Masters Theses

Date of Award

12-1998

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Music

Major

Music

Major Professor

Kenneth A. Jacobs

Committee Members

Jerry Coker, Benjamin Boone

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the historical development of electronic and electroacoustic music, and to analyze specific works for piano and tape. Six works were selected for their unique contributions to the genre, including Mario Davidovsky's Synchronisms No. 6 (1970), Arthur Kreiger's Fantasy (1979), James Primosch's Secret Geometry (1992), Barbara Kolb's Solitaire (1971), Joji Yuasa's Toward “The Midnight Sun", and Kenneth Jacobs' Tracing Infinity (1989). Soliloquy for Piano and Tape (1998) by Jonathan Peters will also be examined and placed into historical perspective. Problems involved in writing for instrument and tape will be discussed, including different methods of synchronization with live instruments and the notation of electronic sounds. Issues relating to form and the emotional and aesthetic implications of writing for this genre will also be discussed.

The primary means of acquiring data was the examination of scores and recordings of the above mentioned works. The results of the study are that composers have employed many different means for notating electronic sounds, and for synchronizing them with live instruments. Composers have also taken different approaches to issues involving the importance of the instrumentalist and the dramatic impact of a musical work. The study further concludes that Soliloquy for Piano and Tape contains several of the compositional techniques found in the representative works, while emphasizing some that are less common to the genre.

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