Doctor of Education (EdD), Ohio University, 2015, Educational Administration (Education)

This dissertation examined the state of senior high school (SHS) music and dance education in the context of a growing economy and current socio-cultural transitions in Ghana. The research analyzed the experience of educational administrators, teachers, and students. Educational administrators included professionals at educational organizations and institutions, government officials, and professors at universities in Ghana. Teachers and students were primarily from five SHSs, across varying socioeconomic strata in the Ashanti Region, the Central Region, and the Greater Accra Region. The study employed ethnographic and multiple case study approaches. The research incorporated the data collection techniques of archival document review, focus group, interview, observation, and participant observation. Four interrelated theoretical perspectives informed the research: interdisciplinary African arts theory, leadership and organizational theory, post-colonial theory, and qualitative educational methods' perspectives. The incorporation of multiple theoretical frameworks allowed for diverse perspectives on education to be acknowledged. The dissertation consists of five chapters, which include an introduction, literature review, methodology, presentation of findings, and analysis. The major findings of this study are organized into five thematic categories that examine: (a) the significance of music and dance education in Ghanaian SHSs, (b) the challenges of music and dance education in Ghanaian SHSs, (c) the influence of Ghanaian economic development on music and dance education in SHSs, (d) the role of educational administrators, teachers, and students in decision-making regarding music and dance education in Ghanaian SHSs, and (e) Ghanaians' vision of the future of music and dance education in SHSs and the recommendations offered by study participants.

Committee: William Larson Dr. (Committee Chair) Subjects: African Studies; Dance; Education Policy; Educational Leadership; Music Education

Bachelor of Arts (BA), Ohio University, 2024, Music

Transitive Property was a structured improvisational performance that explored spontaneous co-creation through music and dance. The project sought to explore interdisciplinary relationships using coexistent, process-based, and collaborative creative methods inspired by Shultis, Cage, and Cunningham. In addition, the project explored how the use of collaborative improvisation in performance can incorporate the audience and physical environment in creative ways. The rehearsal process for Transitive Property occurred over six weeks and included collaborators specializing in music and dance. Rehearsals were planned based on improvisational and pedagogical methods of Reeve, Morgenroth, and Hahn, and ongoing feedback and responses from the collaborators were essential throughout the process. The rehearsal process resulted in the hour-long performance Transitive Property. Two performances of this work (Spring 2024) investigated the inherent musicality of dance and speech, the dance-like qualities of artists drawing or musicians playing, the visual artistry of written language and scores, and the performance of everyday action. Transitive Property demonstrated that process-based artmaking in the form of interdisciplinary and collaborative improvisation can be an effective way to strengthen inter-performer relationships and create meaningful experiences for performers and audiences.

Committee: Christi Camper Moore (Advisor) Subjects: Dance; Fine Arts; Music

Bachelor of Arts (BA), Ohio University, 2021, Music

Piano instruction is often conducted as an isolated practice. Most pre-college pianists attend regular private lessons, practice their repertoire at home, and occasionally partake in competitions and recitals. On rare occasions, piano students have access to collaborative environments, such as studio classes, chamber music, or other ensembles. Due to the segregated nature of private music instruction, pianists are often deprived of collaborative or interdisciplinary creative opportunities, which can lead to limited self-expression and perspectives on how music relates to other art forms and to society. Unless pianists are presented with practical instruction and examples of how different art forms intersect with each other, many immersive opportunities can go undiscovered. This thesis explores the applications of the arts in comprehensive, pre-college piano instruction. An experiential program was implemented for young pianists to interact and collaborate with four different art forms: dance, literature, theatre, and visual art. This project observed how interdisciplinary experiential learning affects piano students' interpretations of music as well as how it encourages confidence and liberty in musical improvisation, collaboration, and performance.

Committee: Florence Mak DMA (Advisor) Subjects: Art Criticism; Art Education; Art History; Education; Fine Arts; Music; Music Education; Pedagogy; Performing Arts; Teaching; Theater; Theater History; Theater Studies

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), Bowling Green State University, 2018, Music Ethnomusicology

The Afro-Brazilian martial art of capoeira has become an increasingly popular sport in the United States. Capoeira performances consist of a back-and-forth exchange of movements between two players in conjunction with a musical ensemble to accompany the physical display. Since the introduction of capoeira in the United States in the 1970s, capoeira has become the focus of various social institutions. The objective of this thesis is to acknowledge and problematize the impact American culture has made on capoeira aesthetics. The methods for this thesis included research in the fields of ethnomusicology, anthropology, post-colonial theory, and transatlantic studies. Fieldwork was conducted to acquire first hand accounts of capoeira practitioners from the Michigan Center for Capoeira. Lastly, an analysis of the portrayal of capoeira in the media examines how capoeira is showcased to audiences in the United States. Historical accounts, academic discourse, capoeira practitioners, and popular culture reveal how American culture has received capoeira. My research has shown that capoeira culture is represented and interpreted by various groups, such as scholars, American capoeira academies, and the media. These different interpretations have resulted in the displacement, fragmentation, or misrepresentation of capoeira history in the context of American culture. I conclude that dominant social structures have inherently changed how capoeira is discussed in academia, practiced in American academies, and portrayed in the media. Dominant social structures in the United States favor product over process. For capoeira, valuing product over process means highlighting performance and devaluing various Afro-diasporic rituals and practices. My solution to avoid fragmentation and misinterpretation of capoeira culture is to reiterate the importance of the African diaspora to practicing capoeira students in the United States. Acknowled (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Kara Attrep (Advisor); Megan Rancier (Committee Member) Subjects: African Studies; Dance; Ethnic Studies; History; Latin American History; Latin American Studies; Music; Music Education

Master of Music (MM), Ohio University, 2016, Music Composition (Fine Arts)

Oh Ewe Mohobelo for Orchestra is an orchestral composition featuring a strong rhythmic pattern suitable for dance. Although Mohobelo is a genre of traditional African folk dance, my piece does not strive to imitate the traditional African music accompanying Mohobelo dancing. Rather, Oh Ewe Mohobelo evokes the spirit of the African dance through multiple musical techniques in the context of a Western orchestra. The opening theme's strong rhythmic profile and tempo are the foundation for developing musical ideas in the remainder of the work. Other sections of the work borrow melodic elements from the main theme, but they also develop new material unrelated to the main motive. The material in the middle sections of the work transcend the influence of the opening motive to develop wildly and freely in the same way a traditional African dance might transport its participants to a wild and ecstatic state as the dance develops. An altered version of the main theme appears at the end of the work as the energy of the developmental sections dissipates.

Committee: Mark Phillips (Advisor) Subjects: Music

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2014, American Culture Studies

This dissertation reveals the commonality of public and active women who used creative trades to substantiate their lives in Virginia from 1716-1800. A creative tradeswoman, an existence identified by this scholarship, was an individual who used her musical, dancing, and singing abilities to incur wages. This study focuses on prominent creative tradeswomen such as Mrs. Sully and Mrs. Pick, a traveling musical duo; the singing actresses of the Hallam; Mary Stagg, assembly manager and contributor to the first theater in Williamsburg; Baroness Barbara deGraffenreit, who competed for Williamsburg's premier dancing manager position; and Mrs.Ann Neill, an enterprising music teacher. Despite times of subordination, these women showcased unique forms of creative agency such as acquiring widespread idolization or organizing traveling musical duos. Creative tradeswomen challenged the conventional oppositions between trade and gentry women, education and creative ability, submission and dominance, amateur and professional culture, public and private spaces. The histories of creative tradeswomen demonstrate the fluidity between these binaries while also remapping cultural and social identities as informed by power, subjectivity, trade, music, and dance. As a result, this dissertation illustrates creative tradeswomen as situated within paradoxical systems of power and subordination. The archives at the Rockefeller Library, Virginia Historical Society, New York Historical Society, and the Library of Congress supported the research. This dissertation utilizes a feminist historiography methodology, incorporating a consideration of cultural and social conditions that bring forward creative women’s untold histories. Interdisciplinary in nature, this study makes points of contact between women’s history, cultural history, and gender studies. Creative tradeswomen expands the research on women's labor while locating gender and class as major influencers informing a wom (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Andrew M. Schocket Ph.D. (Advisor); Katherine L. Meizel Ph.D. (Other); Mary Natvig Ph.D. (Committee Member); Clayton F. Rosati Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; American Studies; Gender; Gender Studies; History; Music; Performing Arts; Theater History; Womens Studies

DMA, University of Cincinnati, 2012, College-Conservatory of Music: Composition

Iroha, composed by Kazuaki Shiota, is a composition for dance and Human Motion Wind Chimes. The goal is to explore the interdisciplinary collaboration between music and dance with technology. The name of the composition is derived from the Japanese traditional poem, Iroha, which is attributed to Buddhism and consists of a perfect pangram. The structure for the choreography of this composition, choreographed by Karen Wissel, follows the word order of the poem, in which the phrases of choreography were created based on the shapes or meanings of the 47 Japanese syllabaries. Human Motion Wind Chimes is a software-based interactive sound system that Shiota created for making a sonic environment in which dancers' movements, captured by cameras, trigger various kinds of sounds. Each measure in the score, containing the sound parameters of Human Motion Wind Chimes, directly corresponds to each phrase of choreography.

Committee: Mara Helmuth DMA (Committee Chair); Mike Fiday PhD (Committee Member); Joel Hoffman DMA (Committee Member) Subjects: Music

Master of Music (MM), Bowling Green State University, 2012, Music Ethnomusicology

In this paper I will analyze the construction of a homogeneous African identity in the context of a West African dance class in Toledo, Ohio. The dance classes are taught by members of the ALMA Dance Experience, a folkloric ensemble that promotes itself as the only professional West African dance troupe in northwest Ohio. Through ethnographic research, I investigate how the instructors of the dance classes represent African culture. Drawing upon postcolonial theory, I focus on the ways in which the instructors imagine, maintain, commodify, and market essentialized perceptions of African identity. As a Seneglese musician, one of the instructors is seen by the students as a culture bearer. Perceptions of “authentic” Africa thus become mapped on him. It is crucial to understand how ideas of Africa as an exotic “other” persists in representations by privileged parties, and also how these perceptions are negotiated by participants. I argue that the creation and performance of an authentic African identity serves to reinforce notions of difference and otherness. I examine this through an analysis of how authenticity is constructed through folkloric repertoire, liveness, the physicality of dance, and an African instructor. Issues surrounding race and racial ownership over African music and dance are a necessary part of the discourse surrounding African authenticity. The questions of African authenticity and representational politics are relevant within community dance classes, university African ensembles in the United States, study abroad programs to Africa, and other forms of African musical representation and dissemination; my work therefore has implications beyond this immediate case study and serves as a broader commentary on the performance and representation of African music.

Committee: Sidra Lawrence PhD (Advisor); Katherine Meizel PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Music

Master of Music (MM), Bowling Green State University, 2010, Music Ethnomusicology

Disco-rock, composed of disco-influenced recordings by rock artists, was a sub-genre of both disco and rock in the 1970s. Seminal recordings included: David Bowie's Young Americans; The Rolling Stones' “Hot Stuff,” “Miss You,” “Dance Pt.1,” and “Emotional Rescue”; KISS's “Strutter '78,” and “I Was Made For Lovin' You”; Rod Stewart's “Do Ya Think I'm Sexy“; and Elton John's Thom Bell Sessions and Victim of Love. Though disco-rock was a great commercial success during the disco era, it has received limited acknowledgement in post-disco scholarship. This thesis addresses the lack of existing scholarship pertaining to disco-rock. It examines both disco and disco-rock as products of cultural shifts during the 1970s. Disco was linked to the emergence of underground dance clubs in New York City, while disco-rock resulted from the increased mainstream visibility of disco culture during the mid seventies, as well as rock musicians' exposure to disco music. My thesis argues for the study of a genre (disco-rock) that has been dismissed as inauthentic and commercial, a trend common to popular music discourse, and one that is linked to previous debates regarding the social value of pop music. The result is a study that compiles the work of previous disco scholars and provides a first step towards the study of disco-rock within the social and musical culture of the 1970s.

Committee: Jeremy Wallach PhD (Advisor); Katherine Meizel PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Music

PHD, Kent State University, 2022, College of Education, Health and Human Services / School of Foundations, Leadership and Administration

This phenomenological study examined how students at a large, urban community college experienced being an artist, before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. It also investigated the ways these students made meaning of their arts experiences. The research design was based upon the model outlined in Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (J.A. Smith et al., 2009). Data were drawn from interviews with a purposively selected sample of five students who had public performance or exhibiting experience in visual art, dance, music, or theater. The participants experienced emotions of happiness and joy in their arts practices, as well as a strong sense of satisfaction in their creative work. All of the students described elements of the psychological state of flow as a part of their artmaking. The participants' arts experiences during the pandemic were varied, and were influenced by the unique circumstances of their lives. They made various practical adaptations to continue their creative practices. The pandemic provided a reflective space, in which the participants considered their personal and artistic priorities. They reported a keen sense of loss over their isolation from others during the pandemic. However, fundamental aspects of their arts experiences remained unchanged during this time. The participants found meaning in their art as a form of expression, in its capacity to connect them with others, and in their love for their creative work. These findings yield implications for strengthening connections between two- and four-year arts programs, utilizing the arts' capacity for building community, and considering new approaches to collegiate arts education.

Committee: Martha Merrill (Committee Chair); Mark Kretovics (Committee Member); Alicia Crowe (Committee Member); Craig Resta (Committee Member) Subjects: Adult Education; Art Education; Dance; Education; Fine Arts; Higher Education; Music; Music Education; Performing Arts; Theater

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2022, Arts and Sciences: Germanic Languages and Literature

My dissertation investigates "The Seven Deadly Sins" (full title in German: "Die sieben Todsunden der Kleinburger") written by the famous German playwright Bertolt Brecht, with music composed by Kurt Weill, from its Paris, France, premiere in exile during the Third Reich, to the twenty-first century. "The Seven Deadly Sins" embodies a gray area between opera and ballet, which has shaped its varied performance history. It features two women as the main protagonist, Anna, divided into Anna I (a singer) and Anna II (a dancer), who is sent on her own journey of exile across seven different cities in the United States by her patriarchal family unit over the course of seven years. The goal of her journey is to become a famous actress and to send money home to her family to build a house in her native Louisiana. "The Seven Deadly Sins" is an outlier among Brecht and Weill's collaborations together as a “sung-ballet.” They are famous for working together on Brecht's signature style of theater, the “epic theater,” which promotes critical thinking over emotion; they had never written a ballet together before in their native Germany. Thus, "The Seven Deadly Sins" was a result of the two writing in exile and as a result, outside influences crept into the epic theater. Therefore, "The Seven Deadly Sins" has not received the same amount of attention as Brecht and Weill's other works, which are more standard examples of epic theater. As such, instead of labeling this work as a “sung-ballet,” I argue that it should be recognized as a piece of “exilic theater.” Therefore, my work can be seen as a unique and innovative contribution to the field of German Studies, by bridging the gap between our literary field and the arts, and by strengthening growing ties between disciplines in the humanities who write on Theater and Performance Studies, Musicology, and Exile Studies.

Committee: Valerie Weinstein Ph.D. (Committee Member); Evan Torner Ph.D. (Committee Member); Joy Calico PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Germanic Literature

Bachelor of Arts (BA), Ohio University, 2020, Music

Committee: Roger Braun (Advisor) Subjects: Dance; Education; Fine Arts; Music; Music Education

Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA), Bowling Green State University, 2020, Contemporary Music

In this document I examine Brazilian composer Marlos Nobre's ballet Rhythmetron, adding to the scholarly literature available on the contributions of Latin American composers to the percussion ensemble repertoire. Using archival, ethnographic, and text-based analyses, I inquire into the genres, instruments, and performance practices of the piece, as well as its critical reception. This history reveals that the colonial relationship with black sound has continuously been re-inscribed in Brazilian cultural artifacts, and that institutional biases are upheld when determining what constitutes Art music. Through its inclusion of the Afro-Brazilian genres of samba and maracatu, Rhythmetron invites us to consider the hierarchies of valuation that govern what constitutes Brazilian popular music, art music, and ballet, revealing racialized power dynamics. I utilize postcolonial theories of hybridity to demonstrate that Rhythmetron dialogues with the Dance Theatre of Harlem's intent to reimagine and break racial expectations in the realm of classical ballet. This research reveals that what is guarded in our cultural memories is power-laden, and shows that more inclusive canonization practices can challenge existing narratives and create new ones.

Committee: Daniel Piccolo DMA (Advisor); Irina Stakhanova PhD (Other); Sidra Lawrence PhD (Committee Member); Marilyn Shrude D.M. (Committee Member) Subjects: Music; Performing Arts

DNP, Kent State University, 2019, College of Nursing

Abstract Background and Review of literature: Arts-based interventions have been studied in the cancer care setting and shown to have positive effects on pain, anxiety, depression, and various quality of life indicators. Participants of group art-based experiences often experience a deep sense of connectedness to one another, and self-awareness. Purpose: This project was designed to elicit the perceptions of the adult cancer survivor who engaged in a multi-modal expressive arts intervention in a community cancer support group setting. Methods: This project used quantitative and qualitative approach, purposive sampling from existing adult cancer survivor community support groups. Theoretical concepts from Natalie Roger's Creative Connection® informed the overall design, implementation and evaluation of the project. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected using the Expressive Arts for Cancer Survivor data collection tool consisting of a post-intervention 12-item Likert Scale survey and 7 open-ended questions developed for this research. Implementation Plan/Procedure: An expressive arts intervention consisting of drawing and painting or clay work was implemented at the Breast Cancer, Blood Cancers, and Head and Neck Cancer community support groups. Group participants were invited to explore other modalities such as expressive writing, sound, movement and group dialogue to enhance the expressive art experience. Implications/Conclusion: Expressive arts during the cancer support group setting fostered creativity, insight, and self-awareness; helping survivors learn more about their feelings. Participants experienced a deeper sense of connectedness and appreciation for others within the group. The opportunity for sharing was positively received; the arts provided a means of self-expression. Participants expressed a strong desire to discuss the use of expressive arts with their healthcare provider. Findings signal the importance of developing evidence based (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Pamela Stephenson (Committee Chair); Patricia Vermeersch (Committee Member); Tracey Motter (Committee Member) Subjects: Alternative Medicine; Arts Management; Dance; Health Care; Mental Health; Music; Nursing; Oncology; Psychology

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2016, Musicology

The animated statue represented one of the central magical figures in French musical theater of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. During the period covered by this dissertation, 1661-1748, animated statues appeared in more than sixty works of musical theater of almost every available genre. This number does not include the many works containing statues that demonstrated magical or otherworldly properties through means other than movement or song. Some of the works of this period that feature living statues are well-known to musicologists—e.g. Moliere/Jean-Baptiste Lully's comedy-ballet Les Facheux (1661), Lully's opera Cadmus et Hermione (1673), and Jean-Philippe Rameau's one-act ballet Pigmalion (1748)—while others have received little recognition. This dissertation is the first study to consider the history of animated statues on the French stage during this period, and the first to reveal music as a defining feature of these statues. Over the course of nearly ninety years, music assumed an increasingly important role in the theatrical treatments of these figures that operated in the space between magic and mechanics. At the beginning of Louis XIV's reign, animated statues appeared with some frequency in both public and court spectacles. By the mid-eighteenth century, the animated statue had become the central focus of many works and had transformed into a potent symbol of, among other ideas, the power of music and dance, as most dramatically realized in Rameau's Pigmalion. This dissertation traces the history of this transformation.

Committee: Georgia Cowart (Committee Co-Chair); Francesca Brittan (Committee Co-Chair); Susan McClary (Committee Member); Elina Gertsman (Committee Member) Subjects: Art History; Dance; European History; Music; Theater

Master of Science (MS), Ohio University, 2014, Athletic Training (Health Sciences and Professions)

Context: Substance use patterns include the use, abuse, and dependence of drugs and alcohol. The quantification of substance use patterns of performing artists has been left mostly to anecdotal evidence and autobiographies. As this topic has been explored in sport since the 1920s or earlier, performing artists have developed a culture of performance without the same rules and regulations to which athletes must adhere. Objective: To quantify the substance use patterns of use and abuse in the performing artist population. Additional information concerning injury and performance were collected in relation to substance use patterns. Setting: Online via a web-based survey using Qualtrics™. Participants: Dancers, musicians, and acting undergraduate and graduate students over the age of 18 attending a mid-sized midwestern university. Intervention: Approximately 411 participants were recruited via email by their department heads to voluntarily participate. The survey included demographic questions, two pre-validated surveys that screened for alcoholism and drug abuse, and a series of original questions concerning their substance use patterns. Main Outcome Measures: Description of the prevalence of substance use and abuse patterns in collegiate performing artists in a mid-sized midwestern university.

Committee: Chad Starkey Dr. (Advisor) Subjects: Health; Performing Arts

MA, Kent State University, 2014, College of the Arts / School of Music, Hugh A. Glauser

Globalization has brought traditional Ghanaian drum-dances to world stages, particularly in institutions of higher education in America. Ethnomusicologists utilize interdisciplinary techniques to trace a music-cultures’ continuation and change. This study compares the transmission process in the cultural context and the instruction of Ghanaian repertoire among African ensembles in American college and universities. The original hypothesis contends that the pedagogy in university African ensembles would be profoundly different from that of the authentic Ghanaian perspective, thereby reinforcing a divergence in music cognition between learners in the two cultures. Part I: Introduction establishes the parameters of the research and provides a brief description of the Ghanaian musical context. The Research Design section provides an explanation of the participant-observer research methodology during my fieldwork in Ghana and the United States, as well as a briefing on the comparative method used between the two cultures. Insight into teaching perspectives and student cognition that resulted from the variables of different pedagogical techniques was gained through observing of multiple university African ensembles in rehearsal and performance. Interviews were conducted and questionnaires were collected for hard data. Features of the music-culture vital to the socialization method and music cognition are addressed, with particular attention given to the intersubjective collectiveness found in nearly every facet of West African life and the emic musical concepts of melorhythm and Ensemble Thematic Cycle (E.T.C.). The bulk of the fieldwork is presented in Part 2: Teaching Techniques and Learning Processes. The first section surveys the teaching and learning perspectives of the traditional socialization methods of the Ghanaian people. The oral method and informal style are clarified and further non-written methods and instances of formality found in certain Ghanaia (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Kazadi wa Mukuna PhD (Advisor); Denise Seachrist PhD (Committee Member); Thomas Janson DMA (Committee Member); Halim El-Dabh PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: African Studies; Cultural Anthropology; Fine Arts; Multicultural Education; Music; Music Education; Pedagogy; Performing Arts

DMA, University of Cincinnati, 2007, College-Conservatory of Music : Composition

The Cardiac Dance—The Spirals of Lifeis a one-act ballet inspired by the work of Drs. Francisco Torrent-Guasp and Gerald Buckberg. The "cardiac dance" is the twisting, pulsing rhythms of the human heart in motion, and "the spirals of life" refers to the natural helical shape of the heart muscle. Based on the work of Torrent-Guasp, Buckberg developed a new approach to dealing with congestive heart failure. This is the music for the original production, which premiered at the CCM Spring Dance concert on May 25-26, 2007. It is one part of the attempt to depict this revolutionary concept through dance, music and multimedia. The piece begins with dancers demonstrating the notion that the spiral is a recurring formation throughout nature. The heart is one of these spirals, and Dr. Torrent-Guasp demonstrated that the heart unwinds like one continuous piece of rope. Scene One continues by mimicking the motion of a healthy heart. When the heart is healthy, it is conical in shape, like a football. In this shape, the heart is able to beat normally in a twisting/untwisting motion. Scene Two begins with a heart attack, and is followed by a progression into heart failure. When the heart becomes unhealthy, it loses its helical shape and becomes round like a basketball. Once the heart has lost its helical shape, it can no longer twist and untwist very well, thereby getting tired easily and losing its synchronous rhythm. Scene Three represents the real lives that are affected by the tragedy of heart failure and ends with the decision to have the surgical procedure pioneered by Dr. Buckberg. In Scene Four, the surgery is performed, effectively transforming the basketball back into a football. Scene Five represents the joy in the restoration of this natural spiral formation and the conclusions that can be drawn from these recent discoveries. For more information on the science behind the cardiac dance, please see http://www.helicalheart.com/. The website for The Cardiac Dance project (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Dr. Mara Helmuth (Advisor) Subjects: Music

DMA, University of Cincinnati, 2006, College-Conservatory of Music : Composition

Throughout the 20th century, composers have written works reflecting or portraying different states of time consciousness. Not infrequently, such compositions have been stimulated by composer-choreographer collaborations, such as the one between John Cage and Merce Cunningham. The present work is also the result of a collaboration, with choreographer Eliza Miller. The theme is that peculiar state of consciousness we call "absent-mindedness," in which we move through time and space apparently only subliminally aware of our surroundings and ourselves, mentally preoccupied with our own memories, inner monologues, melodies, plan-making, and so on. Most of us are familiar with the experience of emerging from such a fog and suddenly becoming aware of ourselves and others. The challenge to explore such states musically is analogous to the philosophical problem posed by Heidegger: how to articulate absence in a language of presence. Neither the repetitive structures of minimalism nor the progressive structures of more teleological musical languages reflect a state of mind that is neither trance-like nor narrative, but somewhere in between. In "Sideways" I have tried to find and develop a musical language both adequate to this task and inspiring to my esteemed artistic collaborator and her fine dance company.

Committee: Dr. Joel Hoffman (Advisor) Subjects: Music