R-3 Repository :: Browsing by Author "Stallmann, Kurt"

Browsing by Author "Stallmann, Kurt"

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A Kind of Stillness Glows (a Paul Klee)
(2004) Watson, Erin; Stallmann, Kurt
A Kind of Stillness Glows explores a microcosmic view of nature's dynamic growth process. A hundred rhythms spontaneously come into being and pass away as forces disturb and balance each other through pitch and time/space. All are governed, however, by the fundamental law of gravitation, a shimmering undercurrent of pedal tones traded between the instrumental families while contracting and expanding in range.
A String Player’s Guide to Evaluating Sound and Playability: Language and Principles for Communicating About String Instruments and Quantifying their Characteristics
(2022-04-21) Lammers, Matthew Swanke; Stallmann, Kurt; Kantor, Paul
This document will provide string instrument players with principles, vocabulary, and procedures for communication and assessment that have, in my seven years of research with luthier Keith Hill (Brentwood, TN), made conversations about sound and playability comprehensible, precise, fearless, and useful. The three main chapters of this document (Chapters 2-4) contain the most essential takeaways from our research: Principles of Progress, A Language for Discussing Sound and Playability, and Quantitative Assessment. They lay the groundwork for productive collaboration, then explore the terminology needed to have meaningful conversations, and finally build a framework for analyzing and comparing those observations. It also includes a chapter of background (Chapter 1) that describes Keith’s formative influences and the creation of our research partnership. The principles, vocabulary, and procedures for communication and assessment are useful in many scenarios, including maintaining and improving the characteristics of an instrument, choosing and purchasing an instrument with confidence, understanding and playing to an instrument’s strengths and weaknesses, and discussing sound while teaching and rehearsing.
...and Silver Lining
(2006) Paredes, J. R.; Stallmann, Kurt; Al-Zand, Karim
"...And Silver Lining" for orchestra explores the idea of creating "clouds" of sound and having the musical elements within the "clouds" gradually spin out of their textures and reveal themselves during the course of the piece. The "silver lining" refers to how the "clouds" of pitches and rhythms are often doubled and outlined by various instruments of contrasting colors.
Dream Collage
(2014-04-22) Lee, Joungbum; Jalbert, Pierre; Al-Zand, Karim; Stallmann, Kurt
All dreams are unique, yet they share commonality in reflecting the human subconscious. People in the field of music, especially composers, often write music in reaction to a dream. I had this experience, and I became more interested in how strangely my subconscious unfolds the stream of scenes than in the music that I heard in the dream. After waking up, I realized that even though there is no correlation between the first and the last scenes in the dream, there has always been an inevitability from one scene to another. I was inspired by this illogical progression which is a reflection of our subconscious, and this is reflected in the very free formal structure of this work. I put more emphasis on directionality, going from one stream of sound to another, so that the piece could portray the ambiguous boundary of the dreamer who is both creator and the observer of the scene at the same time.
Edgard Varèse's Amériques: A Next-Level Transcription for Organ, Percussion and Assistant
(2019-04-17) McCoy, Yuri Hayden; Stallmann, Kurt
The musical world of the 1920’s gave rise to wildly opposing aesthetic views. Composers were, at one extreme pushing forth a modernist ideal indifferent to audience tastes, and at the other extreme, producing historically inspired, tuneful music. Composers such as Edgard Varèse marched boldly forward into the abyss always searching for the new, whereas, following his Russian period, Igor Stravinsky and the neoclassical camp focused their attention rearward, mining proven composition techniques of olden times and creating new versions of them. As it turns out, the world of organ building in the 1920’s was embroiled in a similar debate of wether to push forward with new technology, or return to past models. In the 19th century, symphonic organ builders in England developed new technologies allowing for the storing of memory, and greater means of expression through electric action and multiple swell shades. This allowed the genre of symphonic transcriptions to soar in popularity. Neoclassicism’s parallel movement in organ building was called orgelbewegung (or, organ reform movement) which sought to recreate the mastery of centuries old European schools of organ building. Orgelbewegung came on the footsteps of the huge boom in large symphonic organ installations. With an eye towards tradition, these earlier symphonic organs were altered or dismantled altogether, in order to reflect the ideals of clarity and counterpoint. The transcription of Varèse’s Amériques presented here is inspired directly from the golden age of symphonic organ building, the popular genre of symphonic transcriptions, and the unapologetic modernist aesthetic of the early 1920’s. In recent years, organ transcriptions, and the symphonic instruments they were composed for have experienced a revival of sorts, making Amériques fertile ground for a next-level transcription project.
Falling Still
(2005) Sedgwick, Daniel; Stallmann, Kurt
This piece explores combinations of different types of linearly developing patterns. These patterns are of three main varieties: first, strictly linear patterns; second, linear patterns with free surface variation; and third, patterns which develop linearly in two opposing directions, either simultaneously or in alternation. These patterns are applied to the musical parameters of phrase length, pitch, register, dynamics, density, and timbre (the piano timbre is gradually transformed through the use of live electronic processing). As these simple patterns combine, the surface texture becomes complex and unpredictable, yet the clarity of the individual linear progressions provides an underlying direction at all times.
Injuries in Professional Orchestral Musicians - An Overview of Current Data and Trends
(2023-04-18) Wagner, Christoph; Stallmann, Kurt
Professional orchestral musicians face strenuous physical and psychological demands. Despite increasing interest in the medical field to evaluate and address the occupational health of these musicians, reliable data are still rare, and research methodologies and terminologies often lack standards and consistency. This document seeks to investigate the scope of the current knowledge and establish a baseline understanding of the status quo, thereby generating awareness of the physiological symptoms and injuries that professional orchestral musicians experience. In order to map the data and investigate the nature of the literature, the methodology of a scoping review was applied. The objective was to synthesize available information on the prevalence of playing-related symptoms and injuries in the context of geographic, anatomical, and instrumental-specific characteristics. The search identified 3,670 non-duplicate articles, of which 54 were included after full-text screening for data extraction. These studies were conducted in 20 countries with a total of 12,199 participants. The overall prevalence of musculoskeletal, neuromuscular, and neurologic symptoms and injuries ranged from 55% to 95%. The most common anatomical locations of pain in professional orchestral musicians included the neck, shoulders, back, and hands. Two significant outcomes were identified based on the included articles: First, professional orchestral musicians are at severe risk for playing-related symptoms and injuries. The prevalence rates of symptoms and complaints are remarkably high, and pain is frequently experienced and interferes with performance. Second, the population of professional orchestral musicians is understudied and features a scarcity of reliable data. There is a lack of data in the context of geographic, anatomical, and instrumental-related specifics, and particularly a lack of high-quality data providing transparent, quantifiable results. Future research needs to focus on establishing international definitions, standards, and surveillance tools to adequately assess this population and provide high-quality data. A sound body of research is needed to advocate for initiatives to advance occupational conditions and improve the health and wellbeing of professional orchestral musicians. Ultimately, a collaborative effort between research, medicine, orchestras, unions, professional organizations, and educational institutions is urged to successfully implement strategies to mitigate the risk of injury and promote long-term sustainable peak performance.
Musical Momennts
(2012-09-05) Savitski, Aleks; Jalbert, Pierre; Gottschalk, Arthur W.; Stallmann, Kurt
Musical Moments abstract The inspiration for this piece came largely from my encounters with Miles Davis’s composition “Flamenco Sketches” from his album “Kind of Blue”. Initially, I wanted to write a piece that would have a highly dramatic emotional content with some influences drawn from flamenco music. The only thing that I drew from flamenco is a progression of chords that loosely hint at Phrygian mode (often used in flamenco). Other elements of the music and the development of musical material are not related to flamenco or to Davis’s “Flamenco Sketches”. “Musical Moments” presents four different moods: calm but anxious, joyous and assertive, indecisive and contemplative, restless and explosive. Each of these moods creates a separate section of the piece which when combined shape a single movement work.
Nascent Dreams
(2012-09-05) Ingmire, Bryce; Stallmann, Kurt; Lavenda, Richard; Chen, Shih-Hui
Nascent Dreams (2012) is a work for full orchestra that explores the elasticity of form as musical analogy. In a programmatic context, each thematic section can be interpreted as representing landscapes or events encountered while dreaming. Listeners are privy to the nascency of each section before the music whisks one away to the next soundscape. Musically, the work emphasizes melody and lyricism in order to establish a song-like quality throughout.
Oh No You Didn't
(2004) Wightman, David; Stallmann, Kurt
Oh No You Didn't features battling of different musical parameters. These confrontations occur through both simultaneous and alternating presentation of contrasting ideas. The piece's form contains different levels of obscured symmetries, which serve to propel the simplistic motives in new directions. The piece bubbles with insistent rhythmic energy culminating in a frenetic bass solo climax.
Orchestral Composition
(2022-07-11) Lee, Auburn; Stallmann, Kurt
This orchestral composition is constructed to unify contrasting sections with disparate characters by using the same core set of materials and ideas. A chain of development that originates from a seed motive of a descending Major 7th, in the opening measures, establishes the harmonic, melodic, intervallic and gestural content that define the entire piece.
The Phoenix
(2004) Bishop, James Edward; Stallmann, Kurt
The Phoenix is a one movement orchestral composition scored for 3 flutes (flute 3 doubles piccolo), 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, three bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 2 trombones, bass trombone, tuba, percussion, harp, and strings. The duration of the work is approximately 7 minutes. This composition is monomotivic, with the original four note idea appearing in the English horn. An ascending minor third initiates the motive, followed by an ascending minor second and a descending major second (class set 4-2, interval vector 221100). Tonal centers in the work outline a tritone, shifting from E to B-flat and returning to E at the end. The work begins in a moderately slow tempo featuring the expansion of register from high to low. The first concrete melodic gesture occurs in the cellos followed by the English horn statement of the main idea. After the English horn presents this idea, the work erupts into the fast paced body. This section is developmental and focuses on maintaining a high energy level, with the rhythm and textures acting as the focal point of this energy. The fast section is punctuated by a five note rhythmic figure, which delineates the subsections and eventually expands in time to form the climax of the work, just before the recapitulation. The recapitulation is composed of mostly nonliteral material, with the exception of one section that occurs just after the return to the original, slower tempo. The idea of expanding range brings the work to its conclusion, although here the expansion occurs from the bottom of the orchestra to the top. The combination of the retrograde bookends, which gives the work a cyclic feel, coupled with the high energy central section that led to the title of the work.
Tuning Your Choral Pipes: An Organist's Manual for Choral Sound
(2012-09-05) Gundersen, John-Eric; Stallmann, Kurt; Ferris, David; Jaber, Thomas; Mackie, Hilary
As choir masters, many organists have the responsibility of hiring and working with paid singers as well as a dedicated group of volunteer singers ranging in experience from novice to advanced. The similarities of the human voice to the pipe-organ are numerous. Using these similarities and scientific analysis of the two instruments, organists can familiarize themselves with the tuning system of the human voice. Like the pipe organ, the human voice is capable of wide variety of sounds, qualities, textures, pitches and levels of volume. Unlike an organ pipe, the voice is not a fixed resonator. The voice is the most flexible of all musical instruments. Instructing an ensemble of singers to shape their sound simultaneously is the beginning of “tuning your choral pipes.” It will be important to establish terminology with your singers in order to successfully communicate with them despite their varying levels of ability and pronunciation differences. Becoming familiar with the mechanics of the voice and an alphabet of pure vowel sounds can help organist-choir masters achieve a greater degree of success when working with singers. The stops, pipes and expression pedal of the human voice are defined by the laryngeal muscles as they relate to registration, the vocal tract shape as defined by the vowel, and the amount of volume created by the air pressure. This guide for organists covers these topics and contains exercises for the reader to apply during choral rehearsals.
Understanding and Applying the Spectrograph in Vocal Pedagogy
(2021-04-30) Besch, Christopher Michael; Barnett, Gregory; King, James S; Stallmann, Kurt
Many vocal pedagogy textbooks and curriculums lack a tangible application of the course content. This is often remedied with audio exampes or lesson practicums, but both options include a wide degree of variability that limits the students’ and teachers’ ability to apply the concepts they’ve learned. In this paper, we will explore how the use of the spectrograph and tone generator fill the gap between the understanding of the mechanics of singing and its application by teaching us to listen to and understand timbre more concretely. This paper uses the software VoceVista whose spectrograph and tone generator give us the ability to mimic and manipulate a digital version of the human voice free of the limitations of a real-world environment. Combined with a detailed understanding of vocal tract physiology, acoustics, and psychoacoustics, the use of this tool encourages the exploration of more efficient and effective pedagogies. Chapter 1 explores how the tone generator can be utilized to manipulate the four basic properties of sound – frequency, amplitude, duration, and timbre – to create a synthesized version of the human voice, which helps us understand how the singing voice works and what changes may produce different timbres. Chapter 2 details how our perception of sound varies from what is shown on the spectrograph and how the human ear itself serves as a tuned filter to perceive vowel colors through the properties of psychoacoustics – auditory roughness, perceived loudness, absolute spectral tone color, and the missing fundamental. Approaching the voice in this way allows us to begin to listen to the timbre with more specificity and describe it with more accuracy. Chapter 3 combines these ideas to demonstrate how passive vowel migration and active vowel modification are employed in vocal techniques such as high frequency reinforcement, upper treble transitions, second vocal tract resonance tuning, and belting. This approach to vocal pedagogy brings together the study of acoustics, psychoacoustics, and singing technique to eliminate some of the guess work of teaching and improve access to effective pedagogical information.
Understanding and Applying the Spectrograph in Vocal Pedagogy
(2021-04-30) Besch, Christopher Michael; Barnett, Gregory; King, James S; Stallmann, Kurt
Many vocal pedagogy textbooks and curriculums lack a tangible application of the course content. This is often remedied with audio exampes or lesson practicums, but both options include a wide degree of variability that limits the students’ and teachers’ ability to apply the concepts they’ve learned. In this paper, we will explore how the use of the spectrograph and tone generator fill the gap between the understanding of the mechanics of singing and its application by teaching us to listen to and understand timbre more concretely. This paper uses the software VoceVista whose spectrograph and tone generator give us the ability to mimic and manipulate a digital version of the human voice free of the limitations of a real-world environment. Combined with a detailed understanding of vocal tract physiology, acoustics, and psychoacoustics, the use of this tool encourages the exploration of more efficient and effective pedagogies. Chapter 1 explores how the tone generator can be utilized to manipulate the four basic properties of sound – frequency, amplitude, duration, and timbre – to create a synthesized version of the human voice, which helps us understand how the singing voice works and what changes may produce different timbres. Chapter 2 details how our perception of sound varies from what is shown on the spectrograph and how the human ear itself serves as a tuned filter to perceive vowel colors through the properties of psychoacoustics – auditory roughness, perceived loudness, absolute spectral tone color, and the missing fundamental. Approaching the voice in this way allows us to begin to listen to the timbre with more specificity and describe it with more accuracy. Chapter 3 combines these ideas to demonstrate how passive vowel migration and active vowel modification are employed in vocal techniques such as high frequency reinforcement, upper treble transitions, second vocal tract resonance tuning, and belting. This approach to vocal pedagogy brings together the study of acoustics, psychoacoustics, and singing technique to eliminate some of the guess work of teaching and improve access to effective pedagogical information.
Understanding and Applying the Spectrograph in Vocal Pedagogy
(2021-04-30) Besch, Christopher Michael; Barnett, Gregory; King, James S; Stallmann, Kurt
Many vocal pedagogy textbooks and curriculums lack a tangible application of the course content. This is often remedied with audio exampes or lesson practicums, but both options include a wide degree of variability that limits the students’ and teachers’ ability to apply the concepts they’ve learned. In this paper, we will explore how the use of the spectrograph and tone generator fill the gap between the understanding of the mechanics of singing and its application by teaching us to listen to and understand timbre more concretely. This paper uses the software VoceVista whose spectrograph and tone generator give us the ability to mimic and manipulate a digital version of the human voice free of the limitations of a real-world environment. Combined with a detailed understanding of vocal tract physiology, acoustics, and psychoacoustics, the use of this tool encourages the exploration of more efficient and effective pedagogies. Chapter 1 explores how the tone generator can be utilized to manipulate the four basic properties of sound – frequency, amplitude, duration, and timbre – to create a synthesized version of the human voice, which helps us understand how the singing voice works and what changes may produce different timbres. Chapter 2 details how our perception of sound varies from what is shown on the spectrograph and how the human ear itself serves as a tuned filter to perceive vowel colors through the properties of psychoacoustics – auditory roughness, perceived loudness, absolute spectral tone color, and the missing fundamental. Approaching the voice in this way allows us to begin to listen to the timbre with more specificity and describe it with more accuracy. Chapter 3 combines these ideas to demonstrate how passive vowel migration and active vowel modification are employed in vocal techniques such as high frequency reinforcement, upper treble transitions, second vocal tract resonance tuning, and belting. This approach to vocal pedagogy brings together the study of acoustics, psychoacoustics, and singing technique to eliminate some of the guess work of teaching and improve access to effective pedagogical information.
We Are Nowhere
(2014-04-24) Hirsch, Mark; Stallmann, Kurt; Gottschalk, Arthur W.; Brandt, Anthony K.
Acknowledging technology’s impact on the ease and precision with which we capture moments of our daily lives, We Are Nowhere engages questions of memory and identity and investigates what is lost and gained through the streamlined manner in which we are able to create synthetic memories. To foster an environment for fluid exploration of these ideas, the piece employs interactive elements such as motion tracking and gesture recognition of the dancer, and digitally interfaced technology of the past—including 8mm film projectors and analog typewriters. All of these interactive elements inform and control the manner in which the music and film is realized.

Browsing by Author "Stallmann, Kurt"

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