UMD Theses and Dissertations
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Item UNUSUAL SONG TEXTS: SELECTED 20TH- AND 21ST-CENTURY AMERICAN ART SONG REPERTOIRE USING NON-POETIC TEXTS(2023) Chan, Koon Ee (Alex); Sloan, Rita; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)As art songs in America developed from Stephen Foster’s popular songs to classical music giants like Samuel Barber and Leonard Bernstein to composers of today’s musical landscape, the genre has changed tremendously to reflect the current state of the world in which we live. Composers have turned to different sources of text, opening up an infinite possibility of choices. Songs that use non-poetic texts have since entered the American song repertoire, making them more accessible for both the performers and the audience alike. During my studies as a collaborative pianist, I began to explore some of these works of this nature, and became very interested in performing more of them. This dissertation, I explored some of the works of this nature and showcased an array of available repertoire. These include text sources such as the dictionary, letters, a diary, a cookbook, speeches, and so forth. Selected works by the following composers were performed: Bruce Adolphe, Dominick Argento, Samuel Barber, Leonard Bernstein, Celius Dougherty, Stacy Garrop, Juliana Hall, Jennifer Higdon, Lee Hoiby, Richard Hundley, Gabriel Kahane John Kandar, William Kenlon, Lori Laitman, Libby Larsen, Patrice Michaels, Ned Rorem, and Kamala Sankaram. The differences between using poetry and prose to compose an art song were discussed using several examples. A survey was also conducted with some of the composers of today to get some insight into how they approach composing with prose texts, and these questionnaires are attached in the appendix of this document. My excellent collaborators for this project were Olivia O’Brien, Henrique Carvalho, Amanda Densmoor, Colin Doyle, Jessica Harika, Alfonso Hernandez, and Bill Townsend. The three recital programs comprising this dissertation were presented on April 14th, 2021, September 21st, 2022, and February 28th, 2023. Recordings of these three recitals can be found in the Digital Repository at the University of Maryland (DRUM).Item SELECTED INSTRUMENTAL SONATAS AND VOCAL LITERATURE(2017) Shin, Bukyung; Sloan, Rita; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Every collaborative pianist is called upon to perform the duo sonatas as well as the chamber music and vocal works of the great German Romantic composer Johannes Brahms (1833 – 1897). For that reason, studying and performing as much of this repertoire as possible is an indispensable part of the collaborative pianist’s education. Brahms created some of his most superb compositions in the realm of piano chamber music, a genre for which he wrote throughout his career. His style of composition elevated the genre to previously unforeseen heights, truly making all the involved instruments equals. Also a prolific song writer throughout the entirety of his musical career, Brahms’ published his first set of songs, Op.3 in 1853, his last, the Four Serious Songs, Op.121, just before his death. His earliest instrumental sonata is for piano and cello, Op.38 (1862 – 1865) and his last were the two sonatas written for piano and clarinet, Op.120 (1894). A certain lifelong fondness for these intimate and relatively small-scale compositions is clearly evident. Notably, Brahms himself was a performing pianist who premiered many of his own works. His writing for the piano is distinctive and easily recognized: chords, octaves, counterpoint, leaps, and a disregard for any technical pianistic limitations. Because of Brahms' groundbreaking compositional style, the skills listed above came to constitute a necessary part of the pianist’s keyboard vocabulary, and perhaps most relevantly the collaborative pianist. The three recitals comprising this dissertation include: November 3, 2015, the Clarinet Sonatas and the Zigeunerlieder with Jihoon Chang, clarinet and Joy Stevans, soprano; September 13, 2016, the G Major Violin Sonata and the Sonatensatz with Jennifer Lee, violin, the Regenlied with Lilly Ahn, soprano, and the Zwei Gesänge for Alto, Viola and Piano with Sarah Best, mezzo-soprano and Caroline Castleton, viola; February 26, 2017, the two Cello Sonatas performed with Jongbin Kim, cello. The recitals were performed and recorded at the University of Maryland’s Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center Gildenhorn Recital Hall. They are available on compact discs which can be found in the Digital Repository at the University of Maryland (DRUM).Item GABRIEL URBAIN FAURÉ, THE UNSUNG MODERNIST: A PERFORMANCE SURVEY OF SELECTED LATE WORKS WRITTEN AFTER 1892 FOR PIANO SOLO, AND PIANO IN COLLABORATION WITH VIOLIN, VIOLONCELLO, AND VOICE(2005-08-26) Green, Lester Shields, Jr.; Sloan, Professor Rita; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Gabriel Urbain Fauré lived during one of the most exciting times in music history. Spanning a life of 79 years (1845-1924), he lived through the height of Romanticism and the experimental avant-garde techniques of the early 20th century. In Fauré's music, one can find traces of Chopin, Liszt, Mendelssohn, Debussy and Poulenc. One can even argue that Fauré presages Skryabin and Shostakovich. The late works of Gabriel Fauré, chiefly those composed after 1892, testify to the argument that Fauré holds an important position in the shift from tonal to atonal composition and should be counted among such transitional composers as Gustav Mahler, Claude Debussy, Erik Satie, Richard Strauss, and Ferruccio Busoni. Fauré's unique way of fashioning harmonic impetus of almost purely linear means, resulting in a synthesis of harmonic and melodic devices, led me to craft the term mélodoharmonique. This term refers to a contrapuntally motivated technique of composition, particularly in a secondary layer of musical texture, in which a component of harmonic progression (i.e. arpeggiation, broken chord, etc.) is fused with linear motivic or thematic development. This dissertation seeks to bring to public attention through exploration in lecture and recital format, certain works of Gabriel Fauré, written after 1892. The repertoire will be selected from works for solo piano and piano in collaboration with violin, violoncello, and voice, which support the notion of Fauré as a modernist deserving larger recognition for his influence in the transition to atonal music. The recital repertoire includes the following--Song Cycles: La bonne chanson, opus 61; La chanson d'Ève, opus 95; Le jardin clos, opus 106; Mirages, opus 113; L'horizon chimérique, opus 118; Piano Works: Prelude in G minor opus 103, No. 3; Prelude in E minor opus 103, No. 9; Eleventh Nocturne, opus 104, No.1; Thirteenth Nocturne, opus 119; Chamber Works: Second Violin Sonata, opus 108; First Violoncello Sonata, opus 109; Second Violoncello Sonata, opus 117.