Browsing by Subject "Music composition"
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Item Borderlands : an electroacoustic environment experience(2010-12) Sibicky, Nicholas Alexander, 1983-; Pinkston, Russell; Grantham, Donald J; Pennycook, Bruce W; Sharlat, Yevgeniy; Pierson, BurtonBorderlands is a new musical work for violin, clarinet, cello, piano and laptop. Above all else, it is a musical story portraying the travels of four instrumentalists in a strange new world. Each performer is routed via microphone into the laptop, which performs a variety of real-time audio processing manipulations. This electroacoustic work is reflective of my ongoing research in music interpreted as an environment. There are three main aspects to this dissertation. The first aspect is the laptop software (programmed in Supercollider) that is largely responsible for providing the electroacoustic elements during the course of the work. The second (and largest) aspect is the music that utilized this software to create the environmental experience. The last aspect is the text of the dissertation itself, which analyzes and philosophically explains the inner workings of the first two aspects.Item A child's life (symphony for band)(2011-05) Schmitz, Christopher A.; Grantham, Donald; Pennycook, Bruce; Sharlat, Yevgeniy; Almen, Byron; O'Hare, ThomasA Child's life (symphony for band) is a work for concert band in three contrasting movements. It is programmatic and the movements are compositionally linked by a network of motives and a large-scale tonal plan. The piece gravitates around the pitch center C, branching out symmetrically within each movement to explore neighboring key areas. Though tonal, the piece incorporates much chromaticism and features techniques of contemporary and jazz composition. The total performance duration is approximately 22 minutes.Item Concerto for orchestra(2011-05) Passos, Luís Otávio Teixeira; Grantham, Donald, 1947-; Pinkston, Russell; Pennycook, Bruce; Drott, Eric; Lara, FernandoConcerto for orchestra is a twenty-minute work for large orchestra. It was conceived from my personal interest in creating a musical narrative that could create different moods, colors, contrast, agreement, tension, and resolution. I had a major influence from Ligeti’s Double Concerto regarding pitch, mood and form organization. I used his technique of interval signal to differentiate different sections of a movement as well as chromatic balance─the alternation of diatonic scales related chromatically. I also had influences from Mahler, Debussy, Nancarrow, and from my own work. The narrative of my Concerto is based on Ligeti’s notion of states, events and transformations. My Concerto presents states that are transformed into new states. The piece is divided in four movements: Lights, Convergences, Lights II, Convergences II. The Lights movements favor delicate texture, based on a major melodic line and a subtle accompaniment. They also give prominence to solo sections. Convergences favors the idea of dialogue, multitudinousness, contrast, and dense textures. Convergences II emphasizes the tutti versus solo and ritornello form from Baroque concertos.Item Fantasia in f-minor(2011-05) Menefield, William Owen; Grantham, Donald; Pinkston, Russel; Sharlat, Yevegeniy; Mills, John; Foster, KevinThis dissertation is a fantasia in f-minor for piano and orchestra. The accompanying treatise is an analysis of the piece, which discusses the composer’s influence and inspiration, as well as issues of form, melody, harmony, and various other compositional elements. The purpose of the analysis is to provide the listener/reader with the necessary background to truly understand and appreciate the eclectic nature of the work, which has elements from several different musical genres, including classical, jazz, gospel, R & B, funk, and hip hop.Item Hearing voices(2011-05) Gradone, James Pierce; Welcher, Dan; Pinkston, RussellHearing Vvices is a four-movement instrumental work for clarinet, violin, cello and piano. The title is a reference to both the formal structure and surface features of the music. Structurally, the piece resembles a rhetorical struggle between two distinct musical personalities: the serious and the light. In each movement and across movements, this juxtaposition is evident through sudden changes in tempo, mood, and musical character. In terms of surface features, the trajectory of the piece is best described as the eventual emergence of melody from a dense web of counterpoint and rhythm where, over the course of the movements, small melodic fragments are presented and quickly swallowed up by the surrounding texture. This changes in the final movement, where three of the four instruments join in a soaring melody over a troubled accompaniment, thus illustrating the apotheosis of the preceding musical struggle.Item How about here(2012-08) Shank, Joshua, 1980-; Pennycook, Bruce, 1949-The material for this piece is all based around immutable musical objects and how they interact with one another. The opening movement takes various ostinato patterns and has them combine with different bass notes. The second movement attempts to merge three melodic fragments with three different chords and the final movement is a sequence of unchanging passacaglias which overflow into an ecstatic conclusion. The whole thing reminded me of someone rearranging furniture in a room; the actual pieces don't change but, rather, combine in different ways to make something pleasing. Hence, the title: "How About Here."Item Just lucky(2011-05) Mino, Diana; Pinkston, Russell; Welcher, DanielJust lucky is a chamber work for three singers, three percussionists and saxophone quartet. It is a setting of a poem of the same name by David Bush.Item Manifold facing west(2011-05) Lobel, Herbert Hugh; Welcher, Dan; Pinkston, RussellManifold facing west is a cumulative work. As my master's thesis, it acts as an accumulation of knowledge gained during my time at the University of Texas. As a student of Dan Welcher, it acts as the culmination of my time with him and the focus we took on writing for orchestra. This is my first work for full orchestra, but it comes after a smaller work for orchestra which itself came after a work for string orchestra. In this way too the work is cumulative. Musically, there are key points in the form where a climax is built through the accumulation of figures. Manifold facing west is a story about an artist (myself) who daydreams about moving west, and the adventure of beginning a new life. In the first section (Anthypnic sensations), the artist sees in his mind an idea of what might happen in the years ahead. The artist sees all the slight variations on what events might unfold. At what's called the Borderland state, where the waking mind begins to fall into sleep, the visions become overwhelming and even terrifying. The second section begins in a R.E.M. cycle, where the artist has unknowingly engaged in a great exciting dream. Here the simple thoughts of what may come have been turned into a full blown adventure, with wonders and beauty and danger. Ultimately the energy and excitement the artist is feeling causes the dream to get out of hand. The artist struggles to wake himself up, but is pulled back into his dream. The artist is pulled back several times until, gasping, he finally breaks the spell of his dreams and emerges into a state of calm awareness.Item Music for brass quintet(2007-08) Honstein, Robert; Pinkston, RussellMy thesis composition "Music for Brass Quintet" is a two-movement work of approximately ten minutes in length. The first movement begins with the most elemental of gestures; two notes F and G, some long, suggesting the fragments of an as yet unformed melody, and some short, rapidly repeated with a manic insistence. As the opening ideas are passed between the five instruments, the texture gradually becomes a swirl of activity. Moving through a series of harmonic areas, the music eventually reaches something of an arrival point upon which the dense polyphonic texture instantly switches to a kind of stop-time chorus where tutti articulations of harmonies are immediately followed by solo statements from various members of the quintet. After four iterations of the chord/solo sequence, the Trombone begins a triplet ostinato, on top of which emerge plaintive thirds in the trumpets. The thirds melody descends through the ostinato and is passed to the Horn and Tuba, who carry the melody into the quintet's low register. This prolonged descent from high to low repeats a number of times, getting a bit higher each time. Finally, after the trumpets can go no higher, and the Horn and Trombone no lower, the ostinato cuts off and the Horn and Tuba sound the outlines of an E major chord, with the Tuba playing the lowest E in its range and the Horn playing a G# a 10th above. The second movement begins with a rapid, breathless type of gesture, which is quickly followed by a sad and pathetic melody in Eb. The sad sack melody and the breathless gesture are interwoven over the course of the next minute, before an extended transition begins, using the tail end of the breathless gesture to propel the music into unexpectedly exuberant territory. From this transition emerges a brief statement of a kind of wild dance rhythm after which the music makes an abrupt shift to drunk tavern music. This music is the lazy drunk theme. For the next three minutes or so the lazy drunk music unfolds amidst a series of increasingly ill-tempered interjections from the wild drunk bar peoples. Eventually the wild drunks overcome the carefree lazy drunk and plunge the music into an uncontrollable, bacchanalian, orgy of sound. After the drunks have spent their booze-fueled outburst, a brief coda reiterates part of the sad sack theme, with occasional echoes of the wild drunk music.Item A musical analysis of The abyss suite, a three-movement work for jazz orchestra(2011-05) Wilcher, Marcus; Mills, John Russell, 1953-; Hellmer, Jeff; Fremgen, JohnThis treatise, A musical analysis of The abyss suite, examines the musical underpinnings of an original three-movement work for jazz orchestra. Each movement musically represents a certain period of time occurring over the course of an emotional ordeal in my life. Through the incorporation and manipulation of certain musical elements--form, melody, harmony, and other compositional devices--this piece serves as a wordless narrative of that ordeal. The analysis will address each of these elements in turn.Item The sound ascending(2011-05) Brown, David Asher; Welcher, Dan; Rowley, RickThe sound ascending is a musical theater work for two actors, four singers and piano. This project was a collaboration with playwright, Jason Tremblay. The story is a loose adaptation of Orpheus descending, by Tennessee Williams. Displaced from the rural, American South, most of our story takes place in Mazer, Afghanistan. Jason and I attempted to create an untraditional model. The work lies somewhere between a musical, oratorio and a song cycle. We both walked away with mixed feelings about the success of the work, following a preliminary premiere. I believe that the work is successful in its drama and storytelling. But in such a confined presentation, the work needs more diversity of material and character strength. Although complete for now, Jason and I plan on revising The sound ascending in the coming year. Most significantly, this project has been a learning experience. We both take away valuable lessons about writing and collaboration.