Three etudes for wind symphony

Abstract

In accordance with the requirements for the completion of the degree Doctor of Musical Arts in Composition, this document consists of three parts: an original composition for wind symphony; a survey of related literature for wind symphony; and an analysis of the original composition with critical commentary on its formal structure, harmonic materials, and compositional goals. The composition consists of three etudes and is approximately twenty-two minutes in length. Each etude poses a different challenge to the composer’s craft. Etude No. 1 challenged the composer to write in a neo-romantic style using traditional orchestration techniques as suggested by Clair Johnson in his book, Practical Scoring for the Concert Band. Etude No. 2 challenged the composer to write in a textural style inspired by Krzysztof Penderecki, Kazimierz Serocki, György Ligeti, and electronic music. Etude No. 3 challenged the composer to write a polystylistic composition that combines minimalism with neo-classical style traits, impressionism, and rhythm and blues. This collection of stylistically diverse etudes further challenged the composer to create large scale continuity between all three etudes with intrarelated harmonic and motivic material. The analysis portion of this document uses set class analysis as described by Joseph Straus in Introduction to Post-Tonal Theory and formal principles as described by William E. Caplin in Classical Form.