Solo and Chamber Music of Pulitzer Prize-Winning Composers

The Pulitzer Prize in Music, established in 1943, is one of America's most prestigious awards. It has been awarded to fifty-three composers for a "distinguished musical composition of significant dimension by an American that has had its first performance in the United States during the year." Composers who have won the Pulitzer Prize are considered to be at the pinnacle of their creativity and have provided the musical world with classical music compositions worthy of future notice. By tracing the history of Pulitzer Prize-winning composers and their compositions, researchers and musicians enhance their understanding of the historical evolution of American music, and its impact on American culture. Although the clarinet music of some of these composers is rarely performed today, their names will be forever linked to the Pulitzer, and because of that, their compositions will enjoy a certain sense of immortality. Of the fifty-four composers who have won the award, forty-seven have written for the clarinet in a solo or chamber music setting (five or less instruments). Just as each Pulitzer Prize-winning composition is a snapshot of the state of American music at that time, these works trace the history of American clarinet musical development, and therefore, they are valuable additions to the clarinet repertoire and worthy of performance. This dissertation project consists of two recitals featuring the solo and chamber clarinet music of sixteen Pulitzer Prize-winning composers, extended program notes containing information on each composer's life, their music, the Pulitzer Prize-winning composition and the recital selection, and a complete list of all Pulitzer Prize-winning composers and their solo and chamber clarinet music. Featured Composers Dominick Argento, To Be Sung Upon the Water Leslie Bassett, Soliloquies William Bolcom, Little Suite of Four Dances Aaron Copland, As it Fell Upon a Day John Corigliano, Soliloquy Norman Dello Joio, Concertante Morton Gould, Benny's Gig Charles Ives, Largo Douglas Moore, Quintet for Clarinet and Strings George Perle, Three Sonatas Quincy Porter, Quintet for Clarinet and Strings Mel Powell, Clarinade Shulamit Ran, Private Game Joseph Schwantner, Entropy Leo Sowerby, Sonata Ernst Toch, Adagio elegiaco

SELECTED AMERICAN VIOLIN WORKS AND THEIR EUROPEAN CONTEXT

For my dissertation, I did a study and performance of American violin works by Charles Ives, Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, and John Corigliano, along with contemporaneous European works by Paul Hindemith, Bela Bartok, Igor Stravinsky, Sergei Prokofiev, and Francis Poulenc. The selected American violin works display the development of a distinctively American style and cover a significant formative period (1914-1963) of American classical music. I intend that the European works form a backdrop for setting in relief any distinctly American qualities possessed by the American works. This is because they cover a similar time period and have significant stylistic affinities and shared influences. My topic stems from a question, "What defines the American Sound?" I attempted to find the answer by looking at the time when American composers consciously searched for their identities, and declared their music to be distinctly American. I found that those distinctive qualities stemmed from three sources: folk music, jazz and hymns. Ives and Copland can be viewed as American in content for their inclusion of such elements, while Bernstein and Corigliano can also be considered as "ideologically American" for their adventurous and eclectic spirit. The simplicity derived from singing a hymn or crooning a popular song; the freedom inspired by jazz; the optimism of accepting all possibilities-these elements inform the common spirit that I found in the music of these four American composers. FIRST RECITAL Sonatafor Violin Solo Op.3112 (1924), Paul Hindemith (1895-1963) Suite Italiennefor Violin and Piano (1932), Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) Sonatafor Violin and Piano (1963), John Corigliano (b.1938) SECOND RECITAL Second Sonatafor Violin and Piano (1914-17), Charles Ives (1874-1954) First Rhapsody for Violin and Piano (1928), Bela Bart6k (1881-1971) Violin Sonata No.1 infminor (1938-46), Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) THIRD RECITAL Nocturne for Violin and Piano (1926), Aaron Copland (1900-1990)Sonata for Violin and Piano, Op. 119 (1942-3, rev.1949), Francis Poulenc (1899-1963)Serenade (after Plato's "Symposium'') (1954) by Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990) The pianists were Sun Ha Yoon (Bart6k) and Grace Eunae Cho (all other repertoire).

SELECTED TWENTIETH-CENTURY BRITISH & AMERICAN ENGLISH SONG REPERTOIRE WRITTEN FOR SOPRANO

English language song (both British and American) is influenced by a variety of cultures, races, and musical forms and has produced a broad range of song repertoire. Like songs in all countries and throughout history, these songs can be classified into three categories: imitative songs, experimental songs, and songs of individuality. Music experimentation, necessary and welcome as it is, can hardly command broad international attention. Thus, the songs of this dissertation performance project are chosen from the first and third categories: imitative songs and individual songs in the composer's own unique style. This project concentrates its exploration on twentieth-century solo songs written in English. Although twentieth-century British & American composers also produced solos and chamber music in other languages, this dissertation focuses upon their English repertoire. This performance project consists of three programs: one British repertoire and two American. The first program titled An Evening of British Song examines twentieth-century British song written by Roger Quilter, Peter Warlock, William Walton, Benjamin Britten, Thomas F. Dunhill, Ivor Gurney, and Frank Bridge. It was presented on December 12, 2001, in Homer Ulrich Recital Hall with the collaborative pianist Meriel Owen. The second program titled An Evening of American Song I comprises music written by Dominick Argento, Samuel Barber, Ned Rorem, Leonard Bernstein, and Lee Hoiby. It was presented on October 23, 2002, in Joseph & Alma Gildenhorn Recital Hall with the collaborative pianist R. Timothy McReynolds. The third program titled An Evening of American Song II written by John Duke, John Corigliano, Charles Ives, Richard Hundley, Lori Laitman, Frederick Loewe, George Gershwin, and Jerome Kern was presented on December 18, 2003, again in Joseph & Alma Gildenhorn Recital Hall with the collaborative pianist R. Timothy McReynolds and the flutist Jessica Dunnavant. Each of these three dissertation recitals occurred at the University of Maryland in College Park and was recorded. These CD recordings are held by the Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library at the University of Maryland.