DMA, University of Cincinnati, 2019, College-Conservatory of Music: Violin

Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst was a Moravian violinist and composer who lived between 1814-1865. He was a friend of Brahms, collaborator with Mendelssohn, and was admired by Berlioz and Joachim. He was known as a violin virtuoso and composed many virtuosic works including an arrangement of Schubert's Erlkonig for solo violin. The focus of this document will be on his Six Etudes for Solo Violin in Multiple Voices (also known as the Six Polyphonic Etudes). These pieces were published without opus number around 1862-1864. The etudes combine many different technical challenges with musical sensitivity. They were so difficult that the composer never gave a public performance of them. No. 6 is the most famous of the set, and has been performed by soloists in recent years. Ernst takes the difficulty level to the extreme and combines different layers of techniques within one hand. For example, the second etude has a passage that combines chords and left-hand pizzicato, and the sixth etude has a passage that combines harmonics with double stops. Etudes from other composers might contain these techniques but not simultaneously. The polyphonic nature allows for this layering of difficulties in Ernst's Six Polyphonic Etudes. There are many more examples like these that can be found in the etudes. The purpose of this document is to help performers master these layers of technical challenges in a systematic way.

Committee: Won-Bin Yim D.M.A. (Committee Chair); Jonathan Kregor Ph.D. (Committee Member); Samuel Ng Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Performing Arts

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

The complexity of atonal musical structures has led theorists to offer varying analyses of atonal works. This ambiguity stems from the intricacies of human perception: Is it possible to state a definitive analysis when perceptions differ? In order to justify a segmentation, the analyst must provide supporting evidence in the music. Due to the wide range of perception, this evidence yields analyses that are more or less persuasive, but neither correct nor incorrect. David S. Lefkowitz and Kristin Taavola, however, propose a mathematical model that defines a correct segmentation. This thesis briefly compares Lefkowitz and Taavola's mathematical theory to James Tenney and Larry Polansky's perception-based theory. Tenney and Polansky's theory is rooted in visual Gestalt perception and provides the foundation for Dora A. Hanninen's segmentation theory. I then employ Hanninen's analytical framework to identify segmentational boundaries that support published analyses of two atonal works: the fourth of Anton Webern's Funf Satze, Op. 5 and an excerpt from Arnold Schoenberg's Klavierstucke, Op. 11, No. 1. I apply two of Hanninen's three segmentational criteria: the sonic, which refers to acoustical properties, and the contextual, which refers to categorizations, such as set-classes. Lefkowitz and Taavola note that Tenney and Polansky's theory cannot be applied to polyphony. Although Tenney and Polansky concede this point, Hanninen encourages the use of her theory for polyphonic segmentation. She does not, however, provide a method for addressing polyphony. Thus, I combine aspects from Lefkowitz and Taavola's simultaneous analysis with Hanninen's theory in order to formulate a basic method for segmenting polyphonic music. I find that sonic and contextual criteria in the music strongly support the analyses by George Perle, Allen Forte, Gary Wittlich, and Charles Burkhart. Due to the emphasis of set-class theory for atonal analysis, there is an inherent reliance on contextual c (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Per F. Broman PhD (Committee Chair); Gene Trantham PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Music