Date of Last Revision

2023-05-03 05:04:36

Major

Music - Woodwinds Performance

Degree Name

Bachelor of Music

Date of Expected Graduation

Spring 2018

Abstract

Honors Project Abstract

My project is on the modern Estonian composer, Arvo Pärt and his work Spiegel im Spiegel. Of all the pieces written by Pärt, this is one of his most popular and revered works. It has a major emotional impact on many people who listen to it, but also on me. Through my research, I have discovered compositional techniques which help the work achieve such a profound effect on a listener.

To help show these techniques to the reader, I include handwritten excerpts in my paper. This is also to avoid copyright issues. In each image presented, I label chord progressions, outline non-chord tones, and use other techniques. Then, I explain the effect these techniques have on a listener and why a composer would use them. Additionally, through observing the massive comment section in a popular YouTube video upload of Spiegel im Spiegel, I can indicate the temperament of listeners at firsthand.

In order to understand the complete picture, the reader of this project should listen to the music. In this link below, I have the YouTube recording that I reference in my paper. This project helped me understand Arvo Pärt and myself better.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJ6Mzvh3XCc

Research Sponsor

James Wilding

First Reader

Jack Cozen Harel

Second Reader

Guy Victor Bordo

Included in

Music Theory Commons

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.