Creative Projects

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Creative projects submitted to the Graduate School by Ball State University master's degree candidates in partial fulfillment of degree requirements.

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    The perfomance practice of Richard Wagner's Wesendonck-Lieder
    (2023-05) Smith, Victoria; Truitt, Jon
    This project has presented an overview of the Wesendonck-Lieder and the performance practice that coincides with the song cycle. The songs provide a challenge, of which there has been minimal research on how to conquer the difficulty in each movement. It is important to note the text and how Wagner meticulously arranged the music to encompass the meaning of the words. While there are numerous performances of the lieder cycle, there is a limited amount of research on the performance practice of this cycle. This makes listening to recordings a crucial necessity to be familiar with the general flow of the songs. Different interpretations are needed to familiarize the general performance practices used whenever this cycle is sung.
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    Test of faith
    (2023-05) Osifalujo, Elizabeth; Mullins, Matthew
    My creative project is a screenwriting project that centers on fictional characters living in Lagos, Nigeria. The screenplay aims to showcase my understanding of screenwriting format, structure, content, and style, and to apply the essential techniques of visual storytelling discussed in the screenwriting classes I took. The value of this project lies in the opportunity to develop my skills as a screenwriter by honing my ability to craft compelling stories about a specific group of people’s way of life that captivate an audience. Test of Faith is a feature-length film script that is divided into three acts fully developed in my synopsis and beat sheet. The beat sheet provides a detailed breakdown of the major events leading to the end of the script, while the synopsis clearly states the key ideas of the story. In this project, I am submitting a critical introduction and the first twenty-seven pages that comprise the script's first act. In writing the first act of my feature-length script, I applied the essential techniques of visual storytelling to effectively portray the events leading up to the inciting incident that kicks the story into gear and concludes my first act with the plot point 1. Through this project, I have strived to apply the principles of cinematic storytelling to create the first act of a compelling narrative that I hope engages the audience and takes them on an emotional journey of standing up against societal pressures and building self-confidence.
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    Franz Liszt: Sposalizio
    (2023-05) Jin, Jiaqi
    In this creative project, I explore Liszt’s Sposalizio with an intent to understand the compositional fabric of this piece. Harmony, form, melody, texture, rhythm, and how those aspects inform interpretation will be discussed. In addition, I will consider the context and background of Sposalizio, which is the first piece in “Deuxieme Annee, Italie”. "Première année: Suisse”, “Deuxieme année, Italie”, and "Troisième année" are known as the “Annees de pelerinage” or “Years of Pilgrimage”; a set of three suites composed by Liszt between 1837 and 1849. They form a series of musical sketch books in which Liszt writes pieces inspired by nature, art, and literature. In this creative project, my primary goal is to explore Liszt’s Sposalizio with an intent to understand the compositional fabric of the piece including harmony, form, melody, texture and rhythm, and how those aspects impact the interpretation as a performer. In addition, I would like to understand the context and background of the Sposalizio. It is the first piece in “Deuxieme Annee, Italie”. “Deuxieme Annee, Italie”, "Première année: Suisse" S. and "Troisième année" are a set of three suites composed by Liszt between 1837 and 1849. So, I would like to discuss the set in general to understand the subject matter and the background of pieces in this set.
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    The prince: an opera in one act: an analysis of the compositional process
    (2023-05) Fegan, Ethan; Trawick, Eleanor
    The Prince: An Opera in One Act, scored from a libretto by Jakob Harding, is a loose adaptation of Niccolò Machiavelli’s 16th-century political treatise of the same name. My Creative Project, partially fulfilling the requirements for a Master of Music degree in Composition, comprises the first act of this four-act work. The libretto follows the president of an unnamed Western nation who embodies the harsh authoritative traits of rulers in the sixteenth century. Aiding in his administration is a cabinet of advisors and employees that, while assisting the president with his governance, also have their own agendas that they will pursue, even if they run counter to that of the president. The cast consists of the President Oliver Lewis, Vice President Maxine, Press Secretary Nicholas, National Security Advisor Lucius, and Secretary to the President Catrina. This cabal of characters is faced with a national crisis that, exacerbated by their ill-thought-out decisions, quickly grows out of their control into domestic unrest. The work is written for five vocalists; a soprano, a mezzo-soprano, two tenors, and a baritone, each of whom may play side characters along with their main roles. The work also includes ten instrumentalists; flute, Bb clarinet, Eb alto saxophone, two French horns in F, tuba, piano, and two percussionists which together play snare drum, bass drum, xylophone, and vibraphone. The piece uses specific key centers and pitch collections to portray the moral and political stances of each cabinet member, musically pitting them against each other as the characters on stage engage in heated policy arguments.
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    Drawing upon folk songs to score a documentary
    (2023-05) Eckstein, Noah D.; Trawick, Eleanor
    This creative project is a film score for a documentary focusing on the Union Literary Institute, the first school in Indiana to allow the integration of both white students and students of color, and its connections to the Underground Railroad. For this project, I studied and analyzed American folk songs and spirituals, as the setting of the events in this film is the American Midwest in the late nineteenth century. I also analyzed the music of Aaron Copland, a twentieth-century composer who set preexisting folk tunes in a new context, and arrangements of spirituals and original compositions by Florence Price. I then used the compositional devices found in those genres to inspire a new collection of compositions that would ultimately be used for the film. The project is a demonstration of the compositional techniques and music creation software skills that I have learned in my time at Ball State University. Furthermore, the goal for the music composed for the film is that it will be an impactful musical representation of the events and stories portrayed within the film. The music is an amalgamation of the incredibly diverse musical genres and styles that influence my work, which ultimately creates a diverse soundscape for the film to live in. The accompanying paper to the creative project describes my process of analyzing several folk songs, spirituals, and twentieth-century compositions,composing the music, the musical language used, the recording techniques involved in creating the recordings, and the challenges of collaborating with a team of filmmakers to score their film.