M.M., University of Cincinnati, 2013, College-Conservatory of Music: Music History

With 4'33" John Cage brought silence to the forefront of musical discourse. The avant-garde composer engaged with and promoted “silence” at an unprecedented level, but silence beyond Cage, in my opinion, has not received adequate coverage. This thesis engages in the aesthetics of silence in the twentieth century. Treating silence as a compositional tool and musical style, I examine silence's different manifestations in the instrumental works by Federico Mompou (1893–1987), Chou Wen-Chung (b. 1923), and George Crumb (b. 1929). I begin by defining different manifestations and functions of silence, among which are structural, rhetorical, and metaphorical silences. The remainder of the thesis consists of case studies where I interpret these silences based on the musical, cultural, and biographical contexts. The case studies include Mompou's first collection of Musica callada (1959); Chou's String Quartet No. 1, “Clouds” (1996); and Crumb's Music for a Summer Evening (1974).

Committee: Jeongwon Joe Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Steven Cahn Ph.D. (Committee Member); bruce mcclung Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Music

M.M., University of Cincinnati, 2007, College-Conservatory of Music : Theory

This study investigates ways that transpositional combination (TC) can be used to enhance our understanding of the pitch, form, and extra-musical elements of George Crumb's Vox Balaenae and Lux Aeterna. Through TC, this thesis develops the idea that Crumb's music often contains basic pitch material from which larger sets or collections are generated, and that this process is often allied with other musical elements. Chapter one approaches Vox Balaenae through a perspective that appreciates how small pitch-class sets interact with referent pitch collections. This interaction is related to extra-musical ideas that accompany the composition. Chapter two focuses on the details of the TC process. As an analytical cornerstone, this chapter applies new concepts to an analysis of musical form in Lux Aeterna in order to show how the smallest details of the generative process impact the overall form of the piece in a significant way.

Committee: Dr. Catherine Losada (Advisor) Subjects: Music

MA, Kent State University, 2011, College of the Arts / School of Music, Hugh A. Glauser

George Crumb developed his mature style in 1962 and wrote eight chamber works with flute between 1965 and 1986. The first, Madrigals, Book II (composed 1965) was written for soprano, alto flute (doubling flute in C and piccolo) and percussion. The last, Federico's Little Songs for Children (composed 1986) was written for soprano, flute (also piccolo, alto flute and bass flute) and harp. This thesis explores the organizational principles that are the essence of Crumb's unique individual style with a detailed analysis of pitch-class content and contour, along with a general survey of rhythm and special effects in both pieces. Also included is an essay on the performance of the extended flute techniques throughout all eight of Crumb's chamber works with flute. Written 21 years apart, Madrigals, Book II and Federico's Little Songs for Children employ many of the same organizational principles, including chromaticism, symmetry, dissonance, and disjunct motion. Both of these pieces are highly chromatic, often emphasizing pitch-class sets that are symmetrical and contain the tritone, such as (0167). Small sets are often expanded into larger supersets while large sets are generally fragmented and broken down into smaller subsets. The contour of the music is often disjunct, with displaced chromaticism and frequent large leaps of dissonant intervals such as tritones, sevenths and ninths. Crumb also utilizes irregular rhythmic patterns and special effects that contribute to his individual style. Irrational divisions of the beat, ties over barlines and radical time signatures often distort any sense of time and meter.

Committee: Richard Devore Dr. (Advisor); Ralph Lorenz Dr. (Committee Member); Frank Wiley Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Music; Pedagogy; Performing Arts