When rock music began to appear on Broadway in the 1960s with Bye Bye Birdie and Hair, it opened up the door for new styles to be notated into musical theater scores. Since then, a wide variety of rock and pop genres have been incorporated into Broadway shows. Musical theater scores are representations of the show structure, and how rhythm and syncopation are notated in musical theater score affects how they are interpreted and performed.The past twenty years have seen a growth in popularity of both revivals and jukebox musicals. A revival is a show that appears on Broadway again after the original production; jukebox musicals take an already produced pop rock album or artist and create a loosely structured narrative around it. By analyzing rhythmic notation and syncopations in revivals and jukebox musicals, this paper demonstrates how popular culture and rhythmic notation interact with each other to create complexity in musical scores and performances. Centering around the musical Godspell as a core example, this paper examines rhythmic notation in pop rock musical theater, investigating how revivals and jukebox musicals can contribute to increased rhythmic complexity in scores. This paper articulates the possibilities of a rhythmic notation system that would simplify the complex and frequent syncopations in pop rock musical scores. Eastman professor David Temperley’s work in rock syncopation and deep structure representation is discussed as it relates to musical theater scores. Expanding on Temperley’s theoretical foundation, the appendices demonstrate a proposed original arrow notation with an original song composed for these research purposes.

In the fast-paced, technology-driven society of today, new demands are placed on artists to re-think how music is presented and communicated to the world. Access to the internet, development of sound manipulation software, and broader means of use and distribution through the digital music industry have drastically shifted the way the twenty-first century artist creates and performs music. One of the most striking changes that occurred is the increased use of visual material as a vehicle to enhance and contribute to the depth and intrigue of live performances and recordings.

This project researches twenty-first century works for clarinet and multimedia that specifically include a visual element (including but not limited to images, fixed and interactive video, light effects, and choreography) and highlights the prevalence of this genre in contemporary repertoire. Discussion begins with a brief overview of the history of multimedia, its relation to the clarinet, and how it has been defined by the twenty-first century. Additionally, in order to contribute to this ever-growing repertoire, three new works for clarinet and multimedia were commissioned in collaboration with composers and visual artists. These new works include: Roadrunner (2019) for clarinet and fixed electronics by Spencer Brand with video by Samuel Proctor; I’d known this place (2020) for clarinet and electronics by Dan Caputo with live audio generative animations by Andrew Robinson; and Spectral Passages (2020) for clarinet and electronics by Alvaro Varas with painting by Miguel Godoy. Background information and performance guides are included for each piece to aid future musicians in performance, as well as respective audio/video recordings. Finally, a significant portion of this document includes a catalog of works for clarinet and multimedia. The catalog was compiled by focusing on the output of twenty-first century composers to serve as a resource for future performers.

This study summarizes survey responses on perceived challenges by conductors who a) identify as female, b) are not citizens of the United States, c) are currently living in the United States, and d) are working in professional positions in the field of orchestral conducting. The goal of the survey was to query the concept of “double minority” (female and non-native to the United States) and to gain insight into the conductors’ self-perceptions and perceived challenges they encounter during their employment and career advancement in the United States.

The survey covered four main areas: educational background, immigration status, the employing orchestra or organization’s budget, and conductors’ challenges and perceptions. Considering the sensitivity of the topic and following best practices of human subjects’ research, participant identities were coded with letters.

Participants expressed more certainty about the issues and challenges concerning how they were perceived as females than as immigrants. There was insufficient data to correlate the budget of the orchestra with the willingness of the institution to be a visa sponsor.

This study’s findings suggest that there are areas that should be further explored such as: the effect a conductor’s nationality has on their career and reception in the United States; how potential motherhood affects the conductors’ careers; organizations’ willingness and ability to hire immigrants, offer sponsorship, and assist the artist in the transition out of the student visa status; and the perceptions and experiences of being an immigrant conductor in the United States.

In an effort to provide greater representation to Latin American musicians, this recording and performance guide provides commentary on three works for clarinet by composers of Mexican ethnicity, commissioned and recorded by the author. The works presented are scored for solo clarinet, clarinet & piano, and clarinet, cello, & piano.

Each piece seeks to communicate and explore current sociopolitical issues related to Mexico, and, like this project as a whole, derive their inspiration from La Onda, a multidisciplinary artistic movement in Mexico, translating as the “wave,” “sound wave,” or “the force” that emerged as part of the 1960s and 1970s North American counterculture. La Onda music emerged as a reflection and consequence of marginalized experiences living in the United States, and is representative of ways the broader public and Latinos have claimed music as their own. As music has historically provided an arena for exploring gender, class, sexuality, and race politics for minority communities, specifically Mexicans in the United States and abroad, music continues to afford a mechanism for communicating the counterfactual in the present day. In this context, this guide synthesizes a broader collaboration with composers to create new, narrative-based repertoire that provides accessibility, greater awareness, and lasting representation to a demographic that has historically been underserved within the classical canon.

The first women who performed in orchestral settings were harpists who were substitute or extra players specifically hired for works requiring harp, such as Gustav Mahler’s symphonies or Maurice Ravel’s La Valse (c. 1919). It was not until flutist Doriot Anthony Dwyer won the principal flute position in the BSO in 1952 that a woman was hired as a principal player of a major US orchestra. Following Dwyer’s lead, more women slowly earned their acceptance in professional orchestras. Focusing on the time period 1920-1950, three of the first pioneers who gained acceptance into American orchestras and were the first female orchestral players were flutists Doriot Anthony Dwyer, Lois Schaefer, and Frances Blaisdell. These women lived extraordinary lives and have inspired many generations of female flutists to continue in their footsteps pursuing their own orchestral and professional solo careers. One significant factor for the eventual increase of female musicians in the modern orchestra was the establishment of blind auditions. A blind audition is where a player performs behind a screen for an audition committee to preserve anonymity. Screens can be made of heavy cloth or a room divider that separates the player from the panel of orchestra members critiquing potential hires. This can often include the music director and other musicians. The screen conceals each player’s identity and allows the panel to focus their listening on how a candidate actually sounds versus how they may look and act while playing. Limiting stimuli to aural perception would help to mitigate bias or prejudice against race, gender, or age through the audition process.

As clarinet students progress in their studies, there comes a point at which many are assigned to perform contemporary repertoire that is either overplayed due to accessibility and use in pedagogy, or includes difficult extended techniques like microtones, multiphonics, and more. This project identifies a “gap” in unaccompanied clarinet repertoire and seeks to expand this repertoire by outlining a program of study featuring five newly commissioned unaccompanied clarinet solos through which students can learn both traditional and untraditional techniques. Each of the first four works focus on one aspect of clarinet technique—musicality, the altissimo register, microtones, and multiphonics, respectively—and the final work is a culmination of all these techniques. Included in this document is biographical information for each composer, program notes, a brief description, and a performance guide for each piece. Additionally, each work was recorded by the author and included with this document.