In 2001, the release of Fantasies and Delusions officially announced Billy Joel’s remarkable career transition from popular songwriting to classical instrumental music composition. Representing Joel’s eclectic aesthetic ...

This thesis examines acts of musical repression conducted in Germany, Russia, and China under the governments of Hitler, Stalin, and Mao. These countries and their repressive periods are compared in several different ways: ...

Within the world of music history, choral music seems to drop off of the map with the end of the Baroque era, and only a handful of major works, such as masses and oratorios, are typically studied in an academic setting. ...

Paul Simon's Graceland album is one of the most controversial rock-and-roll albums in history because of its strong connection with South Africa during the apartheid. Simon's interest in South African music led him to ...

Scenes From The City is a one-movement orchestral work approximately ten and a half minutes in duration. The work was inspired by a weekend trip to New York City in January of 2005. It is a programmatic piece, with obvious ...

Of Fire and Rain is an eleven-minute work for full orchestra. Through its musical materials it explores the idea of two contrasting elements, fire and water, as symbols. Conflict, balance, suffering, and healing are among ...

This study focuses on the 1980s thrash metal music of Metallica. It analyzes the harmonic and melodic nature of Metallica's riffs and examines how musical processes help shape the formal structures of these riffs. Drawing ...

American playwright David Lindsay-Abaire’s central subject of interest is a world turned upside down by hardship and pain. Although commonly labeled a dark farce, Lindsay-Abaire’s 1999 play, Fuddy Meers, is haunted by the ...

British blues guitarists emerging in the mid-1960s incorporated a musical vocabulary which borrowed heavily from recordings of the modern blues' African-American, postwar originators. Crucial differences in the way the ...

Spark for Wind Ensemble is an attempt to compose an accessible and exciting piece of concert music for the wind ensemble that possesses a depth and richness rarely achieved within the medium’s repertoire. The idea of a ...