Date of Award

Spring 2023

Document Type

Open Access Dissertation

Department

School of Music

First Advisor

Cormac Cannon

Abstract

Julie Giroux is a multi-faceted composer who has been writing for the wind band since the 1980s. Having composed and arranged over 125 works for wind band, Giroux has dedicated her compositional career to furthering the development of the wind band repertoire while simultaneously working to establish the wind band genre as an area of serious artistic merit. Giroux is in constant demand as a commissioned composer. Her projects are often commissioned by distinguished ensembles, both in the United States and around the world, and many of her pieces receive performances at significant events such as The Midwest Clinic Band and Orchestra Conference in Chicago, Illinois.

A composer of programmatic music, Giroux has brought to life the stories of many people, places, organizations, and current issues in society. Among her works are six symphonies. Each symphony portrays its own ideas through a skillful use of the wind ensemble. The purpose of this study is to explore the programmatic elements and performance devices of Julie Giroux’s Symphony No. V: Elements (2018). This study addresses compositional intent through technique and analysis. To better understand the components employed by Giroux in her fifth symphony, a brief look at her first four symphonies is explored. Through an exploration of her symphonies, specifically Symphony No. V: Elements, the compositional techniques of Julie Giroux are dissected to reveal how the composer portrays the ideas she is depicting through music.

Rights

© 2023, Zackery Augustus Deininger

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