Final Archaeological Investigations at the Maynard-Burgess House (18AP64): An 1850-1980 African-American Household in Annapolis, Maryland

The Maynard-Burgess House was excavated by Archaeology in Annapolis from Fall, 1990 to Summer, 1992. The still-standing house is located at 163 Duke of Gloucester Street in Annapolis' Historic District and is today being restored by Port of Annapolis, Incorporated. Archaeological testing and excavation of the site was developed alongside architectural analyses and archival research as the initial phase of the home's restoration. The Maynard-Burgess House was continuously occupied by two African-American families, the Maynards and the Burgesses, from the 1850s until the late 1980s. The main block of the house was built between 1850 and 1858 by the household of John T. Maynard, a free African American born in 1810,and his wife Maria Spencer Maynard. Maynard descendants lived in the home until it was foreclosed in 1908 and subsequently sold to the family of Willis and Mary Burgess in 1915. Willis had been a boarder in the home in 1880, and his sister Martha Ready had married John and Maria's son John Henry. Burgess descendants lived at the home until its sale in 1990.

A GOLDEN AGE: FRENCH AND SPANISH CELLO MUSIC FROM SAINT-SAENS TO CASSADO

Motivated by both the delicacy of French music, such as La Mer by Claude Debussy, and the exotic atmosphere of Spanish music, such as Zigeunerweisen by Pablo Sarasate, I decided to investigate the characteristics of French and Spanish cello music from Camille Saint-Saens to Gaspar Cassad6. French cello music flourished from the end ofthel9th to the middle of the 20th century because of the innovation of many unprecedented techniques and experimentation with a variety of sonorities. The Spanish were heavily influenced by the French due to the geographical connection. Cello virtuosi like Auguste Tolbecque, August Franchomme, Pierre Fournier, and Paul Tortelier inspired composers of their day, creating a "golden age" of cello music. This dissertation consisted of three recitals in Gildenhom Recital Hall. The first recital was held on May lOth, 2007 at 5:30pm with pianist David Ballena. The second recital was held on October 14th, 2007 at 2pm with collaborators Minna Han, piano and Jenny Wu, violin. The third recital was held on March 301 2008 at 5:30 with pianist Naoko Takao. Here is the program of the recitals: The first recital: Gabriel Faure(1856-1924): Sonate pour Violoncello et Piano Op.109(1917) Gaspar Cassad6 (1897-1966): Suite per Violoncello Solo (1926) Claude Debussy (1862-1918): Sonate pour Violoncelle et Piano (1915) The second recital: Manuel de Falla (1876-1946): Melodia (1897), Romanza (1898) Camille Saint-Saens (1835-1921): Concerto for Cello and Orchestra No.1 in A minor Op.33 (1873) Maurice Ravel (1875-1973): Sonata for Violin and Cello (1920-22) The third recital: Pablo Casals (1876-1973): Song of the Birds (1925) Edouard Lalo (1823-1892): Concerto for Cello and Orchestra in D Minor (1877) Franscis Poulenc (1899-1963): Sonata for Cello and Piano Op.l43(1940-48)

INNOVATIONS IN FRENCH CHAMBER MUSIC AND MÉLODIE (1886 – 1962) – A COLLABORATIVE PIANIST’S PERSPECTIVE

French chamber music in the last quarter of the nineteenth century displayed significant advances in musical innovations and technical developments. As the Parisian public began to favor instrumental music and mélodie over opera, vocal and chamber music with piano became one of the main genres to express French composers’ creativity and individuality. The composers Franck, Debussy, Fauré, Duparc, Ravel, Chausson and Poulenc were the major contributors to this unusually creative period in French music. French mélodies of this period blend precision with lyricism, and demand the performer’s elegance and wit. They show careful settings of the French language’s rhythmic subtleties and increased expressiveness in and importance of the piano accompaniment. The chamber works of this period demanded superior pianistic and instrumental virtuosity while displaying wide ranges of sonority, multiple tone colors, and rhythmic fluidity. The three recitals which comprise this dissertation project were performed at the University of Maryland Gildenhorn Recital Hall on 27 October 2006, All Nations Mission Church (Dayton, NJ) on 5 December 2009, and the Leah M. Smith Lecture Hall of the University of Maryland on 11 May 2010. The repertoire included Poulenc’s Sonata for Oboe and Piano (1962) with oboist Yeongsu Kim, French mélodies by Fauré, Chausson, Debussy, Ravel and Duparc with soprano Jung-A Lee and baritone Hyun-Oh Shin, Poulenc’s Sextet for Piano, Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon and Horn (1932-1939) with flutist Katrina Smith, clarinetist Jihoon Chang, bassoonist Erich Heckscher, hornist Heidi Littman and oboist Yeongsu Kim, Debussy’s Sonata for Cello and Piano (1915) with cellist Ji-Sook Shin, Poulenc’s Sonata for Violin and Piano (1942-1949) with violinist Ji-Hee Lim, Franck’s Sonata for Violin and Piano (1886) with violinist Na-Young Cho, Ravel’s Piano Trio (1915) with cellist Ji-Sook Shin and violinist Yu-Jeong Lee and Ravel’s Sonata for Violin and Piano (1927) with violinist Yu-Jeong Lee. The recitals were recorded on compact discs and are archived within the Digital Repository at the University of Maryland (DRUM).

The Voyage of Impressionism in Three Violin Recitals: To See the World in Different Colors

Impressionism serves as the transition between romantic and modern music. This dissertation examines the varying characteristics and colors of Impressionism in the works of late-romantic French composers, French Impressionistic composers, and composers with Impressionistic influence from countries other than France. Violin Sonata in g minor, L. 140 (1917) is the last work composed by Claude Debussy. The impressionistic characters in this work includes the ambiguous yet innovative and variant sonority and form. As a work also written in 1917, Ottorino Respighi's Violin Sonata in b minor is deeply rooted in Italian Romanticism. Some of the Impressionistic characters can be found in the second movement where the harmonies are in parallel motion. César Franck, a forerunner of impressionism, heavily influenced Debussy with the use of cyclic form. The Violin Sonata in A major (1886) is rich in harmonic language. Ernest Chausson's works mark the transition between Franck and Debussy. The Poème portrays a love story, Song of Love Triumphant by Turgenev. The work is a symphonic poem for violin and orchestra. The Mythes, Op. 30 (1915) by Karol Szymanowski is based on Greek mythology. Ravel's Sonata for Violin and Cello (1922), dedicated to Debussy, points to the future with a sophisticated harmonic language extending into atonality, spare texture, and expanded palate of impressionistic colors and techniques. Ernest Bloch's Violin Sonata No. 1 (1920) portrays the feeling of torment. Beneath the soaring cries of the violin, the harmonic sonority of Impressionism are present. Gabriel Fauré's Violin Sonata No. 1 in A major, op. 13 (1876) is the earliest work of this project. The scherzo movement became a prototype for future scherzo movements for Ravel and Debussy. Ravel's Tzigane (1924), at once a paragon of French impressionism, a delightful gypsy-style dance-fantasy, and a breathtaking virtuoso piece, is the perfect conclusion to my dissertation project. The pieces discussed above were presented in three recitals. Compact disc recordings of these recitals are available in the Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library of the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at the University of Maryland.