Theses and Dissertations from UMD
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New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a give thesis/dissertation in DRUM
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Item TRACING THE EVOLUTION OF STYLE AND TECHNIQUE IN UNACCOMPANIED VIOLIN WORKS SPANNING THE SEVENTEENTH THROUGH TWENTIETH CENTURIES(2019) Wright, Audrey; Salness, David; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Violin playing on a universal level encompasses a vast history of stylistic and technical traditions. By studying the evolution of the styles and techniques of violin playing–while not always obvious or expected–one can further understand and have a greater appreciation for the genre as a whole. The specific realm of unaccompanied polyphonic violin repertory is a unique one, for the violin itself was never physically ideal for chordal playing, and yet, composers have expanded their idiomatic writing through this very genre in truly ideal ways from the early-Baroque Era until now. My approach with this performance dissertation has been to highlight solo polyphonic works of both standard and non-standard reputation, to show a wide scope of the styles and techniques that have been used over centuries to shape how we experience violin playing today. What we discover is that despite the leaps and bounds taken by composers of this genre to reach the current trends, the simplest and most widely applied violinistic traditions over time are the ones that composers continue to rely on the most.Item Picturing Devotion in Dutch Golden Age Huiskerken(2018) Harrington, Margaret; Wheelock, Arthur K; Art History and Archaeology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Although the seventeenth-century Dutch Republic was officially Protestant, Catholics made up nearly one-third of the population. To circumvent laws prohibiting public worship, Dutch Catholics celebrated Mass in private homes converted into lavishly decorated huiskerken (house churches). Unfortunately, most huiskerken have been destroyed or poorly documented, and previous scholarship has examined altarpieces out of their historical contexts. This dissertation examines the decorative programs of two well-documented huiskerken: St. Bernardus in den Hoeck in Haarlem, rebuilt in 1638 and part of a large community of lay religious women (kloppen) in Haarlem, and ’t Hart, founded in 1663 in Amsterdam, and preserved today as the Museum Ons’ Lieve Heer op Solder (Our Lord in the Attic). This is the first English-language study of the complete decorative programs of these two huiskerken and their liturgical functions, and I argue that devotional paintings are best understood as pieces of these decorative programs, which included embroidered textiles, illustrated sermon manuscripts, and liturgical silver. I employ reception theory to show that the imagery in these two huiskerken aided the celebration of Mass and meditation of laypeople, especially lay religious women. The examples of St. Bernardus and ’t Hart demonstrate that the decorative programs of huiskerken are largely indebted to lay religious women, who acted as patrons and creators of devotional objects. I prove that crafts like embroidery and inexpensive engravings, commonly considered “low” art, in fact served as creative sources for “higher” art forms like paintings. Furthermore, I conclude that the use of imagery in huiskerken is more closely related to medieval devotional practices than has previously been assumed.Item Piety, Politics, and Patronage: Isabel Clara Eugenia and Peter Paul Rubens's "The Triumph of the Eucharist" Tapestry Series(2013) Libby, Alexandra Billington; Wheelock, Jr., Arthur K; Art History and Archaeology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation explores the circumstances that inspired the Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia, Princess of Spain, Archduchess of Austria, and Governess General of the Southern Netherlands to commission Peter Paul Rubens's "The Triumph of the Eucharist" tapestry series for the Madrid convent of the Descalzas Reales. It traces the commission of the twenty large-scale tapestries that comprise the series to the aftermath of an important victory of the Infanta's army over the Dutch in the town of Breda. Relying on contemporary literature, studies of the Infanta's upbringing, and the tapestries themselves, it argues that the cycle was likely conceived as an ex-voto, or gift of thanks to God for the military triumph. In my discussion, I highlight previously unrecognized temporal and thematic connections between Isabel's many other gestures of thanks in the wake of the victory and "The Triumph of the Eucharist" series. I further show how Rubens invested the tapestries with imagery and a conceptual conceit that celebrated the Eucharist in ways that symbolically evoked the triumph at Breda. My study also explores the motivations behind Isabel's decision to give the series to the Descalzas Reales. It discusses how as an ex-voto, the tapestries implicitly credited her for the triumph and, thereby, affirmed her terrestrial authority. Drawing on the history of the convent and its use by the king of Spain as both a religious and political dynastic center, it shows that the series was not only a gift to the convent, but also a gift to the king, a man with whom the Infanta had developed a tense relationship over the question of her political autonomy. I argue that when Isabel presented the tapestries to the Descalzas Reales she intended them to assert her power and, moreover, compel its reciprocation. This interpretation relies on archival documents that show that Isabel frequently gave religious gifts to establish relationships of reciprocity; the simultaneously religious and political functions the convent served the Spanish royal family; as well as on the tapestries themselves.