Identifier

etd-04062015-133013

Degree

Master of Music (MM)

Department

Music

Document Type

Thesis

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to (a) determine high school musician’s and non-musician’s preference for authentic and transcribed orchestral and band recordings, and (b) examine participant perceptual responses regarding reasons for preference. Therefore, the following research questions guided this investigation: (a) To what extent do musicians’ and non-musicians’ preference ratings of paired musical selections (one played by band and one played by orchestra) differ when rated on a Likert scale after listening? and (b) What are the reasons for preferring one excerpt type over another? The participants were musicians (n = 40) and non-musicians (n = 40) in grades 9-12. The participants listened to 30-second music excerpts: two authentic works for band, the orchestral transcriptions of those two authentic works for band, two authentic works for orchestra, and the band transcriptions of those two authentic works for orchestra. The participants were given 20 seconds between selections to rate their level of music preference on a Likert-type scale after they listened to each example. At the end of the listening-task, participants completed a short questionnaire designed to determine reasons for preferring certain selections. Results of Mann-Whitney U Test analyses determined no significant differences between high school musicians’ and non-musicians’ musical preference ratings. Participant comments were coded and divided into five themes: (a) Connection to Personal Experience, (b) Specific Musical Aspects, (c) Emotions/Moods/Feelings, (d) Instrumentation Preferences, (e) Nonspecific Preferences. The coded comments were analyzed and the findings revealed that non-musicians had a tendency to connect the excerpts to personal experiences more than musicians, while musicians tended to describe excerpts with more specific musical terms during the listening activity.

Date

2015

Document Availability at the Time of Submission

Release the entire work immediately for access worldwide.

Committee Chair

Brunkan, Melissa

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_theses.1881

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