Hi everyone,

I hope this is the right thread for this! Haven't posted for a while.

Basically, I really need to get a dissertation idea together preferably this week and I literally have no idea!

People have told me to do what I'm interested in, but I'm really not sure as everything interests me! If anything, I would say theory and analysis, however I am doing a Project in musical analysis too, so I don't want them to be too similar! What should I do??? Any help appreciated!

For what is this dissertation for? Undergrad degree? Postgrad?

Are there composers you're into? Instruments? Specific styles of music?

It's for undergrad, going into third year. Instruments-well I am interested in a lot, but I'm a pianist first and foremost. Composers...hmmm, well Stravinsky, Beethoven, Chopin, Debussy, Shostakovich, Schubert, Schumann, quite obvious choices I think! Styles, I would say probably the Romantic and early twentieth century the most. I do like Medieval and Renaissance too, but don't really know huge amounts!

Just a thought - how about something to do with comparing scores and early recordings by people like Rachmaninov (or someone less obvious), seeing discrepancies, or comparing with modern performances. Gives a good opportunity to do lots of analytical listening, and dealing with primary source materials...

Analysis of keyboard styles and how that fits with the development of keyboard instruments?

Parallels between music and architecture.

An aspect of this that I was reminded of recently is the liberties that conductors took (take?) with scores. Two examples that immediately spring to mind:

Mahler's rewriting of the passage in the first movement of Schumann's "Rhenish" symphony where the tune occurs in canon, after two bars. He thought the second entry too weak, so delayed the horns two bars, moving them from the first to the second entry.

In Beethoven 5, movement 1, the horns have a motif (Bb Bb Bb Eb--- F--- Bb->->), starting at bar 59, that is recapitulated at bar 303 on the bassoons, who start on G. When I first started listening to this symphony (c. 1948) it was common to transfer this motif back to the horns, on the grounds that if Beethoven had had chromatic horns (i.e. with valves) he would have used them here. I don't know who started doing this (it could have been Mahler again), but I distinctly recall a performance under Sir Malcolm Sargent in which it happened.

With our modern taste having moved in the direction of "authenticity" or, more modestly, "historical awareness", both of these changes would now be considered old-fashioned. I don't recall hearing the change to the Beethoven after about 1960. The change to the Schumann was made with the unexceptional aim of clarifying the musical argument where there were problems of balance, but most current conductors would try to achieve the same result with different methods. Of course, on CD the engineer can correct any muddiness that remains after the instrumentalists have done their best.

I don't know if these ideas would be fruitful, but the following occured to me.

1) How to teach the 3s against 4s, 15 notes in the time of a minim, melismas etc etc in Chopin's music (you could interview piano teachers on how they go about it - just don't ask me as I find that stuff scary!)

2) Something historical about Shostakovich - lots going on in 20th Century Russia- to what extent did the conditions he was working under influence his style.

Hint: Keep it narrow and focussed, or you will soon exceed the word limit!

Good luck!

This is the best advice you will ever be given regarding your dissertation. I've just finished mine and it was an absolute nightmare because I didn't keep it narrow and focussed. At UG level they are not expecting ground-breaking research. Good luck!