Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Coloquio Entre Dos Perros, Comic Chamber Opera In Nine Scenes, Sandra Rocio Fuya-Duenas

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Coloquio entre dos Perros (Dialogue between two Dogs) is a comic chamber opera for four solo voices (one mezzo-soprano, one tenor and two baritones) and mixed ensemble (oboe, viola, guitar and percussion). The libretto, written in modern American Spanish, is based on the novel by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra entitled Coloquio que pasó entre Cipión y Berganza, perros del Hospital de la Resurrección, que está en la ciudad de Valladolid fuera de la puerta del campo, a quien comúnmente llaman los perros de Mahudes. The opera is divided into nine scenes, which relate the stories from the life of …

The Donnelly Opera, Joshua L. Richardson

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The Donnelly Opera is a one-act chamber opera based on an infamous Southwestern Ontario event: the murder of the Donnelly family in 1880. The libretto was written with the consultation of various historical sources. Modern text setting practices are utilized with careful attention to the use of perfect rhymes and natural syllabic emphasis to help maximize audience comprehension. The opera uses traditional vocal archetypes of aria, recitative, and ensemble singing. The focus of the opera is the dramatic portrayal of the events that took place leading up to the second murder trial. It is written for four vocalists (soprano, mezzo-soprano, …

Audio Mastering As A Musical Competency, Matthew T. Shelvock

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In this dissertation, I demonstrate that audio mastering is a musical competency by elucidating the most significant, and clearly audible, facets of this competence. In fact, the mastering process impacts traditionally valued musical aspects of records, such as timbre and dynamics. By applying the emerging creative scholarship method used within the field of music production studies, this dissertation will aid scholars seeking to hear and understand audio mastering by elucidating its core practices as musical endeavours. And, in so doing, I hope to enable increased clarity and accuracy in future scholarly discussions on the topic of audio mastering, as well …

Requiem, Wendell Glick

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Requiem is a five-movement work for SATB chorus and chamber orchestra and is approximately 28 minutes in duration. The text is a compilation of traditional and adapted excerpts from the Roman Missal, combined with poetry by Tamar Zehr and Psalm 67 from the King James Version of the Bible. In this work, contemporary texts are intertwined with traditional ones to explore textual and musical narratives of doubt and faith, loss and gain, death and rebirth. This document contains the full score of the work, followed by three discussion chapters. The first chapter offers a glimpse into the background of the …

Namazu, Sean Kim

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Namazu, for Orchestra is a three-movement composition for orchestra and women’s chorus inspired by various mythological accounts for the cause of earthquakes. The dissertation consists of two parts: the composition in full score and an analysis of the composition. The first movement is based on the Japanese myth and namesake for this piece, Namazu. The second and third movements refer to Greek and Norse myths, respectively. The discussion document introduces the synopses of these three myths. Additionally, the document not only outlines pre-compositional processes, including the development of a systematic approach to modifying modes and constructing harmonies, but also examines …

A Modest Proposal: A Chamber Opera In One Act, Kevin Morse

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

A Modest Proposal is a chamber opera in one act adapted from the 1729 satirical essay of the same name by Jonathan Swift. The opera’s narrative was developed in close partnership with Toronto-based Governor-General’s Literary Award-nominated playwright Lisa Codrington, whom I commissioned to write the libretto. Set in an unnamed city in the present day, the work explores themes of economic disparity, social class, political power and process, parents and children, love, anger, and revenge. I integrate musical quotations from (or references to) folk lullabies and the works of Mahler, Debussy, and Schoenberg to support and enhance the richness and …

Dawn: A Symphonic Sketch For Orchestra, Jeff Mcclellan

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Dawn was written as a tribute to the Aquatic Ape Hypothesis, and, more particularly, its author, Elaine Morgan, who has been a restless proponent of the hypothesis for more than three decades. The evolutionary theory explains the anatomical differences between modern humans and apes by proposing that hominids lived through a semi-aquatic phase at some time in their development, providing reason for many of the aquatic characteristics & impulses that humans have and experience today.

My composition aims to capture the magic of this divergence of the genus homo over several million years. The music is programmatic, meaning an …