Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2010, Music

The purpose of this study was to examine and understand the decision making process for keeping or cutting music programs in one selected public school district. Berkley School District, in the Detroit suburb of Berkley, Michigan, has not made extreme cuts to the music program in over ten years, nor have they specifically targeted their music program when budgets cuts do occur. Berkley's profile shows that their numbers for school enrollment, minority student percentage, number of students receiving free and reduced lunch, and percent of English language learners are all situated in the median of these demographics for the surrounding school districts. Similarly, Berkley's budget does not exceed their neighboring districts. The results showed that Berkley Schools District's Administrators have commitment to offering a well-rounded education to all of their students, and that music education plays a large part in that education. To achieve the district's mission, Berkley administrators rely on community support, quality teaching, and creative ways of working with a finite budget. Leaders in the district actively seek ways to generate new revenue, collaborate with other districts to save money and only make cuts to areas that do not affect programming. Research shows that administrators, parents, teachers, and students claim to value music education. Yet, in an age of increasing accountability in core subjects such as math and reading that coincides with economic hardships such as layoffs and rising health care costs, music education faces reduced or eliminated budgets, programs, and staffing. Some schools have eliminated K-5 curricular music, while others cancelled after school programs, cut teachers, or required remaining teachers to work overloaded schedules. While some schools have made drastic cuts, however, other schools and even entire school districts have not cut music, or at least have not targeted music education specifically when trying to save revenue. H (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Dr. Patricia J. Flowers PhD (Advisor); Dr. Hilary Apfelstadt PhD (Committee Member); Dr. Timothy Gerber PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Education; Fine Arts; Music; Music Education

MDES, University of Cincinnati, 2015, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning: Design

This research aimed to investigate how to integrate the design process with creative techniques found in rap music production in order to help architects, product and fashion designers ideate concepts. To understand this integration, interviews and surveys were performed to develop connections between the creative processes of designers and rap musicians. Later on, the research findings were synthesized into sets of design hip hop methodologies that were combined and developed into a guideline intended for designers. After exploring different frameworks to communicate this guideline, a website was created as a prototype. Both designers and non-designers evaluated the website. Their positive feedback proved that integrating the design process with hip hop methodologies improves the creativity and innovation of design concepts. It also makes a powerful connection for youth who are engaged in rap music to be inspired and educated about design.

Committee: Craig Vogel M.I.D. (Committee Chair); Stephen Slaughter M.Arch. (Committee Member); Noel Anderson M.F.A. (Committee Member) Subjects: Design

MARCH, University of Cincinnati, 2009, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning : Architecture (Master of)

The purpose of this thesis is to expand the scale in which designers think about buildings to include longer time effects. Through studying a user process, particularly musicians, scripts and trends can be documented to help guide and organize the buildings function over time. Within these scripts it is important to understand that some spaces will perform better when the specifications of the space are narrowed, while others will perform better if the specifications are more open-ended, allowing for the “unscripted” event to occur. Because the specificity of program will greatly vary, it is important for the unplanned spaces to be considered just as pertinent as the specific spaces. For the building to respond to this fluid transfer of functions it should not be thought of as complete; but rather, an object that takes on a life of its own through its synergetic relationship of internal and external forces. The goal is to coalesce designer intent with user interaction to ultimately create a space that is self evolving and responsive.

Committee: Thomas Bible (Committee Chair); Jerry Larson (Committee Member) Subjects: Architecture

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2003, Music

The enormity of scope involved in a teaching life creates the need for an educator to seek continual growth in mind and spirit. It is through reflection that a teacher can find new ways to understand the challenges that are faced both inside and outside the classroom. The purpose of this study was to examine how choral music teachers would engage in a reflective process for the purpose of understanding and enacting change within their practice. This qualitative research involved five choral teachers from both the middle and high school levels. For a nine-week period the educators used a variety of reflective tools for the purpose of engaging in a reflective process. Bi-weekly observations were made, constructive dialogues occurred, and reflections in diverse formats were employed. The data are presented in the form of five narrative stories that combined the events of the choral rehearsals, reflections of the teachers, student reflections, and the reflective thoughts of the researcher as they occurred in time. These teachers created unique reflective paths during the course of this study. Five significant points of interest emerged from this research: constructive dialogues serve as valuable and successful means for reflection; reflection is influenced by the attribute of perfectionism; there are time issues related to the successful implementation of a reflective process; the feelings of pleasure and pain are associated with reflection; and reflection is an instrument for tangible change as well as the processing of personal and educational philosophies. A Cyclical Model of Reflection was developed as a proposed theoretical model based on the analysis of the teachers' reflective journeys. The model incorporates Schon's two dimensions of reflection and appends a third dimension, reflection-fore-action. Thinking, writing, and conversing designate the three modes of reflection, which are executed through six methodologies. This study identified the interrelated nature (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: R. J. Frego (Advisor) Subjects: Music

Master of Music (MM), Bowling Green State University, 2013, Music Composition

Ouroboros— a single-movement, fourteen-minute work scored for flute, alto flute, B-flat clarinet (doubling bass clarinet), bassoon, horn, B-flat trumpet (doubling B-flat flugelhorn), bass trombone, three percussionists, harp, piano, violin, viola, violoncello, and contrabass— is a work that lacks melodies, motives, clear harmonic shifts, perceivable changes in dynamics and timbre, audible articulations, and a discernible pulse. Every element of this composition was informed by some aspect of the mythical serpent ouroboros. At the broadest level, Ouroboros follows a single, processed-based form. This gesture consists of several subsections that are simultaneously transformed by various processes: registral and dynamic wedges, a timbral rondo, and an exponential accelerando. The algorithms used to develop the material also progressed in a cyclical fashion, terminating in the same way that they began. The harmonic progression, which functions as one giant sequence, is derived from the hexachord 6- 25[013568] and transformations that share at least four common tones. These harmonic materials were arranged across pitch-space in the framework of an ouroboros beginning with a hexachord spanning seven octaves, reducing to a single note, and smoothly spreading back to the fully expanded hexachord. In order to produce many different sonorities, both new and familiar, I developed multi-layered orchestrations that cycle at different rates and are slightly transformed with each reiteration. While inner layers were orchestrated with systematic processes to transform between primary and secondary orchestral choirs, the surface orchestration shifted slowly between “dark” and “light” timbres. In addition, individual pitches were orchestrated by two dissimilar instruments that articulated to and from niente. To further unify these disparate timbres, the majority of the work was written at dynamic levels less than mezzo piano; this also helped facilitate the execution of the unusua (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Mikel Kuehn PhD (Advisor); Christopher Dietz PhD (Other) Subjects: Music