I have always aspired to compose a large-scale orchestral piece which would be more than 5 minutes in length, rich in harmony and colorfully orchestrated. Impressionism and music for Hollywood films have influenced my music style. I have tried to emulate the harmony, textures and melody development. In preparation for this project, and I analyzed La Mer, and the orchestral arrangement of Image by Debussy, The Planets by Gustav Holst, and a number of works by John Williams. Carnival Chaos by my advisor, Dr. Christopher Norby, in particular, inspired me. The culmination of my own efforts is Final Journey, a 9-minute work for full orchestra. I endeavored to mimic Debussy’s colors. The main theme mm. 1-5, is built on a non-functional major-minor seventh chord that creates tension through raised and lowered pitches. The treble woodwind sections follow with dramatic dynamic changes that contrast with the earlier melody. Echoes of this tune can be found throughout the piece, for instance in mm. 61-77 and 169-176. The whole tone scale perfectly creates a mysterious and vague soundscape. The interaction between parts in the woodwind sections at mm. 43-60 and 107-121 are reminiscent of Hollywood-style orchestral techniques. The process of creation is also a process of learning. I believe I finally achieved my original goals. These valuable experiences will be the basis as I continue my career.

There are as many different approaches to artistic collaboration theory as there are authors who have created them. This paper postulates that collaboration is a stage of the artistic co-creative group-work process. Theories of collaboration were examined to isolate verbiage used in various attempted definitions of artistic collaboration. Two theories were selected to serve as a joint model for the creation and maintenance of a collaboration stage during the artistic co-creative group-work process including a derived series of conditions required for a co-creative initial stage to qualify as collaboration. Those conditions were then applied to five collaborative situations to determine if each situation had established a collaboration stage, how that establishment occurred, if that collaborative atmosphere was maintained over the life of the co-creative process, how the presentational outcome of the group-work was affected by the presence or lack of a collaboration stage, and finally this collaborator’s general reactions to the process.

Forget You’re Female focuses on stories of women pursuing engineering degrees and women in the field of engineering. The main character, Samantha (Sam), comes from a family of engineers and is unsure whether she wants to study engineering in college. In Opening-Decision, a university admissions counselor insists that Sam enters the engineering program. Sam expresses excitement for the degree in Engineer. However, she faces discrimination and microaggressions in First Class and Peers. These experiences lead her to seek a professor’s advice in Forget You’re Female. Jack’s Song explores the moment when a male student discovers overt sexism in a public part of the engineering building. Finally, in Graduation, Sam completes the degree and reflects on her experiences and potential longevity in the engineering field. There are some staging instructions written into the score, however, lighting instructions are the only required element. Extras and props are optional but help convey the scene of each song. Projecting relevant footage or written descriptors is recommended in place of extras and props. If no extras are available, then spoken lines (male) need to be recorded and played back as indicated in the score.

The purpose of this research is to uncover connections between Chinese composer Shande Ding and Western composers, as found in the development of Ding’s compositional style.

Ding’s solo piano pieces are representative of his overall stylistic tendencies. As an innovative composer, Ding’s experiments in combining various and bold musical materials with Chinese traditional styles became the model for contemporary Chinese composers and those of the next generation.

There is little research, and few recordings of Ding’s work available in the United States. Most of the research remains in China, including his biography, styles, the analyses of specific pieces, etc. To date, Yuefang Liu has contributed the only dissertation on the merging of Eastern and Western Music Cultures that mentions Shande Ding, and it cites only Ding’s early piano works. Some articles have suggested that Ding may have been influenced by western composers, but there is no actual exploration of the proposition. This paper will offer some pedagogical suggestions by dividing Ding’s solo piano works into different levels of difficulty, along with tips on performance and teaching approaches. Both the connection between piano works of Western composers and Shande Ding, and Ding’s resultant compositional style, will be explored. It is hoped that the project will expand further interest in Ding’s solo piano works.

This research will explore the compositional approaches of Henry Cowell and John Cage to reveal piano techniques for the practice and performance of selected works. The discussion will focus on Henry Cowell’s Three Irish Legends and Six Ings, as well as John Cage’s The Perilous Night. An important contribution of Cowell was to further the use of tone clusters, applied in his Three Irish Legends by playing directly with the forearm, fists, and palm. Cowell’s Six Ings employ rhythmic experimentation, particularly in the first, second, and sixth pieces. He also uses tone color to portray specific programmatic features. John Cage greatly advanced the prepared piano from its earliest beginnings, as evidenced significantly in The Perilous Night. The present study will include advice on piano preparation, along with performance challenges and solutions.

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.