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Music Dissertation Topics

Published by Carmen Troy at January 4th, 2023 , Revised On August 11, 2023

Music is one of the most beautiful forms of art that involves an organized and hierarchical sound and silence. It is generally performed in terms of pitch, rhythm, and sound quality. Music is a passion that many enthusiasts aspire to pursue. While the art of music can be an innate ability, it can be pruned with proper learning. Therefore, musicology is an academic field that offers the teaching of music.

Suppose you are an avid music learner, you have chosen musicology for higher studies. Then, you need to complete your degree with a final dissertation. If you are unsure what dissertation to write about, you can check out some of the topics suggested by experienced, professional experts in music.

You may also want to start your dissertation by requesting a  brief research proposal  from our writers on any of these topics, which includes an  introduction  to the problem,  research question , aim and objectives,  literature review , along with the proposed  methodology  of research to be conducted. Let us know if you need any help in getting started.

Check our  example dissertation  to get an idea of  how to structure your dissertation .

You can review step by step guide on how to write your dissertation  here .

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Problem fixed! We can write any type of essay in any referencing style. We ensure every essay written is beyond your expectations.

2022 Music Dissertation Topics

Topic 1: examining the benefits of using music therapy for curing mental health patients – a study on the hospitals under nhs foundation trust..

Research Aim: The aim of this study is to identify the benefits of using music therapy for curing mental health patients. The study will mainly focus on the use of music therapy in hospitals under the NHS Foundation Trust.

Objectives:

• To figure out the key advantages of using music therapy to cure mental health patients.
• To elaborate on how music therapy is being used by the hospitals under NHS Foundation Trust aims to cure mental health patients.
• To share a stringent set of recommendations for the hospitals under the NHS Foundation Trust to strategically use music therapy for curing mental health patients.

Topic 2: A detailed study on the transformation of British electronic dance music (EDM) over the last 10 years.

Research Aim: The study aims to conduct research on the transformation of British electronic dance music (EDM) over the last 10 years.

• To share knowledge about the key aspects and specifications of British electronic dance music (EDM).
• To provide a comprehensive analysis of the transformation of British electronic dance music (EDM) in the last decade.
• To develop an understanding of how overall EDM practices can be improved and led towards advancement thereby aligning with the British culture.

Topic 3: Examining the growing influence of electronic and digital technology on music education in the UK.

Research Aim: The present research study aims to examine the growing influence of electronic and digital technology on music education in the UK.

• To shed light on the changes in modern-age music education alongside the increasing dominance of advanced technologies.
• To demonstrate how the growing use of electronic and digital technologies is redefining music education in the UK.
• To recommend how electronic and digital technologies can be used in the best possible way to influence music education in the UK.

Topic 4: Describing the benefits of using music for children’s learning specifically during the stage of early development – a study on the UK government's changing perspective and investment in children's music and art.

Research Aim: The aim of this research study is to describe the benefits of using music for children’s learning specifically during the stage of early development. The UK government’s changing perspective and investment in children’s music and art will be emphasised in this study.

• To identify the key benefits of using music in children’s learning, especially during their early development.
• To exemplify the changing perspective of the UK government and how the government is investing in children’s music and art.
• To recommend strategies that can help in the use of music in the best way to support children’s learning at their early development stage.

Topic 5: Investigating the impacts of removing gender disparity on music composition and performance in the British music industry.

Research Aim: The aim of this study is to investigate the impacts of removing gender disparity on music composition and performance in the British music industry.

• To contextualise the importance of maintaining gender equality for maintaining healthy practices in music composition and performance.
• To describe how the removal of gender disparity may help in music composition and performance in the British music industry.
• To suggest strategies to eliminate gender discrimination and inequality in the British music industry.

Topic. 1: Major music platforms in the world:

Research Aim: There are many channels through which we can stream music. Each of the platforms has its perks and flaws that either excite or infuriate the users. The aim of the research will be to critically analyze the major music platforms in the world. 

Topic. 2: Impact of music talent shows on music:

Research Aim: Almost all countries around the world produce music talent shows usually aimed to find out new, young, emerging talent. The music talent shows have significant effects on the music, musicians, and music industry. Now, whether the impact is good or bad, the research will aim to find it out. The focal purpose of the study will be to identify the positive and negative repercussions of music talent shows. 

Topic. 3: Health benefit of music:

Research Aim: We all have heard that music is the food for the soul, but it is yet to find out if it is any good to our body. However, it is true that music cheers us up and helps us unwind things. It is significant to study if it aids an ailment. The research will aim to find out if music has health benefits and explore the details about the ailments and the remedy.

Topic. 4: Pop music in the contemporary world

Research Aim: Pop music was the undisputed king in the back times. Today, although we get to see the spark of pop in music, it is not truly pop. The research will analyze and evaluate the nature of pop music today and how it is amalgamated with contemporary music all around the world. 

Topic. 5: Role of technology in music

Research Aim: Technology is a crucial determiner that cannot be overlooked. It has affected all of the significant aspects of our lives, and music is no exception. The music that existed without technologically driven machines used to be different from what it is today. The aim of the research is to make a comparison and contrast between the nature of the two products of music and understand their similarities and differences under the light of technology. 

Topic. 6: Music in Hollywood

Research Aim: The main aim of the research would be to make a standard music format that is followed in Hollywood. The type of music produced in Hollywood is different from other major film industries. The researcher will analyze and evaluate the music and create a generic algorithm of music production followed by music composers in Hollywood. 

Topic. 7: The obsolete music instruments

Research Aim: Today, not all musical instruments are in their original shape. In fact, most of them have been buried inside a land do a lack of marketing and usage. The researcher will conduct thorough research to investigate the obsolete musical instruments that are unfamiliar to most people of a specific area. 

Topic. 8: pros and cons of legal music sharing platforms

Research Aim: The aim of the research will be to find out and highlight the advantages and disadvantages of legal music-sharing platforms. It will also investigate their impact on the music itself and discover the user’s inclination or motivations for using the platforms.   

Topic. 9: Music piracy in the age of the internet

Research Aim: Music piracy has always existed, but in the age of the internet, it has become predominant. The aim of the research will be to explore and find out how easy or difficult it has become to pirate music because it has significant outcomes in both ways. 

Topic. 10: Role of music in human life

Research Aim: When we are happy, we listen to music. When we are sad, we listen to music. Music has something to offer to each of our moods, and therefore, it is an integral part of our lives. This research will deeply analyze the role of music in human life and in what ways it affects our feelings, mood, actions, behaviors, and mundane activities. 

How Can ResearchProspect Help?

ResearchProspect writers can send several custom topic ideas to your email address. Once you have chosen a topic that suits your needs and interests, you can order for our dissertation outline service which will include a brief introduction to the topic, research questions , literature review , methodology , expected results , and conclusion . The dissertation outline will enable you to review the quality of our work before placing the order for our full dissertation writing service !

Topic. 11: How does music therapy work:

Research Aim: Music therapy is practiced in a large proportion of the world. The researcher will monitor people taking music therapy and identify its level of effectiveness. 

Topic. 12: Music and economy:

Research Aim: Good music transcends boundaries and therefore gets most disseminated and widespread. As a result, it is able to generate more money. The counties whose music is listened around the world have music as a key contributor to their Gross domestic product. The aim of the research is to survey and find out the statistics of music and its contribution to the economy. 

Topic. 13: music and culture

Research Aim: There are different kinds of music produced around the world, much of which depends on the culture of the respective area. The research will study the influence of culture on music and vice versa. 

Topic. 14: Role of music in spirituality

Research Aim: Music has a unique and close relationship with spirituality. Music is an instrument used to invoke feelings of spirituality. The researcher will study different religions and their way of connecting to God through music. 

Topic. 15: Music bands- their relevance today

Research Aim: The popularity and craze of music bands were very high in the 90s than what it is today. The aim of the research is to find out the potential of music bands in the contemporary music industry in different ways. 

Topic. 16: Music and patriotism

Research Aim: Music and poetry are used all around the world to boost the patriotism and nationalism of the inhabitants. The researcher will broadly study and investigate the instrumentation of music for patriotism and how music is used for political gains and at avenues. The researcher can do case studies and find accurate answers to the research questions. 

Topic. 17: Understanding the music market

Research Aim: The music market is just like any other product market: it is vast and diverse. You cannot make an audience persona for music, but you can make audience personas for different genres of music. And this research will do that. The research will aim to make audience personas of varying music genres understand the music market. 

Topic. 18: Most influential musicians today

Research Aim: The main aim of the research would be to explore and understand the current trends in music and pinpoint the most influential musicians today. Different musicians will be evaluated against different variables such as music they have produced, outreach, and followers, etc. 

Topic. 19: Music in the 21st century

Research Aim: Music has evolved significantly over the period of time, and there is no doubt that it will keep on transforming in the coming years. The aim of the research is to study and evaluate the current nature of music produced in the world and, more particularly, about the taste of people. 

Topic. 20: The evolution of music:

Research Aim: The researcher will delve into the history of the music to learn about its roots. The main aim of the research is to find and evaluate the evolution of music than how it developed over time and the phases that it went through to reach its current position. 

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How to find music dissertation topic.

To find a music dissertation topic:

• Explore genres, history, or cultural aspects.
• Analyze music theory, composition, or performance.
• Investigate technology’s impact on music.
• Consider social or psychological dimensions.
• Review recent research in musicology.
• Select a topic that resonates with your passion and expertise.

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If you are strangled in selecting the right topic for your public relations dissertation, here are a few topics along with their research aims for your guidance.

Medical law becomes increasingly important as healthcare dominates as a social issue. Graduate students must select a thesis subject as part of their programs. The subject you choose must have sufficient data to support your thesis.

There are a wide range of topics in sports management that can be researched at the national and international levels. International sports are extremely popular worldwide, making sports management research issues very prominent as well.

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Dissertations and Theses

• ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global Includes millions of searchable citations to dissertations and theses from 1861 to the present day together with over a million full-text dissertations that are available for download in PDF format. The database offers full-text for most of the dissertations added since 1997 and strong retrospective full-text coverage for older graduate works. It includes the more than 28,000 Yale PhD and MD theses (1861-present). Of these, more than 18,500 are in full-text: almost all since 1960, and selected dissertations back to 1868. It also includes PQDT UK & Ireland content.
• Articles+ Dissertations It can be easier to locate a known dissertation by author and title using Articles+ (which searches against ProQuest Dissertations & Theses) and limiting to dissertations. The link above has already been limited to dissertations.

Search for dissertations in Quicksearch:

The Music Library has purchased many copies of dissertations from other universities.  Most Yale dissertations that are not full-text in ProQuest (above) are available in paper or microfilm for reading, scanning, or printing.

Dissertations can be located in Quicksearch by: (1) Entering the author or title in the Basic Search box. Remember to enclose exact word-by-word phrases in quotation marks.

(2) Using the Quicksearch Books+ Advanced Search:

• To browse all dissertations & theses, leave the search rows empty, enter All fields: music, or enter your search terms in the search boxes
• Limit by Format: Dissertation & Theses
• Limit by Location: Music Library (optional) 

(a) The example below shows a blank search limited to Dissertations & Theses format and Music Library location: 2,713 results.

 (b) Refine your search using the facets on the left of the results screen.

3) If you do not locate a Yale dissertation in Quicksearch, check the card catalog at Manuscripts and Archives. Except for some early dissertations that are not available, the originals of all Yale dissertations are held at Manuscripts and Archives.

Finding Dissertations Online - Additional Resources

• Dart-Europe E-Theses Portal
• Dissertation Express
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• Doctoral Dissertations in Musicology
• EDT Digital Library
• Music Theory Online Dissertation Index
• OhioLink ETD Center
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• Archive of Dissertation Abstracts in Music (Europe).
• Finding Dissertations on Music (Indiana U guide)

How to get a copy

If you find a dissertation that you need, but there is not a full text link, there are several options: search for it at Yale, borrow a copy through Borrow Direct or Interlibrary Loan (ILL) , or request that the library purchase a copy.  You may also purchase a copy in various formats.

Citing Electronic Resources

There are three major citation styles used in the humanities, social sciences, and some scientific disciplines. Consult one of the following official style manuals :

• APA Style The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association is the style manual of choice for writers, editors, students, and educators in the social and behavioral sciences.
• MLA Style Center Website with updates and tips for the Modern Language Association's 8th edition of the MLA Handbook (see entry below). Includes a Quick Guide to works cited, an FAQ, and posts on topics such as URLs and citing ebooks.
• The Chicago Manual of Style online With state-of-the-art recommendations on editorial style and publishing practices in the digital age, The Chicago Manual of Style is the must-have reference for everyone who works with words.
• The Columbia guide to online style Janice R. Walker and Todd Taylor. A guide to locating, translating, and using the elements of citation for both a humanities style (i.e., MLA and Chicago) and a scientific style (APA and CBE) for electronically-accessed sources. Access is available to the Yale Community. Often preferred in history and many other disciplines.
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Digital Commons @ USF > College of The Arts > School of Music > Theses and Dissertations

Music Theses and Dissertations

Theses/dissertations from 2023 2023.

A Novel Jazz Music Curriculum for Young Children: Results of A Pilot Study , Jazmin D. Ghent

Theses/Dissertations from 2022 2022

Where We Live and Learn to Know: An Oral History of the Rochelle High School Music Program , John Sargeant

Theses/Dissertations from 2021 2021

School Music Administration During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Trauma, Loss, Meaning, Change, and Innovation , Christopher Burns

Development and Validation of a Scale to Measure Songwriting Self-Efficacy (SSES) with Secondary Music Students , Patrick K. Cooper

Measuring Parental Involvement as Parental Actions in Children’s Private Music Lessons in China , Cancan Cui

Instrumental Music Instruction and Executive Functions: A Cross-Sectional Study of Romanian Children (10-12 Years) , Adrian Sorin Iordache

Racial and Ethnic Difference in Music Performance Self-Efficacy Among Undergraduate Students , George W. Shannon Ii

Theses/Dissertations from 2020 2020

Vocal Health of Choral Singers from Kenya and the United States: Dysphonia and Vocal Fatigue in Relation to Musical Genres , Morgan Jolley Burburan

Theses/Dissertations from 2019 2019

Two Phenomena in Contemporary Music Education: Mental Toughness and the Law , Jason R. Sivill

Theses/Dissertations from 2018 2018

The Making of a Nationally Recognized Band in a Small, Private Liberal Arts University: The Historical Significance of the Bobby L. Adams Years, 1987-2012 , Joshua David Blair

The Effects of a Self-Regulated Learning Music Practice Strategy Curriculum on Music Performance, Self-Regulation, Self-Efficacy, and Cognition , Kimberly N. Mieder

Music Software in the Compositional Learning Process , Daniel L. Nevels

Behavioral, Affective, and Cognitive Engagement of High School Music Students: Relation to Academic Achievement and Ensemble Performance Ratings , Joel E. Pagán

Theses/Dissertations from 2017 2017

Re-envisioning Music Teacher Education: A Comparison of Two Undergraduate Music Education Programs in the U.S. , Jonathan Ross Kladder

Music Ensemble Participation: Personality Traits and Music Experience , Tracy A. Torrance

Theses/Dissertations from 2016 2016

Influence of Musical Engagement on Symptoms of Tourette’s Disorder , William Christopher Brown

Motivation of Adult, Auditioned Community Choirs: Implications toward Lifelong Learning , David James Redman

The Effects of Technical and Imagery-based Instruction on Aspiring Performing Artists’ Acquisition of Learning Newly Composed Pieces and Improvisation and on Listeners’ Perceived Expressivity , José Valentino Ruiz-Resto

Theses/Dissertations from 2015 2015

Preference of Chinese Undergraduate Music Majors for Chinese Xi-Qu and Western Opera , Hong Chen

Secondary Band Participation and Executive Function , Dakeyan Cha' Dre' Graham

Theses/Dissertations from 2014 2014

An Examination of Cooperating Teachers' Observations of Their Student Teachers in the Areas of Personal, Teaching, and Musical Skills in the Elementary Classroom , Mark Remsen Cole

I Did That Wrong and It Sounded Good: An Ethnographic Study of Vernacular Music Making in Higher Education , Victor Ezquerra

Creativity-Based Music Learning: Modeling the Process and Learning Outcomes in a Massive Open Online Course , Nicholas Michael Stefanic

Theses/Dissertations from 2012 2012

The Relationship between Death Depression and Death Anxiety among Cancer Patients in Saudi Arabia , Doaa A. Almostadi

World Percussion Approaches in Collegiate Percussion Programs: A Mixed-methods Study , Patrick Michael Hernly

The Impact of Arranging Music for the Large Ensemble on the Teacher: A Phenomenological Exploration , James Teodor Lindroth

Listening in Action: Students' Mobile Music Experiences in the Digital Age , Rebecca Marie Rinsema

Theses/Dissertations from 2011 2011

The Performance Production Process of an Outstanding High School Choir , Kathy K. Rolsten

Transitioning from Student to Teacher in the Master-Apprentice Model of Piano Pedagogy: An Exploratory Study of Challenges, Solutions, Resources, Reflections, and Suggestions for the Future , Melissa Maccarelli Slawsky

Self-Efficacy in Music Performance: Measuring the Sources Among Secondary School Music Students , Michael S. Zelenak

Theses/Dissertations from 2008 2008

Analytical Perspectives of Thematic Unity: Applications of Reductive Analysis to Selected Fugues by J.S. Bach and G.F. Handel , Adam C. Perciballi

Theses/Dissertations from 2007 2007

Expanded Tonality: The Treatment of Upper and Lower Leading Tones As Evidenced in Sonata "Undine,” IV by Carl Reinecke , Joshua Blizzard

Theses/Dissertations from 2005 2005

The Compositional Style of Francesco Geminiani: a Reflection of Theory and Practice in His Music and Guida Armonica Treatise , Valerie R. Weber

Theses/Dissertations from 2004 2004

An Application of the Grundgestalt Concept to the First and Second Sonatas for Clarinet and Piano, Op. 120, No. 1 & No. 2, by Johannes Brahms , Devon Burts

The French Art Song Style in Selected Songs by Charles Ives , Christy Jo Talbott

Theses/Dissertations from 2003 2003

Music Programs that Engage Our Communities: Making a Stronger Connection , La Gretta Snowden

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Why use dissertations for your research.

Dissertations are excellent sources of trustworthy, thorough, and narrowly-focused research. They represent the cutting-edge of research on music, and provide in-depth analysis of everything for composers' styles, their works, and their lives. For performers, dissertations can be great sources for annotated bibliographies of repertoire, and they can also include detailed examination of specific works that can help with everything from tonal analysis to performance practice. Lastly, they include really helpful bibliographies and lists of references that can help you to find other relevant sources for your own research.

The dissertation databases below represent a range of resources:

• Some provide   full-text access  to PDFs of dissertations (look for the PDF icon or a button that says download PDF)  
• Others list author names and other publication information that you can use to place a request for the item through interlibrary loan . 

Top pick for finding dissertations: ProQuest Dissertation and Theses Global

• Dissertations and Theses Global This link opens in a new window Collection of dissertations and theses from around the world, offering millions of works from thousands of universities. Each year hundreds of thousands of works are added. Full-text coverage spans from 1743 to the present, with citation coverage dating back to 1637.

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses should be your first stop for searching for dissertations because:

TIP: Want to see what dissertations are available from other institutions around the world and that you can't access through ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global? Check out the links at the bottom of this page, and contact Jessica Abbazio, Music Librarian, at [email protected] for help!

What to do when you can't access a pdf/the full text of a dissertation.

• Some provide full-text access to PDFs of dissertations (look for the PDF icon or a button that says download PDF)  
• Others list author names and other publication information that you can use to place a request for the item through interlibrary loan . If you locate a dissertation you need but can't access a full-text document, try clicking the maroon and gold M-Find It button (if you see one):

Clicking the M-Find It button will take you to the Libraries catalog, where you should click on the Interlibrary Loan (ILL) link to place a request through the ILL system:

If you don't see an M-Find It button, you can place a request for the item by filling out a form on the the Libraries Interlibrary Loan page:

• Visit the ILL homepage at  lib.umn.edu/interlibraryloan  

• Once you're logged in with your University ID and password, fill out the form with as much information as you have about the dissertation (NOTE: If you found the resource in one of the dissertation databases below, it's helpful to keep that page open in a tab on your browser; all of the information you'll need to complete this form should be available for you to copy and paste from the database.)

Questions? Need help? Contact Jessica Abbazio, Music Librarian, at [email protected]

Find dissertations and conference papers.

• Center for Research Libraries Global Resources Network Looking for a dissertation that was not published in the US or Canada? Search for it in the Center for Research Libraries (CRL) Global Resources Network. Not finding the dissertation you're looking for? Contact Jessica Abbazio, Music Librarian, at [email protected] to learn about options.
• DART Europe e-Theses Portal Access to over 800,00 open access research theses from 617 Universities in 28 European countries.
• Dissertationsmeldestelle der Gesellschaft für Musikforschung Open repository of German-language dissertations from Austria, Switzerland, and Germany. Some publications from other European countries are included. Documents date from 1998 and later.
• Doctoral Dissertations in Musicology The American Musicological Society's Doctoral Dissertations in Musicology (DDM) is an international database of bibliographic records for completed dissertations and new dissertation topics in the fields of musicology, music theory, and ethnomusicology, as well as in related musical, scientific, and humanistic disciplines. The fully searchable database containing over 16,400 records, including the corrected and updated contents of all earlier printed editions of Doctoral Dissertations in Musicology and supplements contributed from musicological centers throughout the world. Records include normal bibliographic information as well as publication details and internet availability (if available). DDM does not include the dissertations themselves.
• ERIC Education (Ebscohost) ERIC (Education Resources Information Center) is a database of full-text education literature and resources. With coverage dating back to 1966, it is essential for education researchers of all kinds.
• Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations A free catalog of over 5 million electronic theses and dissertations published by an international group of around 175 institutions.
• RILM Abstracts of Music Literature with Full Text RILM Abstracts of Music Literature with Full Text is a comprehensive bibliography of writings about music featuring citations, abstracts, and indexes. It covers over one million publications from the early 19th century to the present on traditional music, popular music, classical music, and related subjects, enhanced with the full text of more than 200 periodicals.
• Theses Canada Portal Free database of over 500,000 Canadian theses dating from 1965 and later. Theses Canada is a collaborative program between Library and Archives Canada (LAC) and nearly 70 universities accredited by Universities Canada. Documents completed in 1998 and later are available in full text; earlier publications are available in microform through interlibrary loan.
• University of Minnesota Digital Conservancy The University of Minnesota Digital Conservancy (UDC) is a venue for faculty to deposit open access copies of their scholarly work, a showcase for select student works, such as dissertations and honors theses, a home to the Data Repository for the University of Minnesota (DRUM), and centralized, searchable access to institutional digital records including those of the University of Minnesota Archives.
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Doctoral Dissertations in Musicology

Doctoral Dissertations in Musicology (DDM) is an international database of bibliographic records for completed dissertations and new dissertation topics in the fields of musicology, music theory, and ethnomusicology, as well as in related musical, scientific, and humanistic disciplines.

• Report a new dissertation
• Update an existing dissertation record

What is included

The fully searchable database containing over 16,400 records, including the corrected and updated contents of all earlier printed editions of Doctoral Dissertations in Musicology and supplements contributed from musicological centers throughout the world. Records include normal bibliographic information as well as publication details and internet availability (if available).

References to the following tools are also included when available:

• Dissertation Express

What is not included

DDM does not include the dissertations themselves.

Additional information and background

A number of dissertations awarded by UK institutions and included here are also listed in the British Library’s EThOS E-Theses database . Over 100,000 are available for immediate, free download. For many others, you can order a scanned copy (charges may apply)

This implementation of DDM was prepared by Durrell Bowman in 2010. Click here for further information about DDM and a short history of the project.

The AMS is grateful to people and institutions who have worked hard to make DDM a useful research tool: Durrell Bowman, Peter Slemon, Thomas Mathiesen, Alis Dickinson, Cecil Adkins, Helen Hewitt, Indiana University, and the University of North Texas.

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Dissertations on music

Oxford dissertations  have traditionally been deposited in hard-copy in the Bodleian and are treated as manuscripts. All doctoral dissertations now have entries on SOLO  and many more recent theses are available in full-text through Oxford's research repository ORA . Composition degrees also involve the deposit of portfolio submissions or degree 'exercises', many of which (some dating back to the 18th century) are held in the Weston Library.

For general information on accessing theses and dissertations, click here .

The principal published lists of dissertations on music are:

• Doctoral Dissertations in Musicology – Online . DDM  is a free international database of bibliographic records for completed dissertations and new dissertation topics in the fields of musicology, music theory, and ethnomusicology, as well as in related musical, scientific, and humanistic disciplines. Hosted by the American Musicological Society, the database currently containing over 14,000 records, including the corrected and updated contents of all earlier printed editions of Doctoral Dissertations in Musicology and its supplements contributed from musicological centres throughout the world.
• ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global (PQDT) is the world's most comprehensive collection of full-text dissertations and theses in all subjects. As the official digital dissertations archive for the Library of Congress and as the database of record for graduate research, PQDTGlobal includes millions of searchable citations to dissertations and theses from 1861 to the present day together with over a million full-text dissertations that are available for download in PDF format. Over 2.1 million titles are available for purchase as printed copies. The database offers full text for most of the dissertations added since 1997 and strong retrospective full-text coverage for older graduate works. It also includes content from PQDT UK & Ireland (aka Index to Theses). 
• EThOS (Electronic Theses Online Service) is a British Library service covering dissertations from most British universities. Search over 500,000 doctoral theses and register for free to download instantly for your research, or order a scanned copy quickly and easily. Hard-copy theses can sometimes be made available in the Bodleian on Inter-Library Loan .
• Archive of Dissertation Abstracts in Music  provides abstracts both to completed dissertations and to those in progress.

Other sources for European dissertations:

• DART-Europe E-theses Portal  provides access to 1,079,176 open access research theses from 570 Universities in 29 European countries.
• Full retrospective lists of German-language dissertations to 1970 will be found in Richard Schaal: Verzeichnis deutschsprachiger musikwissenschaftlicher Dissertationen (Bärenreiter, 1963; with supplement 1974). Retrospective coverage of French dissertations will be found in Jean Gribenski's printed guide: Thèses de doctorat en langue française relatives à la musique (Pendragon Press, 1979).
• Many printed dissertations from European universities, and a small number of American dissertations, are held by the Bodleian. Most can be found on SOLO .
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• Last Updated: Apr 24, 2024 11:21 AM
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Music research: dissertation and thesis guidance for topic selection and copyright permissions.

• Introduction
• Article Databases
• Reference Sources
• Streaming Audio and Video Databases
• Dissertation and Thesis Guidance for Topic Selection and Copyright Permissions

Selecting a topic is the first consideration for a writer of a dissertation or thesis. This will of course be done in consultation with their major professor. The PhD, DMA, or master's student is required do original research. This might involve making new discoveries about an already well-researched topic or making discoveries about an unfamiliar topic.  Someone might think there is nothing new to be discovered about a composer such as Bach or Beethoven, for example, but that may not be the case. An unfamiliar topic might seem safer, but that may not be the case. In considering a topic, the student should begin by doing the most thorough search they can to see what has already been done. If they find little or nothing, the topic might be promising. However, for an unfamiliar topic, sometimes so little has been done that researching it is not even feasible. However, If research has been done, even if resources are only available in distant archives in other countries, the student could pursue the topic. It is unacceptable to ignore resources in distant or difficult to access places.  Once a topic is approved and the student starts writing, there are important matters to deal with early on. One of them is the quoting of copyrighted material. U.S. copyright law includes provisions for fair use of copyrighted material for such purposes as scholarship and research. Quotation of very brief excerpts might qualify as fair use. However, for extended examples, the student must obtain written permission from the copyright holder. Their are many websites dealing with fair use. This one from the U.S. Copyright Office is helpful:  https://www.copyright.gov/fair-use/ Determining the identity of a copyright holder is not always easy. For printed music which has been published, the copyright holder is the publisher. Many large publishing houses have links on their websites for requesting permissions. For a music manuscript, the copyright holder would be the composer, but only if that composer is still alive. If not, their estate or an institution such as a research library which has custody of the manuscript might be the copyright holder. Something similar might be the case for musical examples found on websites. The copyright holder for an image found on a website would be the provider of the website. It may be helpful for a student to know that sites such as Wikimedia Commons,  https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Pag e  offer many high-quality images which are in the public domain.  Whatever the case, the student should investigate and request appropriate permissions well in advance of the completion of their dissertation or thesis. Many students have waited till the last minute, only to discover that the permissions are very difficult or impossible to obtain. Without the permissions, the examples cannot be used.  Music library personnel are available to assist PhD, DMA, and master's students who need help with any of these aspects of working on their dissertations or theses. Please send your questions to  [email protected] or come by the library to meet with us in person.

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Why Dissertations?

Image Credit  https://dorothyjoseph.com

Question: What value lies in using dissertations, especially when they can sometimes be so hard to track down?

Answer: Dissertations and theses offer the latest research from graduate students, identifying trends in the field. 

As research tools, they are invaluable for their extensive bibliographies.

-Kristina DeVoe

A good way to find dissertations in University Libraries is to do a keyword search in the  USD Online Catalog with terms from your topic and add the word "theses" to the search, or use Proquest Dissertations and Theses @ University of South Dakota .  Dissertations done at USD are housed in the stacks on the 3rd floor and are shelved alphabetically by the last name of the author. 

To identify dissertations not completed at USD, use Proquest Dissertations & Theses Global Doctoral Dissertations in Musicology Online Contains listings of dissertations in progress as well as completed dissertations in the field of Musicology from 1986 to the present. Mostly North American Listings, but some international coverage. The database provides citations for the dissertations. To access actual dissertations, use Interlibrary Loan .

International Dissertations - for dissertations completed outside of North America, try searching the Center for Research Libraries.

• << Previous: Music Reviews
• Next: Music Education >>
• Last Updated: Jan 5, 2024 1:19 PM
• URL: https://libguides.usd.edu/music

Dissertation Structure & Layout 101: How to structure your dissertation, thesis or research project.

By: Derek Jansen (MBA) Reviewed By: David Phair (PhD) | July 2019

So, you’ve got a decent understanding of what a dissertation is , you’ve chosen your topic and hopefully you’ve received approval for your research proposal . Awesome! Now its time to start the actual dissertation or thesis writing journey.

To craft a high-quality document, the very first thing you need to understand is dissertation structure . In this post, we’ll walk you through the generic dissertation structure and layout, step by step. We’ll start with the big picture, and then zoom into each chapter to briefly discuss the core contents. If you’re just starting out on your research journey, you should start with this post, which covers the big-picture process of how to write a dissertation or thesis .

*The Caveat *

In this post, we’ll be discussing a traditional dissertation/thesis structure and layout, which is generally used for social science research across universities, whether in the US, UK, Europe or Australia. However, some universities may have small variations on this structure (extra chapters, merged chapters, slightly different ordering, etc).

So, always check with your university if they have a prescribed structure or layout that they expect you to work with. If not, it’s safe to assume the structure we’ll discuss here is suitable. And even if they do have a prescribed structure, you’ll still get value from this post as we’ll explain the core contents of each section.  

Overview: S tructuring a dissertation or thesis

• Acknowledgements page
• Abstract (or executive summary)
• Table of contents , list of figures and tables
• Chapter 1: Introduction
• Chapter 2: Literature review
• Chapter 3: Methodology
• Chapter 4: Results
• Chapter 5: Discussion
• Chapter 6: Conclusion
• Reference list

As I mentioned, some universities will have slight variations on this structure. For example, they want an additional “personal reflection chapter”, or they might prefer the results and discussion chapter to be merged into one. Regardless, the overarching flow will always be the same, as this flow reflects the research process , which we discussed here – i.e.:

• The introduction chapter presents the core research question and aims .
• The literature review chapter assesses what the current research says about this question.
• The methodology, results and discussion chapters go about undertaking new research about this question.
• The conclusion chapter (attempts to) answer the core research question .

In other words, the dissertation structure and layout reflect the research process of asking a well-defined question(s), investigating, and then answering the question – see below.

To restate that – the structure and layout of a dissertation reflect the flow of the overall research process . This is essential to understand, as each chapter will make a lot more sense if you “get” this concept. If you’re not familiar with the research process, read this post before going further.

Right. Now that we’ve covered the big picture, let’s dive a little deeper into the details of each section and chapter. Oh and by the way, you can also grab our free dissertation/thesis template here to help speed things up.

The title page of your dissertation is the very first impression the marker will get of your work, so it pays to invest some time thinking about your title. But what makes for a good title? A strong title needs to be 3 things:

• Succinct (not overly lengthy or verbose)
• Specific (not vague or ambiguous)
• Representative of the research you’re undertaking (clearly linked to your research questions)

Typically, a good title includes mention of the following:

• The broader area of the research (i.e. the overarching topic)
• The specific focus of your research (i.e. your specific context)
• Indication of research design (e.g. quantitative , qualitative , or  mixed methods ).

For example:

A quantitative investigation [research design] into the antecedents of organisational trust [broader area] in the UK retail forex trading market [specific context/area of focus].

Again, some universities may have specific requirements regarding the format and structure of the title, so it’s worth double-checking expectations with your institution (if there’s no mention in the brief or study material).

Acknowledgements

This page provides you with an opportunity to say thank you to those who helped you along your research journey. Generally, it’s optional (and won’t count towards your marks), but it is academic best practice to include this.

So, who do you say thanks to? Well, there’s no prescribed requirements, but it’s common to mention the following people:

• Your dissertation supervisor or committee.
• Any professors, lecturers or academics that helped you understand the topic or methodologies.
• Any tutors, mentors or advisors.
• Your family and friends, especially spouse (for adult learners studying part-time).

There’s no need for lengthy rambling. Just state who you’re thankful to and for what (e.g. thank you to my supervisor, John Doe, for his endless patience and attentiveness) – be sincere. In terms of length, you should keep this to a page or less.

Abstract or executive summary

The dissertation abstract (or executive summary for some degrees) serves to provide the first-time reader (and marker or moderator) with a big-picture view of your research project. It should give them an understanding of the key insights and findings from the research, without them needing to read the rest of the report – in other words, it should be able to stand alone .

For it to stand alone, your abstract should cover the following key points (at a minimum):

• Your research questions and aims – what key question(s) did your research aim to answer?
• Your methodology – how did you go about investigating the topic and finding answers to your research question(s)?
• Your findings – following your own research, what did do you discover?
• Your conclusions – based on your findings, what conclusions did you draw? What answers did you find to your research question(s)?

So, in much the same way the dissertation structure mimics the research process, your abstract or executive summary should reflect the research process, from the initial stage of asking the original question to the final stage of answering that question.

In practical terms, it’s a good idea to write this section up last , once all your core chapters are complete. Otherwise, you’ll end up writing and rewriting this section multiple times (just wasting time). For a step by step guide on how to write a strong executive summary, check out this post .

Need a helping hand?

Table of contents

This section is straightforward. You’ll typically present your table of contents (TOC) first, followed by the two lists – figures and tables. I recommend that you use Microsoft Word’s automatic table of contents generator to generate your TOC. If you’re not familiar with this functionality, the video below explains it simply:

If you find that your table of contents is overly lengthy, consider removing one level of depth. Oftentimes, this can be done without detracting from the usefulness of the TOC.

Right, now that the “admin” sections are out of the way, its time to move on to your core chapters. These chapters are the heart of your dissertation and are where you’ll earn the marks. The first chapter is the introduction chapter – as you would expect, this is the time to introduce your research…

It’s important to understand that even though you’ve provided an overview of your research in your abstract, your introduction needs to be written as if the reader has not read that (remember, the abstract is essentially a standalone document). So, your introduction chapter needs to start from the very beginning, and should address the following questions:

• What will you be investigating (in plain-language, big picture-level)?
• Why is that worth investigating? How is it important to academia or business? How is it sufficiently original?
• What are your research aims and research question(s)? Note that the research questions can sometimes be presented at the end of the literature review (next chapter).
• What is the scope of your study? In other words, what will and won’t you cover ?
• How will you approach your research? In other words, what methodology will you adopt?
• How will you structure your dissertation? What are the core chapters and what will you do in each of them?

These are just the bare basic requirements for your intro chapter. Some universities will want additional bells and whistles in the intro chapter, so be sure to carefully read your brief or consult your research supervisor.

If done right, your introduction chapter will set a clear direction for the rest of your dissertation. Specifically, it will make it clear to the reader (and marker) exactly what you’ll be investigating, why that’s important, and how you’ll be going about the investigation. Conversely, if your introduction chapter leaves a first-time reader wondering what exactly you’ll be researching, you’ve still got some work to do.

Now that you’ve set a clear direction with your introduction chapter, the next step is the literature review . In this section, you will analyse the existing research (typically academic journal articles and high-quality industry publications), with a view to understanding the following questions:

• What does the literature currently say about the topic you’re investigating?
• Is the literature lacking or well established? Is it divided or in disagreement?
• How does your research fit into the bigger picture?
• How does your research contribute something original?
• How does the methodology of previous studies help you develop your own?

Depending on the nature of your study, you may also present a conceptual framework towards the end of your literature review, which you will then test in your actual research.

Again, some universities will want you to focus on some of these areas more than others, some will have additional or fewer requirements, and so on. Therefore, as always, its important to review your brief and/or discuss with your supervisor, so that you know exactly what’s expected of your literature review chapter.

Now that you’ve investigated the current state of knowledge in your literature review chapter and are familiar with the existing key theories, models and frameworks, its time to design your own research. Enter the methodology chapter – the most “science-ey” of the chapters…

In this chapter, you need to address two critical questions:

• Exactly HOW will you carry out your research (i.e. what is your intended research design)?
• Exactly WHY have you chosen to do things this way (i.e. how do you justify your design)?

Remember, the dissertation part of your degree is first and foremost about developing and demonstrating research skills . Therefore, the markers want to see that you know which methods to use, can clearly articulate why you’ve chosen then, and know how to deploy them effectively.

Importantly, this chapter requires detail – don’t hold back on the specifics. State exactly what you’ll be doing, with who, when, for how long, etc. Moreover, for every design choice you make, make sure you justify it.

In practice, you will likely end up coming back to this chapter once you’ve undertaken all your data collection and analysis, and revise it based on changes you made during the analysis phase. This is perfectly fine. Its natural for you to add an additional analysis technique, scrap an old one, etc based on where your data lead you. Of course, I’m talking about small changes here – not a fundamental switch from qualitative to quantitative, which will likely send your supervisor in a spin!

You’ve now collected your data and undertaken your analysis, whether qualitative, quantitative or mixed methods. In this chapter, you’ll present the raw results of your analysis . For example, in the case of a quant study, you’ll present the demographic data, descriptive statistics, inferential statistics , etc.

Typically, Chapter 4 is simply a presentation and description of the data, not a discussion of the meaning of the data. In other words, it’s descriptive, rather than analytical – the meaning is discussed in Chapter 5. However, some universities will want you to combine chapters 4 and 5, so that you both present and interpret the meaning of the data at the same time. Check with your institution what their preference is.

Now that you’ve presented the data analysis results, its time to interpret and analyse them. In other words, its time to discuss what they mean, especially in relation to your research question(s).

What you discuss here will depend largely on your chosen methodology. For example, if you’ve gone the quantitative route, you might discuss the relationships between variables . If you’ve gone the qualitative route, you might discuss key themes and the meanings thereof. It all depends on what your research design choices were.

Most importantly, you need to discuss your results in relation to your research questions and aims, as well as the existing literature. What do the results tell you about your research questions? Are they aligned with the existing research or at odds? If so, why might this be? Dig deep into your findings and explain what the findings suggest, in plain English.

The final chapter – you’ve made it! Now that you’ve discussed your interpretation of the results, its time to bring it back to the beginning with the conclusion chapter . In other words, its time to (attempt to) answer your original research question s (from way back in chapter 1). Clearly state what your conclusions are in terms of your research questions. This might feel a bit repetitive, as you would have touched on this in the previous chapter, but its important to bring the discussion full circle and explicitly state your answer(s) to the research question(s).

Next, you’ll typically discuss the implications of your findings? In other words, you’ve answered your research questions – but what does this mean for the real world (or even for academia)? What should now be done differently, given the new insight you’ve generated?

Lastly, you should discuss the limitations of your research, as well as what this means for future research in the area. No study is perfect, especially not a Masters-level. Discuss the shortcomings of your research. Perhaps your methodology was limited, perhaps your sample size was small or not representative, etc, etc. Don’t be afraid to critique your work – the markers want to see that you can identify the limitations of your work. This is a strength, not a weakness. Be brutal!

This marks the end of your core chapters – woohoo! From here on out, it’s pretty smooth sailing.

The reference list is straightforward. It should contain a list of all resources cited in your dissertation, in the required format, e.g. APA , Harvard, etc.

It’s essential that you use reference management software for your dissertation. Do NOT try handle your referencing manually – its far too error prone. On a reference list of multiple pages, you’re going to make mistake. To this end, I suggest considering either Mendeley or Zotero. Both are free and provide a very straightforward interface to ensure that your referencing is 100% on point. I’ve included a simple how-to video for the Mendeley software (my personal favourite) below:

Some universities may ask you to include a bibliography, as opposed to a reference list. These two things are not the same . A bibliography is similar to a reference list, except that it also includes resources which informed your thinking but were not directly cited in your dissertation. So, double-check your brief and make sure you use the right one.

The very last piece of the puzzle is the appendix or set of appendices. This is where you’ll include any supporting data and evidence. Importantly, supporting is the keyword here.

Your appendices should provide additional “nice to know”, depth-adding information, which is not critical to the core analysis. Appendices should not be used as a way to cut down word count (see this post which covers how to reduce word count ). In other words, don’t place content that is critical to the core analysis here, just to save word count. You will not earn marks on any content in the appendices, so don’t try to play the system!

Time to recap…

And there you have it – the traditional dissertation structure and layout, from A-Z. To recap, the core structure for a dissertation or thesis is (typically) as follows:

• Acknowledgments page

Most importantly, the core chapters should reflect the research process (asking, investigating and answering your research question). Moreover, the research question(s) should form the golden thread throughout your dissertation structure. Everything should revolve around the research questions, and as you’ve seen, they should form both the start point (i.e. introduction chapter) and the endpoint (i.e. conclusion chapter).

I hope this post has provided you with clarity about the traditional dissertation/thesis structure and layout. If you have any questions or comments, please leave a comment below, or feel free to get in touch with us. Also, be sure to check out the rest of the  Grad Coach Blog .

Psst... there’s more!

This post was based on one of our popular Research Bootcamps . If you're working on a research project, you'll definitely want to check this out ...

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36 Comments

many thanks i found it very useful

Glad to hear that, Arun. Good luck writing your dissertation.

Such clear practical logical advice. I very much needed to read this to keep me focused in stead of fretting.. Perfect now ready to start my research!

what about scientific fields like computer or engineering thesis what is the difference in the structure? thank you very much

Thanks so much this helped me a lot!

Very helpful and accessible. What I like most is how practical the advice is along with helpful tools/ links.

Thanks Ade!

Thank you so much sir.. It was really helpful..

You’re welcome!

Hi! How many words maximum should contain the abstract?

Thank you so much 😊 Find this at the right moment

You’re most welcome. Good luck with your dissertation.

best ever benefit i got on right time thank you

Many times Clarity and vision of destination of dissertation is what makes the difference between good ,average and great researchers the same way a great automobile driver is fast with clarity of address and Clear weather conditions .

I guess Great researcher = great ideas + knowledge + great and fast data collection and modeling + great writing + high clarity on all these

You have given immense clarity from start to end.

Morning. Where will I write the definitions of what I’m referring to in my report?

Thank you so much Derek, I was almost lost! Thanks a tonnnn! Have a great day!

Thanks ! so concise and valuable

This was very helpful. Clear and concise. I know exactly what to do now.

Thank you for allowing me to go through briefly. I hope to find time to continue.

Really useful to me. Thanks a thousand times

Very interesting! It will definitely set me and many more for success. highly recommended.

Thank you soo much sir, for the opportunity to express my skills

Usefull, thanks a lot. Really clear

Very nice and easy to understand. Thank you .

That was incredibly useful. Thanks Grad Coach Crew!

My stress level just dropped at least 15 points after watching this. Just starting my thesis for my grad program and I feel a lot more capable now! Thanks for such a clear and helpful video, Emma and the GradCoach team!

Do we need to mention the number of words the dissertation contains in the main document?

It depends on your university’s requirements, so it would be best to check with them 🙂

Such a helpful post to help me get started with structuring my masters dissertation, thank you!

Great video; I appreciate that helpful information

It is so necessary or avital course

This blog is very informative for my research. Thank you

Doctoral students are required to fill out the National Research Council’s Survey of Earned Doctorates

wow this is an amazing gain in my life

This is so good

How can i arrange my specific objectives in my dissertation?

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Home > USC Columbia > Music, School of > Music Theses and Dissertations

Music Theses and Dissertations

Theses/dissertations from 2023 2023.

Comprehensive Method for Clarinet Latin American Music Heritage Case Study – Venezuela , Carmen Teresa Borregales

Contemporary Vocal Pedagogy in the Choral Ensemble Rehearsal: A Guide for Secondary Educators , Luke Lee Browder

A Pedagogical and Analytical Study of the Carnatic Saxophone Performance Tradition of Kadri Gopalnath , Caleb James Carpenter

Symphony No. V: Elements (Julie Giroux, 2018); An Overview Of Programmatic Elements and Performance Devices , Zackery Augustus Deininger

A Conductor’s Guide to Lucrecia Roces Kasilag’s Misang Pilipino (1965) , Denise Ysabel Ellis

The Theory of Intonation: Boris Asafiev and the Russian Piano School Tradition , Polina Golubkova

A Comparative Analysis of Samuel Barber’s Third Essay for Orchestra, Op. 47 , David Abrams Gordon

Injury Prevention Exercise Guidelines for Flutists , Ziqing Guan

Luis Abraham Delgadillo: A Rediscovery of His Piano Music , Fanarelia Auxiliadora Guerrero López

A Holistic Approach for Neurodivergent Learners In the High School Choral Classroom , Peter Allen Haley

Creative Insights on the Commissioning, Analysis, and Performance of Four New Works for Saxophone , Andrew Joseph Hutchens

An Analysis of Selected Vocal Works by George Walker , Ginger Sharnell Jones-Robinson

Bohuslav Martinů’s Eight Preludes For Piano H. 181: Style Analysis and Pedagogical Approaches In Piano Performance , Jinkyung Kim

An Investigative Analysis of Fernando Sor’s Introduction and Variations on “O Cara Armonia” From Mozart’s The Magic Flute , Luke James Nolan

The Film Score Music of John Williams: A Guide to Selected Works for the Principal Percussionist , Andrew Charles Crozier Patzig

Appalachian Dreams: Traditional Folk Songs in Concert Literature for Classical Guitar , Jackson Douglas Roberson

“Everything Old Is New Again”: The Rise of Interpolation in Popular Music , Grayson M. Saylor

How Do They Do It: A Narrative of Disabled Public School Instrumental Ensemble Conductors and Their Positive Working Relationships With Their Administrators , Lia Alexandria Patterson Snead

The Impact Of Incorporating Self-myofascial Release Into Voice Lessons: A Six-week Study , Benjamin Stogner

The Post-Tonal Evolution of David Diamond: A Theoretic-Analytical Perspective , William John Ton

Fourth-Grade and Fifth-Grade Cover-Band Classes: An Action-Research Project Inspired By Popular Music Education and Music Learning Theory , Julia Turner

Theses/Dissertations from 2022 2022

Social Music Interactions and Vocal Music Improvisations in a Serve and Return Music Community , Kathleen Kaye Arrasmith

Comfort Food for the Ears: Exploring Nostalgic Trends in Popular Music of the Twenty-First Century , April K. Balay

A Performance Guide to “Four Piano Pieces, Opus 1” By Evgeny Kissin , Andrew Choi

Timeless Light: A Singer’s Compendium of Art Songs for Tenor By Black Composers , Johnnie J. Felder

Negotiating Nationalism: Camille Saint-Saëns, Neoclassicism, and the Early Music Renaissance in France , Joshua Arin Harton

An Analysis of the Compositional Technique and Structures Of Nikolai Kapustin’s Piano Sonata No. 6, Opus 62 , Hyun Jung Im

Adapting North American Fiddle Bow Technique to the Double Bass , Spencer Jensen

Approaches to Teaching Music Counting to Piano Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder , Sunghun Kim

Redefining Ornamentation as Formal Functions in 21 st -Century Popular Music , Matthew Kolar

Lost in Translation: The Largely Unknown Life and Contributions of Johann Joachim Quantz , Kayla Ann Low

Broadway Quodlibets as Hybrid Music , Spencer Ann Martin

Redistributing Cultural Capital: Graduate Programs In Wind Conducting at Historically Black Universities; Toward an Alternate Future , Jamaal William Nicholas

Analysis of Selected Pieces Influenced by Taiwanese Aboriginal Music for Solo Violin and String Quartet , Isabel Hsin-Yi Ong

Margaret Rowell: Pedagogical Approach and Teaching Style , Robert-Christian Sanchez

A Performance Guide to Hyo-Geun Kim’s Art Pop for Korean Art Songs , Taeyoung Seon

Examining Sixth-Grade Students’ Music Agency Through Rhythm Composition , Robert Zagaroli Spearman

Theses/Dissertations from 2021 2021

Pedagogical Solo Piano Nocturnes: A Progressive Leveling With Annotations on Stylistic, Technical, and Musical Challenges and Benefits , Michaela Anne Boros

Disparities in Programming African American Solo Vocal Music On College Campuses Across the United States , Ramelle Brooks

Quantitative Data Collection on the Fundamental Components Of Saxophone Tone Production , Matthew Troy Castner

Music as Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) Therapy: An Exploratory Literature Review , Amy Arlene Clary

The Music Festival: A Case Study on the Establishment, Development, and Long-Term Success of an Instrumental Music Education Event From a Logistical Perspective , Dakota Corbliss

An Orchestral Conductor’s Guide to the James/Daehler Edition Of The Hinrichs and Winkler Compilation Score to the 1925 Silent Film The Phantom of the Opera , Hayden Richard Denesha

An Annotated Bibliography of Flute Repertoire by Iranian Female Composers , Roya Farzaneh

Composers and Publishers of Parlor Songs and Spirituals from Civil War Richmond: 1861 – 1867 , Michael Gray

A Comparison of Approaches to Pianoforte Technique in the Treatises of Lhevinne, Leimer, and Neuhaus , Louis S. Hehman

The History and Influence of Tim Zimmerman and The King’s Brass , Eric Tyler Henson

A Stylistic Analysis of Edvard Grieg’s Slåtter , Norwegian Peasant Dances, Op. 72 , Zhiyuan He

Transcribing Baroque Lute to Marimba: Viability, Techniques, and Pedagogical Possibilities , Cory James High

One Elementary General Music Teacher’s Uses of and Experiences With Gordon’s Music Learning Theory: A Case Study , Allison Elizabeth Johnson

Cancion Y Danza, Fetes Lointaines, Paisajes By Federico Mompou: A Stylistic Analysis , Qiaoni Liu

The Apprenticeship Structure and the Applied Pedagogical Methods Of the Holy Roman Empire Imperial Trumpeters’ Guild During The 17 th and 18 th Centuries , Noa Miller

Survey of Four North American and Malaysian Theory Methods for Young Pianists , Wen Bin Ong

A Conductor’s Guide to J. N. Hummel’s Forgotten Oratorio: Der Durchzug Durchs Rote Meer , Rebecca J. Ostermann

A Practical Approach for the Applied Voice Instructor Utilizing Limited Piano Skills in the Studio Setting , Lee Whittington Ousley

Adele Aus Der Ohe: Pioneering Through Recital Programming At Carnegie Hall, 1895 , Grace Shepard

Ten Years of Japanese Piano Pedagogy (2009-2018) Through a Survey of Educational Resources , Natsumi Takai

A Comparative Analysis of Selected Works by Chen Qigang: Wu Xing, L’éLoignement, and Luan Tan , Isaac Ormaza Vera

A Pedagogical Analysis of Henglu Yao’s Microkosmos From Chinese Nationalities , Yanting Wang

A Stylistic and Pedagogical Analysis of Select Classical Pieces In Alicia’s Piano Books by Ananda Sukarlan , Karen Kai Yuan Yong

Co-Constructive Music Improvisers: An Ethnographic Case Study , Emma Elizabeth Young

Theses/Dissertations from 2020 2020

Performance History of Mahler’s Das Lied Von Der Erde Focusing on Bruno Walter and Leonard Bernstein , Nisan Ak

The Mathematics of Rubato: Analyzing Expressivetiming in Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Performances of Hisown Music , Meilun An

Electronic Learning: An Educator’s Guide to Navigating Online Learning in a Collegiate Horn Studio , Michelle Beck

The Clarinet Music of Dr. Austin Jaquith: A Performance Guide , Zachary Aaron Bond

Young Children’s Behaviors During Favorite-Music Repertoire And Other-Music Repertoire , Vanessa Caswell

Five Pieces for Piano by Isang Yun and Piano Etude No.1 by Unsuk Chin: An Analysis , Inhye Cho

Natural Reed Enhancement: Establishing the First Universal Reed Break-In Process Through Hydro-Stabilization , Steven Isaac Christ

Performance Edition of Franz Simandl’s 30 Etudes for the String Bass With Critical Commentary , Austin Gaboriau

A Legacy Preserved: A Comparison of the Careers and Recordings of Stanley Drucker and Karl Leister , Peter M. Geldrich

An Index of Choral Music Performed During the National Conventions of the American Choral Directors Association (1991-2019) , Jonathan Randall Hall

A Stylistic Analysis of Reinhold Glière’s 25 Preludes for Piano, Op. 30 , Sunjoo Lee

The Singing Voice Specialist: An Essential Bridge Between Two Worlds , Rebecca Holbrook Loar

A Pedagogical Analysis of DvořáK’s Poetic Tone Pictures, Op. 85 , Nathan MacAvoy

Focal Dystonia Causes and Treatments: A Guide for Pianists , Juan Nicolás Morales Espitia

Cultivating Socially Just Concert Programming Perspectives through Preservice Music Teachers' Band Experiences: A Multiple Case Study , Christian Matthew Noon

The Clarinet Repertoire of Puerto Rico: An Annotated Bibliography of Compositions Written for the Clarinet During the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries , María Ivelisse Ortiz-Laboy

A Stylistic Analysis of Alexander Tcherepnin's Piano Concerto No. 4, Op. 78, With an Emphasis on Eurasian Influences , Qin Ouyang

Time’s Up: How Opera Is Facing Its Own Me Too Reckoning , Craig Price

A Trumpet Player’s Performance Guide of Three Selected Works for Trumpet, Cello, and Piano , Justin Wayne Robinson

The Early Piano Music of Richard Wagner , Annie Rose Tindall-Gibson

A Conductor’s Guide to the Da Vinci Requiem by Cecilia McDowall , Jantsen Blake Touchstone

Composition of Musical and Visual Devices to Create Moments of Resolution in Marching Arts Production Design , Ryan John Williams

Romanticism in Nineteenth-Century Russian Nationalistic Music: Case Studies of Glinka’s Ruslan and Lyudmila and Cui’s Mystic Chorus , Jeffrey Crayton Yelverton Jr.

Theses/Dissertations from 2019 2019

Communicative Language in the Compositional Output of Kirke Mechem , Kirstina Rasmussen Collins

Vladimir Pleshakov: A Historiography And Analysis of his Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom , Andrew Cameron Pittman

An Analysis of the Compositional Technique and Structures of Howard Hanson's Symphony No. 1 in E Minor, Op. 22 “Nordic” , Eunseok Seo

Theses/Dissertations from 2018 2018

Serial Techniques in Works for Unaccompanied Trumpet , William Anonie

Examining Professional Music Teacher Identity: A Mixed Methods Approach with Stringed Instrument Teachers , Elizabeth A. Reed

Guided Music Play Between 2-Year-Old Children and a Music Play Facilitator: A Case Study , Kathleen Kaye Arrasmith

Parents’ Observations Of Their Young Children’s Music Behaviors During Music Classes After Completing The Children’s Music Behavior Inventory , Julia Beck

A Theoretical and Stylistic Analysis of Paul Ben-Haim’s Five Pieces for Piano, Op. 34 and Piano Sonata, Op. 49 , Rachel Bletstein

The Influence Of Mindful Movement On Elementary Students’ Music Listening Enjoyment And Comprehension , Jean Louise Boiteau

Delphine Ugalde: Defying Gender Norms Both On And Off The Stage In 19th Century Paris , Michael T. Brown

A Guide for Playing the Viola Without a Shoulder Rest , Chin Wei Chang

Tertian Relationships In Three Choral Selections By Dan Forrest: A Conductor’s Analysis , Lindsey Cope

Translucent Voices: Creating Sound Pedagogy And Safe Spaces For Transgender Singers In The Choral Rehearsal , Gerald Dorsey Gurss

Seventeen Waltzes For Piano By Leo Ornstein: A Stylistic Analysis , Jared Jones

The Kingma System Flute: Redesigning The Nineteenth-Century Flute For The Twenty-First Century , Diane Elise Kessel

The Effects Of Learning By Rote With La-Based Minor Solmization On Memory Retention For Pre-College Piano Students , Duong Khuc

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Music Dissertations, Theses, and Recording Projects: a guide: Dissertation and Theses Databases

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Music Theses and Dissertations

This collection contains theses and dissertations from the Department of Music, collected from the Scholarship@Western Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Theses/Dissertations from 2024 2024

The Indomitable Basque: an orchestral work in three movements inspired by the Basque Whalers of Labrador of the Sixteenth Century , Aiden Hartery

Concerto for Piano Duet , Edgar R. Suski

A Musicology of Record Production - Research Creation, Gender, and Creative Reflective Practice in Project-Paradigm Music Production , Lydia Wilton

Theses/Dissertations from 2023 2023

Musical Behaviours, Dispositions, and Tendencies: Exploring Church Music-Making Through a Theory of Practice , Laura E. Benjamins

A Comparative Analysis of the Early Twentieth-Century Music Appreciation and Community Music Movements in the United States , Andrew J. Blimke

Moments of meeting: 'Intersubjective encounters' and ‘emancipatory’ experiences of individuals with (intellectual) disabilities in inclusive musical contexts , Caroline Blumer

"That's the Way I Am, Heaven Help Me": The Role of Pronunciation in Billy Bragg's Music , Mary Blake Bonn

Singing Our Stories: Building Community and Developing Self-Empowerment in the Childless Voices Choir , Laura Curtis

Non-Directed Time , Danial Derakhshan

Soundcurrents: Exploring sound’s potential to catalyze creative critical consciousness in adolescent music students and undergraduate music education majors , Jashen i. Edwards

The Effect of Coping Verses Mastery Models on the Level of Self-Efficacy for Self-Regulated Music Learning, Self-Efficacy for Classical Guitar Playing and Guitar Achievement for Undergraduate Non-Music Majors , Patrick K. Feely Mr

A Study of Art Song Composition and Interpretation by Three Female German Composers in the Mid-Nineteenth Century , Churan Feng

Music Making in Elderly Community Program for Korean Immigrants in Canada , H. Elisha Jo

The Maker - A Multi-Media Opera in Two Acts , Aaron Lee

Vibes at the Village Vanguard: Hauntings, History, and the Construction of Jazz Place , Mark McCorkle

Transference Music: For Electric Guitar Soloist and Amplified Orchestra , Andrew Noseworthy

Prokofiev and the Soviet Dilemma: Censorship, Autonomy, and the Piano Transcriptions , Connor O'Kane

Changing Minds And Changing Practice: Barriers And Facilitators To The Use Of Methods Associated With Popular Musicianship, And Strategies Music Teachers Use To Navigate Them , Rhiannon Simpson

The Collective Unconscious , Yixuan Wang

Theses/Dissertations from 2022 2022

Seeing Thro the Musical Eye: Santo Daime, Fuke-shū, 1960s Psychedelia, and the Antipodes of Musical Experience , Forest Anthony-Muran

The Contrabass Tuned in Fifths: Towards an Understanding of Past and Present Applications. , Stephen T. Bright

Sound Judgements: Music Education Framework for Guiding Digital Mixing Practice , Artur Kapron

Musical Signification in Biber's Rosary Sonatas , Frangel Lopez Cesena

The Classical Sonata Forms of Franz Schubert’s Great C-Major Symphony: Exploring Tonal Structure in the New Romantic Style , Liam J. McDermott

Secondary Instrumental Ensemble: A Shift Towards Non-Normative Learning Practices , Kristine Musgrove

Gesture in Steve Reich's Music and its Signification: A Referential Approach to His Process, Stylistic, and Postminimalist Works , Martin Ross

Voice Image: developing a new construct for vocal identity , Bethany R. Turpin

The Tale of Rowan O'Shera (A Musical Drama) , Emma T.L. Verdonk

The Ghosts of Madwomen Past: Historical and Psychiatric Madness on the Late Twentieth-Century Opera Stage , Diana Wu

Exploring Musical Knowledge Within One Canadian School Of Music: Ideology, Pedagogy, And Identity , Kyle Zavitz

Theses/Dissertations from 2021 2021

Re-imagining Brazilian Portuguese IPA: A practical guide utilizing Paulo Maron’s new opera Lampião , Jorge Luiz Alves Trabanco Filho

Music Sounds Better With You , M Gillian Carrabre

Coloquio entre dos Perros, Comic Chamber Opera in Nine Scenes , Sandra Rocio Fuya-Duenas

Waves of Lament , Kennedy Kimber-Johnson

Mood, Music Choices, and the Emotional Outcomes of Music Listening: An Examination of the Moderating Role of Rumination using Experience-Sampling Methodology , Elizabeth E. Kinghorn

Speaking Songs: Music-Analytical Approaches to Spoken Word , Chantal D. Lemire

Music for Self-Attention , Jeffrey A T Lupker

Music of Peace and Protest: U.S. Composers and Musical Activism during the Vietnam War (1965-1971) , April P. Morris

A Thematic Analysis Of Nicolas Martynciow’s "Impressions Pour Caisse Claire Et Deux Toms" And A Dissection of the Extended Techniques Required For Performance , Joe Moscheck

A Narrative Approach to the Barcarolles for Solo Piano by Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924) , Matthew T. Pope

Motivic Metamorphosis: Modelling Intervallic Transformations in Schoenberg’s Early Works , Adam Roy

The Integration of the Style Hongrois into Brahms’s Musical Language in His Chamber Works , Raymond D. Truong

Ann Southam's Solo Piano Music: A Performance Guide , Amelia G. Yates

Theses/Dissertations from 2020 2020

Critical Border Crossing: Exploring Positionalities Through Soundscape Composition and Critical Reflection , Kelly Bylica

See It and Believe It: An Investigation into Singers' Imagery Use , Brianna DeSantis

Domenico Dragonetti: A case study of the 12 unaccompanied waltzes , Jury T. Kobayashi

Understanding Viktor Ullmann Through His Liederbuch des Hafis , Chad G. Louwerse

Dreamvision Songbook: Five Songs for Mixed Ensemble , Maxwell R. Lucas Mr.

The Alia musica and the Carolingian Conception of Mode , Matthew R J Nace

Music Education in a Liquid Social World: The Nuances of Teaching with Students of Immigrant and Refugee Backgrounds , Gabriela Ocádiz Velázquez

Exploring Being Queer and Performing Queerness in Popular Music , Rosheeka Parahoo

Music in the Moment of "Cyber Culture:" An Outward Spiral , Brandon Sked

The Search for Canadian Art Song: Developing the Framework for a Database of Art Song by Canadian Composers , Leanne Vida

Theses/Dissertations from 2019 2019

Contexts for Musical Modernism in Post-1945 Mexico: Federico Ibarra - A Case Study , Francisco Eduardo Barradas Galván

"It's Obvious Who Plays an Instrument and Who Doesn't": Using Doxa and Illusio to Explore Inequities in English School Music Education , Alison Butler

Creative Collaborations: The Songs/Poems of Canadian Artists Leslie Uyeda and Lorna Crozier , Jennifer Cyr

James Rolfe's Vocal Chamber Music: A Performance Analysis and Interpretation , Laura Duffy

Understanding Game Scoring: Software Programming, Aleatoric Composition and Mimetic Music Technology , Mack Enns

Prufrock: a Monodrama for Baritone and Electronics , Daniel Gardner

The Impact of Expanded, Multimodal Applications during a German Lied Performance , Adam Domenico Iannetta

Forward and Up: An Exploration of Implementations of the Alexander Technique in Post-Secondary Music Institutions , Mei Lee

No Space to Sing: A Narrative Inquiry into the Experiences of Classical Singers with Primary Muscle Tension Dysphonia , Elizabeth Lepock

Playscapes for Piano Trio , James Lowrie

Exploring Stretto: An Investigation into the Use of Stretto in J. S. Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier , Kathryn McDonald

Performing Identities, Performing Possibilities: A Music-Centered and Relational Perspective on Performance in Community Music Therapy and Music Education , Elizabeth Mitchell

The Lieder of Joseph Marx and the Italienisches Liederbuch , Caleb Mora

Musical Ekphrasis in Concert: Case Study of Alexey Khevelev’s Chagall Vitraux , Natalia Skomorokhova

Theses/Dissertations from 2018 2018

...and the songs of another... for Six Voices & Live Electronics , Matthew David Becker

The Art Songs of Kyrylo Stetsenko: Ukrainian Lyric Diction Guide , Olena Bratishko

The Effects of Infertility on Female Vocalist Identity , Laura Curtis

The Significance of Aram Khachaturian and His Piano Concerto , Sarah M. Dardarian

Job: An Oratorio for Voices and Chamber Ensemble , Kevin Gibson

Rachmaninoff's Piano Works and Diasporic Identity 1890-1945: Compositional Revision and Discourse , Renee MacKenzie

Capriccio for Mixed Ensemble and Piano , André McEvenue

Toward A Pedagogical Guide To Argentine Art Song , Matthew B. Pauls

Teaching Prospective Verdi Baritones: A Repertoire-Based Approach , Andrew Rethazi

The Donnelly Opera , Joshua L. Richardson

The Old House , Eric Swiatoschik

The Political Power of Carlos Chávez and His Influence Upon Silvestre Revueltas and Blas Galindo , Yolanda Tapia

Six Blake Songs , Willyn Whiting

Theses/Dissertations from 2017 2017

The Effects of Video Recording on the Level of Expertise and Self-Regulated Learning Ability of Adults in a Beginner Classical Guitar Class , Patrick K. Feely

Teleology in César Franck's Prélude, Choral et Fugue , Stephanie Gouin

Antoinette, an Opera in One Act , Colin McMahon

Audio Mastering as a Musical Competency , Matthew T. Shelvock

Fuzzy Family Ties: Familial Similarity Between Melodic Contours of Different Cardinalities , Kristen Wallentinsen

Felix Mendelssohn and Sonata Form in the Nineteenth Century , Katharine G. Walshaw

Theses/Dissertations from 2016 2016

Requiem , Wendell Glick

Namazu , Sean Kim

Two Movements for Orchestra , Jeff Lupker

Musical Forces in Claude Vivier’s Wo bist du Licht! and Trois airs pour un opéra imaginaire , Emilie L. Marshall

Ethos , William T. Nicolaou

Theses/Dissertations from 2015 2015

A Study of Form and Structure in Pierre Boulez's Pli selon Pli , Emily J. Adamowicz

Family Music Listening Legacies: A Case Study-based Investigation of the Intergenerational Transmission of Music Listenership Values in Five Families , Jillian Bracken

J. S. Bach's Modal Compositional Practice in the Chorale Preludes for Solo Organ: A Schenkerian Perspective , Michael Fitzpatrick

A cross-generational examination of learner engagement and agency in non-traditional music education programs , Jennifer M. J. Lang

Amor Fati , Aaron Lee

In Search Of Transformative Music Learning Experiences: Voices From The Margins In Northeastern Brazil , Nan Qi

Heteroglossia: Novella For Orchestra , Andrzej J. Tereszkowski

Sophie, A Music Drama for Solo Soprano and Chamber Ochestra , Alondra Vega-Zaldivar

Theses/Dissertations from 2014 2014

A Comparative Analysis of Neoliberal Education Reform and Music Education in England and Ontario, Canada , Stephanie Horsley

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“Dissertations.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/dissertations. Accessed 13 May. 2024.

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• dissertation

noun as in scholarly thesis

Strongest matches

Strong matches

• argumentation
• disputation
• disquisition

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Example sentences.

Thirteen years ago, while working on her PHD dissertation in Madagascar’s Masoala Peninsula, Borgerson encountered a problem.

At Harvard, he received a PhD in government and wrote his dissertation under Henry Kissinger, who became a lifelong friend.

I planned to go back to physics after a couple of years and then return to wrap up my dissertation.

My buba’s lived experience helped shape me into the girl who wrote her college dissertation on the gender pay gap, arguing for equal parental leave for dads and moms, almost 20 years before any major employer implemented any such thing.

My PhD dissertation was a highly theoretical model representing computer systems that were framed as a mathematical model, and if they were interconnected in such a way that these interconnected computers would communicate like cells in the body.

A terrific cultural studies dissertation awaits on how the fortunes of the Cheneys provide a mirror on a changing America.

Today, he visits online forums and bombards them with dissertation-length comments.

In her dissertation, McFate had asked whether ‘good anthropology’ might lead to ‘better killing.’

Heritage has distanced itself from Richwine and his dissertation.

No single dissertation will alter the status quo on its own.

I've never had time to write home about it, for I felt that it required a dissertation in itself to do it justice.

Dr. Pitcairn, published at Leyden his dissertation on the circulation of the blood through the veins.

Start not, reader, I am not going to trouble you with a poetical dissertation; no, no!

Dissertation sur les Assassins, Académie des Inscriptions, tom.

This dissertation, which is illustrated by several plates, will repay for the time spent in reading it.

Related Words

Words related to dissertation are not direct synonyms, but are associated with the word dissertation . Browse related words to learn more about word associations.

noun as in speech given to formal gathering

noun as in main part of written work

noun as in published document

• best-seller
• encyclopedia
• publication

noun as in written or musical creation

• arrangement
• literary work
• short story

Viewing 5 / 27 related words

On this page you'll find 39 synonyms, antonyms, and words related to dissertation, such as: essay, monograph, treatise, argumentation, commentary, and critique.

From Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition Copyright © 2013 by the Philip Lief Group.

Steve Albini, influential record producer and musician, dies at 61

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Steve Albini, the record producer and engineer behind generation-defining rock albums by Nirvana, the Pixies and PJ Harvey, died Tuesday. He was 61.

A representative for Electrical Audio, Albini’s Chicago recording studio, confirmed Albini’s death following a heart attack on Tuesday. The representative did not have available a further statement or a list of survivors.

Albini was a giant of punk and experimental rock music from the ’80s to the present day. He produced (or as he preferred to call his job, “engineered”) Nirvana’s final studio album, “In Utero,” selected by the band for his raw, uncompromising aesthetic. Albums like the Pixies’ “Surfer Rosa” and PJ Harvey’s “Rid of Me” felt bracing and dangerous then, and continue to inspire young rockers today for their seething energy and defiance of pop audio convention.

“I’ve gotten exactly one phone call out of a No. 1 record,” Albini told The Times in 1993. “It shows how pack-like these major-label people are. They all think the same thing: ‘That Albini guy is trouble. Stay away.’”

Albini, raised in Missoula, Mont., was the son of a rocket scientist father and inherited his engineer’s meticulousness. The young Albini, smart and disenchanted with the local conservative culture, discovered punk through music magazines and found safe harbor for misfits. After moving to Chicago to attend Northwestern University for journalism, he rose to scene prominence as an artist in the scabrous groups Big Black and Shellac, which emerged from the fertile post-hardcore underground alongside bands like Sonic Youth, Butthole Surfers and the Minutemen.

Snarling and sneering through big eyeglasses, yet just as ambitious and uncorruptable as he was abrasive, Albini became a star in the underground. “How many boys want to be whipped by Steve Albini’s guitar?” Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon told the Village Voice in 1988.

“Big Black introduced one of the indie world’s foremost characters,” wrote Michael Azerrad in the definitive indie-punk scene biography, “Our Band Could Be Your Life.” “A person who would define not just the sound of underground music through the next two decades, but also its discourse — the irascible, outspoken, intelligent and relentlessly ethical Steve Albini.”

Shellac in particular was a formative influence for countless punk, metal, electronic and noise bands. The group’s 1994 LP “At Action Park” was a brutal read on post-punk, its minimalist yet seething power-trio instrumentation slinking with menace.

Albini paired his dedication to the most vicious, arresting sounds possible with a workmanlike professionalism as a producer in his studio, Electrical Audio. He was famous for wearing a mechanic-style jumpsuit to sessions, an overt gesture at how he saw his role.

“I’ve always had a fairly standard method,” he said of his recording techniques. “I have a straightforward, documentary approach to recording music, and I’ve never been tempted with my own bands or with anyone else’s band to suddenly go production-happy. If you let the band sound natural, then the record will sink or swim on its own merits. ... The things I like most about rock bands are simplicity and straightforwardness, and those principles guide my recordings.””

He was a ferocious advocate for artists. A famous essay in the Baffler, “The Problem With Music,” laid out the perfidies of the major-label system, at the time still in a post-Nirvana feeding frenzy for young rock acts.

“Whenever I talk to a band who are about to sign with a major label, I always end up thinking of them in a particular context,” Albini wrote. “I imagine a trench, about four feet wide and five feet deep, maybe sixty yards long, filled with runny, decaying s—. I imagine these people, some of them good friends, some of them barely acquaintances, at one end of this trench. I also imagine a faceless industry lackey at the other end, holding a fountain pen and a contract waiting to be signed.”

“In Utero,” Nirvana’s followup to the the epochal “Nevermind,” bridged the gap between the underground music Kurt Cobain loved and the expectations placed on the biggest band in the world. “Feeling uncomfortable with this new world of Nirvana fame,“ drummer Dave Grohl said in an interview last year. ”When things did become huge, we all sort of clung to the things we felt most attached to. We had always listened to records Steve had made.”

Albini’s catalog spans decades of fierce and fearless rock and experimental records, from Slint and Jesus Lizard to Low, Mogwai and Joanna Newsom. He wrote and recorded up to his death. Shellac was about to tour around its first album in a decade, “To All Trains,” which will be released next week.

“What matters to me is that I do things in a way that I feel is — for lack of a better word — righteous,” Albini told The Times. “Everything that I do, I do basically with the same goal: I want to make better, cheaper punk-rock records today than I did yesterday.”

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Saturday conversation: soft cell’s marc almond on cruel world fest.

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HUNTINGTON BEACH, CALIFORNIA - NOVEMBER 18: Singer Marc Almond of Soft Cell performs onstage during ... [+] The Darker Waves Festival on November 18, 2023 in Huntington Beach, California. (Photo by Scott Dudelson/WireImage)

Today at Brookside at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, Marc Almond and Soft Cell will join Duran Duran, Blondie, Interpol, Simple Minds, Placebo, Adam Ant, Gary Numan, Ministry, The Mission UK and many more for the annual Cruel World festival.

Almond, who has a new covers album coming later this year, tells me over Zoom he very much enjoys revisiting his Soft Cell past these days as the band’s audience is wider than ever. Whether it’s the forever iconic medley of “Tainted Love/Where Did Our Love Go,” the European smash “Say Hello, Wave Goodbye” or the musically playful “Sex Dwarf,” Soft Cell songs continue to remain a joy for both Almond and fans.

Steve Baltin: We’re talking about Cruel World, which is nostalgic. But you have a solo album coming soon. Is it important for you as an artist to balance both worlds?

Marc Almond: I’ve enjoyed for most of my career being a solo artist because that kind of gives me the freedom to do what I want to do. And I kind of do Soft Cell stuff as a solo artist as well. But, I think it was great getting back together with David [Ball] and reigniting that. It’s great doing both these things as a solo artist or whether it’s with Soft Cell. When I do a Soft Cell show obviously it’s just completely Soft Cell material. So, when I write for Soft Cell I get a completely different head on than I do when I’m doing my solo stuff. I’m doing a covers album basically because the past couple of things I’ve done have been self-written things and I like to do a covers album occasionally because it helps me reconnect with music. I end up listening. I prepare for a year listening to music, going down YouTube rabbit holes, discovering new songs, listening to old favorites, and it helps me connect with music and most of the time it gives me that breathing space to do more writing. So the next albums I do will be self-written albums. Whether it’s a Soft Cell album or my own album. I do need that just to get back to connecting with music as a fam sometimes.

Baltin: In doing these cover songs did you hear them in new ways?

Almond: A lot of these I discovered in the last few years. Some are old favorites, things like Bob Lind’s “Elusive Butterfly,” “Reflection Of My Life,” by Marmalade. Some I knew when I was younger and I’ve always loved them. I go on a journey making covers albums. I make lists and I started this about a year and a half ago, making lists of songs. Some songs would go on the list, come off the list, to find that mix of songs that would make an emotional resonance. For this album I looked more for going for the emotional heart. The whole album has to have an emotional feel; how I feel about the world, how I feel about my place in it, how I feel about my age, how I feel about myself as a performer.

Baltin: How do you feel about yourself as a performer in 2024?

Almond: It’s great to put different heads on as an artist. I’ve always done that all the time. I’ve always loved to do all kinds of different projects. I love commercial projects, uncommercial projects. This nostalgia circuit is great, I can go back and celebrate the music that I’ve made. I always think it’s good to celebrate your past as long as you don’t live in it. Always look forward but celebrating your past as well. There’s nothing wrong with nostalgia. In these times that we live in people find a comfort with songs that we know that we’re very familiar with or grown up with. We find a nice place in that. There’s also nothing wrong with making you feel a bit younger as well, which I think is good.

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Baltin: I imagine one of the nice things as well is having this new audience seeing Soft Cell for the first time at festivals like Cruel World.

Almond: It’s fantastic. We have a very wide audience now because the music is much more available to people now and it’s not as tribal as it used to be. People tend to listen to all different kinds of music, and they discover music their parents listened to as well and they think that’s cool. So, we get a very wide range of people, from young to older, coming to see you. Doing the Soft Cell show it’s quite energetic, so for me it’s a bit of a workout. I’m not sure how long I can carry on doing this (laughs). My own shows are a bit more musical, more sit down and more like an ensemble, I have different musicians, string players, so it’s a gentler experience.

Baltin: How have the audience reactions to songs also changed over the years?

Almond: Something like “Say Hello, Wave Goodbye” has never meant a lot in the States. But, in the U.K. and Europe it’s like an anthem. It’s a bigger anthem than “Tainted Love” because I don’t even have to sing it, the whole audience sings that song. I’ve always been wary of doing it in the States because I never know how it’s going to go down. But, “Tainted Love” is, for me, like having a holiday on stage because I give it to the audience and everybody sings it together. It’s that moment that whatever you’ve done in your set they forgive you everything because you’ve got that song and it’s magic.

Baltin: Are there other bands at Cruel World you are excited to see?

Almond: I love Blondie, I’m a big Blondie fan. Of course, I know Adam Ant as well; Heaven 17 are longtime friends, they tour with us a lot of the time. So, you see a lot of old friends there you’ve known from back in the day. Duran Duran I don’t know very well, but we’re doing another festival with them. There are good people, Placebo. It’s a good lineup.

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Guest Essay

A Year on Ozempic Taught Me We’re Thinking About Obesity All Wrong

By Johann Hari

Mr. Hari is a British journalist and the author of “Magic Pill: The Extraordinary Benefits — and Disturbing Risks — of the New Weight Loss Drugs.”

Ever since I was a teenager, I have dreamed of shedding a lot of weight. So when I shrank from 203 pounds to 161 in a year, I was baffled by my feelings. I was taking Ozempic, and I was haunted by the sense that I was cheating and doing something immoral.

I’m not the only one. In the United States (where I now split my time), over 70 percent of people are overweight or obese, and according to one poll, 47 percent of respondents said they were willing to pay to take the new weight-loss drugs. It’s not hard to see why. They cause users to lose an average of 10 to 20 percent of their body weight, and clinical trials suggest that the next generation of drugs (probably available soon) leads to a 24 percent loss, on average. Yet as more and more people take drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro, we get more confused as a culture, bombarding anyone in the public eye who takes them with brutal shaming.

This is happening because we are trapped in a set of old stories about what obesity is and the morally acceptable ways to overcome it. But the fact that so many of us are turning to the new weight-loss drugs can be an opportunity to find a way out of that trap of shame and stigma — and to a more truthful story.

In my lifetime, obesity has exploded, from being rare to almost being the norm. I was born in 1979, and by the time I was 21, obesity rates in the United States had more than doubled . They have skyrocketed since. The obvious question is, why? And how do these new weight-loss drugs work? The answer to both lies in one word: satiety. It’s a concept that we don’t use much in everyday life but that we’ve all experienced at some point. It describes the sensation of having had enough and not wanting any more.

The primary reason we have gained weight at a pace unprecedented in human history is that our diets have radically changed in ways that have deeply undermined our ability to feel sated. My father grew up in a village in the Swiss mountains, where he ate fresh, whole foods that had been cooked from scratch and prepared on the day they were eaten. But in the 30 years between his childhood and mine, in the suburbs of London, the nature of food transformed across the Western world. He was horrified to see that almost everything I ate was reheated and heavily processed. The evidence is clear that the kind of food my father grew up eating quickly makes you feel full. But the kind of food I grew up eating, much of which is made in factories, often with artificial chemicals, left me feeling empty and as if I had a hole in my stomach. In a recent study of what American children eat, ultraprocessed food was found to make up 67 percent of their daily diet. This kind of food makes you want to eat more and more. Satiety comes late, if at all.

One scientific experiment — which I have nicknamed Cheesecake Park — seemed to me to crystallize this effect. Paul Kenny, a neuroscientist at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, grew up in Ireland. After he moved in 2000 to the United States, when he was in his 20s, he gained 30 pounds in two years. He began to wonder if the American diet has some kind of strange effect on our brains and our cravings, so he designed an experiment to test it. He and his colleague Paul Johnson raised a group of rats in a cage and gave them an abundant supply of healthy, balanced rat chow made out of the kind of food rats had been eating for a very long time. The rats would eat it when they were hungry, and then they seemed to feel sated and stopped. They did not become fat.

But then Dr. Kenny and his colleague exposed the rats to an American diet: fried bacon, Snickers bars, cheesecake and other treats. They went crazy for it. The rats would hurl themselves into the cheesecake, gorge themselves and emerge with their faces and whiskers totally slicked with it. They quickly lost almost all interest in the healthy food, and the restraint they used to show around healthy food disappeared. Within six weeks, their obesity rates soared.

After this change, Dr. Kenny and his colleague tweaked the experiment again (in a way that seems cruel to me, a former KFC addict). They took all the processed food away and gave the rats their old healthy diet. Dr. Kenny was confident that they would eat more of it, proving that processed food had expanded their appetites. But something stranger happened. It was as though the rats no longer recognized healthy food as food at all, and they barely ate it. Only when they were starving did they reluctantly start to consume it again.

Though Dr. Kenny’s study was in rats, we can see forms of this behavior everywhere. We are all living in Cheesecake Park — and the satiety-stealing effect of industrially assembled food is evidently what has created the need for these medications. Drugs like Ozempic work precisely by making us feel full. Carel le Roux, a scientist whose research was important to the development of these drugs, says they boost what he and others once called “satiety hormones.”

Once you understand this context, it becomes clear that processed and ultraprocessed food create a raging hole of hunger, and these treatments can repair that hole. Michael Lowe, a professor of psychology at Drexel University who has studied hunger for 40 years, told me the drugs are “an artificial solution to an artificial problem.”

Yet we have reacted to this crisis largely caused by the food industry as if it were caused only by individual moral dereliction. I felt like a failure for being fat and was furious with myself for it. Why do we turn our anger inward and not outward at the main cause of the crisis? And by extension, why do we seek to shame people taking Ozempic but not those who, say, take drugs to lower their blood pressure?

The answer, I think, lies in two very old notions. The first is the belief that obesity is a sin. When Pope Gregory I laid out the seven deadly sins in the sixth century, one of them was gluttony, usually illustrated with grotesque-seeming images of overweight people. Sin requires punishment before you can get to redemption. Think about the competition show “The Biggest Loser,” on which obese people starve and perform extreme forms of exercise in visible agony in order to demonstrate their repentance.

The second idea is that we are all in a competition when it comes to weight. Ours is a society full of people fighting against the forces in our food that are making us fatter. It is often painful to do this: You have to tolerate hunger or engage in extreme forms of exercise. It feels like a contest in which each thin person creates additional pressure on others to do the same. Looked at in this way, people on Ozempic can resemble athletes like the cyclist Lance Armstrong who used performance-enhancing drugs. Those who manage their weight without drugs might think, “I worked hard for this, and you get it for as little as a weekly jab?”

We can’t find our way to a sane, nontoxic conversation about obesity or Ozempic until we bring these rarely spoken thoughts into the open and reckon with them. You’re not a sinner for gaining weight. You’re a typical product of a dysfunctional environment that makes it very hard to feel full. If you are angry about these drugs, remember the competition isn’t between you and your neighbor who’s on weight-loss drugs. It’s between you and a food industry constantly designing new ways to undermine your satiety. If anyone is the cheat here, it’s that industry. We should be united in a struggle against it and its products, not against desperate people trying to find a way out of this trap.

There are extraordinary benefits as well as disturbing risks associated with weight-loss drugs. Reducing or reversing obesity hugely boosts health, on average: We know from years of studying bariatric surgery that it slashes the risks of cancer, heart disease and diabetes-related death. Early indications are that the new anti-obesity drugs are moving people in a similar radically healthier direction, massively reducing the risk of heart attack or stroke. But these drugs may increase the risk for thyroid cancer. I am worried they diminish muscle mass and fear they may supercharge eating disorders. This is a complex picture in which the evidence has to be weighed very carefully.

But we can’t do that if we remain lost in stories inherited from premodern popes or in a senseless competition that leaves us all, in the end, losers. Do we want these weight loss drugs to be another opportunity to tear one another down? Or do we want to realize that the food industry has profoundly altered the appetites of us all — leaving us trapped in the same cage, scrambling to find a way out?

Johann Hari is a British journalist and the author of “Magic Pill: The Extraordinary Benefits — and Disturbing Risks — of the New Weight Loss Drugs,” among other books.

Source photographs by seamartini, The Washington Post, and Zana Munteanu via Getty Images.

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