Senior Research Project
During their senior year, all music majors enroll in Music 94 (Senior Research Topics). This course culminates in a project that normally consists of the study of a single musical work or cultural style (selected in advance by the student, subject to the approval of the department) which demonstrates skills in the three areas of analysis, historical or socio-cultural research, and performance. Students give a public presentation and performance to share what they have learned and practiced with the community.
Recent projects have included:
- Singing Leaps on Eagle’s Wings: Catholic Hymnody after the Reforms of the Second Vatican Council (2024)
- Nature and Life: Gustav Mahler’s Symphonic Des Knaben Wunderhorn Settings (2024)
- Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, and Miles Davis: Jazz and Black Power Aesthetics (2024)
- Between Two Hawai’i’s: Examining the Music of Queen Lili’uokalani (2024)
- Ännchen’s Romanze und Arie: Creating a Model Ballad for German Romantic Opera (2023)
- Contingency and Care: Musical and Social Improvisation at Jazz Poetry Night (2023)
- Celtic Woman: Folk as a Construction of Identify and "Authenticity" (2023)
- Exploring Contrasting Styles in Flute Repertoire of 20th Century France: A Case Study on Francis Poulenc’s Sonata for Flute and Piano (1957) and Henri Dutilleux’s Sonatine for Flute and Piano (1943) (2023)
- The Modern Pop Ballad: What it is and how it speaks to musical authenticity in regard to gender and sexuality (2023)
- Appalachian Spring and the Peaceable Kingdom (2023)
