College of Music

"On the late-cinquecento stage, where characters were often described in terms of their city of origin, the personage of the Venetian merchant was a nearly ubiquitous presence. Recognizable by his great age, his great wealth (or greed), and his marked Venetian accent, the Magnifico was frequently cast as a ridiculous lover hopelessly chasing after an unattainable young lady or courtesan. Contemporary theatrical images of the Magnifico or Pantalone often portray him in the act that symbolizes this pursuit: singing a serenade at his beloved´s window.

The giustiniana, a sort of Venetian villanella, has long been associated with the Venetian mask, but recent discoveries show that the genre has more to tell us not just about cinquecento theater but also about the society from which it emerged and which it reflected in its parody. This paper explores how the giustiniana and its literary corollaries express notions of love and amorous pursuit in sixteenth-century Venice."

Given how often the late sixteenth-century giustiniana is glossed as the lecherous stammering of three Pantalones (cf., most memorably, Einstein and Rubsamen), the repertoire’s heterogeneity may well come as a surprise. The features that typify the genre are specific: Venetian texts, comically lusty subject matter, a trio of low voices, and stammering text setting, together with frequent voice crossing, stretto imitation, and triadic passages. Yet, beyond the “typical” giustiniana, there is significant variety. Some pieces are a complex mixture of homophony and counterpoint; others are simple in the extreme. Stammering may be drawn out to stupendous lengths or may simply pepper a song. Not all of the texts are comedic, nor are they all in third-person plural. In this paper, I argue that the distinctions are a remnant of the performance practices from which the genre grew and, further, that they index how they were created. 
A significant portion of the repertoire consists of homophonic works with interpolated sections of imitation and/or stammering. This modular construction, I contend, reveals how giustiniane—and their unwritten counterparts—were improvised as elaborations of simple songs drawing on improvisatory techniques from both theater and counterpoint. In the unscripted commedia dell’arte, actors deploy stock gags and routines called lazzi in breaks in the action. I argue that the giustiniana’s musical hallmarks of stretto imitation, voice crossing, and triadic motion function as musical lazzi, and that the techniques are, in turn, products of the simple rules governing improvised counterpoint.
The giustiniana’s connections to theater, especially the work of Venetian writer and comico Andrea Calmo, are well documented (cf. Pirrotta, Brunello, and Fabbri), but scholars have focused on traces of extemporized solo song. By building on recent studies of contrappunto alla mente (by Canguilhem, Schubert, and others) and situating the genre in Venetian salons where professional musicians and professional actors crossed paths, I make the first full accounting of the genre’s intensely contrapuntal nature that takes into consideration the specialized performative context in which it was created.

Many universally recognized jazz masters have been drawn toward spirituality and/or religion. Some have fused various sonic elements of religious musics with jazz, while others have been known to musically adapt intellectual or emotional themes found in sacred texts. There are also those who have not only realized an inseparable bond between their music and their faith, but who have found lifelong purpose and fulfillment through spiritual and/or religious discipline. Yusef Lateef, Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane not only devoted themselves to the pursuit of musical mastery but also to the pursuit of self-realization. This paper discusses the unique paths each took to get there as well as their similar desire to connect with a deeper part of themselves.

This paper examines the existence of Jazz as black-American music, from the perspective of current-day black artists. It is the goal of this ethnomusicological study, which will survey not only the particulars, and narratives, but also the interpretives of the matter, to expose various perspectives on jazz and black-American music within current-day society, in hopes of shedding more light on an ongoing conversation regarding race relations.

This paper examines specific musical elements of Clifford Brown’s improvised solo on “Hot House”, from the recording “Live at the Bee Hive". Solos from live recordings, such as this one, give a window into the history and existence of the art of extended improvisation from an era before such solos were being documented in studio sessions. Clifford Brown used the extended format to develop musical ideas and display a variety of techniques which add coherence and interest over this longer time frame.
Citing examples from the score, I have discussed and detailed his use of the following features:
1. Thematic Development and the Variety of Techniques Used to Achieve It 2. Rhythmic Tendencies and Contrasts
3. Phrasing Structure and Pacing
4. Melodic Construction and Intervallic Shapes
5. Harmonic Approach
6. Trumpet-Specific Instrumental Devices
In addition, I have mentioned other aspects of this solo which I consider to be important, and have described them with detailed analysis.

This paper explores the theory and rhetoric behind select sonic occurrences within Johann Sebastian Bach’s Prelude No. 3 in C# Major from his Well-Tempered Clavier Book 1. In addition, as a secondary component to this research, I briefly describe how the prelude was adapted and re-imagined for modern-day jazz quartet instrumentation by Grammy-nominated MacArthur Fellow and saxophonist, Miguel Zenon. This supplement will finalize the paper, and is written in support of a live presentation and performance of the Zenon piece, titled “J.S.B.”

Although only 2% of Americans bought jazz albums in 2014, Edward Sarath is as confident as ever that jazz music can help our world on a scale that most would probably not consider. Fellow for the American Council of Learned Societies, the Ford Foundation, the National Center for Institutional Diversity, and the National Endowment of the Arts, sets out in his book, Improvisation, Creativity and Consciousness, to not only prove the need for major changes within academia’s approach to jazz education and overall musical pedagogy, but also how powerful an effect such changes could have on society. I have structured this review in three parts: The introduction will serve as background on the author and subject matter, accessorized with my own opinions. Part 1 is a discussion of the books themes and contents accompanied by my own commentary, and Part 2 is my takeaway and opinions on the book.

For the purposes of this paper I have selected 1 composition from Rosenwinkel's album "The Enemies of Energy" to analyze under the lens of a post-bop observer, in that I will be examining those selections for techniques of postbop composition, including but not limited to:

-expanded forms
-enhanced options for harmonic progression
-phrase groupings that depart from conventional 4-and 8-bar frameworks
-axis progressions
-harmonies that progress in locally functional ways, but within compositions in which a single tonic is uncertain
-the absence or suppression of functional harmonic progressions and/or use of alternative cadential progressions
-common structure progressions, sometimes using stepwise motion in the bass
-bass pedal points beneath shifting harmonies
-characteristic harmonies, such as sus chords and slash chords, along with harmonies characteristic of earlier styles
-harmonic rhythm with chord changes every half-measure, measure, or every two measures
-transformative aspects of harmonic progressions and harmonic/melodic interplay

I will also add that within the post-bop era we see unique freedoms enacted in respect to form and improvisation. We often find ambiguity and circularity in regard to form, usually created by any of the aforementioned elements and/or their combinations. We also find the improvisational component to diverge from the written material, whether it be alternate changes, alternate meter/hyper-meter, alternate form, absence of form, or other manipulations in regard to the improvisational sections’ divergence from the written material. This Rosenwinkel composition exhibits all of these characteristics.

This paper will explore the first movement of John Coltrane's Meditations suite for the sole purpose of discovering and revealing the ways in which the musical content directly relates to specific religious and otherwise spiritual ideas that are seemingly represented by the music.

Solo transcription is an interesting topic of discussion among jazz pedagogues. While some preach its necessity in the process of achieving fluency as an improviser, others would attest to the exact opposite. Whether the benefits of transcribing can be measured, musicians have utilized the process for as long as jazz has existed, and for mainly one reason – to learn the science behind improvised content creation. There are other benefits to transcribing, such as for the purpose of ear training or for technical exercises, but overall, transcribing deals with the musical application of tangible, surface-level sonic phenomena.

Must the benefits of transcribing cease where the note-heads end, however? What if through the medium of solo transcription, an improviser could actually connect with the person playing, and not just with what they played? Taking that further, could the process of transcription itself potentially serve as a channeling device, and bring us closer to etherealities that inform the player’s music-making; emanations of the human spirit, like intention, energy,
and will? While I have done much transcribing over the years, and also much spiritual work, I hadn’t had the thought to attempt to combine the two in such a way; until recently.

The purpose of this report is to take an in depth look into the mind of one of the greatest trumpet players, musicians, and human beings that has ever lived, Clifford Benjamin Brown. I have provided detailed analysis and categorizations of vocabulary, patterns, and specific practice habits of this great individual, the data of which I have transcribed from two specific audio recordings of Clifford practicing in 1954 at his home in Philadelphia.

In approaching this realisation it was important to determine the musical function of the organ and the trombone. The use of trombone, in particular, has for some time been an issue of contention for historians and musicologists. In order to make informed decisions several sources were consulted, included three editions of the full score: Sussmayr's version; Eulenberg miniature score (edited by Blume) 1932; Kunzelmann Edition (with orchestrations by Franz Beyer) 1971. Facsimile pages in Mozart's hand were also examined.

Paul Chambers is arguably one of the most important jazz bass players of the post bop-era. His influence on subsequent generations of jazz bassists can be considered a critical bridge between the acknowledged innovations of pre-bop bass players Jimmy Blanton and Oscar Pettiford and the iconic bass players of the 1960s and 70s, like Scott LaFaro, Ron Carter and Stanley Clarke. He has been described by critics and musicians alike as the ‘Bird of the Bass’, placing his importance in the jazz bass world on par with the importance of Charlie Parker on the history and evolution of jazz. It is my intention in this paper to demonstrate on myriad levels the veracity of this claim, while presenting a general overview of the career of Paul Chambers.

The stage will be set with a short biography and a thorough discographical review.  Following this background information will be analyses of Paul Chamber’s sound and technical approach to his instrument as well as detailed analysis of PC’s walking, soloing and approach to time and rhythm.  Through all of these explorations of the work of Paul Chambers will be threads leading to how he can genuinely be considered the Bird of the Bass.