Doctor of Musical Arts, The Ohio State University, 2013, Music

The National Flute Association (NFA) sponsors a range of non-performance and performance competitions for performers of all ages. Non-performance competitions are: a Flute Choir Composition Competition, Graduate Research, and Newly Published Music. Performance competitions are: Young Artist Competition, High School Soloist Competition, Convention Performers Competition, Flute Choirs Competitions, Professional, Collegiate, High School, and Jazz Flute Big Band, and a Masterclass Competition. These competitions provide opportunities for flutists ranging from amateurs to professionals. University/college flute choirs perform original manuscripts, arrangements and transcriptions, as well as the commissioned pieces, frequently at conventions, thus expanding substantially the repertoire for flute choir. The purpose of my work is to document commissioned repertoire for flute choir, music for five or more flutes, presented by university/college flute choirs and NFA sponsored flute choirs at NFA annual conventions. Composer, title, premiere and publication information, conductor, performer and instrumentation will be included in an annotated bibliography format. A brief history of the flute choir and its repertoire, as well as a history of NFA sponsored flute choir (1973–2012) will be included in this document.

Committee: Katherine Borst Jones (Advisor); Charles M. Atkinson (Committee Member); Russel C. Mikkelson (Committee Member); Karen Pierson (Committee Member) Subjects: Music

Master of Music, University of Akron, 2021, Music-Composition

“It Is Finished: A Tenebrae Cantata” focuses on the somber memorial of Good Friday. In seven movements, the piece travels from the scriptural Last Supper to the final death of Christ and subsequent conclusion of the dark day. In contrast to the uplifting Easter message, Tenebrae services end in the dark (both physically, with candles extinguished, and figuratively, with the entire mood of the service somber and focused on the sacrifice of Christ). This original piece of music, written for SATB choir and piano, highlights this dark aura and seeks to draw the listener's focus toward the solemnity of the cross.

Committee: James Wilding (Advisor); Robert Brownlow (Committee Member) Subjects: Composition; Music

Bachelor of Science of Communication Studies (BSC), Ohio University, 2015, Communication Studies

Peer-led student groups present unique environments for leadership. While leaders have earned their positions, there may be little difference in age and experience between the newest group members and their leaders. A four-phase study on a student organization explored power, immediacy, and compliance gaining as they occur in peer groups.

Committee: Amy Chadwick PhD (Advisor) Subjects: Communication

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2021, Music

The cultural Somali population has been growing within the American education system (Hassan & Smith, 2017), yet this population has largely been absent in secondary music programs. The purpose of this case study was to explore the perceptions of Somali-American community leaders and families about school music participation. The study focused on a school district in a suburban community in Ohio. The central question was: How do members of the Somali community perceive school music? Sub questions included: What types of music experiences do Somali families have? How do Somali families participate in music outside of school? What are Somali-American community members' perception of public school music? The seven participants were between 20-50 years of age and were either refugees or children of refugees from Somalia. They completed verbal interviews or a written questionnaire and were available for questions following the transcription of interviews. Data was analyzed through lenses of acculturation theories including assimilation (Portes & Rumbaut, 2001), group acculturation pathways (Sam & Berry, 2010), and religious impact on individual and group acculturation (Warner, 2007). The themes emerging from data included coexistence of culture and religion, generational divides, musical repertoire, responsibility, and belonging/identity. Participants expressed that although Somali culture supports music, the religious interpretations that some Somali families follow deters them from participating in certain music activities. For example, they viewed the typical repertoire of school music as not adhering to Somali family religious and cultural values and thus, considered participation in school music as being not always acceptable. Participants also referred to differences in age/generation as a factor that influences music participation As age increases, religious conservatism that perceives music participation as unacceptable increases. However, they also believe (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Eugenia Costa-Giomi (Advisor); Robert Ward (Committee Member); David Hedgecoth (Committee Member) Subjects: Music Education

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2021, Theatre and Film

In Toward the Horizon: Contemporary Queer Theatre as Utopic Activism, I pursue two intersecting goals. First, I offer close readings of theatrical representations of queerness that expand beyond the shallow representations of the not-so-distant past, including the trope of the gay best friend (G.B.F.) and so-called “homosexual problem plays.” Second, I engage with dramaturgies of theatre for social change, reading those dramaturgical possibilities into scripted drama in support of my argument that contemporary queer theatre creates utopic activist potential within viewing and/or reading audiences. Over five chapters, I explicate and critically consider queer theatrical works that deploy dramaturgies and pedagogies of theatre for social change, including Bull in a China Shop by Bryna Turner, Significant Other by Joshua Harmon, Choir Boy by Tarell Alvin McCraney, Scissoring by Christina Quintana, Log Cabin by Jordan Harrison, The Prom by Chad Beguelin and Matthew Sklar, A Strange Loop by Michael R. Jackson, and The Inheritance by Matthew Lopez. I build upon the queer theory legacies of Jose Esteban Munoz and his conceptualizing of utopia on the horizon, and Jill Dolan's notion of utopic performatives, to argue that these pieces hold the potential to lead audiences towards what I term “utopic activism.” Utopic activism concerns the potential to create change through the application of pedagogies and dramaturgies of theatre for social change to scripted drama, and in turn prompt audiences toward envisioning, embracing, and enacting a better future. Individual chapters draw on a variety of critical modes of investigation including history, historiography, and historicization, empathy, relationships and friendships, and genre conventions to investigate the ways queer theatre creates meaning. My study finds queer representation in contemporary theatre is steadily changing and consistently embracing more complex and affirming visions of queerness. Indeed, while there (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Jonathan Chambers PhD (Advisor); Mieses Nermis DMA (Other); Ahlgren Angela PhD (Committee Member); Nees Heidi PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Glbt Studies; Theater; Theater Studies

Undergraduate Honors Program, Malone University, 2020, Honors Thesis

This study assesses the effects that varied formations and locations of the Malone University Chorale have on aspects of choral sound for homophonic and polyphonic selections. Four formations were studied: balanced sections, balanced mixed, bright voices on the outsides, and dark voices on the outsides. The University Chorale also performed a homophonic and polyphonic excerpt in two locations in the Worship Center: on the stage and on the floor. The Worship Center is located within the Johnson Center for Worship and the Fine Arts on the Malone University campus in Canton, Ohio. This study evaluates the effectiveness of each singing formation and location through considerations of blend, balance between sections, tone color, rhythmic precision, and intensity, and offers insights into ideal concert formations in the Worship Center.

Committee: Jon Peterson D.M.A. (Advisor); Jack Ballard Ph.D. (Committee Member); Lauren Seifert Ph.D. (Committee Member); Steve Jensen Ph.D. (Other); Kathryn Huisinga Ph.D. (Other) Subjects: Acoustics; Comparative; Music; Music Education; Performing Arts; Secondary Education

MA, Kent State University, 2019, College of the Arts / School of Music, Hugh A. Glauser

In 1996, the first collegiate South Asian A Cappella Group, Penn Masala, was founded at the University of Pennsylvania. Over the last twenty-two years, nearly fifty such groups have been founded at colleges and universities across the United States. These ensembles blend western popular music with South Asian music, namely Bollywood film songs. Membership in these groups typically involves participants with South Asian ethnic backgrounds as well as participants from various other ethnic backgrounds. This thesis explores the ramifications and outcomes between the multifaceted essence of South Asian A Cappella and the multifaceted ethnicities of its members, showing how identities are blended, reinvented, and performed in both musical and social settings. This research ultimately culminates in a discussion of the balance between ethnicity and nationality and how music is a perfect stage to perform such internal diversity. It also comments on agency within music, questions what is considered fusion, and discusses the way competition assigns value to performance in inconsistent ways.

Committee: Jennifer Johnstone PhD (Advisor); Eve McPherson PhD (Committee Member); Susan Roxburgh PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Asian Studies; Ethnic Studies; Music

PHD, Kent State University, 2019, College of the Arts / School of Music, Hugh A. Glauser

High school choirs, bands, and orchestras regularly engage in travel experiences that take students to overnight destinations where they perform and function as tourists. This dissertation explores the benefits and the drawbacks of this practice. The research is intended to reveal what music educators believe to be the learning benefits of these endeavors, aggregated by musical and nonmusical learning. Inquiry in this study asked ensemble directors to weigh the opportunities and challenges of music trips, and to consider the impact they perceive that this practice can have on their music program. An additional aim of the study is to create a clearer depiction of what occurs during travel experiences. In order to explore these areas fully, a mixed methods design was employed. The first phase involved a national survey of 745 participants to obtain a broad perspective of music educator opinions regarding the complexities of school ensemble travel. Quantitative analysis informed the questions asked in the second phase of the research, with data from participant interviews, artifact collection, trip observation, and open-ended survey responses. Nine participants were purposefully chosen from the original 745 respondents to provide a national perspective that is inclusive of choir, orchestra, and band directors for the qualitative phase of study. Data were analyzed through the lens of theories of Kolb and Plog examining travel market research and experiential learning theory. Themes that emerged were centered around student bonding, recruitment and retention, issues of authenticity, value, and access. Most teacher participants felt that the travel opportunity has a high amount of value for their program, and for the students who can afford to access the trip. Teachers use travel for recruitment and retention, yet there is little data to show that trips can cause such a benefit. Results of the study can provide music educators with more detail a (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Craig Resta (Advisor); Jay Dorfman (Committee Member); Christopher Venesile (Committee Member); Alicia Crowe (Committee Member) Subjects: Music; Music Education

Master of Music (MM), Bowling Green State University, 2018, Music History

During the first decades of the nineteenth century, Israel Jacobson (1768-1828) created a radically new service that drew upon forms of worship most commonly associated with the Protestant faith. After finding inspiration as a student in the ideas of the Haskalah, or Jewish Enlightenment, Jacobson became committed to revitalizing and modernizing Judaism. Musically, Jacobson's service was characterized by its use of songs modeled after Lutheran chorales that were sung by the congregation, organ accompaniment, choral singing, and the elimination of the traditional music of the synagogue, a custom that had developed over more than a millennium. The music of the service worked in conjunction with Protestant-style sermons, the use of both German and Hebrew, and the church- and salon-like environments in which Jacobson's services were held. The music, liturgy, and ceremonial of this new mode of worship demonstrated an affinity with German Protestantism and bourgeois cultural values while also maintaining Judaism's core beliefs and morals. In this thesis, I argue that Jacobson's musical agenda enabled a new realization of German-Jewish identity among wealthy, acculturated Jews. Drawing upon contemporary reports, letters, musical collections, and similar sources, I place the music of Reform within its wider historical, political, and social context within the well-documented services at the Jacobstempel in Seesen and the New Reform Temple in Berlin. Although much of this project discusses general practice rather than specific repertoire, I examine several works composed for these services: a canata by Johann August Gunther Heinroth (1773-1843), a hymn by Jacobson, and the 1815 Hallelujah Cantatine by Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791-1864).

Committee: Arne Spohr Dr. (Advisor); Eftychia Papanikolaou Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: History; Judaic Studies; Music

DMA, University of Cincinnati, 2014, College-Conservatory of Music: Composition

Petals of a Rose Close examines in music and prose a poem by Sylvia Plath, Edge (1963) and a passage from the novel Le Cote de Guermantes (The Guermantes Way) (1921), by Marcel Proust. Both are about a deceased woman: Proust writes about his grandmother, while Plath's poem is more abstract in that the figure has no identity. Both passages are about purification and perfection following each subject's demise. Compositionally, the piece consists of six spoken essay portions and five pairs of companion canons set to the passage by Proust. Each companion canon uses the same melody, but alters the temporal, intervallic and key relationships. Each pair is unique, demonstrating the inexorable changes leading to the visions of perfection presented by Plath and Proust. The title refers to a sentence in the poem: She has folded Them back into her body as petals Of a rose close . . .

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

DMA, University of Cincinnati, 2014, College-Conservatory of Music: Conducting, Choral Emphasis

This document is a choral conductor's guide for the incorporation of bel canto vocal techniques, specifically coup de la glotte, chiaroscuro, and appoggio, into the choral setting. Research has shown that the use of these vocal techniques can improve the singing of choral ensembles in areas of intonation, resonance, flexibility, and tone quality. Choral ensembles that incorporate bel canto techniques can also benefit from faster and more effective rehearsals as well as the flexibility to sing a wide range of repertoire. This guide draws upon the writings and teachings of historical bel canto vocal pedagogues, contemporary vocal pedagogues, choral pedagogues, and vocal science research to develop a choral bel canto methodology. For each specific bel canto technique, this guide includes a discussion about the use of appropriate terminology, warm-up exercises and vocalises, and an exploration of rehearsal strategies and techniques.

Committee: Mary Stucky M.M. (Committee Chair); Gwendolyn Detwiler D.M.A. (Committee Member); L. Scott D.M.A. (Committee Member) Subjects: Music

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

Catulli Carmina Quinque (Five Poems of Catullus) is based on texts by the Latin poet Gaius Valerius Catullus (ca. 84–54BC). The standard organization and labeling of his 116 works is by poem number (e.g., Carmen 5). This piece makes use of Carmen 5, Carmen 8, Carmen 70, Carmen 85, and Carmen 109.

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

DMA, University of Cincinnati, 2009, College-Conservatory of Music : Conducting, Choral Emphasis

F. Melius Christiansen (1871-1955) created a pioneering American a cappella choral ensemble, the St. Olaf Choir, which influenced an entire philosophical school of choral performance within the United States. His body of choral literature has been utilized as a significant part of secondary and post-secondary choral education, and his music is amongst the most performed American composers of his generation. This document is a conductors' guide to selected Christiansen repertoire. The literature selected displays his diversity of genres and compositional styles, and represents his most integrous work. This document will explore eleven compositions in detail, Beautiful Savior, Built on a Rock, Celestial Spring, How Fair the Church, Lamb of God, Lost in the Night, Lullaby on Christmas Eve, O Day Full of Grace, Praise to the Lord, Psalm 50, and Wake, Awake. For each piece the document will include origins of source materials, structural graphs with phrase analyses, guides to obsolete words and pronunciations, employment of choral forces within divisi, issues of tempi and rubato, and other preparatory suggestions for the prospective conductor.

Committee: Brett Scott (Committee Chair); Earl Rivers (Committee Member); Ray Wheeler (Committee Member) Subjects: Music

DMA, University of Cincinnati, 2009, College-Conservatory of Music : Conducting, Choral Emphasis

Sacred music holds a prominent place in the overall output of the French Romantic composer, Charles Francois Gounod. Despite this emphasis on sacred genres, Gounod is much better known as a master of French opera than as a composer of religious works. Likewise, Gounod's choral music, the majority of which is sacred, remains largely unfamiliar. His sacred choral music includes sixty-five motets, six Anglican anthems, three oratorios, four sacred cantatas, nineteen French devotional partsongs, and twenty-one masses. This document examines Gounod's twenty-one mass settings to clarify the importance of religious choral music in his creative activities while identifying qualities of his sacred compositional style.The first four chapters provide necessary background for a discussion of the masses. A brief introductory chapter details the prominence of sacred choral music in Gounod's oeuvre. Chapter Two addresses mass composition in nineteenth-century France, providing an overview of political and cultural influences on sacred music during Gounod's life and a review of the mass output of the centuries' most important French composers of sacred music. Chapter Three describes the biographical events and conditions that pertain to Gounod's mass compositions, highlighting the central role his personal religious convictions played in his ongoing commitment to sacred music. Chapter Four presents a brief overview of Gounod's mass output, describing general characteristics of his religious style, providing a catalogue of his masses, and outlining a methodology for the discussion to follow. Chapters Five, Six, and Seven contain descriptions of Gounod's masses. Chapter Five describes his masses with organ accompaniment, Chapter Six explores his masses with orchestral accompaniment, and Chapter Seven considers his requiem masses. His unpublished masses, by necessity, are only discussed in reference to their biographical context. Because of the large number of published masses, and th (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Earl Rivers DMA (Committee Chair); L. Brett Scott DMA (Committee Member); Jonathan Kregor PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Music

DMA, University of Cincinnati, 2008, College-Conservatory of Music : Voice

Choral singing differs in important pedagogical ways from solo singing. For the undergraduate voice performance major with developed upper partials in his/her resonance signature, the goals of solo singing technique and those of choral singing technique may be in conflict. This document delineates clearly the interrelationship of these techniques and clarifies the extent to which these different modes of singing edify and/or impede the technical goals of the other. It is concerned primarily with the individual student as he or she alternates between the many solo and choral requirements of an undergraduate performance degree and illuminates the pedagogical conflict from an objective voice science perspective. Research has shown that untrained singers (those with undeveloped upper partials) sing with greater phonatory efficiency in a choral environment versus a solo environment. For singers in this stage of development, the choral arena helps them to build phonatory efficiency. However, for the trained singer (those with developed upper partials), the choral environment requires that the singer diminish efficiency in order to blend with surrounding voices. Most students of vocal performance will experience both extremes during their undergraduate studies. Whether trained or untrained, members of a chorus gain much in terms of musicianship, repertoire and artistry. Singers who are unable to negotiate the differences between choral mode and solo mode fail to benefit from the advantages that choral singing offers. However, it is clear that choral singing is not one-size-fits-all. While the difference in phonation for trained singers is modest, it is not non-existent, and some undergraduate singers may not be able to sing well in both modes. For most undergraduate students, however, choral singing mode and solo singing mode are similar enough to warrant the pursuit of both. This document reviews pertinent research in the areas of vocal pedagogy, choral pedagogy and vo (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Barbara Honn M.M. (Committee Chair); Barbara Paver M.M. (Committee Member); Brett Scott D.M.A. (Committee Member) Subjects: Music

Doctor of Musical Arts, The Ohio State University, 2004, Music

The purpose of this study was to propose an organizational model that would enable a community boy choir organization to provide a continuous curriculum of vocal instruction for the male singer at all stages of his vocal development. The proposed organizational structure included four choirs for male singers: the treble training choir; senior treble choir; changing-voice ensemble; and tenor/bass ensemble. The rationale behind the proposed community boy choir organization rested largely on the realization of a changing-voice ensemble for the male adolescent. Based upon data collected from a review of literature and survey of prominent community boychoir programs, the researcher asserted that a choir for the adolescent male was critical to the success of a continuous choral curriculum for the male singer. The changing-voice ensemble would allow the conductor to address the distinctive physiological, psychological and social challenges of the adolescent male within a homogeneous ensemble, ultimately retaining the adolescent throughout his entire vocal development. Conclusions from this study included: the individual singer and his community boy choir organization profited from both a well-sequenced and uninterrupted curriculum of instruction for the male adolescent singer; the changing-voice ensemble provided the adolescent singer with a sense of self-worth and accomplishment difficult to obtain if overshadowed or lost within a large ensemble of treble or mature voices; frequent testing and monitoring of the male voice was an essential element to the vocal success of the male singer and to the community choir organization; a homogeneous changing-voice ensemble allowed the conductor to better select repertoire that addressed the vocal capabilities of the changing-voice singer; periodical interaction with older male role models encouraged the young adolescent to continue developing his vocal instrument.

Committee: Hilary Apfelstadt (Advisor) Subjects: Music

Master of Music (MM), Ohio University, 2008, Music History and Literature (Fine Arts)

The Czech composer Bohuslav Martinu (1890-1959) looked to the past for inspiration for many of his works. Although Baroque forms were most often used, there exist seven madrigal compositions: three for unaccompanied choir, Ceske Madrigaly, Five Czech Madrigals, and Madrigaly; and four for various instrumental ensembles, Quatre Madrigaux, Madrigal-Sonata, Five Madrigal Stanzas, and Three Madrigals. The author gives an overview of Martinu's use of Baroque forms and discusses the compositions titled madrigal, calling attention to the composer's use of modes, folk rhythms and free polyphony. The study concludes with a comparison of Martinu's madrigals to those of the Renaissance.

Committee: Richard D. Wetzel (Advisor) Subjects: Music

Bachelor of Fine Arts, Marietta College, 2012, Music

Escribo con gusanos is a cycle of choral music which Dreyer composed. It is set to twentieth century Bolivian poetry employing the characteristics of contemporary choral music. The concept of the cycle is a question of what makes quality artwork. The first four pieces consider the body as a vessel of creation and worship, and the fifth piece conveys the message that art is made by life, body, and soul rather than scholarly technique. The poetry was compiled from collections of work by Matilde Casazola, a living Bolivian poet and songwriter. The song cycle is intended to provide an alternative understanding of what it means to make art.

Committee: Brent Yorgason PhD (Advisor); Chaya Chandrasekhar Professor (Committee Member) Subjects: Music

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

Missa ad honorem Sancti Francisci for SATB choir, soloists and woodwind quintet is in the five standard movements of the Catholic Mass: Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus and Agnus Dei. The composition honors St. Francis of Assisi and uses pitch material derived from the Introit of his feast day. The work is approximately 20 minutes in length.The motives in the Kyrie are simple and become more complicated by the end of the movement. The Introit of the feast serves as the cantus firmus and is initially presented in the bassoon. The Gloria moves away from the open tonalities and chant-like style of the Kyrie into more polyphonic and harmonically complex sections. Both the Gloria and the Sanctus feature vocal soloists, who simultaneously sing fragments from the English texts of The Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi and the Canticle of the Sun over the Latin texts of the Mass. The Credo is a microcosm of the entire piece, with a simple beginning and ending and a complex middle section. It uses sotto voce and spoken word as text painting effects. The Sanctus breaks from a somber opening into a joyous, boisterous statement at the “Hosanna.” The Agnus Dei is a mirror image of the Kyrie. It opens with polyphony of line and color, and slowly thins into a monophonic, chant-like texture. The Mass draws on many influences, both contemporary and medieval. It is a fusion of old and new, a voice that draws on both the past and the present while looking to the future. My goal is twofold: to glorify a higher power through honoring St. Francis and his ideals of love and peace, and to serve these ancient texts that have provided prayer and song to many others.

Committee: Marilyn Shrude Dr. (Advisor); William Skoog Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Composition; Music

Master of Music (MM), Bowling Green State University, 2009, Music Education/Choral Music Education

The purpose of this study was to determine college choir directors' and studio voice instructors' techniques for classifying female voices. Three groups of respondents completed an online survey: college faculty members who were (a) choir directors only, (b) voice instructors only, and (c) both a choir director and a voice instructor. The survey was comprised of four sections. The first three sections consisted of closed ended questions and the fourth section consisted of two open ended questions. One hundred and thirty-four of the 496 e-mail recipients returned the survey for a response rate of 27%. The state with the highest response rate was Ohio (52.7%), followed by Michigan (28.7%), and Indiana (18.6%). The respondent group with the highest response rate was voice instructors only (51.9%), followed by respondents who were both a choir director and a voice instructor (24.81%), and choir directors only (23.26%). The results showed that associate professor was the most common academic rank. The top ranked aspects that respondents consider when classifying female voices are, in descending order: tessitura, vocal timbre, range, vocal health, quality of extreme ranges, voice studio classification, needs of ensemble, former classification, and a student's voice classification preference. Many (36.92%) choir directors reclassify their female choir students every year, and one fourth (24.73%) of voice instructors reclassify their students every semester. More than one third (37.74%) of choir directors indicated that they moved the reclassified females at the beginning of the next semester. There were 85.71% of voice instructors who immediately recommended new repertoire to their students. Implications for music education included listening to tessitura as the top aspect to consider when classifying a female's voice and noting immaturity of the voices in the classification process so that the choir director or voice instructor can be aware of the possible need to reclass (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Vincent Kantorski (Advisor); Mark Munson (Committee Member) Subjects: Music; Music Education