Browsing Theses (UMKC) by Thesis Department "Music Composition (UMKC)"
Now showing items 1-20 of 47
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an Aid in the Process
(2016)an Aid in the Process is a work featuring an unusual orchestral configuration, making use of two distinct groups, each with their own conductor. Programmatically, the work addresses aid in-dying legislation and contemporary ... -
Allied Armada, A Dynamic Soundtrack for a Real-Time Strategy Computer Game
(2020)Allied Armada is a Real-Time Strategy game, with a Sci-Fi setting in outer space. The soundtrack was composed with a dynamic system that allows it to respond to what is happening within the game; broadly, it can switch ... -
Antumbra - Concerto for Classical Guitar and Chamber Orchestra
(2021)Antumbra (ænt - UHM - bruh) is a concerto for classical guitar and chamber orchestra with programmatic elements based on the toils of self-discovery. The Latin word ‘antumbra’ (‘ant-‘: “before”; ‘umbra’: “shadow”) describes ... -
Bird-like: five scenes for sinfonietta (or chamber orchestra)
(2015-07-28)Bird-like is a continuous series of five musical scenes for sinfonietta, or, optionally, chamber orchestra (single winds, with a small string section). Each scene is inspired by the motions, behaviors, and physical ... -
BITE: New Music Concert and Multimedia Installation Featuring Vocal Soloists from the KC VITAs Chamber Choir and Dancers from the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance
(University of Missouri--Kansas City, 2016)BITE is a multi-media installation that features all new music in an entirely immersive space. There is no complete, written score for the full performance. Instead, there is fixed media with semi-improvised, cellular vocal ... -
Book of Birds
(2021)Book of Birds is a composition for flute and electronics inspired by birds. Throughout human history, artists have developed stories and music about the natural world around them. In this piece, Book of Birds, I am adding ... -
Broken Gourd
(2021)Broken Gourd for Wind Ensemble uses elements from Dominican and Haitian folklore such as rhythms taken directly from the Afro-Latinx communities (mainly from Haitian voodoo drumming) combined with melodic lines that imitate ... -
Children of Chaos: Three Movements for Orchestra
(University of Missouri--Kansas City, 2017)Two characters from The Chronicles of Chaos trilogy by John C. Wright inspire these three movements for orchestra, “Amelia,” “Colin,” and “Exit.” The characters in the story are not human and have different powers ... -
Clear Sound for Clarinet and Orchestra
(2016)Clear Sound is the opening movement of a larger three movement concerto for solo clarinet and orchestra being written for clarinetist and conductor Luis Viquez Cordoba. I set out to compose a traditionally structured ... -
Compromise (Fusion) for suona and orchestra
(2021)Compromise (Fusion) (for suona and orchestra) is a work that delves into the chemistry between the suona and a Western approach to orchestration. The suona has not yet been fully “discovered” by composers. Traditionally, ... -
Crossroads of the Earth
(2024)Crossroads of The Earth is a single-movement mixed quartet in five sections, set for flute/piccolo, alto saxophone, violoncello, and piano. My inspiration for this composition stemmed from the environmental awareness film ... -
Darwin's Thought
(2015-07-28)It is difficult to describe accurately the bond between humans and society. Our current society is morphing at such a gradual pace that no one seems to notice many changes. Those changes, however, accumulate and in fact ... -
Dispatches
(2023)Dispatches is an eight-movement work that focuses on the very human emotions of love and desire, including the darker side of these, as well as the effects of separation on the heart and mind. Using a small chamber ensemble ... -
Escape from the Evil Empire
(2015-07-28)A dirge for soprano, women’s chorus, and orchestra, ‘Escape from the Evil Empire’ was created with the idea of composing original music for an epic, major motion picture. The original text speaks of unwanted souls in a ... -
Excursus: Three Art Songs for Soprano and Flexible Media
(2015-07-28)Commissioned by coloratura soprano Mikaela Sullivan for performance in April 2014, Excursus explores the methods in which modern television broadcasting attempts to provide different facets of human desire, thus propagating ... -
Five Ekmousikés for Solo Piano
(University of Missouri--Kansas City, 2016)“Five Ekmousikés” is a multi-movement work composed for solo piano, dedicated to and to be premiered by my grandmother, Dr. Janet Bass Smith. Each movement in this work is programmatically tied to a piece of extra-musical ... -
Flashbacks : for percussion trio
(2021)Flashbacks is a five-movement piece for percussion trio. This work aims to explore the unique sounds and effects of various combinations of percussion instruments. Each movement emphasizes a distinct theme: motif and ... -
The Footsteps Die Out For Ever (2016) for narrator, drum set, and orchestra
(2016)A Tale of Two Cities, serialized in weekly and monthly installments and finally published as a single volume in November 1859, is one of Charles Dickens’s best-loved and most-analyzed novels. In The Footsteps Die Out ... -
For whom the bell tolls for flute (piccolo), soprano saxophone (alto saxophone), percussion, and piano
(University of Missouri--Kansas City, 2018)This piece is inspired by "Meditation XVII”, a poem written by John Donne in 1624. It appears in Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions and Seuerall Steps in my Sicknes. The opening line is: "PERCHANCE he for whom this ... -
forsan et haec olim meminisse iuvabit
(University of Missouri--Kansas City, 2018)This quartet features a transparent structure in which a dense, static ensemble motif gradually and smoothly transforms into a highly active and agitated counter-motif. This process repeats twice: with each iteration, ...