From the Maslanka Archive features media and stories of David's life and work. This week, we are excited to feature Conor Bell's new dissertation on David's Bassoon Music.
Maslanka Weekly highlights excellent performances of David Maslanka’s music from around the web. This week, we feature two new performances of Eternal Garden as well as a video designed by The David Maslanka Foundation to be shown before a performance of this music.
Dr. Roy Breiling’s doctoral dissertation covers the use of the chorale tune “Wer nur den lieben Gott lasst walten” (“If you but trust in God to guide you”) in David’s composition, In Memoriam. The author also includes biographical information as well as an overview of David’s compositional approach and how it relates to his musical style.
David Maslanka’s Use of a Chorale Tune in “In Memoriam”
PDF, 5 MB
Abstract:
David Maslanka’s music has been widely performed in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, and Japan; however, to date, there are only two published dociiments that provide information about his music. J. Patrick Brooks presented a theoretical analysis of Maslanka’s Concerto for Piano, Winds and Percussion in his D.M.A. dissertation, and in The College Band Director’s Journal. Thomas Wubbenhorst published an article in which he discussed Maslanka’s wind band piece, A Child’s Garden of Dreams. This author’s document will further contribute to what has already been written about David Maslanka and his music.
According to recent research, there are no studies that focus on Maslanka’s use of chorale tunes in his wind band compositions. In addition to the composition selected for this document, Maslanka uses chorale tunes in numerous other wind band works, such as A Tuning Piece: Songs of Fall and Winter (1995), Montana Music: Chorale Variations (1993), and Symphony No. 4 (1993).
The purpose of this document is to help musicians understand David Maslanka’s use of a chorale tune in In Memoriam. Chapter 1 contains biographical information about David Maslanka, including an explanation of the influences of J. S. […]
The five movements of A Child’s Garden of Dreams are inspired by five dreams selected from Carl Jung’s Man and His Symbols. Dr. David Booth’s doctoral dissertation on A Child’s Garden of Dreams provides an analysis of each of the work’s five movements as a narrative. Booth’s explanations of musical gestures and structure in the composition reference the five dreams while providing the context of the musical material as it was constructed from the composer’s perspective. The dissertation further provides transcripts of interviews with David along with a biographical sketch.
An Analytical Study of David Maslanka’s A Child’s Garden of Dreams
PDF, 11.6MB