Graduate Student Work

Music and Movement: Katherine Dunham's Influence on American Dance

Kristine Graybar — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 11:25:11 PDT

Takarazuka for the Family: Japanese All-Women’s Musical Theater and Traditional Gender Perceptions

Kay Satoh — Fri, 11 May 2012 08:52:38 PDT

Takarazuka, the Japanese all-female musical theater troupe has been inspiring Japanese audiences since 1913, when it first began as a place for training young girls to becoming ryosai kenbo, or “good wives, wise mothers.” The women are assigned either as a musumeyaku (daughter-role) or otokoyaku (male-role) when performing on stage. The founder, Ichizo Kobayashi hoped that the training through the Takarazuka Music School as well as the experience of performing male roles would strengthen the character of these young women, ultimately preparing them for marriage. Around 1930, he also created the school motto, “Kiyoku, tadashiku, utsukushiku,” meaning “[With] purity, righteousness and beauty,” to clearly state the type of women Takarazuka was promoting. This paper will closely examine how Takarazuka influences the audience’s perception on gender roles and sexuality, and whether it challenges or supports the traditional family idealism.

BUT WHAT IS IT SAYING? TRANSLATING THE MUSICAL LANGUAGE OF STRAVINSKY’S THREE PIECES FOR CLARINET SOLO

Derek Emch — Mon, 07 May 2012 06:53:00 PDT

In response to questions of interpretation of his music, Igor Stravinsky has said simply to let the notes speak for themselves. In this paper I will translate the language of Stravinsky’s music in his Three Pieces for Clarinet Solo. I will demonstrate the following: how Stravinsky was able to derive a harmonic structure out of melodic content, thereby creating a two-dimensional space; the formal structure of each of the three Pieces; and relationships between Three Pieces and another of Stravinsky’s works, L’Histoire du Soldat. This analysis will serve as my translation of Stravinsky’s musical language, which will then be compared to scholarly research conducted regarding the Three Pieces.

CHAMBER STUDY TO PULITZER PRIZE: A COMPARISON OF GEORGE CRUMB’S ELEVEN ECHOES OF AUTUMN, 1965 (ECHOES I) AND ECHOES OF TIME AND RIVER (ECHOES II)

Jonathan Micheal Goodman — Mon, 02 May 2011 07:17:48 PDT

The Clarinet Concerti that Inspired the Composition of the Six Clarinet Concerti of Johann Melchior Molter

Jonathan Micheal Goodman — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 13:40:14 PDT

Schumann, Wolf, and Mörike’s "Das Verlassene Mägdlein:" A Stylistic Comparison

Emily Cline — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 12:33:41 PST

Eduard Mörike’s Das Verlassene Mägdlein is among the most commonly set texts by lieder composers of the nineteenth century. Among these, the settings of Robert Schumann and Hugo Wolf are two of the finest. This paper briefly explores the circumstances in which these two settings were written by their respective composers; Schumann’s travels and the death of his son in 1847 and Wolf’s Liederjahr of 1888. Following is a comparative analysis of the musical content of both settings which takes into account melody, rhythm, form, accompaniment, and text setting. The finding is that Schumann’s more restricted contrapuntal style is as suitable a setting as Wolf’s highly dissonant, post-Wagnerian masterpiece.

Bringing Broadway Home: Organizing a Broadway Pit Orchestra in an Amateur Setting

Laurie Lewis — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 12:24:46 PST

In an ideal musical world, one would have access to all of the instruments, instrumentalists, and financial resources needed to fully reproduce a Broadway pit orchestra. However, in this age of expanding technology, live orchestras are replaced with pre-recorded music, synthesizers, and products like Virtual Orchestra. This paper analyzes amateur theaters’ options for recreating a Broadway pit orchestra without resorting to the aforementioned options, provides an application of this analysis, and briefly discusses the debate of Virtual Orchestra versus live musicians.