BOULANGER, SATIE, AND DEBUSSY: THEIR SPHERES OF INFLUENCE ON FRENCH MELODIE AND AMERICAN ART SONG

This dissertation project explored the spheres of influence on art song by Nadia Boulanger, Erik Satie, and Claude Debussy within Boulangeries, Les Six, and Les Apaches. After World War I, American composers flocked to Paris to study with Boulanger. Boulanger gave her students the confidence to explore their native talents instead of mimicking foreign models. Works by Aaron Copland, Virgil Thomson, Theodore Chanler, John Duke, and Richard Hundley were included in the first dissertation recital on January 31, 2010: The Legacy of Nadia Boulanger: Her Influence on American Song Composers. Satie established a new modern French musical style, and was a catalyst for the formation of Les Six. Ned Rorem came to Paris, and had a close association with Les Six. Works by Satie, and three members of Les Six, Francis Poulenc, Arthur Honegger, Darius Milhaud; and Rorem were featured in the second recital on September 1, 2010: Satie, Selected Members of Les Six, and Rorem in Paris. Debussy was one of the most significant French composers in the late nineteenth century, predating Boulanger and Satie. Young composers exploring new directions were inspired by Debussy, forming the group Les Apaches. The final recital, April 7, 2011, featured works by Debussy and two members of Les Apaches, Maurice Ravel and Manuel de Falla: Debussy: A Catalyst for Les Apaches, Ravel and Falla. Falla‘s less well-known repertoire was presented. This dissertation showed the influence of these three major figures and that they embraced innovation in their own time, along with their followers. Recordings of these three performances may be obtained from the Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library in Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at the University of Maryland, College Park.

EXTENDED-RANGE OBOE: THE IMPACT OF TECHNICAL AND MUSICAL ADVANCEMENTS IN 19th-CENTURY AND CONTEMPORARY OBOE REPERTOIRE

I believe that the purpose of expanding the oboe’s repertoire is to not only create original compositions, but to also utilize technical advancements in order to achieve access to a wider range of repertoire through the art of transcription. This paper examines the various paths to achieving such expansion, including utilizing unique performer skills, use of auxiliary instruments, advancements in the instrument itself and musical developments that challenge the perception of the oboe’s solo role in a particular era of music history. The oboe need not be relegated to the confines of a compositionally limited stereotype. The goal of my “extended-range” dissertation project is to expand the “range” of programmable repertoire, with a focus on music in both the 19th and 21st-centuries, while simultaneously expanding the technical capabilities and expectations of the modern oboe—in part by exploiting the new possibilities of the recently invented low-A extension key.

BAROQUE MUSIC FOR TRUMPET: A STUDY OF SOLO AND CHAMBER REPERTOIRE

The trumpet experienced important changes in terms of its musical use during the middle and late Baroque period. Prior to the Baroque, and even in to the first half of the 17th century, the trumpet had historically been used for rather "non-musical" purposes, sometimes as an instrument for battle or as a tool to be used in the town square to announce the arrival of a dignitary. On the whole, the trumpet was most certainly not used as an instrument of melody -that was typically reserved for violins, flutes, and oboes. However, in the late 1600's, composers such as Allesandro Stradella and Henry Purcell began to treat the trumpet differently. They saw the melodic potential in the trumpet and began to feature the trumpet more as an instrument of melody, as opposed to relegating it to only outlining triads and emphasizing harmony. Of course, keyboard, string, and woodwind instruments had long established a significant catalogue of works by the late 17th century. Additionally, even after the trumpet had been established as an instrument of melody, prominent composers of the time still wrote significantly more solo music for these other instrument families than for the trumpet. Consequently, the overall Baroque repertoire for the solo trumpet pales in comparison to that of the other families of instruments. But, much of this Baroque literature not originally written for trumpet can be presented effectively in the form of a transcription, thereby adding greatly to the repertoire of the Baroque solo trumpet. The goal of these three dissertation recitals is twofold: 1) to perform literature that offers music from a variety of countries of origin that span the entire Baroque era and 2) to feature music that has remained relatively unknown in the trumpet world, yet is musically strong. I will also introduce viable "new" music to the trumpet repertoire through Baroque transcriptions originally written for other instruments or voice. The majority of the transcriptions I will be performing have originated from my own listening and study of Baroque music, and I have selected music that I felt would translate well for the trumpet.

THEATRICAL MUSIC FOR SOLO PERCUSSION

The act of playing percussion is innately theatrical. The motions by which a percussionist plays his instruments often resemble a carefully choreographed dance. Our bodies are freed from having to hold or blow into an instrument. We are free to move to and from our instruments, to change our facial expressions, and to vocalize. This performance dissertation consists of three recitals featuring theatrical music for solo percussion. The selections are limited to works in which the composer instructs the solo percussion performer to perform in an extra-musical capacity, whether it be by singing, speaking, moving, acting, dancing, or any other action. On all three recitals, I performed established works for solo theatrical percussion. However, on the first recital, I also played the world premiere performance of The Authors, a new work by Stuart Saunders Smith. This half-hour long marimba opera requires the solo performer to speak, sing, and act while playing the marimba. For the final recital, I featured pieces commissioned from two professional composers, John Leupold II and Daniel Adams. Through this series, I hope to both pay tribute to existing great works and to encourage new composition of solo theatrical percussion music.

Polish Violin Music in the 20th and 21st Century

The purpose of this dissertation is to promote Polish violin music written in the 20th and 21st Century. My recitals included many lesser-known compositions and composers which I strongly believe deserve to be better known and more often performed. The search and preparation of those pieces, for which recordings and music scores are not easily found, was a very exciting and stimulating process. Much Polish music written in the 20th and 21st Century is interesting, expressive, beautiful, and deserves to be more often performed. Performing 20th and 21st Century music opens new perspectives in two directions: musically and technically. Performer and listener are, in many cases, unbound from tonality. Composers are looking for new sonorities and exploring such performing techniques as varieties of harmonics, quarter tones, extreme dynamics, complex rhythms, and usage of a wide range of registers. An important part of Polish music is Polish folklore. The little town of Zakopane is known for Polish traditional clothing, food, architecture, dance and music. Also, most prominent Polish luthiers including Wojciech Topa, whose instrument I am playing, have been making their instruments in Zakopane. This little town in the Tatras Mountain has been an inspiration for many Polish artists including Iwaszkiewicz, Witkacy, Karłowicz, and Szymanowski. Those composers used such folklore elements as folk scales, popular tunes, and imitations of the sound of the folk band with characteristic folk dance rhythms. Other musical genres where folk elements are strongly present are the compositions dedicated to young musicians, with a specifically educational purpose. Among composers who wrote educational music were Grażyna Bacewicz, Witold Lutosławski, and Henryk Mikołaj Górecki. This approach makes the works more easily understood by young performers and, at the same time, broadens their understanding of Polish culture and prepares them for the challenges of contemporary music. This has been an exciting project for me because, on the one hand, it allowed me the challenge of performing compositions that are lesser-known and often consist of musical language new to me while, on the other, it brought me back to my roots and the country of my mother tongue.