The Emergence of Spanish Impressionism and its Interaction with French Impressionism in Music at the Turn of the Twentieth Century: selections from the solo and collaborative piano repertoire

French Impressionism is a term which is often used in discussing music originating in France towards the end of the nineteenth century. The term Spanish Impressionism could also be used when discussing Spanish music written by the Spanish composers who studied and worked in Paris at the same time as their French counterparts. After all, Spanish music written during this time exhibits many of the same characteristics and aesthetics as French music of the same era. This dissertation will focus on the French and Spanish composers writing during that exciting time. Musical impressionism emphasizes harmonic effects and rhythmic fluidity in the pursuit of evocative moods, sound pictures of nature or places over the formalism of structure and thematic concerns. The music of this time is highly virtuosic as well as musically demanding, since many of the composers were brilliant pianists. My three dissertation recitals concentrated on works which exhibited the many facets of impressionism as well as the technical and musical challenges. The repertoire included selections by Spanish composers Manuel de Falla, Isaac Albéniz, Enrique Granados, Joaquín Turina, and Joaquín Rodrigo and French composers Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. The recitals were on April 30, 2013, February 23, 2014 and October 11, 2015. They included solo piano works by Granados and Albéniz, vocal works by Debussy, Ravel, de Falla, Turina and Rodrigo, piano trios by Granados and Turina, instrumental duos by Debussy, Ravel and de Falla, and a two-piano work of Debussy transcribed by Ravel. All three recitals were held in Gildenhorn Recital Hall at the University of Maryland and copies of this dissertation and recordings of each recital may be found through the Digital Repository at the University of Maryland (DRUM).

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)

THE ROLE OF RULES, EXAMPLES AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN THE ACQUISITION OF DECLARATIVE AND PROCEDURAL SECOND LANGUAGE KNOWLEDGE

The relevance of explicit instruction has been well documented in SLA research. Despite numerous positive findings, however, the issue continues to engage scholars worldwide. One issue that was largely neglected in previous empirical studies - and one that may be crucial for the effectiveness of explicit instruction - is the timing and integration of rules and practice. The present study investigated the extent to which grammar explanation (GE) before practice, grammar explanation during practice, and individual differences impact the acquisition of L2 declarative and procedural knowledge of two grammatical structures in Spanish. In this experiment, 128 English-speaking learners of Spanish were randomly assigned to four experimental treatments and completed comprehension-based task-essential practice for interpreting object-verb (OV) and ser/estar (SER) sentences in Spanish. Results confirmed the predicted importance of timing of GE: participants who received GE during practice were more likely to develop and retain their knowledge successfully. Results further revealed that the various combinations of rules and practice posed differential task demands on the learners and consequently drew on language aptitude and WM to a different extent. Since these correlations between individual differences and learning outcomes were the least observed in the conditions that received GE during practice, we argue that the suitable integration of rules and practice ameliorated task demands, reducing the burden on the learner, and accordingly mitigated the role of participants’ individual differences. Finally, some evidence also showed that the comprehension practice that participants received for the two structures was not sufficient for the formation of solid productive knowledge, but was more effective for the OV than for the SER construction.