Doctor of Musical Arts, The Ohio State University, 2021, Music

Electronic music has experienced rapid and tumultuous incorporation into the canon of musical practice. Throughout the past century, this genre's identity has remained fluid, fallible, and ripe for reconstruction. Creating new works using electronic mediums differs from acoustic realms in both utilitarian objectivity and resultant affect. Performing these works invokes additional challenges: What if no performance score exists and the work itself only exists as a recorded audio file? How does a musician replicate seemingly endless abstractions of timbre, pitch, and spectral content? Finally, preserving electronic music is crucial for the survival of the idiom. As many works do not exist within discernible scores, how will new musical content be documented? Although recordings remain at the crux of electronic dissemination, issues such as data degradation muddy the conservation process. Specifically, acousmatic experiences have utterly inundated many individual's daily lives; millions of recorded songs are available at the tap of a button, scores accompany the films, television shows, and video games consumers interact with, and artistic ventures entail the inclusion of previously instantiated music. When Pierre Schaeffer formulated ideals on acousmatic listening and an adumbration of musical objects during the mid-20th century, today's technological perplexities were not predicated by reality; such expeditious alterations to musical practice were likely unexpected. Thus, it is time to situate the framework Schaeffer stipulated within contemporary mise-en-scene. Through the composition of my new work, Acousmatic Symphony, I experimented with alternative notational styles and systems of symbology. Following Schaeffer's assertations that two versions of a “score” are needed for adequate description of musical content-one essential and one operational-I created variations of each and applied my own version of an acousmatic notational system. Ad (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Thomas Wells (Advisor); Jan Radzynski (Committee Member); Daniel Shanahan (Committee Member) Subjects: Music

Master of Music (MM), Ohio University, 2019, Music Theory (Fine Arts)

Throughout the history of electroacoustic music, a concise method of analysis has eluded researchers. Though many exceptional examples of nomenclature exist, no standard system for implementation or methodology for analysis has been developed. This thesis begins to bridge that gap and provide a scaffold for further research. By outlining a phenomenologically-based reductive theory of electroacoustic music, the most structurally salient elements of formal articulation are explored. Conclusions regarding the syntax of analyzed pieces are discussed while laying the groundwork for a more complete corpus study.

Committee: Ciro Scotto (Advisor); Jennifer Smith (Committee Member); Robert McClure (Committee Member) Subjects: Composition; Music; Pedagogy; Performing Arts

DMA, University of Cincinnati, 2013, College-Conservatory of Music: Composition

"Biomes" is a 45-minute sound structure composed for electric guitar and electroacoustic soundscape. The debut performance of the work occurred on April 22, 2013 (Earth Day) within the Meyers Gallery at the University of Cincinnati. During this presentation, as well as on the debut recording of the composition, I functioned as electric guitarist and electroacoustic soundscape composer / performer. The electric guitar presents 6 songs during the electroacoustic soundscape. The melodic / harmonic material utilized within each song is primarily "fixed". The rhythmic / pulse material utilized within each song is primarily "fluid". The electroacoustic soundscape is comprised of 7 shifting biome soundscapes. The following biomes are represented: urban, desert, tropical forest, grassland, temperate forest, tundra, and aquatic (freshwater / marine). The complete soundscape incorporates 104 audio files (many of these audio files were accessed via the Macaulay Library at Cornell University). 52 of these audio files have been electronically processed in some fashion often utilizing MacPOD (developed by Chris Rolfe and Damian Keller). The remaining elements of the soundscape were constructed utilizing Logic Pro 9 (developed by Apple Incorporated). My initial creative intention was to compose music that I needed to hear (and hopefully music that needs to be heard). This creative intention has been realized through the completion of "Biomes". I have been intensely involved with music for over 27 years - sacrificing many other aspects of my life in order to pursue what I am deeply passionate about and to live fully as an artist. This extensive experience as an artist has informed my conclusion that "Biomes" is possibly the best work I have ever completed. The only way to understand my composition "Biomes" is to literally experience my composition "Biomes" (similarly, the only way to understand the taste of an apple is to literally experience the taste of an apple). Th (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Mara Helmuth D.M.A. (Committee Chair); Mike Fiday Ph.D. (Committee Member); Joel Hoffman D.M.A. (Committee Member) Subjects: Music

Master of Fine Arts, The Ohio State University, 2011, Art

From 2005 to 2009 I was an associate professor teaching at the Toyama City Institute of Glass Art in Toyama, Japan. Living for four years in a foreign country where I was, even after four years of learning to speak and read Japanese, relatively illiterate, and so unable to read most of the 50,000 or more Kanji characters has transformed store front signage, posters, street signs, magazine ads and articles into pure imagery for me. Being illiterate has sparked my interests in the translation, and the misinterpretation, of words and images, their meanings, and how they are used in various forms of communication. I use this observation as inspiration to combine sculptural components with audio fragments to create reductive listening experiences. Musique concrete is a form of electroacoustic music that utilizes acousmatic sound as a compositional resource. The compositional material is not restricted to the sounds derived from musical instruments or voices, nor to elements traditionally thought of as ‘musica' (melody, harmony, rhythm, meter, and so on). The work explored in this thesis project explores creating sound-based compositions known as musique concrete . These works are intended to be listened to in an intimate, distraction-free setting, by one person at a time. The works described here involve the mono-track recording of individual sounds with a handheld digital recorder and mixing them into stereo and surround sound compositions using Logic Studio & Max MSP software. These are to be experienced in a variety of interactive sculptures, though listening devices that include hanging stadium speakers, encapsulated blown-glass environments, flat glass panels and surround sound studios.

Committee: Richard Harned (Advisor); Ann Hamilton (Committee Member); Marc Ainger (Committee Member) Subjects: Art Education

Master of Music (MM), Bowling Green State University, 2009, Music Composition

Correspondances, a work for soprano voice, viola, percussion, and live electronics, explores the intricate timbral relationships that are possible between the human voice, acoustic instruments, processed sounds, and real­time electroacoustic processing. A poem of the same title by Charles Baudelaire comprises the text, which appears in the original French and in the English translation. Baudelaire's poem emphasizes themes of adventure, imagination, and the richness of nature, which allowed for exploration of a variety of musical characters. The work lasts approximately twelve minutes and contains aleatoric sections, counterpoint, and live electronics. Formally, Correspondances is one continuous movement containing an introduction, through­composed sections determined by the poem's stanzas, and a closing section. The introduction contains spoken text, aleatoric elements, and a large­ scale crescendo. The through­composed section features the stanzas of text and instrumental and electroacoustic interludes. The closing section recapitulates the opening by presenting similar aleatoric elements and a large­scale decrescendo ending with the vocalist whispering the final lines of text. Melodic and harmonic material is derived from synthetic scales. Melodic gestures and contrapuntal interplay emphasize specific melodic intervals including major sevenths, major sixths, tritones, and minor seconds. The soprano part features extended performance techniques including sotto voce techniques, whispers and speech. The percussion instrumentation includes vibraphone, bass drum, suspended cymbal, tam tam, log drum, and a mounted rainstick. Its timbral palette is enhanced through the use of soft mallets, brushes, and snare sticks. The percussionist controls the electroacoustic portion of the work with a foot pedal. Electroacoustic material is derived from various sources including percussion and environmental samples such as sounds of water, wind, and fire. Alo (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Elainie Lillios (Advisor); Mikel Kuehn (Committee Member) Subjects: Music