Doctoral Final Projects--Wind Conducting (DM)

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    DISCREPANCIES IN COMPREHENSION OF TERMINOLOGY USED IN COMMONLY PERFORMED WIND BAND WORKS
    (Indiana University, 2021-07-20) Osarczuk, Jeffrey
    In 2014, the College Band Directors National Association and J.W. Pepper collaborated to create a performance record of all wind band performances at regional and national CBDNA conferences between the years 2008 and 2014. The data on the list was used to determine which pieces of music and which composers were most frequently performed by college wind bands during the seven-year span. For this study, the investigator extracted all terminology from the top 50 most performed works and determined which terminology college-level wind band students were most likely to encounter during their ensemble experiences. A survey of 86 undergraduate and graduate level music majors and non-majors polled participants on their knowledge and ability to perform the 50 most commonly encountered terms on their instruments. Data collected from the survey was used to determine exactly which terms were the most and least problematic. While the most and least problematic terms varied among the three Subgroups (Undergraduate Non-Majors, Undergraduate Music-Majors, and Graduate Music-Majors), all groups struggled with the unique terminology of Percy Grainger. The fact that Percy Grainger’s music was also the most performed by college-level wind bands at CBDNA conferences is a major concern for present day wind bands and suggests that these discrepancies of comprehension amongst wind band musicians with Percy Grainger’s terminology will likely result in reduced musical cohesiveness during the rehearsal process and performance.
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    An updated history of the American School Band Directors Association
    (Indiana University, 2018-07-19) Yahl, Ryan M.
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    Luminosity, concerto for wind orchestra by Joseph Schwanter: musical analysis and cultural context
    (Indiana University, 2017-06-20) Chybowski, Andrew D.
    Joseph Schwantner’s works for winds, brass, and percussion form a unique contribution to wind repertoire. The five compositions written between 1977 and 2014 make extensive use of twentieth-century compositional techniques in a context that resonates with listeners on an emotional level. The early poetry-inspired compositions …and the mountains rising nowhere (1977), From a Dark Millennium (1980), and In evening’s stillness… (1996) are a departure from the exclusively atonal works he had written previously. …and the mountains rising nowhere was Schwantner’s first major composition to blend tonal and atonal procedures in an effort to achieve a more expressive style. His later works for winds, Recoil: for Wind Ensemble (2004) and Luminosity: Concerto for Wind Orchestra (2014), represent a move towards a more efficient use of musical materials. They still utilize atonal elements, but achieve a more tonal sound through techniques such as repetition, s ustained bass notes, and carefully selected pitch class sets. Luminosity, which Schwantner calls his most ambitious work for winds, is also his first multi-movement composition for the medium. Throughout the three movements, highly unified musical materials gradually generate short-term tonal goals. In turn, these intermediate goals progressively achieve clearer statements of the diatonic set-class, culminating in the ultimate goals of a major-mode recapitulation and a major triad. In this process, motivic development and interaction, orchestration development, and especially developments of color and texture work together to advance the musical narrative. This process can be heard as a gradual clarification of tonal material, in a musical expression that is evocative to both the casual listener and the trained specialist. Beginning with the solidification of Schwantner’s mature style in …and the mountains rising nowhere and culminating with the exaltation of tonality in Luminosity: Concerto for Wind Orchestra, these five compositions represent a unique expression of twentieth- and twenty-first century American music. Within this body of works for winds, Schwantner has developed a sensual, intuitively comprehensible genre founded on procedural rigor and structural integration. This doctoral project includes the biographical and compositional background of Joseph Schwantner, an outline of the analytical approach used for this document, a detailed analysis of Luminosity, and an overview of this work in the context of the four preceding wind compositions. In this document, I hope not only to support an artistic and informed performance of Luminosity but also to demonstrate it as a valuable contribution to wind band repertoire, and to modern American art music.
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    Aaron Copland's Music for the theatre: a transcription for wind band
    (2014-07-03) Richardson, Brett
    Aaron Copland’s Music for the Theatre: A Transcription for Wind Band Aaron Copland (1900-1990) can be considered one of the most significant musicians of the twentieth century, as his well-documented contributions as a composer, conductor, and author, are internationally celebrated. While some of his most well-known works were crafted during the late 1930s and 1940s (e.g., El salón México, Quiet City, Fanfare for the Common Man, Lincoln Portrait, Appalachian Spring), it is from an earlier, more developmental period in Copland’s life in which the inspiration for a new transcription for wind band can be found: his Music for the Theatre: Suite in Five Parts for Small Orchestra (1925). Copland’s Music for the Theatre was composed for a small orchestra consisting of woodwinds, brass, percussion, and reduced string section. Composed in five contrasting movements, the work displays a strong American sensibility due to Copland’s use of jazz harmonies, popular sounding themes, and unique choices in orchestration. Consequently, because of the composer’s frequent reliance upon woodwind, brass, and percussion timbres in the original orchestral version, Music for the Theatre possesses great potential as a transcription for wind band. Two main objectives exist within this project: to make available a high-quality wind transcription of a substantial orchestral work and to provide historical and formal information relating to the piece. More specifically, the final project will consist of a transcription of Music for the Theatre for wind band, which will include a transposed score with program notes and a set of transposed parts. Secondly, a prose document complete with historical information, formal and theoretical considerations, and correspondence pertaining to the transcription process will be submitted. viii While many transcriptions of Aaron Copland’s music exist, the earliest known work by the composer transcribed for wind band is El salón México (1935). By completing this transcription, I hope to contribute to the wind band repertoire a piece from Copland’s earlier, more formative compositional style and promote interest in a substantial work by one of America’s most important composers.
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    Robert Russell Bennett's Down to the sea in ships : a performance edition and analysis
    (2012-06-07) Glaser, Kyle R.
    Well-known for his film, television, and the Broadway stage works, Robert Russell Bennett was also a prolific composer for the wind band medium. One of his last large-scale works for band, Down to the Sea in Ships, was released by Warner Brothers Publications in 1969. The work is a five-movement suite drawn from the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) production Project 20, a television documentary series that aired from 1954 to 1973, for which Bennett supplied the musical score. The original set included a condensed score and parts with numerous errors and is currently out of print. The primary purpose of this project is to create a critical edition of Bennett’s Down to the Sea in Ships that includes a new full score and a set of parts free of errors and ambiguous or conflicting information. An anticipated benefit of this new edition will be the reintroduction of Down to the Sea in Ships into the repertoire of concert bands, and a renewed interest in the music of Robert Russell Bennett.