{"id":{"repo_id":"buffalo","oai_identifier":"oai:ubir.buffalo.edu:10477/79343"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/buffalo/oai:ubir.buffalo.edu:10477/79343","repository":{"repo_id":"buffalo","name":"Buffalo","base_url":"https://ubir.buffalo.edu/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"Redwood","abstract":"Ph.D.","abstract_html":"Ph.D.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Kelly, Nathan; 0000-0003-0881-7886"],"institution":"State University of New York at Buffalo","degree_name":null,"degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Felder, David","Music"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2019,"date_issued":"2019-04-04T20:30:37Z","date_published":"2019-04-04T20:30:37Z","updated_at":"2026-07-27T19:05:16Z","subjects":["music","musical composition"],"languages":["eng"],"rights":["Users of works found in University at Buffalo Institutional Repository (UBIR) are responsible for identifying and contacting the copyright owner for permission to reuse. University at Buffalo Libraries do not manage rights for copyright-protected works and cannot assist with permissions.","Copyright retained by author."],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/10477/79343","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Felder, David","Music"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Kelly, Nathan; 0000-0003-0881-7886"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2019-04-04T20:30:37Z","2018","2018-11-22 11:09:58"]},{"key":"dc:publisher","label":"Institution","values":["State University of New York at Buffalo"]},{"key":"dc:relation","label":"Dc Relation","values":["Supplementary file: Kelly_Redwood-v2-full.mp3 (audio), orchestra recording"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Text","Dissertation","Audio","Recording, musical"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["music","musical composition"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["eng"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Users of works found in University at Buffalo Institutional Repository (UBIR) are responsible for identifying and contacting the copyright owner for permission to reuse. University at Buffalo Libraries do not manage rights for copyright-protected works and cannot assist with permissions.","Copyright retained by author."]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/10477/79343"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Ph.D.","As a child growing up in East Texas I wanted so badly to be a Disney animator. My parents searched for an art teacher in our local community but we never seemed to be able to find someone near our small town. I loved to watch Disney animated movies and paid particular attention to their re-runs of television shows that featured their animators creating behind-the-scenes. I remember one episode that Mr. Disney hosted that showed the creators of one of the most beautiful Disney movies, Sleeping Beauty. He explained that there were four artists working together on the film who each had a distinctive style all his own but worked closely with each other to create the unified whole. To further the point, the artists were filmed going outside the studio during their leisure time to paint the same tree, at the same time, at the same location. Each artist, however, was totally different, showing a same tree from a different angle, with a different mood and color palette. The lesson was immediate: that the impression each artist had of his subject will inherently be expressed in his own authentic way – to educate himself and show his perspective that blends his view of reality in harmony with his surroundings. This also concerns contingency, which is not to be monopolized by others, like a soloist playing in an orchestra. Nearly two decades later that same advice hit me when I needed it most, as André Previn told me directly when I was struggling to compose anything and was worried about imitating others: “but hasn’t this [my composition] already been done?” He answered “yes, but not by you.” This leads to the question of what exactly makes Stravinsky sound like Stravinsky? How can we instantly identify his style if it is Petrushka or Dumbarton Oaks? What makes Gershwin unlike Copland, both are “American.” What is a composer’s signature sound when their entire repertoire is full of contrast, variation, nuance, differences in instrumentation, and yet it still retains their signature sound throughout their life? The confluence of these experiences initially encouraged me to explore imitating someone else’s style, which lead to improvising, which lead to studying jazz, which lead to arranging, which lead to orchestrating, and eventually to composing. Then, after accumulating more effective musical knowledge about orchestration, proper voice leading and textural changes I tried composing one hundred piano pieces in all manner of styles. Each trying to be different from the last. The net result was an experience in seeing how my musical DNA repeated and favored certain sonorities and seemed to accent or slant them. My music generally favors a goal-oriented, cinematic flair for dramatic gestures that also uses a diverse array of contemporary techniques, such as those of late 20th-century orchestral music that uses indeterminacy and collective chaos. My piece, Redwood for orchestra, draws its inspiration from these memories and experiences. The single idea for this piece would be my own version of painting the same subject, the same tree, using the same music sketch every year, in October. I would further explore my musical fingerprints by observing how each time the orchestration, the voicing, the chords, and the dissonance within my own voice developed, matured, and evolved, much like Monet’s “Rouen Cathedral” or his haystacks series."]},{"key":"dc:format","label":"Dc Format","values":["application/pdf","audio/mp3"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Redwood"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Felder, David","Music"],"dc:creator":["Kelly, Nathan; 0000-0003-0881-7886"],"dc:date":["2019-04-04T20:30:37Z","2018","2018-11-22 11:09:58"],"dc:description":["Ph.D.","As a child growing up in East Texas I wanted so badly to be a Disney animator. My parents searched for an art teacher in our local community but we never seemed to be able to find someone near our small town. I loved to watch Disney animated movies and paid particular attention to their re-runs of television shows that featured their animators creating behind-the-scenes. I remember one episode that Mr. Disney hosted that showed the creators of one of the most beautiful Disney movies, Sleeping Beauty. He explained that there were four artists working together on the film who each had a distinctive style all his own but worked closely with each other to create the unified whole. To further the point, the artists were filmed going outside the studio during their leisure time to paint the same tree, at the same time, at the same location. Each artist, however, was totally different, showing a same tree from a different angle, with a different mood and color palette. The lesson was immediate: that the impression each artist had of his subject will inherently be expressed in his own authentic way – to educate himself and show his perspective that blends his view of reality in harmony with his surroundings. This also concerns contingency, which is not to be monopolized by others, like a soloist playing in an orchestra. Nearly two decades later that same advice hit me when I needed it most, as André Previn told me directly when I was struggling to compose anything and was worried about imitating others: “but hasn’t this [my composition] already been done?” He answered “yes, but not by you.” This leads to the question of what exactly makes Stravinsky sound like Stravinsky? How can we instantly identify his style if it is Petrushka or Dumbarton Oaks? What makes Gershwin unlike Copland, both are “American.” What is a composer’s signature sound when their entire repertoire is full of contrast, variation, nuance, differences in instrumentation, and yet it still retains their signature sound throughout their life? The confluence of these experiences initially encouraged me to explore imitating someone else’s style, which lead to improvising, which lead to studying jazz, which lead to arranging, which lead to orchestrating, and eventually to composing. Then, after accumulating more effective musical knowledge about orchestration, proper voice leading and textural changes I tried composing one hundred piano pieces in all manner of styles. Each trying to be different from the last. The net result was an experience in seeing how my musical DNA repeated and favored certain sonorities and seemed to accent or slant them. My music generally favors a goal-oriented, cinematic flair for dramatic gestures that also uses a diverse array of contemporary techniques, such as those of late 20th-century orchestral music that uses indeterminacy and collective chaos. My piece, Redwood for orchestra, draws its inspiration from these memories and experiences. The single idea for this piece would be my own version of painting the same subject, the same tree, using the same music sketch every year, in October. I would further explore my musical fingerprints by observing how each time the orchestration, the voicing, the chords, and the dissonance within my own voice developed, matured, and evolved, much like Monet’s “Rouen Cathedral” or his haystacks series."],"dc:format":["application/pdf","audio/mp3"],"dc:identifier":["http://hdl.handle.net/10477/79343"],"dc:language":["eng"],"dc:publisher":["State University of New York at Buffalo"],"dc:relation":["Supplementary file: Kelly_Redwood-v2-full.mp3 (audio), orchestra recording"],"dc:rights":["Users of works found in University at Buffalo Institutional Repository (UBIR) are responsible for identifying and contacting the copyright owner for permission to reuse. University at Buffalo Libraries do not manage rights for copyright-protected works and cannot assist with permissions.","Copyright retained by author."],"dc:subject":["music","musical composition"],"dc:title":["Redwood"],"dc:type":["Text","Dissertation","Audio","Recording, musical"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-27T19:05:16Z"}