Convergence Lines: A Musical Distillation of Thomas Pynchon’s V.

This dissertation consists of two parts: Convergence Lines, my twenty-four-minute composition for ten instruments and electronics, and this subsidiary essay. Convergence Lines was written in 2013 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the publication of Thomas Pynchon’s V. At the center of this discussion is my creative process in imagining a musical corollary to Pynchon’s fictional world: his large cast of vivid characters, far-flung settings, and disjointed sense of time. I also detail my attempt to fashion a formal parallel to the novel’s unorthodox structure of two independent strands of narrative that converge towards the end. I discuss the role of allusion in Pynchon’s work and in my own, and the various points of reference the music is meant to invoke. A second important topic is the role of electronics in the composition, presenting both a technical analysis of the tools employed and an aesthetic perspective, considering how the intrusion of non-acoustic sounds mirrors a central theme of V.: the gradual replacement of the animate by the inanimate. The thesis endeavors to explain from a composer’s perspective, and in an integrated, organic manner, the poetic, musical, and technical aspects behind my work

The optimisation of brass instruments to include wall vibration effects

This thesis focuses on the design optimisation of a brass instrument. The bore profile of such an instrument is known to be the primary influence on the sound of the instrument as it directly controls the shape of the air-column contained within the instruments' walls. It has long been claimed, however, that other factors, such as the wall material and wall vibrations, are also significant, although to a lesser degree. In recent years, it has been proven that wall vibrations do indeed have an audible effect on the sound (Moore et al 2005, Kausel et al 2007, Nachtmann et al 2007, Kausel, Zietlow and Moore 2010). This effect corresponds to a relative increase in the power of upper harmonics of the sound spectrum when vibrations are greatest, and relative increase in the power of the lower harmonics, in particular the fundamental, when vibrations are at their least. The result is a timbral difference where a greater relative power in the upper harmonics results in a 'brighter' sound, and where the opposite results in a 'darker' sound. Studies have also found that the degree of the wall vibration is increased when the resonant frequencies of the air-column and those of the instruments' structure align. It is this principle that this work is based on. The primary objective of this work was to devise a suitable approach for incorporating the wall vibration effect into an optimisation method to investigate the optimum designs for two scenarios: maximum wall vibration and minimum wall vibration. It was also of interest to investigate if there were any design characteristics for each scenario. Two analysis methods were investigated for their suitability, namely free and forced vibration using finite element analysis (FEA). Different approaches to defining the design variables were explored and the suitability of different optimisation algorithms was investigated. The free vibration approach was found to be inadequate for this application due to the inherent omission of valuable magnitude information. The forced vibration approach was found to be more successful, although it was not possible to align a resonance with each frequency of interest

Theatre. Cinema. Music

Даний посібник призначено для занять з усної практики студентів старших курсів факультету іноземних мов вищих навчальних закладів. Матеріали організовано згідно з вимогами навчальної програми для гуманітарних спеціальностей на сучасному етапі. Головною метою навчально-методичного посібника є розвиток навичок усної комунікації студентів через розширення словникового запасу, вдосконалення мовленнєвої граматики монологу та діалогу, набуття компетентного застосування мовленнєвих стратегій та тактик у скопусі тем «Theatre», «Cinema», «Music» («Театр», «Кіно», «Музика»). Навчальні матеріали можна залучати як для аудиторної, так і для самостійної роботи, в тому числі у заочному та дистанційному навчанні

The Incorporated Hornist: Instruments, Embodiment, and the Performance of Music

Roland Barthes famously described the “grain” as “the body in the voice as it sings, the hand as it writes, the limb as it performs.” Stated simply, this project asks What is the body in the horn as it sounds? Instrumentality is typically understood as extension and expression beyond the boundaries of the body; brass instrument musicking, however, begins not where the sound emerges from the bell, but at the very least at the meeting point of the player’s breath, the surfaces of the body, and the tube of the instrument. This project of instrumental incorporation understands music as a place where bodies technological and corporeal, real and conjectural meet. Using perspectives from critical organology, embodiment, disability studies, voice studies, and performance-based approaches, I examine the technologies and techniques of bodies and instruments in four case studies in the hornist\u27s repertoire: Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony; Brahms’s Trio for Piano, Violin, and Waldhorn; Messiaen’s “Appel interstellaire”; and Ligeti’s Trio. I propose that the sounding of this repertoire be understood as composing and re-composing intercorporeal encounters and articulations, weaving polyphonic connections between instrumental and bodily techniques and technologies, and revealing multiple and contingent voices at work when we make music

Little Village August 15 - September 4, 2018

https://ir.uiowa.edu/littlevillage/1248/thumbnail.jp

Missed cues: music in the American spoken theater c. 1935-1960

The period from the end of World War I through the 1950s has been called “the Golden Age of Drama on Broadway.” Subsumed within this period is another sort of golden age, of music in the American spoken theater, Broadway and beyond, c. 1935-60. Unlike more familiar, and better-studied, genres of dramatic music such as opera, ballet, and the Broadway-style musical, music composed for spoken dramas is neither a definitive part of the dramatic form nor integral to the work’s original conception. Rather, it is added in production, like sets, costumes, and lighting. This study traces the roots of this rich period of spoken-dramatic music to the collaboration of producer John Houseman, director Orson Welles, and composer Virgil Thomson on the Federal Theatre Project, beginning in 1936. The musical ramifications of that collaboration eventually extended to include composers Paul Bowles and Marc Blitzstein, influential theater companies such as the Theatre Guild and Group Theatre, innovative directors such as Elia Kazan and Margo Jones, and major playwrights such as Lillian Hellman and Tennessee Williams. Following a consideration of the forces that gave rise to this musically rich nexus and the people, materials, and practices involved, three high-profile theatrical collaborations are examined, along with three scores that resulted from them: Thomson’s score for Houseman’s 1957 “Wild West” Much Ado About Nothing; Blitzstein’s score for Welles and the Mercury Theatre’s 1937-38 “anti-Fascist” Julius Caesar; and Bowles’s score for the original production of Williams’s The Glass Menagerie (1944-45). Each score is located within the musico-dramatic history that produced it, and analyzed within the context of the production for which it was written. This work aims to begin to recover a vast body of forgotten American dramatic music, to limn the role of the spoken theater in the careers of these three noteworthy American musical artists, to probe a busy intersection of high and commercial art forms, and to suggest music’s important role in the development of the American spoken theater

Hancock County Cultural Directory

https://digitalmaine.com/cultural_directories/1003/thumbnail.jp

Designing and Composing for Interdependent Collaborative Performance with Physics-Based Virtual Instruments

Interdependent collaboration is a system of live musical performance in which performers can directly manipulate each other’s musical outcomes. While most collaborative musical systems implement electronic communication channels between players that allow for parameter mappings, remote transmissions of actions and intentions, or exchanges of musical fragments, they interrupt the energy continuum between gesture and sound, breaking our cognitive representation of gesture to sound dynamics. Physics-based virtual instruments allow for acoustically and physically plausible behaviors that are related to (and can be extended beyond) our experience of the physical world. They inherently maintain and respect a representation of the gesture to sound energy continuum. This research explores the design and implementation of custom physics-based virtual instruments for realtime interdependent collaborative performance. It leverages the inherently physically plausible behaviors of physics-based models to create dynamic, nuanced, and expressive interconnections between performers. Design considerations, criteria, and frameworks are distilled from the literature in order to develop three new physics-based virtual instruments and associated compositions intended for dissemination and live performance by the electronic music and instrumental music communities. Conceptual, technical, and artistic details and challenges are described, and reflections and evaluations by the composer-designer and performers are documented

Seeing (for) Miles: Jazz, Race, and Objects of Performance

Using jazz trumpeter Miles Davis (1926-1991) as its primary example, Seeing (for) Miles attempts to build on a growing discourse related to the intersection of jazz, race, and visual / material culture that has heretofore largely ignored the role of consumption. Davis\u27 numerous decisions to spend money on expensive things and/or have them custom made, insisting these things be seen by others, and overseeing his image in advertisements are a reminder that famous musicians often found themselves straddling the line between being consumers and objects of consumption. Following Davis on both sides of that line also necessitates following him on and off the stage, in the eye of his fans as well as the general public. Each of the chapters of this dissertation seek to understand how Davis negotiated this variety of viewpoints as a musician, consumer, and African American via his colored trumpets, tailored suits, sports cars, an expensive home, and instrument advertisements.;The decisions Davis and others made with regard to their positions as consumers and African Americans reflected back on a longer history of black interaction with the marketplace while positioning themselves within existing debates concerning racial equality, jazz\u27s status as high art, and the merits of capitalism as a catalyst for democracy. at the same time, their careers as public performers, status as celebrities, and the increasing presence of the visual mass media ensured that their consumer-related decisions reached bigger and wider audiences than ever before. In such a context, the marketplace can be understood as having constituted a unique venue in which black jazz musicians performed a variety of roles relative to their musical and racial identities. Understanding the ways Davis and others negotiated this process allows us to shed light on a relatively unexplored aspect of jazz culture while also suggesting ways in which racial and musical identities continue to be impacted by visual / material culture in modern society

Pitch resources for new music: an integrated approach to instrument development and composition

This book explores microtonality, specifically the use of microdiscrete intervals and sliding pitch, in new music. It presents a newly designed microtonal percussion instrument (the conic bellophone), a portfolio of inextricably associated compositions, in score and recordings, and a video recording illustrating the technique of the instrument. The question whether an instrument must exist in order for music to be composed for it is addressed by means of experimental composition for the bellophone. Analysis and comparison of the work of Julian Carrillo and Harry Partch, twentieth century composers deeply involved in microtonality, sliding pitch, and the development of new and modified instruments, shapes the research method used. A detailed review of the achievements of these composers in creating novel instruments, which informs this comparison, is presented in appendices. Whereas Carrillo and Partch mostly built new instruments before composing for them, this research proposes and applies an instrument-development-led composition strategy, which systematically promotes interaction between design, construction, composition and theory. A tuning system with very small equal steps (allowing for smooth, microdiscrete-sliding pitch -see Glossary- progressions) is chosen for the bellophone. The 96-equal temperament is a practical compromise between infinitely small quantisation of the pitch continuum and the realisation of a playable instrument. The exploration of microdiscrete-sliding pitch, whose innovative use is sought throughout the composition portfolio, is supplied by means of an original development of established microtonal notation. This research evaluates successive prototypes of the bellophone in relation to compositional practice: the playability of short compositions (solo studies) is assessed in relation to built and virtual prototypes of the instrument, and to defined conceptual variants of it. These variants, which exemplify alternative solutions to the aims embodied in each prototype built, inform the progressive development of the bellophone. Several variants of posterior prototypes are considered for compositional use too. A wide range of further newly conceived instruments, including aerophones, chordophones, and idiophones of materials other than metal, generated by further extending application of the instrument design methodology developed, are illustrated and discussed in an appendix. Informed by the composition of several solo studies, a three-movement ensemble work, Seasons, using a finalised form of the bellophone is presented. The research method arrived at, which instigates a system of instrument-development-led compositional theory and practice, is shown to be transferable to musical parameters other than pitch