Theses and Dissertations from UMD
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Item Musical Integration: The Stylistic Evolution of the Music of Cláudio Santoro as Observed in his Works for Piano(2007-06-03) Maibrada, Heloisa Almeida; Gowen, Bradford; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The Brazilian composer Cláudio Santoro (1919-1989) is one of the major figures in twentieth-century Brazilian music. His musical legacy includes nearly five hundred compositions. Among them there are fourteen symphonies, several chamber works, concertos, vocal compositions, one opera, music for films, and seventy-three known works for piano solo. Beginning with his very first compositions, his intense and extremely idealistic personality, always searching for new ideas and new musical expressions, led him to explore diverse idioms in his music. His musical path began with an early twelve-tone period in the 1940s, defying the traditional nationalistic musical environment in the country. From there came a drastic turn to a nationalistic idiom, motivated by his social ideals. A more subjective nationalistic idiom in the late 1950s gradually led him to search for new musical paths. A period of experimentation with avant-garde techniques, including aleatory and electro-acoustic music brought him new resources and different colors to his music. In his late years Santoro integrated in his music all his personal searches into a deep and passionate idiom. The many prizes and international recognition he collected in all of his aesthetic periods are evidence of his great success as a Brazilian composer. The purpose of this study is to trace the musical evolution of Cláudio Santoro as may be seen in his piano works. Among his legacy for this instrument are included six sonatas, two sonatinas, thirty-four preludes, groups of short pieces and some individual works. As a basis for understanding the importance of Santoro's contributions to the Brazilian piano repertoire, a general historical account of the main developments in the music composed for this instrument in Brazil prior to Santoro's time is presented in the first section. Santoro's innovative personality and his characteristic compositional style deserve to be better known and studied, and his music, to be appreciated as one of the most powerful artistic expressions in Brazil.Item Twentieth-Century Composers Inspired By Jewish Culture: Selections from the Solo and Collaborative Piano Repertoire(2006-05-16) Slingland, Susan Marie; Sloan, Rita; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Throughout the twentieth-century, many composers of both Jewish and non-Jewish descent found inspiration in the heritage of the Jewish people. The rise of nationalism and increased study of folk melodies and rhythms led to the exploration of the riches of Jewish music. The musicological premise of nationalism in music is that every nation has a unique history and therefore must have its own individualistic musical tradition. Due to the Diaspora, Jewish folksongs come in many different flavors but still convey the basic communal expression of their common struggle for existence, religion and culture. This is musical nationalism in the broadest possible sense. The dispersion of the Jewish people is reflected in the wide range of cultures into which they were assimilated: Slavic Eastern Europe, the Middle East (in particular, Israel), as well as the sephardic tradition of the Mediterranean regions and, of course, the melting pot of America. The composers featured in this performance dissertation project reflect that diversity. In many cases, composers drew upon the exoticism of Jewish music and re-interpreted it to pay homage to their own rich culture or to highlight the tragic history of the Jewish people in the first half of the twentieth-century. The works considered for this topic are influenced by both sacred and secular melodies. These selections all include piano, whether it be art song, chamber music or solo repertoire. The amount of music that could be included within the topic's parameters far exceeds the amount of available performance time. Therefore, the three recitals given merely represent a portion of possible works. Given Shostakovich's fascination as a non-Jew with Jewish topics, one entire recital was devoted to his works. The other selections were grouped to form one vocal recital and one purely instrumental recital. The three recitals took place on February 27, 2004, October 27, 2004, and January 6, 2006 in the Gildenhorn Recital Hall of the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center in College Park, Maryland. Recordings of these recitals may be obtained in person or online from the Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library of the University of Maryland, College Park.