonia Tamar, 1958-My project can be read as an intervention that aims to disrupt the "innocence" of burlesque's dominant historical narratives, where burlesque is fashioned as related to minstrelsy but not as minstrelsy. A discussion of the White women as minstrel performers is lacking in the available burlesque histories because they have not addressed the meanings of musical sounds and movements, elements that constitute the core of burlesque. Using music as a lens to re-evaluate the meanings of burlesque performance, I show how burlesque, like minstrelsy, has functioned on the historical erasure of Black and Brown bodies. In burlesque, White women performers have predicated their departures from norms of White femininity on racist performances of "black"-ness. These minstrel performances were enabled by a White fetishization of musical sounds and movements coded Black or "Other." Building on the work of Jayna Brown and Sherrie Tucker, and responding to Susanne Cusick's call to address how musical performances might be read productively through Judith Butler's theory of performativity, I foreground music and embodiment to ask: How do burlesque artists perform and (re)perform gender, sexuality, and race? To unpack this question, I first look at historical (re)presentations of burlesque performance and music. After this historical section, I read key scenes from classic era films featuring burlesque music and performance, using semiotics to argue that these performances can be read as an extension of blackface minstrelsy. I discuss how certain jazz-influenced musical devices - horn smears, belting or "loud" singing, angular or jerky dancing - primarily functioned to signal "black"-ness, sex, and modernity to the intended White audience/spectator. In the next chapter, I examine the extent to which neo-burlesque could be considered a queering of burlesque by doing close readings of contemporary burlesque performances. From here, I look more critically at how racial and genre boundaries are created and maintained within contemporary burlesque, resulting in a new burlesque normativity. Finally, I highlight the work being done by burlesque performers of color who work within and against burlesque's dominant ideologies, subverting racist representations of people of color through mimetic resistance.Item Callisto(2012-05) Corry, Sara Jessica; Welcher, Dan; Sharlat, YevgeniyCallisto or Jupiter IV is one of 66 moons of the planet Jupiter. Discovered by Galileo Galilei in 1610, it is the third-largest moon in the Solar System. It is thought that Callisto’s surface has evolved primarily through violent impacts; its ancient surface is one of the most heavily cratered in the Solar System. The moon was named after Callisto a nymph in Greek mythology. Rumored that she was the daughter of the treacherous Lycaon, king of Arcadia. This piece has two general parallel narratives, one following the harsh creation and development of the physical planet and one that follows the development of Callisto, the nymph, and her father Lycaon. It would be impossible to write music about one of Jupiter’s moons without referencing textural and rhythmic gestures from Gustav Holst’s Jupiter from The Planets, Op. 32.Item Comparing silence with verbal & non-verbal music and irrelevant speech in mathematics assessment(2012-08) Yonnone, Patrick M.; Crawford, Richard H.; Seepersad, CarolynThis study looks at the effects of silence as compared to two different types of music and one type of irrelevant speech to analyze the effects on an assessment of 4 categories of mathematical questions. The hypothesis tested was that students would perform best when subject to no distraction (silence), followed closely by non-verbal music (dubstep), while verbal music (Rap) and irrelevant self-speech (repeating the word ‘za’) would result in a decrease in performance. The hypothesis was not found to be statistically significant, but a general trend supporting the hypothesis was present and found to be consistent with similar research.Item Comparison of elementary education and music education majors’ efficacy beliefs in teaching music(Texas Tech University, 2008-08) Buckner, Jeremy J.; Killian, Janice; Wood, Bruce; Hughes, Thomas; Fehr, Dennis; Boye, AllisonThe purpose of this study was to compare elementary education and music education majors’ perceived efficacy beliefs in teaching music to determine what factor(s) contribute to these beliefs and to examine possible changes in self-efficacy after elementary education majors complete a course in music teaching methods. Participants (N=193) were elementary education majors (n=113) enrolled in a music methods course as part of their university certification program and music education majors (n=80) comprised of two groups. Data was collected through three surveys created for this study: the Music Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument, the Music Teacher Confidence Scale, and the Music Experience Survey. Results of this study indicated that music education majors’ expressed statistically significant higher degrees of confidence for making music (singing and playing an instrument) and teaching music; however, elementary education majors’ responses indicated higher confidence to integrate music with other curricular subjects. Further, elementary education majors’ responses indicated an increase in confidence to teach music after participation in a music methods course. Furthermore, results of the study indicated that personal music teaching efficacy and music teaching are two possible factors that contribute to elementary education and music education majors’ efficacy beliefs in teaching music.Item Comrades(2013-12) Hayman, Jeffrey P.; Welcher, DanComrades was inspired by Milan Kundera’s first novel, The Joke. The music initially set out to depict four characters from The Joke and their distinct personalities, with each movement individually depicting a specific character. As the piece was being composed, it gradually began to distance itself form the novel, and in its final state, exists independently of any association with the novel, instead depicting four unspecified characters from an unwritten story who relate in non-programmatic ways. Regardless of its removed association with Milan Kundera’s novel, the orchestration of Comrades was chosen based on a Moravian folk music ensemble in which the characters within the novel performed. In an effort to remain loyal to its conception, the piece attempts to use European folk influence to generate much of its musical material.Item Concatenating sound and action(Texas Tech University, 1990-05) Kristiansen, Michael PhillipNot availableItem Considerations for creative commons : an examination for motivations of adoption or non-adoption of creative commons licenses(2011-05) Gloria, Marie Joan Tanedo; Stein, Laura Lynn, 1965-; Tyler, KathleenThis paper proposes an examination of Creative Commons (CC) licensing and considerations for adoption or non adoption among musicians. According to the Creative Commons Web site, the licenses were created to work alongside current copyright law allowing rights holders a “some rights reserved” copyright (“What is CC?”, Creative Commons, 2010). However, despite its current uptick in adoption, many remain hesitant and refuse to adopt the licenses to protect their work. Moreover, for those who have adopted the licenses, little is known about why they chose to adopt the licenses. Thus, the study answers the need for further research in understanding why musicians choose to use or not to use CC licenses. The study attempts to answer the following question: What considerations determine whether musicians adopt CC licenses for their work? In the pages that follow, I survey the historic and current position of copyright law. Specifically, the paper begins by problematizing current copyright law by demonstrating its economic and social inefficiencies in light of new advancements in technology. In other words, current copyright favors incumbent cultural industries who demand increased economic incentives at the expense of the public’s right to access these works. Moreover, it favors existing content holders who insist on creating laws that retain maximum control over their property. It then questions whether Creative Commons licenses can successfully reconcile these inefficiencies. Moreover, the overarching goal of this research is to examine the perceived viability of these licenses and to consider whether current advocacy efforts adequately address concerns of potential adopters. It analyze information gathered from multiple in-depth interviews of musicians who have and have not adopted the licenses. It will also examine advocacy efforts. The study hopes to contribute qualitative data that will shape future discussions on copyright, culture and new technologies by considering adequacies and or inadequacies of current licenses & advocacy efforts.Item Defining Nazi film : the film press and the German cinematic project, 1933-1945(2012-05) Le Faucheur, Christelle Georgette; Crew, David F., 1946-; Hake, Sabine, 1956-This dissertation analyses the roles and functions of the German film press during the Third Reich and explores the changes and tensions that characterized German cinema and, by extension, German society during that time period. A close reading of three major publications -- a trade journal, Film-Kurier, a popular magazine, Filmwelt, and the regime's official publication, Der deutsche Film -- first challenges the traditional view of a monolithic, top down control by the Nazi regime. I show the extent and the limits of the regime's utilization of culture and media and demonstrate how different parties used the film press to pursue different, but not mutually exclusive goals. By delineating the film press as a more dynamic public forum than previously assumed, this study secondly informs us about the multifaceted uses and functions of the film publications, and about the changing relationships between the film industry and the regime, as well as the theater, the music, and the press industries. I combine a media specific approach--demonstrating the central role of film publications in articulating the contradictions within film culture--with an exploration of the media convergence in place at the time. I thus firmly position the film press at the nexus of politics, business, film professionals, and the audience, and uncover a lively, albeit restricted, discursive system, with theoretical and practical discussions about film, its achievements under the new regime, its weaknesses and the need for improvement. I focus on the three most discussed issues: the relationship between film and theater, between film and music, and, as a correlation of the two previous topics, the need to train a new generation of film professionals, the Nachwuchs. This dissertation thus traces an important moment in German film history characterized by sustained debates about political, technical, aesthetic, and social aspects of film. More importantly, it uses the film press as a mirror to some of the tensions that characterized German society along several divides such as the masses and the elite, the past and the present, as well as the contradictions in its treatment and representation of gender and sexuality.Item Directing attention in melodic dictation(Texas Tech University, 2007-05) Paney, Andrew S.; Brumfield, Susan; Hazlett, Allan; Killian, Janice; Marks, Jonathan; Santa, MatthewMusic students are generally required to take classes in aural skills. Many begin university theory classes with little or no aural skills training. Instructors are charged with the task of challenging well-prepared students while providing remediation for others. Researchers have isolated four phases involved in taking dictation: hearing, memory, understanding, and notation. Would directing students through those phases help them score better on a dictation assessment? Subjects were music students in their second, third, or fourth level of aural skills training at the time of the experiment. Two matched groups were formed based on subjects’ scores on a dictation of a recorded melody. Subjects in the control group took a second dictation individually. Subjects in the treatment group also took a second individual dictation, but they received instructions before and after each hearing. These instructions directed their attention to basic musical aspects of the recording and asked them to respond to questions regarding those aspects. Dictations were evaluated based on rhythm, pitch, and overall scores. The top and bottom 25% (based on their matching scores) were also compared. In every comparison the control group scored higher than the treatment group. Comparisons of the whole group in rhythm, pitch, and overall scores showed a significant difference in scores favoring the control group. Results suggest that receiving direction during a dictation was not helpful to music students. This may be a result of a disruption of students' established routines. It may also indicate a lack of mastery of the component basic musicianship skills requisite for successful mastery of dictation.Item Effects of choir participation and gender on fifth and sixth graders' attitudes towards music and intentions to enroll in secondary music ensembles(Texas Tech University, 2006-08) Kaufman, Elizabeth D.Research has shown that students involved in music at a young age, with teacher and parental support, have a higher occurrence of participating in music at the secondary level. This research project compares two groups of elementary students (those in choir and those not) to determine whether participation in a choir at a younger age leads to higher participation in secondary music ensembles.Item Effects of observation duration on evaluations of teaching in secondary school band and choir rehearsals(2014-05) Chapman, DaLaine; Duke, Robert A.The purpose of the present study was to determine whether expert evaluators' assessments of teachers vary between observations of rehearsal frames that demonstrate effective student behavior change and observations of full rehearsals. Ten experienced evaluators rated 12 music teachers on 10 criteria. The evaluators first observed brief video recordings of two rehearsal frames (RF) of each teacher and then a recording of a full rehearsal (FV) taught by the same teacher. The evaluators rated the teachers on all 10 criteria following each observation. Evaluators in the present study tended to rate teachers more highly and express greater confidence in their ratings in the FV condition than in the RF condition. These differences indicate that observing brief video episodes of teaching does not lead to the same ratings of teacher effectiveness as does observing video recordings of full rehearsals. The differences between the two conditions were larger in terms of evaluator confidence (29% higher confidence ratings in the FV condition) than in terms of ratings of teacher effectiveness (7% higher ratings in the FV condition). Although all teachers were rated more highly overall in the FV condition than in the RF condition, the differences between the two conditions were small and varied considerably among teachers and among evaluators.Item Examining intramodal sound executions in advertising : the effect of speech and lyrics in advertising on consumer’s attitudes(2015-05) Stewart, Kristin Jehiah; Cunningham, Isabella C. M.; Cicchirillo, Vincent J.Marketers often use inter-modal executions to communicate with consumers about a brand or product (e.g., sight and sound TV commercials or touch, smell and sight magazine advertisements). However, little is known about how messages that uses intra-modal executions, such as audio and audio, affect consumers’ processing and evaluation of the message itself. Across two chapters containing 4 studies, findings demonstrate, when consumers’ processing involvement is low, there is an effect of intra-modal sound executions on consumers’ attention to the music in and advertisement, as well as their subsequent attitudes towards the advertisement. This is explained by dual processing whereby two processing routes of persuasion may be activated. In this study, lyrics appear to increase the salience of the peripheral cue (e.g., music) when involvement (i.e., a proxy for motivation to process) is low. Thus, consumers’ attention towards to the music is increased, which appears to affect more positive attitudes towards the message. Further, because attitudes towards the advertisement can mediate evaluations of the brand/product, the intra-modal integration of lyrics can indirectly influence brand attitudes.Item Exploring the Character of Place in Lubbock through Interviews, Mental Maps, and the Place Histories of Local Musicians(2013-05) Grann, C; Elbow, Gary; Lee, Jeffrey; Tomlinson, Susan L.This research utilizes interviews with local musicians, mental maps collected from them, and the words of their music to construct the spatial character of Lubbock, Texas as expressed by its musicians. It answers three questions: Do the methods used answer the following two questions? How do musicians interact with this distinctive cultural and physical environment? To what extent is this an example of Edward Soja’s concept of Thirdspace? The trialectic framework provided by Soja’s theory of Thirdspace recognizes the spatiality of relationships not just between individuals and their landscapes, but individuals within their community. Further, it demonstrates the influence these relationships have on socially constructed space.