The practice strategies that musicians employ can be made more effective by leveraging existing research about memory and learning. Musicians often use strategies that feel intuitive, such as massed practice and rote repetition, but that research has proven ineffective. When they do employ strategies that are effective, such as varied practice and chunking, they often do not understand the reasons why they are effective and therefore cannot use the principles behind effective learning to generate new approaches when faced with an unfamiliar challenge or learning plateau. In this paper, I propose that, through developing knowledge of the research surrounding learning and memory, musicians can acquire insight into the learning process and develop the ability to self-generate effective practice strategies that address issues specific to their own practice. As a result, they can avoid common learning pitfalls and gain greater confidence in their ability to approach learning complicated skills and taking on big projects. This paper examines and distills recent research of effective learning into an in-depth and practical document for use by musicians. Additionally, this document interprets and applies existing research-based learning strategies—such as retrieval practice, spaced repetition, varied practice, interleaved practice, and chunking—to musical practice through the lens of contemporary percussion repertoire. Readers of this work will develop an in-depth understanding of memory and learning and be able to apply that information practically and immediately in their own practice.

Repertoire for solo bassoon is becoming more common as music advances and evolves. There is a vast array of works for solo bassoon; however, only a small percentage of those are by composers from an underrepresented community, with an even smaller percentage written by composers with East Asian or Southeast Asian heritage. Furthermore, these works have little to no high-quality studio recordings. Additionally, these works often include contemporary techniques such as multiphonics, difficult tremolos, flutter tonguing, pitch bends, and glissandi, among others. This adds another layer of inaccessibility for those bassoonists who are unfamiliar with how to perform these techniques and therefore may be afraid to “take the plunge” into contemporary works that utilize them. I have created performance guides for Tilt by Tonia Ko, Legend of the Sea by Xinyan Li, and Jeu des Cinq Éléments II by Tôn-Thât Tiêt, in hopes of promoting and raising the accessibility of works by living composers with East Asian and Southeast Asian backgrounds.

Oxford’s Grove Dictionary of Music describes art song as “song intended for the concert repertory, as opposed to a traditional or popular song,” but despite this broad definition, poetry is the primary text source for art song. Poetry is stereotypically considered more suitable for art song because of its rhythm, meter, and rhyme. However, poems are not the only sources for art songs. Many examples of prose are used in song, such as Libby Larsen’s Try Me, Good King! which sets the last words of the wives of Henry XIII, and Patrice Michaels’ The Long View: A Portrait of Ruth Bader Ginsburg in Nine Songs, which sets texts from Justice Ginsburg’s life. Despite the wealth of potentials texts, there are not many songs set to text from novels. Even setting letters is more common than novel excerpts, including Stacy Garrop’s My Dearest Ruth and Libby Larsen’s Songs from Letters. There may be concerns which prevent text from novels being set to song, for example, the short length of a song may limit its ability to contextualize plot or character relationships. Composers and performers may also face challenges in approaching narration or dialogue from multiple characters to be sung by only one voice. Additionally, prose often contains more filler words and colloquial language. All of these are challenges which must be faced when adapting and performing text from novels. Despite these challenges, using text from novels can be a rewarding experience for musicians and audiences, as they bring to life the drama and emotion of a character. Some authors, such as Jane Austen, use novels to reflect their characters’ worlds as well as their own cultures and societies. Paired with art song, an intimate way of sharing human experiences with audiences, songs with text from novels have the potential to become profound snapshots of a character or author’s world. This paper will discuss art songs with prose text excerpted from novels and will analyze sources of both poetry and prose to determine if there are fundamental textual differences which prevent the performance of songs with text from novels.

The Studio Ghibli animated films have achieved international recognition for their cinematic quality and original soundtracks composed by Joe Hisaishi. The music from these films is so celebrated it is performed by symphony orchestras without the movie animations in concert halls worldwide. Film music originally scored for full-size orchestras can be arranged for smaller chamber ensembles and is a popular genre that makes performing these works more accessible. Arranging and rewriting orchestral reductions are skills collaborative pianists use every day when dealing with concertos or arias, and applying these skills to the music of Hisaishi was the foundation of this research. For this project, I created a medley of musical themes from three Studio Ghibli films: My Neighbor Totoro, Howl’s Moving Castle, and Spirited Away. The medley is written for traditional piano trio: violin, cello, and piano. This paper includes a brief history of the relationship between composer Joe Hisaishi and film director Hayao Miyazaki, one of the founders of Studio Ghibli, and explains the methods of creating this arrangement without access to the original orchestral score. Methods for creating transitions between different film themes, creation of countermelodies, and nuances of voicing are also presented, along with the score of the medley. I hope this project and these methods will inspire other collaborative pianists and musicians to create their own arrangements and medleys.

Music memorization is a very broad topic with many variables, which changes from case to case. This study mentions historical development, benefits of memorizing music, challenges musicians face with music memorization, and current methods and strategies. It summarizes experiments and studies in various fields including visual design, neuroscience, music, and physiology. It aims to help musicians to make a better judgment in the future about whether to memorize a certain piece of music or not, and to provide effective strategies that can be used.

In 2015, the Wu-Tang Clan released a single CD copy of their seventh studio album, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin. Musically, the album was intended to provide “sonic closure,” channeling the style of the group’s early albums. Wu-Tang “Abbot” RZA and affiliate producer Cilvaringz were the only members involved throughout the entire recording and production process. The decision to release only a single copy protested the impoverished musical experience brought on by music’s mass reproducibility and ubiquity–an outcome of data capitalism. While many fans of the group took issue with the method of protest, different media have long affected interactions in the world, and RZA’s and Cilvaringz's claims are not completely unfounded. Research from various fields, including musicology, computer science, and sociology, shows how digitization specifically has changed music consumption through streaming services. By tracing the album from its conceptual origin to its purchase by pharmaceutical CEO Martin Shkreli and current ownership by NFT (nonfungible token) collective PleasrDAO, the album's value is presented through the data capitalist, corporate, and cultural lenses. Drawing on work from KRS-One, Lydia Goehr, and Frantz Fanon shows a dialectical relationship between cultural and corporate values. As a result, artists and listeners are faced with navigating both, even as they are subject to exploitation in the production and consumption of music by neoliberalism and data capitalism. In the end, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin succeeds in starting a debate, but its protest against data capitalism is complicated by its recent NFT status.

This recording project aims to enrich the expanding repertoire of contemporary compositions for the cello, particularly those designed for solo cello. The North Suite consists of three movements: The Crescent Moon at Midnight, Silkroad, and Shaanxi. Each movement represents different regions with its indigenous music style. Composer Yunfei utilizes extended techniques to evoke the nuances of Chinese folk music skillfully transposed onto the cello. The recording project encompasses two primary components: a recording of the work and a comprehensive written document. This document provides readers with a historical overview, contextual background, and in-depth analysis of each movement. In addition, the original score will be included in the end. By undertaking this recording project, I aim to contribute to the contemporary cello repertoire and foster a deeper understanding and appreciation of the cultural diversity inherent in music. Through the fusion of tradition and innovation, I aspire to create an immersive musical experience that resonates with audiences worldwide.

Since at least the Baroque era, all Western classical woodwind instruments have only used Arundo donax for reeds. This preliminary investigation is one of the first inquiries into alternative natural materials for oboe reeds. The first chapter of this document is an overview of what we currently know about the materials used for reeds from the start of historical documentation until today. The second part of this overview surveys double reed instruments outside of Western classical music for reed materials and candidates for oboe reeds. The second chapter is a survey of some plants in the Poaceae familya group of woody grasses and the family Arundo donax is into determine if there are more candidates for oboe reeds. The third chapter consists of Martin Schuring and I making reeds from two experimental materials: Phragmites and Bambusa textilis. Additionally, Dr. Gardner and I conducted a study involving six participants. I processed Phragmites, Arundo donax, and Bambusa textilis into gouged cane and sent the participants three pieces of each material, which were labeled A, B, and C, respectively. The purpose of the study was to test if oboists with diverse backgrounds could scrape the provided cane into a reed that produces a sound on the oboe. The full study responses are in Appendix B. The last chapter of this document is a scope analysis, courtesy of Professor Jeffrey Kleim, of the plant samples I was able to obtain, which includes Phragmites, Bambusa textilis, and a few other plants. Furthermore, Dr. Lindsey Reymore and I tested the Phragmites and Bambusa textilis reeds Martin Schuring and I made by analyzing spectrograms, extracting audio descriptors from MATLAB, and running a few statistical tests to determine any statistically significant differences. Collective results indicate that eight oboists were able to make functional Phragmites and Bambusa textilis reeds, there are many potential candidates, and there were some statistically significant differences in audio descriptors between the Arundo donax, Phragmites, and Bambusa textilis reeds. Since this is preliminary research and no candidates were deemed unsuitable, future and long-term research is required for more thorough and conclusive data collection and analysis.

This project combines a performance recording with musicological research on Louise Farrenc’s four sets of piano études (Op. 26, 41, 42, 50). It highlights the remarkable piano works of the French female composer Louise Farrenc, exploring representative selections from Farrenc’s four progressive sets of educational piano études. I intend to draw attention to these extraordinary compositions and elevate their position in modern-day piano repertoire. These are essential works from the nineteenth-century piano repertoire, which provide significant pedagogical value as they were composed based on Louise Farrenc’s (1804-1875) own teaching experience of pupils. In addition, a growing appreciation for the aesthetic and educational merit of women composers’ compositions is rapidly emerging in contemporary scholarship, while people tended to focus on prominent male composers’ work in the past. This discussion centers around the technical goals of each set, musical expression and interpretation suggestions, and analysis of important influences to create a comprehensive pedagogical guide for performers and teachers. The lack of documentation and analysis of piano compositions by female pianists is a great loss to pedagogy and keyboard literature, and the purpose of this project is to contribute to change in promoting the works of female composers.This pedagogical study is organized into four chapters. Chapter 1 offers a concise biography of composer Louise Farrenc, exploring her personal journey and the artistic landscape that shaped her work. I emphasize the societal expectations on different genders as musicians in the nineteenth century. The first part of Chapter 2 embarks on a chronological development of études, commencing with their seventeenth-century inception and culminating in their peak during the mid-nineteenth century. The second part of Chapter 2 discusses Farrenc’s études and her pedagogical values. Chapters 3 and 4 provide an overview of the relevance and progression between the four sets of études based on form, texture, and technique. Finally, a pedagogical guide to the études demonstrates the recommended teaching processes and goals for each set and the études as a collection.

This paper provides an in-depth examination of Sergei Prokofiev's Second Violin Concerto, Op. 63. Closer study of the full score supports the need for a new piano reduction. Composed in 1935, this concerto occupies an important place within Soviet music, and is a staple in solo violin repertoire. Its orchestration is distinguished by a Neo-classical style with a modern sensibility. A notable aspect of this orchestration is the absence of timpani in the percussion section. Instead, Prokofiev selected snare drum, bass drum, castanets, suspended cymbal, and triangle, which contribute to the unique character of this concerto. Prior to this reduction, pianists faced unplayable and cumbersome passages, a direct result of including too many disparate elements from the orchestration. Additionally in piano reductions to date, there is a conspicuous absence of vital percussive and instrumental parts that are crucial elements of the full orchestral score. These shortcomings not only present considerable challenges to pianists, who are then tasked with further reducing and arranging of the piano part, but also compromise the composer’s intended musical expression. Consequently, this paper advocates for the critical necessity of a new piano reduction of Prokofiev’s Op. 63 Violin Concerto. This new piano reduction rectifies existing deficiencies and discrepancies, thereby enhancing practical playability. Most significantly, this revision offers a more faithful representation of Prokofiev’s original orchestration and artistic vision. Furthermore, it provides insights into the complexities involved in adapting orchestral compositions, underscoring the need for thoughtful reinterpretation in the transcription process. These insights may be applied to other concerto reductions.