Browsing by Subject "Piano"
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Item An alternative class piano approach based on selected Suzuki principles(Texas Tech University, 2000-08) Williams, Marian KayThis study investigates the possibihlity of applying selected Suzuki principles to a class piano curriculum designed for music majors. Beginning students enrolled in a class piano sequence are generally able to master rather quickly the elementary material in the first part of theh textbooks. However, as early as the second semester, many of these students reach a performance plateau that is very difficuh to move beyond. The purpose of this study is three-fold: first, to identify group dynamic influences, teacher responsibilities, current textbook content, and student characteristics that might be possible causes or solutions for the performance ability plateau; second, to explore the Suzuki method as a possible alternative to a traditional note reading presentation; and third, to design a college textbook based upon Suzuki principles. Chapter II of this study presents a review of the related literature to determine what has been written on class piano and if those writings address solutions to the performance ability plateau. Chapter III examines currently published class piano texts. The purpose of the examination is two-fold: first, to understand the focus of each text; and second, to provide a comparison between the textbook presented in this study with those currently on the market. Chapter IV provides an in-depth look at the Suzuki method including a history of the movement and a discussion of the essence of Suzuki teaching principles. Chapter V considers the possibilities of applying principles of the Suzuki method to the teaching of beginning adult piano students. Appendix A provides a teacher's manual for the four semesters of a normal music major class piano sequence. Appendk B is the student text that accompanies the teacher's manual.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 Concerto for piano and wind ensemble(2012-05) Stanton, Zachary Kane, 1983-; Pinkston, Russell; Welcher, Dan; Grantham, Donald; Sharlat, Yevgeniy; O'Hare, ThomasConcerto for Piano and Wind Ensemble is a 16-minute work for piano and winds, brass, and percussion. Although piano is my primary instrument, I have written relatively little for it. With this piece I sought to write a work in the vein of the Romantic and early Twentieth Century piano concerto repertoire, which I listened to and absorbed as a young musician, but with a more contemporary harmonic language. Rather than using the traditional orchestra as the accompanying ensemble, I chose the wind ensemble, which has a limited concerto repertoire, giving me the opportunity to make a meaningful contribution to its literature.Item Encomium(2010-12) Johnston, Bradley Keith; Grantham, Donald, 1947-Encomium celebrates the life and contribution of Pianist and Master Teacher Jane Allen Ritter. She is mine and so many other’s musical mother.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 Outfacing the storm : songs from the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition(2012-08) Wayman, Abraham Mark; Pennycook, Bruce, 1949-Outfacing the Storm is a song cycle that tells the story of the spectacular failure-turned-triumph of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. Led by Sir Ernest Shackleton, the Expedition was an attempt to trek overland across the whole of the Antarctic continent. Shackleton’s ship, the Endurance, launched from England in August of 1914 with twenty-eight men. Within weeks of entering the polar latitudes, ice ensnared the ship. The Endurance remained stuck fast until the spring breakup crushed its hull, and it sank in November of 1915. The crew struck out for civilization, and, after six months and over one thousand miles of travel by foot, by ice-drift, and by lifeboat, they returned home alive. The Expedition’s safe return was heavily credited by its crew to Shackleton himself. A man of intense character, burning passion, and unfailing determination, Shackleton put the needs of his crew ahead of all else. His individual dedication to each member of the voyage was an inspiration to each. Ernest Shackleton, however, was a private man. He hid his own concerns from all except those closest to him. During the Expedition, he feared for the well-being of the crew. In the largest sense, he feared failure. Shackleton was only ever content while at sea. “Sometimes,” he wrote to his wife, “I think I am no good at anything but being away in the wilds… I grow restless and feel any part of youth is slipping away from me and that nothing matters… I feel I am no use to anyone unless I am outfacing the storm in wild lands.” This song cycle tells the tale of the Expedition through Shackleton’s eyes. The cycle is in eleven movements—nine recounting the story, plus a prologue and epilogue. All of the text is Shackleton’s own. The nine middle movements are taken from Shackleton’s memoir about the voyage, South. The prologue and epilogue are taken, respectively, from an interview and the above letter.Item Overuse injuries and piano technique: a biomechanical approach(Texas Tech University, 1998-08) Wristen, Brenda G.Of the total number of musicians seeking medical help each year for injury, over half are pianists. Inappropriate playing technique is a contributing factor to the development of an injury. Pedagogues did not begin to concern themselves with the physiological aspects of piano playing until the twentieth century. Even then, recommendations for building technique were primarily based on the playing techniques of famous performing artists and were often idiosyncratic. These observations are opinion-based and are not applicable to all players; furthermore, in many cases they are biomechanically and ergonomically insupportable. This dissertation is the first study to approach the combined motions comprising specific pianistic tasks from a biomechanical perspective, taking into account environmental, anatomic, and biomechanical constraints. Twentieth-century pedagogical views concerning piano technique are surveyed, and the debate concerning the appropriate use of exercises is explored. The kinesiology of the playing apparatus is detailed. A theoretical biomechanical norm is offered for seven different pianistic tasks: scales, arpeggios, trills, double-third scales, octave scales, broken chords, and broken octaves. Mechanical factors of muscles and tendons and their responses to force application are described. Common sites and types of injuries suffered by pianists are also discussed. Advice for the prevention of keyboard injuries is offered based upon both empirical and quantified data from the medical, biomechanical, and ergononuc sciences. Certain practice habits and movements are identified as having the potential to cause injury. The dissertation culminates with instructions for performing a qualitative biomechanical analysis of a given pianistic task on an individual pianist using checkHsts developed for that purpose.Item Possible Influence of Language on Music and Perfomers:Surveys of Chinese-Speaking Pianists, English-Speaking Pianists and Piano Professors(2011-08) Tsai-Lin, ElizaThis study aimed to contribute to the understanding of the relationship between language and music, a rapidly growing area of inquiry. By way of surveys, I sought to (1) directly gauge the opinions of students whose primary languages are non-Western ones and who are actively engaged in the process of learning appropriate Western musical stylistic expression, and (2) compare these opinions with those of their peers and professors. It was hoped that the initial exploration of opinions and experiences of a limited group of learners with similar backgrounds would serve as an important starting point for further research. The research stemmed from my personal experiences as a foreign-born, Chinese-speaking piano student who once struggled in executing musical phrases in a manner that is acceptable and appropriate according to Western classical standards. The primary demographic in the study was Chinese-speaking students born in Asia, with English-speaking piano students and piano professors as comparison groups. Three surveys were designed to determine whether (1) foreign-born students whose first language is a tonally inflected one like Chinese struggle in learning Western classical repertoire, (2) these challenges are influenced by language differences, (3) these challenges differ from the experiences of native English-speaking pianists, (4) piano professors raised in the West are aware of such challenges in their teaching of native Chinese speakers, and (5) respondents believe the hypothesized relationship between language and music is a fruitful one with pedagogical implications. Responses from 82 professors, 36 Chinese-speaking pianists, and 36 English-speaking students indicate that the majority of participants across the three groups believe that language and music share similar properties and that knowledge of a Western language can benefit one’s performance of Western classical repertoire. However, whereas most professor-respondents believe that language differences might cause obstacles for Chinese-speaking students learning to appropriately phrase Western repertoire, Chinese-speaking students were less likely to admit to experiencing difficulties than their English-speaking counterparts. The results suggest that Chinese-speaking piano students may perceive and process Western music differently than their English-speaking professors and peers. Although further research is needed before generalizing the pedagogical implications of these data, the findings provide evidence that one’s spoken language may play more of an influential role than earlier thought in the learning and performance of music.Item Rasgueado for flute, clarinet in Bb, violin, cello, percussion and piano(2011-12) Barkoskie, Alvez Theodore; Sharlat, Yevgeniy; Welcher, Dan"Rasgueado” is an expansion of a chorale from an earlier work I composed for brass quintet. It is based on a seven measure progression that appears in many several different variations throughout the work. Traditionally, this form is known as a passacaglia, which has origins in Spain and Italy. In Spain, the pasacalle, is a rasgueado, or strummed interlude between dances or the verses of a song. I choose to name this piece “Rasgueado” since parts of the piece are loosely based on the idea of the passacaglia and since the piece opens and closes with the strumming of the cello.Item Real talk(2014-05) Wilcher, Marcus; Mills, John, saxophonist; Hellmer, Jeffrey L.This dissertation is intended as a supportive document for the five-part suite for ten-piece jazz ensemble entitled Real Talk. It is divided into six chapters, four of which are analytical and cover the following topics: Form, Melody, Harmony, and Other Compositional Techniques. Subcategories are used within these chapters to draw attention to specific compositional components relevant to the construction of the piece; illustrative tables and examples have been provided to assist in describing these components. The ultimate purpose of this document is to describe in detail my technical approach to the composition.Item The speaking world, tarab and iPod alchemy : The Sensuous Terrain, for mixed chamber ensemble and percussion(2010-05) Stamps, Jack W.; Sharlat, Yevgeniy; Antokoletz, Elliott; Pinkston, Russell; Grantham, Donald; Perzynski, BogdanThe Sensuous Terrain, a work for violin, clarinet, piano, cello and two percussionists is a 28-30 minute commission for the SOLI Chamber Ensemble of San Antonio. The goal of the work is a hybrid, or reconciliation, of Sufi devotional music and Western, jazz-inspired impulses and continues my interests in weaving pop idioms through a post-modernist canvas. It is also reflective of my ongoing research and exploration of the application of extended graphic design to score mechanics and construction. The work is inspired by the melodic structures, phrasing and voice-exchange concepts found in the music of the late Pakistani composer and singer, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. The preliminary plans for the piece included the piano prepared to mimic the sounds of traditional Middle Eastern percussion instruments such as the dumbek, a tabla-like instrument. This idea quickly evolved into the incorporation of two percussionists whose parts consist of nearly all Middle Eastern instruments or their closest Western equivalents. These percussion parts, which are notated in a purely Western style and evoke many traditional Middle Eastern rhythmic modes, are symbolic of the aforementioned “reconciliation” of the Eastern and Western styles found in the piece.Item The modification of psychophysiological responses to stress in piano performance(Texas Tech University, 1984-12) Whitaker, Charlotte SibleyNOT AVAILABLEItem Treatment of the piano in the orchestral works of Igor Stravinsky(Texas Tech University, 1991-12) Rauscher, James FIgor Stravinsky was one of the first composers to use the pianoforte as an integral member of the symphonic orchestra. The inclusion of piano within the orchestra spans nearly his entire creative output, from L'Oiseau de Feu of 1909 to Requiem Canticles of 1966, in a total of twenty-two separate works. The ways in which Stravinsky treated the piano within the orchestra, and the changes in this treatment which took place during his compositional career, form the basis of this study. Scores of each work were analyzed in terms of Stravinsky's treatment of the piano within the orchestral texture, particularly in regard to the following: doublings with other instruments; octave usage; pianistic effects such as glissandi, trills, arpeggiated figures, alternating hand passages, and tremolos; percussive effects; use of pedals; solo passage work; proportion of piano usage to entire work; and treatment of rhythm in piano usage. A table showing the analysis of each work is given in the Appendix. The discussion of individual works is divided into three chapters dealing with the early, middle, and late compositional periods, respectively. Treatment of the piano in each work is discussed, accompanied by pertinent examples from the score. The last chapter of text contains a summary of the material presented and states conclusions which have been drawn: Stravinsky's earliest uses of the piano in the orchestra were primarily as a soloistic instrument or as a doubling instrument within the context of a huge orchestra, in accordance with his Russian compositional training. As he moved toward a thinner, more contrapuntal style which relied on concertato principles, the role of the piano increased in importance because its percussive and pol5rphonic qualities so closely matched the aesthetic he was working to achieve. Finally, when he turned to serialism in the 1950s, the piano's tone became primary in importance as a distinct color in his textural and tonal spectrum, and its usage primarily as a single line instrument reflected the more pointillistic approach to composition in the final works. Composers, conductors, and pianists in particular will benefit from studying his unique treatment of the piano within the orchestra.