UNUSUAL SONG TEXTS: SELECTED 20TH- AND 21ST-CENTURY AMERICAN ART SONG REPERTOIRE USING NON-POETIC TEXTS

Abstract

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).