How do you interpret Heartbreak?: A prototype theory based approach to understanding genre’s effect on musical persona

When developing a performance of a song, many factors are important to keep in mind. One crucial element is the development of a “vocal protagonist,” or persona, which is the projection of the character created through combining text, melody, and accompaniment. This thesis uses how a song relates to others in its genre to inform what persona is projected and how a singer can communicate this persona in performance. I analyze the “heartbroken love song” genre in both opera arias and popular music. This thesis defines genre membership based on Rosch’s prototype theory, which defines examples as prototypical or atypical members based on common features determined by analyzing multiple songs (a corpus study). I determine weighted features such as melodic contour, harmonic composition, timber, and tempo that are necessary to be a prototypical member of the genre. The prototypical and atypical nature of “Ach ich fühl’s” (Di Zauberflöte, Mozart), “Porgi Amor (Le Nozze di Figaro, Mozart), “I Can’t Make You Love Me” (Bonnie Raitt), and “All I Ask” (Adele) will inform performance choices such as vocal timbre, body language, and facial expression that help create a persona that reinforces its typicality regarding category membership

Program notes of graduate recital

Master's Project (M.Mu.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2017This paper discusses the four pieces of the graduate recital of student Evanthia Maniatopoulou; Johann Sebastian Bach's Prelude and Fugue in F minor, Well-Tempered Clavier Book II, BWV 881; Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 30, Op. 109; Frederic Chopin's Scherzo No. 3, Op. 39; and Sergei Prokofiev's Piano Sonata No. 7, Op. 83. It is divided into four chapters, with one chapter dedicated to each piece. In each chapter there is a discussion about the composer's background, then some comments about his compositional style in general, then some information about the genre in which every piece falls into, and finally a brief analysis and discussion about the specific piece that was in the graduate recital.Chapter 1. Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) -- Chapter 2. Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) -- Chapter 3. Frederic Chopin (1810-1849) -- Chapter 4. Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) -- Bibliography

The virtual observing agent in music: a theory of agential perspective as implied by indexical gesture

The human body is inseparable from our understanding of music. Through embodied cognition, listeners conceptualize music as performed action. We find evidence of this in our most fundamental musical language. “High” pitches resonate high in a singer’s head, while “fast” rhythms resemble fast bodily movement. Scholars have followed the entailments of these metaphors in recent decades, developing theories of bodily gesture (Hatten 2004, Lidov 2005) and physical mimesis (Cox 2011). These hold that the bodily movement that we hear in music can imitate the physical gestures that we use in everyday communication (e.g., waving, nodding, bowing, or sighing). This has its own entailments; most fundamentally, it implies the presence of a virtual, human-like agent within music that is similar to the “virtual persona” theorized by Edward T. Cone (1974). In other words, in perceiving musical sounds as imitative of physical movement and gesture, we infer the presence of a virtual agent who enacts them. This dissertation extends these theories, demonstrating that musical gestures can be mimetic of indexical somatic movements—that is, bodily movements of pointing, looking, striving, and reaching. These indexical gestures suggest the presence of a virtual observing agent. The virtual observing agent acts a lens through which we, the listener, can experience the interior world (diegesis) of a work. This leads us to embody a single and more individualized perspective on the musical representation. I explore the implications of indexical gesture and perspective with an examination of music from the common practice period. Moreover, I bring the theory of virtual observing agency together with theories of musical narrative and emotion.Musi

Music, Art and Emotion

This book explores the ways in which four visual artists make sense of referentialism and emotion in music. By listening to five art songs by Schubert, Strauss, Fauré and Berlioz they were inspired to create new artworks as a result of their understanding of the meaning of the art songs. This was done without an understanding of the text, and the artists had to rely on referential meaning in music as well as the perceived or evoked emotions elicited by listening to the art songs. The artworks created as a result of this project were exhibited at the Aardklop National Arts Festival, entitled Nagmusiek. This was a multi-modal exhibition featuring music, art and text. This book employs Artistic Research and Phenomenology in order to understand this phenomenon, as I explored the artists’ creative processes, experiences and the tacit knowledge embedded in their artefacts. This book would provide readers access to 20 new artworks, each created as a result of the artists’ interpretation of the meaning they ascribed to art song. Their creative process is also examined and synthesised with existing literature on emotion and referentialism in music

Music as brand, with reference to the film music of John Towner Williams (with particular emphasis on Williams's 'Main Title' for Star Wars)

In contemporary consumer culture, branding is the term given to the creation of an image or text (visual, aural, textural or multi-sensory) intended to represent a commodity or product sold by a producer or service provider. This product’s commercial viability depends largely on the way it is presented (via branding) to its target market. The aim of this research report is to show that music used consciously as a branding medium, with special reference to film music (in its commodified form), has become a brand in itself, as opposed to merely a component of a multi-modal commercial product. Through analyses of a central film music theme from Star Wars: Episode IV, composed by John Williams, I aim to identify what I will term `audio-branding techniques’ within the music, thereby showing how music has come to be regarded as a brand. The audio branding techniques will relate directly to the four levels of analysis that I propose to conduct. The nature of branding implies the presence of three entities in the cultural and commercial `transaction’ that takes place: namely, the service provider (creator), the product (commodity) and the target market (consumer). I intend to argue that, as a result of powerful creative collaborations between John Williams and his various directors (not to mention his own unique talent), this composer’s film music has increasingly become an audio brand which is almost commensurate with the brand status of the film itself. Williams’s ability to create a symbiotic relationship between a music brand and that of a film has set him apart from most other contemporary art and commercial composers. As a result, it is not simply the actors, directors and producers associated with a movie that induce one to buy tickets to see it, but Williams’s independent audio branding style as well. I thus aim to prove that his film music is an audio brand independent of, and yet also allied with, other brands

Music, Art and Emotion

This book explores the ways in which four visual artists make sense of referentialism and emotion in music. By listening to five art songs by Schubert, Strauss, Fauré and Berlioz they were inspired to create new artworks as a result of their understanding of the meaning of the art songs. This was done without an understanding of the text, and the artists had to rely on referential meaning in music as well as the perceived or evoked emotions elicited by listening to the art songs. The artworks created as a result of this project were exhibited at the Aardklop National Arts Festival, entitled Nagmusiek. This was a multi-modal exhibition featuring music, art and text. This book employs Artistic Research and Phenomenology in order to understand this phenomenon, as I explored the artists’ creative processes, experiences and the tacit knowledge embedded in their artefacts. This book would provide readers access to 20 new artworks, each created as a result of the artists’ interpretation of the meaning they ascribed to art song. Their creative process is also examined and synthesised with existing literature on emotion and referentialism in music

Growth Possibilities: Metamorphosis in Vagn Holmboe's Tuba Solos

Danish composer Vagn Holmboe (1909–1996) wrote several pieces featuring the tuba, and his Sonata for Tuba (1985) and Intermezzo Concertante (1986) for tuba and strings are particularly accessible to tuba students, making them an ideal lens for teaching expressive elements. This document provides an in-depth discussion of Holmboe's work and influences in relation to Bela Bartók, Carl Nielsen and Jean Sibelius. Holmboe's use of metamorphosis principle in his compositional process is examined in light of his deep connection to nature and natural processes. A thorough theoretical analysis of the Sonata and Intermezzo Concertante incorporating metamorphic influences shows how small motivic ideas generate the larger architecture of the works. Holmboe's own writings on the role of the composer and performer are discussed and applied to potential interpretive choices on the part of performers. The document provides a comprehensive view of these works in the context of twentieth century Nordic art music and their relevance to students, teachers and performers

A test of performance to ascertain whether elementary classroom teachers have the basic skills for carrying on a successful classroom music program

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit

Falstaff and Rodion: Programmatic Compositional Study of Two Characters of Fiction

The goal of this thesis is to explore specific aspects of creativity from the point of view of the composer. I have found, in looking back over twenty-plus years of writing music, that I have had a tendency to gravitate towards attempting to represent or pay tribute to real people and places from my life experience using an impressionistic compositional approach. While using a singular approach can lead to an extensive exploration of a discipline and lead to a recognizable and, therefore, marketable style by which a composer becomes known, I felt that a journey into a different concept could help broaden my own creative perspective. To that end, this thesis involves the composition of two pieces using a programmatic approach intended to represent the narrative arc of two fictional characters from Dostoevsky's Rodion Raskolnikov and Shakespeare's Sir John Falstaff. To embody someone who only exists in the imagination of his own creator, I feel that using a programmatic approach works better in bringing out the subject