Search

Abstract“Impulse Control”by Alexis OlsenThe influence of Asian traditional music and thought on Western composition has been growing for more than a century. Composers working in the hybrid space between musical practices are now a formidable presence in Western art music; their role in some traditional music contexts is more complex, particularly in nations such as Thailand that have a unique history within the wider phenomenon of globalization.In 2013, during a short residency at Burapha University, in Bang Saen, Thailand, I began a practice-based research project, composing “Impulse Control,” for traditional pi phat ensemble, with other Thai instruments. Building on previous research, this particular compositional process fused an exploration of current trends specific to East/West hybrids, recent intercultural work by composers Chou Wen-Chung and Koji Nakano, my own Western music background training (particularly in jazz), and my experiences at Burapha University in 2013.Intercultural composition, by its very nature, demands concessions in performance practice from all involved parties. I argue for aurally based pedagogy and transmission as an alternative to Western notation, and suggest jazz as a “parent” genre in the bicultural mix. The principal elements of this hybridity lie in juxtaposing musical archetypes: American jazz performance practices like individual and collective improvisation,‘trading 4’s’, modal harmony, and collective free improvisation; Thai archetypes like instrumental combinations reflecting three Thai ensemble types, and the tripartite thao approach to form. Mode and pitch centricity figure prominently within the context of the pre-composed and collaboratively-generated improvised moments of the hybrid composition. The form explores Thai concepts including neua phleng as a central feature framed by prior and later variations related by common structural tones, the thao approach to composing with pre-conceived melodies, sequentially increasing tempos, and the ching cycle. It also makes use of tempo fluctuation, and metric modulation between and within sections. Fundamental foci in the development of the work’s aural acumen included traditional means of transmission, such as demonstration, repetition, memorization, and improvisation; but also their resulting cultural dissonances and frictions against Western practices and concepts, suggestive of challenges to assumptions about the functional roles of music in society.

The following research was conducted to understand the use of English articles in referential noun phrases (RNPs) by students from Nepal. English articles, “a/an” and “the”, are widely known to be one of the most difficult aspects of English to learn for second language learners of English. This thesis examines the article use of language learners by using the Givenness Hierarchy Framework, an implicational hierarchy of cognitive statuses proposed by Gundel, Hedberg, and Zacharski (1993). The data used for this study were written samples of students from Nepal, who had newly entered a university in the Midwest, who took a placement test at the beginning of their academic career at that University. Thirty student placement essays were the materials utilized for this research. The essays were transcribed, the referential noun phrases (RNPs) were identified and numbered, the article use in each RNP was evaluated for English-likeness, and the cognitive status of each RNP was recognized according to the Givenness Hierarchy. The results show the dispersion of the RNPs across the cognitive statuses within the Givenness Hierarchy. Additionally, the results show a high level of English-likeness in each cognitive status category, and frequent non-English-like variations of oversuppliance of “the”, deletion of “a/an”, and deletion of “the”. This research analyzes the cognitive status and English-likeness of the article use of students from Nepal.

People frequently encounter situations when they must choose between two pathways. Pathways in this context are a route, or series of decisions, that represent the things individuals’ value in pursuit of their happiness. As a result, the trade-off decisions an individual makes and believes to be worthwhile should, therefore, reflect the personal importance of that pathway. Those trade-offs might also be judged worthy by observers depending on the relative importance of the chosen versus unchosen pathway to the observer in question. The studies included in this paper examine the relationship between several distinct pathways to happiness (Security, Outlook, Autonomy, Relationships, Skilled and Meaningful Activity, and Contact with Nature) and their relative value to individuals (Haybron, 2013). I am interested in understanding individual differences in how these pathways are valued relative to one another. The first Study develops the Pathways to Happiness measure, while the second and third studies examine its validity. Results from the first study confirmed 5 out of 6 of Haybron’s Pathways to Happiness. These factors were utilized in the subsequent studies outlined in this paper. Results from Studies 2 and 3 confirmed the discriminant validity of the measure developed in Study 1 for all subscales; and the convergent validity for most subscales (the Autonomy subscale did not converge enough with other similar measures). A future study is introduced in the discussion section that proposes an examination of the relative valuation of pathways as measured by this scale and whether those scores predict how an individual perceives choices between two pathways.