Browsing by Subject "Composition"

Now showing 1 - 15 of 15
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    45 Minutes For 128 Musicians
    (2015-06) Bergmann, Andrew
    45 Minutes for 128 Musicians has demonstrated a wide range of possibilities regarding the sincere incorporation of improvisational and improvisationally-derived procedures in orchestral composition. Huge groupings of people have made music together almost exclusively in traditional settings. I finish this project expecting that the methods and technologies of modern studio production, as well as the eternal artistic migration towards new forms and new textures, will hasten the development of new orchestral textures. This production of this piece provides one such example.
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    Bartleby Goes to College: A Pragmatist Critique of Writing in Schools
    (2012-06) Williams, Matthew Clark
    Writing instruction, particularly at the post-secondary level, stands at a crossroads. Since the attainment of some level of post-secondary education has become a near mandatory requirement for participation in the contemporary economy, students increasingly describe their decision to go to college as a foregone conclusion. The university level first-year writing course, itself a traditional gate-keeper to post-secondary education, thus occupies a critical space at the confluence of these powerful and interrelated forces. Further, because of this alignment to the economic demands of college preparedness, most if not all levels of writing instruction will be affected in various ways. Unfortunately, these elements enter into a dangerous contradiction when the economic growth everything is predicated upon falters--precisely what has occurred during the "Great Recession" that started in 2007.Based on fieldwork conducted in a high school level college preparation writing class, this dissertation explores the consequences of these contradictions. In particular, this project starts with an observed phenomenon in the classroom in which many students simply "preferred not to" work on their writing assignments. Using this "Bartleby Syndrome" as a mechanism of problematizing the field of post-secondary writing instruction, this project builds a philosophical critique of the relationship between human action and the social, political, and economic environment in which students write. Central to this task is a reconsideration of what American Pragmatism, specifically John Dewey's work, can offer the field of composition. In doing so, this study not only offers a different perspective on some of composition's most vexing challenges, but also builds on the Pragmatist tradition to suggest ways the field of writing instruction can retain and revitalize its long standing project of expanding democracy in the United States.
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    The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari: An Original Film Score
    (2019-04) Palbicki, Casey
    The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari: An Original Film Score is a multi-movement work that accompanies the German silent horror film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920). The work features a rather unusual combination of eastern and western acoustic instruments in a format traditional to the Hollywood film composition idiom. The audio recording of the score was produced using MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) virtual studio technology instruments (VSTi). However, the score is intended for, and translatable to live multi-media presentations of the film with chamber ensemble accompaniment. This supporting document contains: A discussion of my thoughts on the film and film score, a detailed discussion of film music elements and methodology, details of my own methodology with a breakdown of the music cues, motivic development, synchronization, an outline of the unique orchestration of the score, all of the cues in score/narrative order, and lastly, my assessment of the overall project and aspirations for future film scoring endeavors.
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    Composition's Terms of Use: The Pedagogical Implications of Learning Management Systems
    (2023-05) Brenden, Mark
    This dissertation is a critical study of the contemporary relationship between education and technology. It develops a philosophy on technology that both tries to make sense of the specific technologies our universities have chosen to embrace and imagines ways of making critical use of them. The intersection of this treatment of technology and education is Composition and Rhetoric, a pedagogical field. The application of this intersection, then, is a study of a particular, prominent technology of composition pedagogy, which is the Learning Management System. This pedagogical technology is explored in three main ways: narrative-based analysis of three case studies of student writing on the platform, rhetorical analysis of one LMS company’s public discourse, and content analysis of one LMS’s internal architecture. The dissertation finds that LMS companies rely on neoliberal rhetorical syllogisms which bypass public deliberation over enthymemes concerning the purposes of higher education, and thus join an assemblage of rhetorical projects that unite higher education with neoliberal interests. These enthymemes are the “terms of use” teachers and students accept. Finally, new terms of use are forwarded based on an updated method of critical literacy.
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    High theory, the teaching of writing, and the crisis of the University.
    (2012-07) Pawlowski, Lucia
    Post-structuralism, a theory of signs for written texts, would seem an obvious resource for a field like Composition Studies that has "writing" at its center. Yet the post-structuralist turn in Composition Studies is hamstrung by the deep division between camps in the field that are committed to political critique on the one hand or to textual critique on the other. In this polarization, too often post-structuralism is posited as mere ludic play, while serious political critique is considered the domain of other bodies of research, such as social-epistemic rhetoric. Political critique is especially important at this historical juncture for academia, where the neoliberalization of the university means a less just university. While social-epistemic rhetoric is necessary to a political critique, social-epistemic rhetoric is insufficient because it lacks a micropolitical critique--one that works at the level of specific institutions (in this case, the university). The exemplary case of social-epistemic work that is necessarily political but insufficiently micropoiltical is David Bartholomae's "Inventing the University." In this essay, he argues that composition teachers must teach first-year writing students the conventions of academic discourse as one would teach the social conventions of any culture in order to acculturate the newcomers. This project posits queer theory as a micropolitical post-structuralism: a theory that can co-articulate post-structuralism and social-epistemic rhetoric, while paying attention to the kind of institution into which students are expected to be acculturated (academia). Queer theory, with its critique of heternormativity, has obvious political implications. At the same time, with its post-humanist notion of the subject and of semiotics, queer theory is post-structuralist. This dissertation proposes that composition teachers use the concept of "drag" in queer theory to "teach academic discourse in drag," which means to teach academic discourse as a kind of identity--like gender--that students "perform" without identifying with or subscribing to the institution--neoliberalized academia--from which its emanates. I propose a "rhetoric of drag" for post-structuralist composition teachers who are critical of the neoliberal university. This professional rhetoric consolidates the diverse attempts in social-epistemic rhetoric to teach academic discourse while critiquing academia for its neoliberalization. But the metaphor of drag does more than consolidate existing statements in Composition Studies: the metaphor of "drag" politicizes the process of acculturation in a way that "inventing" does not. The metaphor of "drag" draws attention to how the discourse of any oppressive institution--be it heteronormativity or academia--is exclusionary, oppressive, and compels a creative, parodic response. By teaching academic discourse in drag, college writing teachers give students the opportunity to reconcile the need to learn the discursive conventions of academia even while resisting the institution of academia. The act of disidentification that "drag" offers has special purchase for marginalized students--first-generation students, students of color, and working-class students--who already have a resistant or oppositional relationship to academia. Teaching academic discourse in drag acknowledges this oppositional stance, a stance that we can expect to become more prevalent the "non-traditional" student becomes the norm in our writing classrooms.
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    Maybe also colony: and yet another critique of the assessment community
    (2014-07) Harms, Keith Lawrence
    This dissertation first uses Jarratt's feminist sophistic historiography as a method to read the influence of the Scottish Enlightenment on linguistic theories that carry through in current literacy education and composition classroom practice. It then traces the influence of American Imperialism at the turn of the 20th Century on the continuation of these same theories into current assessment practice. Additionally, a pilot study is conducted surveying students about their perception of assessment practices and reads these survey responses through a postcolonial lens in order to shed light on the ways that we use assessments to sort and track incoming college students based on imperialist notions of language use and development.
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    Minnesota Taconite Workers Health Study: Environmental Study of Airborne Particulate Matter in Mesabi Iron Range Communities and Taconite Processing Plants - A Characterization of the Mineral Component of Particulate Matter
    (University of Minnesota Duluth, 2019-12) Monson Geerts, Stephen D; Hudak, George J; Marple, Virgil; Lundgren, Dale; Zanko, Lawrence M; Olson, Bernard; Bandli, Bryan
    The Minnesota Taconite Workers Health Study (MTWHS) was initiated in 2008 and included a multicomponent study to further understand taconite worker health issues on the Mesabi Iron Range (MIR) in northeastern Minnesota. Approximately $4.9 million funding was provided by the Minnesota Legislature to conduct five separate studies related to this initiative, including:  An Occupational Exposure Assessment, conducted by the University of Minnesota School of Public Health (SPH);  A Mortality (Cause of Death) study, conducted by the University of Minnesota SPH;  Incidence studies, conducted by the University of Minnesota SPH;  A Respiratory Survey of Taconite Workers and Spouses, conducted by the University of Minnesota SPH; and  An Environmental Study of Airborne Particulate Matter, conducted by the Natural Resources Research Institute (NRRI) at the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD). Results of the four studies conducted by the University of Minnesota SPH can be found on the Taconite Workers Health Study website (http://taconiteworkers.umn.edu/news/documents/Taconite_FinalReport_120114.pdf). NRRI’s “Environmental Study of Airborne Particulate Matter” comprises a multi-faceted characterization of size-fractionated airborne particulate matter (PM) from MIR community “rooftop” locations, background sites, and all taconite processing facilities active between 2008 and 2014. Characterization includes gravimetric determinations, chemical characterization, mineralogical characterization, and morphological characterization. This report specifically discusses the mineralogy and morphology of EMPs collected from the rooftops of five communities located within the MIR, three reference or background locations, and the six taconite processing plants. The samples were collected between 2008 and 2011.
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    Minnesota Taconite Workers Health Study: Environmental Study of Airborne Particulate Matter in Mesabi Iron Range Communities and Taconite Processing Plants - Elemental Chemistry of Particulate Matter
    (University of Minnesota Duluth, 2019-12) Monson Geerts, Stephen D; Hudak, George J; Marple, Virgil; Lundgren, Dale; Gordee, Sarah M; Olson, Bernard; Zanko, Lawrence M
    The Minnesota Taconite Workers Health Study (MTWHS) was initiated in 2008 and included a multicomponent study to further understand taconite worker health issues on the Mesabi Iron Range (MIR) in northeastern Minnesota. Approximately $4.9 million funding was provided by the Minnesota Legislature to conduct five separate studies related to this initiative, including: ▪ An Occupational Exposure Assessment, conducted by the University of Minnesota School of Public Health (SPH); ▪ A Mortality (Cause of Death) study, conducted by the University of Minnesota SPH; ▪ Incidence studies, conducted by the University of Minnesota SPH; ▪ A Respiratory Survey of Taconite Workers and Spouses, conducted by the University of Minnesota SPH; and ▪ An Environmental Study of Airborne Particulate Matter, conducted by the Natural Resources Research Institute (NRRI) at the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD). NRRI’s “Environmental Study of Airborne Particulate Matter” comprises a multi-faceted characterization of size-fractionated airborne particulate matter (PM) from MIR community “rooftop” locations, background sites, and all taconite processing facilities active between 2008 and 2014. Characterization includes gravimetric determinations, chemical characterization, mineralogical characterization, and morphological characterization. This report specifically discusses the elemental chemistry of particulate matter (PM) collected from the rooftops of five communities located within the Mesabi Iron Range (MIR), three reference or background locations, and the six taconite processing plants while they were active (operating) and inactive (temporarily, but completely, shut down). The samples were collected between 2008 and 2011.
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    Negotiating Boundaries in Research on Native American Authors
    (Voices from the Gaps, 2004) Steeves, Carolyn
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    Nexus Project: three electro-acoustic compositions.
    (2012-05) Wartchow, Brett A.
    This Ph.D. dissertation consists of three compositions--a concert piece, an intermedia collaboration, and a structured improvisation--presented as digital audio recordings. This project aimed to meet two objectives. At the most conceptual level I attempted to explore how uniquely conceived electro-acoustic sound design could, as both a compositional tool and performance environment, simultaneously accentuate and obliterate the boundaries of individual performance gesture. My second goal was to create three elegantly conceived compositions and present them as digital audio recordings. This accompanying paper details the project's underpinning concepts and the creative processes resulting in its realization.
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    Resonant Trajectories
    (2015-05) Curiale, Joseph
    Abstract My musical composition, Resonant Trajectories is the first entirely electronic PhD dissertation in Music Composition in the history of the University of Minnesota School of Music. Based on NASA's Voyager deep space missions, the six-movement composition exemplifies how software-based virtual instruments have largely replaced their historical hardware predecessors in the creation of modern music and, to some degree, modern film scores. Embellished with virtuosic electric bass and electric guitar solos, and recorded to a music industry-standard digital platform, the audio component of the dissertation is accompanied by this written essay that offers complete technical data and detailed synthesizer sound generation and effects parameters, recording track diagrams, and compositional insights. This musical endeavor not only helps bridge art, science, and culture, but also blurs the boundaries between musical genres and performance spaces (the concert hall vs. the disco). It brings Trance-generated, electronic dance music sounds and rhythms (EDM) and Jazz improvisation to traditional concert music audiences, at the same time giving pop music dance audiences the opportunity to experience elements of their music synthesized for the concert hall.
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    Rethinking the teaching of grammar from the perspective of corpus linguistics
    (Linguistic Research, 2019) Beard, David; Park, Chongwon; Wright, Elizabethada; Regal, Ron
    Despite calls from many composition and rhetoric scholars for instructors of writing to stop teaching prescriptive grammar, a vast number of handbooks intended for college writing classes encourage this tradition. For example, Hacker’s Pocket Style Manual has a section on grammar with instructions for students on how to write appropriately. While Hacker may not intend for her instructions to be taken as dictums, they often are, and much time is spent in many classrooms teaching students these rules of grammar. This article uses the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) to support the calls from composition and rhetoric scholars that prescriptive instruction in grammar is more a hindrance to writing instruction than a benefit. Focusing on a few specifics from frequently used grammar handbooks and illustrating how big data shows the “rules” are incorrect at best, this article argues that, just as scholars of English have begun using big data to better understand literary history, scholars of rhetoric and composition might better understand how to help students to write by understanding patterns within big data. Certainly, this argument recognizes that “common usage” may not necessarily be the most eloquent usage. In making this argument, this article focuses on the [neither or either of X] + Verb construction, where the Verb may have either a plural or a singular form. Our findings illustrate that the “real world” writing is different from what textbooks dictate, and we suggest the data-driven observations need to be appropriately incorporated in writing classes.
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    Some Ideas for Using VG in Literature and Composition Classrooms
    (Voices from the Gaps, 2004) Zavialova, Masha
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    The Wunderkammer Interface
    (2017-05) Klein, Benjamin
    The Wunderkammer Interface is a nonhierarchical composition that invites an improvising musician to interact with twenty-five modules of composed digital audio processing. The musician who is engaging with the interface has the option to activate these modules independently, as a progression, or as overlapping processing schemes. The Wunderkammer Interface was designed in the SuperCollider audio processing environment. The interactive structure of The Wunderkammer Interface is based on the fluidity between the roles of creator, participant, and listener possible through this work. The performances described in this paper demonstrate unique realizations of The Wunderkammer Interface through different interactions with the interface.