At the onset of my honors thesis, I laid out three goals for myself. The first and most significant one was to record and produce a full length album incorporating as many of the musical influences in my life thus far as possible. Having studied many different styles of music at various stages of my musical development, from jazz to punk to classical to styles of folk music around the world, I wanted this album to be stylistically diverse. This broad range of influences led me to my second goal: to present all styles of music as equally valid and without a hierarchy. By presenting disparate styles of music fused together on the same album, I would place those styles on the same plane of existence without judgement. Another result of
this stylistic fusion would be to show the similarities between seemingly distinct genres and how those genres could complement each other. The final goal I laid out was to build community through the recording process. This community would link together the different departments of the School of Music and extend outside of the School of Music into other social groups I interact with. My hope with this goal was that musicians of all backgrounds would be joined together on one cohesive project, and those musicians would be able to either play music not commonly found in the School of Music, learn new styles of music they may be interested in, or express
themselves in a format that they do not commonly use. The result of these goals was a nine track album, approximately 40 minutes in length, titled Wherever That May Be. In the following pages, I will explain the process I went through in composing, recording, and producing the album, and I will give a track-by-track explanation of the album to add depth to my audience’s understanding of the music and how it met the goals described above.

For my creative project, I built a musical robot and explored the possibilities for robots in music education. In addition, I wrote a guide to share what I learned and to provide helpful information to anyone who is planning on building their own musical robot. This is not a step-by-step set of instructions; however, it gives the reader a preview of many options they have for building a musical robot. This guide includes information about existing musical robots, outlines possible strategies for brainstorming ideas, and describes various capabilities of musical robots. While this project focused on the intersection of music and robotics, my approach also included design thinking, which helped provide a focus and shaped my creative process.

The robot building guide is targeted toward an audience with little or no knowledge of robotics. It begins by exploring existing musical robots and explaining how existing products can be used as a source for inspiration. Next, this guide outlines various methods of design thinking and encourages the reader to use design thinking throughout the brainstorming and building process. This guide also highlights options for designing 3D-printed parts, which can be added to a robot. After that, the guide explains options for robot movement, specifically chassis kit assembly and using a 1Sheeld board with Arduino. This guide also explores the possibilities for the interaction of lights and sound, including sound-reactive lights and remote-control lights. Practical information about materials and their organization is provided, as well. The guide concludes with exciting possibilities for robots in music education.

This paper is the culmination of my creative project for graduation from Barrett, the Honors College at Arizona State University. The creative portion of the project consisted of researching Québécois (or French-Canadian) composers and specifically finding music for flute and piano. I wished to find pieces that could prove valuable in expanding the standard flute repertoire. My goal with this project was to shed light on some fairly unknown and certainly under-played pieces for flute and piano by French-Canadian composers and learn those pieces for my senior recital on March 2, 2020. This summary of the research experience and the process of recital preparation is intended to be a guide for flutists who may work on these pieces in the future and musicians on any instrument who take on a similar project of introducing new pieces to their instrument’s existing repertory.

The American musical theatre business as we know it now began in the 1980s with British producers such as Cameron Mackintosh who saw what Broadway could become. Up till then, no one dared venture into Midtown when the sun went down. As the natural light dimmed and the artificial ones began to glimmer, Times Square became the porn capital of the world with pimps and prostitutes on every corner and store fronts advertising peep shows and adult film where you will now see New York souvenir shops and the M&M store. After the Golden Age of Broadway which lasted into the 1960s, Broadway experienced a crash. The 60s was a tumultuous time for America with the shine of the American dream wearing off as Civil Rights came to a head, President Kennedy was assassinated, and every day brought more fatalities from the Vietnam War. The last thing on peoples’ minds was going to the theatre and it fell off the commercial bandwagon. That all changed with the introduction of a little team comprised of producer Cameron Mackintosh and composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and a little show called Cats.

Programmed cell death plays an important role in a variety of processes that promote the survival of the host organism. Necroptosis, a form of programmed cell death, occurs through a signaling pathway involving the protein kinase RIPK3. In response to vaccinia virus infection, necroptosis acts through RIPK3 and the adaptor protein DAI to inhibit further viral replication in host cells. Stress granules are accumulations of mRNAs that have stalled in translation due to cellular stress. The toxin arsenite is a canonical inducer of stress granule formation and can cause necroptosis. By initiating necroptosis with arsenite and vaccinia virus, this research project investigated the roles of necroptosis proteins and their localizations into stress granules. The two aims of this research project were to determine if stress granules are important for arsenite-induced necroptosis, and whether the proteins DAI, RIPK3, MLKL, and G3BP localize into stress granules. The first aim was investigated by establishing a DAI and RIPK3 expression system in U2OS cells; arsenite was then used to treat the U2OS cells as well as U2OSΔG3BP cells, which are not able to form stress granules. The second aim was carried out by designing fluorescent tagging for the necroptosis proteins in order to visualize protein localization with fluorescent microscopy. The results showed that arsenite induces DAI-dependent necroptosis in U2OS cells and that this arsenite-induced necroptosis requires stress granules. In addition, it was determined that vaccinia virus induces DAI-dependent necroptosis that also requires stress granules. This project contributes to a greater understanding of the roles of DAI and RIPK3 in necroptosis, as well as the roles of stress granules in necroptosis, both of which are important in research regarding viral infection and cellular stress.

This research project dug into mathematics in music, exploring the various ways a number series was used in the 20th century to create musical compositions. The Fibonacci Series (FS) is an infinite number series that is created by taking the two previous numbers to create the next, excluding 0 and 1 at the very start of the series. As the numbers grow larger, the ratios between the numbers of the FS approach the value of another mathematical concept known as the Golden Mean (GM). The GM is so closely related to the series that it is used interchangeably in terms of proportions and overall structure of musical pieces. This is similar to how both the FS and GM are found in aspects of nature, like to all too well-known conch shell spiral.

The FS in music was used in a variety of ways throughout the 20th century, primarily focusing on durations and overall structure in its use. Examples of this are found in Béla Bartók’s Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celeste (1936), Allegro barbaro (1911), Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Klavierstück IX (1955), and Luigi Nono’s il canto sospeso (1955). These works are analyzed in detail within my research, and I found every example to have a natural feel to them even if its use of the FS is carefully planned out by the composer. Bartók’s works are the least precise of my examples but perhaps the most natural ones. This imprecision in composition may be considered a more natural use of the FS in music, since nature is not always perfect either. However, in works such as Stockhausen’s, the structure is meticulously formatted in such that the precision is masked by a cycle as to appear more natural.

The conclusion of my research was a commissioned work for my instrument, the viola. I provided my research to composer Jacob Miller Smith, a DMA Music Composition student at ASU, and together we built the framework for the piece he wrote for me. We utilized the life cycle of the Black-Eyed Susan, a flower that uses the FS in its number of petals. The life cycle of a flower is in seven parts, so the piece was written to have seven separate sections in a palindrome within an overall ABA’ format. To utilize the FS, Smith used Fibonacci number durations for rests between notes, note/gesture groupings, and a mapping of 12358 as the set (01247). I worked with Smith during the process to make sure that the piece was technically suitable for my capabilities and the instrument, and I premiered the work in my defense.

The Fibonacci Series and Golden Mean in music provides a natural feel to the music it is present in, even if it is carefully planned out by the composer. More work is still to be done to develop the FS’s use in music, but the examples presented in this project lay down a framework for it to take a natural place in music composition.

Personal branding within the music industry has long fallen under the supervision of profit-centric major record labels, whose control extended throughout artist’s music, copyrights, merchandising, and fair-use compensation. This paper explores how artists’ branding has evolved within the recording industry alongside the development of emerging technologies and the discovery of certain patterns in consumer behavior. Starting with an overarching exploration of the origins of commercialized music, this paper iterates how certain record labels ascended the corporate hierarchy to influence consumers’ accessible listening options. This understanding leads to an analysis of the inception of illegal file-sharing websites as an outlet for music distribution, as well as its long-lasting effects on industry distribution tactics and music streaming platforms. This paper then narrows to the origins of the rap industry, delving into the traditionally-rooted experiential celebrations that birthed such an impactful genre. Following an understanding of the history of the recording and rap industries, this paper identifies the modern music listener’s behaviors and choices, supplemented by an examination of how consumer social technologies have motivated these changes. To best understand the role of these evolving perceptions, this paper evaluates four successful rap artists - Chance the Rapper, Tekashi 6ix9ine, Lil Nas X, and Travis Scott - and determines the strategies employed by these individuals and their branding teams. Finally, in determining these strategies, this paper outlines the essential takeaways from this research that would aid in the advancement of an artist’s personal branding today.

In my path through both the academic and the professional music world, I have realized that violinists traditionally operate in a very limited role when it comes to pop music. Rarely are string players integral to a song, and rarely are they allowed to indulge in creativity or improvisation. This three-track EP explores the various roles and functions that both the violin and the 21st-century violinist can have, beyond the stereotypical string pads in ballads and non-rhythmic, chordal accompaniment. The first track explores the violin providing chordal and rhythmic foundation of a song, containing only vocals and a midi bass as non-violin elements. The second track investigates the importance of production skills and strings providing the melody for a groove based up-tempo electronic drop. The final track is a more traditional yet accessible composition for piano and string quartet, inspired by the work of Ólafur Arnalds and Max Richter, potentially viable for modern dance choreography. The process of writing, recording, and producing this EP served as my first legitimate foray into the professional songwriting world. It is a testament to my battle with, and a temporary victory over, toxic perfectionism. This is an affliction that befalls creators of all trades: the crippling fear of putting out something less than perfect resulting in nothing being put out at all. Finally, I have put something out, something I am solely responsible for, that represent my original creative work. This EP seeks to set a blueprint for the capabilities of modern string playing and modern string players often neglected in the modern popular music sphere. It is the culmination of all I have learned as a musician, technically, professionally, and emotionally.

Composed by Adele Etheridge Woodson in 2018, Thrive is an original composition for live euphonium and prepared electronic backing track; it was commissioned by David Gonzalez and premiered at the International Women’s Brass Conference at Arizona State University. The musical piece incorporates multiple audio bytes from personal interviews and videos found online, including words said by pop figure icons, Congressmen, and President Donald J. Trump. The goal of Thrive is to creatively highlight the fight for gender equality among a male-dominant, misogynist society. It also serves as a fresh piece of repertoire for the euphonium, which often lacks original compositions by living composers. This paper will discuss Etheridge Woodson’s creative writing process, creation of the backing track, its world premiere, audience reaction, and a personal reflection.

With this thesis, I have set out to answer two fundamental questions within music: does music mean anything, and should music mean anything? In answering those questions, I also set out to create a creative project that would implement these ideas: an original concept album of music that is programmatic in nature and incorporates motivic composition, jazz improvisation, lyrics, extra-musical audio and more all in the service of telling a narrative, a story, through music. I have done research into understanding music as a language, finding that this language is primarily communicative and recreational, rather than representational, of meaning. As well, I discuss the various different ways that music composers from Wagner to Williams have created narrative meaning in their works, using examples of leitmotif and other devices, as well as tracing the contextual associations of meaning that occurs when music is perceived in certain contexts. Furthermore, I discuss the dialogue between absolute and programmatic music, and also talk about the role of jazz improvisation in adding meaning to works.
For the second part of my thesis I talk about how I came to create the creative project aspect. I discuss how and why I designed the narrative that I did, and also analyzed the music I have created to illustrate how I implemented the various methods of musical storytelling that I detail in the first part of the paper. Lastly, I discuss my plans for publication and release of the creative project.
The third part of this thesis is a sample of the creative project. There is a version of the narrative that goes along with the creative project, as well as one of the eight pieces of original music on the creative project, entitled Journey.
Overall, I found that music does have meaning, it is just meaning that society ascribes to it based off of artistic intent and context, and as to whether music should mean anything, I believe that this is a question best left to be answered on an individual basis. Music can be whatever it wants to be.