Repertoire for solo bassoon is becoming more common as music advances and evolves. There is a vast array of works for solo bassoon; however, only a small percentage of those are by composers from an underrepresented community, with an even smaller percentage written by composers with East Asian or Southeast Asian heritage. Furthermore, these works have little to no high-quality studio recordings. Additionally, these works often include contemporary techniques such as multiphonics, difficult tremolos, flutter tonguing, pitch bends, and glissandi, among others. This adds another layer of inaccessibility for those bassoonists who are unfamiliar with how to perform these techniques and therefore may be afraid to “take the plunge” into contemporary works that utilize them. I have created performance guides for Tilt by Tonia Ko, Legend of the Sea by Xinyan Li, and Jeu des Cinq Éléments II by Tôn-Thât Tiêt, in hopes of promoting and raising the accessibility of works by living composers with East Asian and Southeast Asian backgrounds.

Color Swatches is an album of vignettes written for my friends. These pieces areintended to be performed by musicians looking for works that are challenging in difficulty level, short in form, and rich in character. Each of these miniatures requires a pianist and a “color instrument”— a solo instrument that provides a different timbral color. I associate each of the resulting pieces with a very specific color, listed in the title. The tonal styles and textures used are the product of many different influences. Some pieces are more suited for performers of one discipline than another: the use of chord symbols in multiple of the miniatures can prove stumbling blocks for classically-trained musicians, while jazz musicians may be unfamiliar with the aleatoric improvisation notation. The difficulty level of these pieces is advanced, as some call for extended techniques on behalf of both the pianist or the soloist, and require a moderate level of preparation before performing. Though they are written as a set of eight, they work well as stand-alone pieces between larger works, or in subsets: for example, “Silver Lining”, “Lavender”, and “Flying Colors” could be performed together on a woodwind recital.

The Building Blocks of Trumpet is a comprehensive and fully modular method book specifically designed for beginner trumpeters. It is designed to be approachable and accessible, providing a reliable resource for both starting students and teachers alike. The book aims to tackle and answer the major questions and challenges that beginning trumpeters often encounter at the onset of their musical journey. Its content is structured in a way that naturally guides performers from the initial steps of learning their instruments and progressively leads them to mastery of foundational musical concepts. These concepts equip students with the necessary knowledge to actively participate and contribute to Western cultural communities.A key feature of this method book is its emphasis on fostering independent learning. It encourages students to delve into their private studies of music, guiding them through the process of perfecting their technique through routine exercises and understanding musical compositions through repertoire studies. Moreover, the progression presented in this book is not merely linear but also modular in design. The book is designed with plenty of material and organized in a clear and thoughtful manner. This allows students and teachers to design personalized lesson curriculums. The book's ultimate goal is to empower students to perform these exercises, etudes, and solos effectively and confidently to express their music to an audience.

A Soldier’s Symphony is a three-movement work for symphony orchestra. The three movements are as follows: I – Sonata Allegro; II – Passacaglia; III – Rondo. A performance at the given metronome markings in the score will last approximately 30 minutes. Instrumentation is piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 B-flat clarinets, B-flat bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 French horns in F, 3 trumpets in B-flat, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani and strings.In this paper, following introductory material, I write about my combat deployments to Iraq as a U.S. Army soldier and my struggles with psychological war wounds after I returned to the United States, then describe how these experiences and wounds shaped A Soldier’s Symphony. I also write about four composers, Sergei Prokofiev, George Antheil, Daphne Oram and Dennis Smalley, whose music and ideas influenced my approach to composing A Soldier’s Symphony. After presenting an overview analysis of each of my work’s three movements, I conclude by discussing my public and private purposes for composing this work. My public purpose for the work is to raise peoples’ awareness of the true scope of war’s human cost, while my private purpose is to help me bear the personal cost of my own war experiences. The full score of A Soldier’s Symphony is found in Appendix A.

The importance of interactive electronic devices in the twenty-first century is a quickly expanding one, and the field of music technology is not exempt from this. Most traditional acoustic instruments pose challenges for individuals lacking fine motor skills, coordination, or grip strength. The author has responded to this issue as they experience it by developing a programmable interactive instrument system using a Mugic Motion System hardware, which includes a gyroscopic sensor, and Max/MSP, a visual programming environment which allows for customizable musical engagement for a variety of user types and requirements. This thesis explores the potential of interactive electronic devices to revolutionize the field of music as well as their potential in larger immersive environments, allowing creativity to reach a wider range of people regardless of physical limitations. The use of interactive sensor devices presents a not yet completely explored path for creating forms of sonic and multimedia interaction to a degree that has not yet become standard within either the musical field nor the emerging field of immersive environments and storytelling. The implications of a more fleshed out sensor-based system extend beyond the sound potential explored within this paper, and could allow interaction with visual aspects and motion based interactive art installations. This technology can also be applied as part of larger interactive systems, such as those found in theme parks and other large interactive attraction spaces. The author offers a novel approach to the democratization of music by leveraging the potential of interactive electronic devices for a population traditionally overlooked in music.

Over the past fifty years, the number of new compositions written for trumpet has increased tremendously. Fueled by close collaboration between composers, performers, and organizations, audiences are yearning to hear these new works. The purpose of this doctoral project is to provide insight into how a commission for solo trumpet, All My Spirit Tingled, came to fruition and how a burgeoning soloist may best learn this challenging repertoire. The first chapter provides background on the composer, his musical vision, and the chosen soloist for this commission. The second chapter provides a detailed performance guide of All My Spirit Tingled, including references to technical studies, etudes, and solos from trumpet literature that may provide further material with which to grow as a performer of this work. The dissertation provides a professional recording of the premiere to assist the reader throughout the performance guide. This document also includes program notes for the composition, as well as composer biographical information, a list of other works by Robert Tindle featuring brass instruments, and a transcript of the composer and performer interview.