The University of Southern Mississippi The Aquila Digital Community Dissertations Summer 2018 Technical and Performance Analysis of Scott McAllister's Devil Sticks, Uncle Sam's Songbag Vol. I, Freebirds, and Funk James Gruetzner University of Southern Mississippi Follow this and additional works at: https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations Part of the Music Commons Recommended Citation Gruetzner, James, "Technical and Performance Analysis of Scott McAllister's Devil Sticks, Uncle Sam's Songbag Vol. I, Freebirds, and Funk" (2018). Dissertations. 1561. https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations/1561 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by The Aquila Digital Community. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of The Aquila Digital Community. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Technical and Performance Analysis of Scott McAllister’s Devil Sticks, Uncle Sam’s Songbag Vol. I, Freebirds, and Funk by James M. Gruetzner A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School, the College of Arts and Letters and the School of Music at The University of Southern Mississippi in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Musical Arts Approved by: Dr. Jacqueline McIlwain, Committee Chair Dr. Joseph Brumbeloe Dr. Edward Hafer Dr. Danilo Mezzadri Dr. Kimberly Woolly ____________________ ____________________ ____________________ Dr. Jacqueline McIlwain Dr. Richard Kravchak Dr. Karen S. Coats Committee Chair Department Chair Dean of the Graduate School August 2018 COPYRIGHT BY James M. Gruetzner 2018 Published by the Graduate School ABSTRACT Four of composer Scott McAllister’s works, Devil Sticks, Uncle Sam’s Songbag Vol. I, Freebirds, and Funk feature the clarinet within a variety of ensembles. The purpose of my dissertation is to analyze the music in three ways: the background and outside influences found within each work, what happens in the pieces in terms of clarinet interaction with the ensemble(s), and finally relate it to McAllister’s other works. Through an interview with the composer, insight was gained into the background and history of each work, including who commissioned and first performed each one, any themes running throughout each piece, and outside influences, musical or otherwise, which appear in the pieces. An analysis of each piece in terms of overall form and structure, musical gestures contained within, and interaction between the clarinet and other instruments helps to define the clarinetists’ role in each piece. The information gathered is then combined to relate the compositions to others by the same composer, revealing commonalities and providing insight into stylistic characteristics used by McAllister as a whole. This information is gathered in hopes of an end result of helping performers to dissect the music to find the influences, compositional techniques, and commonalities with other works by the same composer in order to further their understanding of not only the four pieces predominantly featured throughout the document, but extrapolate the findings into McAllister’s compositional tendencies as a whole. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... iii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS .............................................................................................. v CHAPTER I – INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER II - BIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................ 1 CHAPTER III – DEVIL STICKS....................................................................................... 6 CHAPTER IV - UNCLE SAM’S SONGBAG VOL. 1 .................................................... 25 “Censored” .................................................................................................................... 26 “She Bares All” ............................................................................................................. 37 “Mrs. B.” ....................................................................................................................... 48 “Film at Eleven” ........................................................................................................... 57 “Don’t Come to My Window” ...................................................................................... 62 CHAPTER V – FREEBIRDS ........................................................................................... 75 CHAPTER VI – FUNK .................................................................................................... 99 CHAPTER VII – CONCLUSION .................................................................................. 120 APPENDIX A – Interview with Scott McAllister .......................................................... 122 APPENDIX B – IRB Approval Letter ............................................................................ 150 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................... 151 iv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure 1. Devil Sticks, measures 1-4. ................................................................................. 7 Figure 2. Devil Sticks, measures 5-8. ................................................................................. 8 Figure 3. Devil Sticks, measures 9-12. ............................................................................... 8 Figure 4. Devil Sticks, measures 13-16. ............................................................................. 9 Figure 5. Devil Sticks, measures 25-28. ........................................................................... 10 Figure 6. Devil Sticks, measures 33-36. ........................................................................... 12 Figure 7. Devil Sticks, measures 41-49. ........................................................................... 13 Figure 8. Devil Sticks, measures 63-64. ........................................................................... 15 Figure 9. Devil Sticks, measures 77-80. ........................................................................... 16 Figure 10. Devil Sticks, measure 87. ................................................................................ 17 Figure 11. Devil Sticks, measures 95-100. ....................................................................... 19 Figure 12. Devil Sticks, measures 102-103. ..................................................................... 20 Figure 13. Devil Sticks, measure 154. .............................................................................. 21 Figure 14. Black Dog, measure 155. ................................................................................ 21 Figure 15. Bling Bling, measure 39. ................................................................................. 21 Figure 16. Devil Sticks, measures 163-167. ..................................................................... 22 Figure 17. Uncle Sam’s Songbag Vol. I, “Censored,” measure 3. ................................... 28 Figure 18. Uncle Sam’s Songbag Vol. I, “Censored,” measure 4. ................................... 29 Figure 19. Uncle Sam’s Songbag Vol. I, “Censored,” measure 5. ................................... 29 Figure 20. Uncle Sam’s Songbag Vol. I, “Censored,” measures 8-9. ............................... 30 Figure 21. Uncle Sam’s Songbag Vol. I, “Censored,” measure 17. ................................. 32 Figure 22. Uncle Sam’s Songbag Vol. I, “Censored,” measures 19-23. ........................... 33 v Figure 23. Uncle Sam’s Songbag Vol. I, “Censored,” measures 32-34. ........................... 34 Figure 24. Uncle Sam’s Songbag Vol. I, “Censored,” measures 43-44. ........................... 35 Figure 25. Uncle Sam’s Songbag Vol. I, “Censored,” measures 48-51. ........................... 35 Figure 26. Uncle Sam’s Songbag Vol. I, “Censored,” measures 55-56. ........................... 36 Figure 27. Uncle Sam’s Songbag Vol. I, “She Bares All,” measures 1-2. ....................... 38 Figure 28. Uncle Sam’s Songbag Vol. I, “She Bares All,” measures 2-3. ....................... 38 Figure 29. Uncle Sam’s Songbag Vol. I, “She Bares All,” pickup to measures 10-12. ... 39 Figure 30. Uncle Sam’s Songbag Vol. I, “She Bares All,” measures 10-12. ................... 39 Figure 31. Uncle Sam’s Songbag Vol. I, “She Bares All,” measures 28-30. ................... 40 Figure 32. Uncle Sam’s Songbag Vol. I, “She Bares All,” measures 51-54. ................... 41 Figure 33. Uncle Sam’s Songbag Vol. I, “She Bares All,” measures 55-58. ................... 42 Figure 34. Uncle Sam’s Songbag Vol. I, “She Bares All,” measures 68-70. ................... 43 Figure 35. Uncle Sam’s Songbag Vol. I, “She Bares All,” measures 87-90. ................... 44 Figure 36. Uncle Sam’s Songbag Vol. I, “She Bares All,” measures 106-108. ............... 44 Figure 37. Uncle Sam’s Songbag Vol. I, “She Bares All,” measures 114-117. ............... 45 Figure 38. Uncle Sam’s Songbag Vol. I, “She Bares All,” measures 118-121. ............... 45 Figure 39. Uncle Sam’s Songbag Vol. I, “She Bares All,” measures 122-125. ............... 46 Figure 40. Uncle Sam’s Songbag Vol. I, “She Bares All,” measures 128-131. ............... 46 Figure 41. Uncle Sam’s Songbag Vol. I, “She Bares All,” measures 132-135. ............... 46 Figure 42. Uncle Sam’s Songbag