Musicology Commons^™

Hildegard Fantasy, Julianna Charnigo

Theses and Dissertations--Music

Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179), a German abbess, composer, mystic, and theologian, was revered as a prophet during her lifetime. Since then, her numerous accomplishments and visionary writings have made her popular both in her native Germany and across the world. Hildegard produced numerous Latin writings, more than any other woman of the Middle Ages, and her more than seventy musical compositions fascinate musicians and listeners to this day. My doctoral thesis is a composition for SATB chorus, orchestra, and soprano solo entitled Hildegard Fantasy, based on the life and music of Hildegard of Bingen.

I have written both the …

X Marks Nothing: Chiasmus And Kenosis In Kaija Saariaho's La Passion De Simone, Desiree Scarambone

Theses and Dissertations--Music

Composer Kaija Saariaho’s 2006 work La Passion de Simone often leaves audiences and critics at a loss to understand what they have witnessed. The title, subject, and sparse libretto only complicate this confusion. The genre of the work is ambiguous to many; some critics call it an opera, some an oratorio. Because the subject of the work, French philosopher Simone Weil, is widely unknown to the public, her placement within the framework of a Passion is often met with confusion if not criticism.

By fusing Weil’s life and philosophical ideas in this work, Saariaho explores how the awareness of the …

The Vespers Psalms Of Baldassare Galuppi, Scot Buzza

Theses and Dissertations--Music

Although Baldassare Galuppi was arguably the best known and most successful Italian composer of the eighteenth century, his name, his history, and his works have been relinquished to the periphery of the historiographical narrative. While Galuppi's masses, operas, and solo motets have been examined, his vespers psalms have been neglected by previous musicologists; most of the existing studies have been superficial, with little consideration of important questions such as formal approach, stylistic development, compositional idiosyncrasies, questions of authenticity, or what those factors might collectively tell the twenty-first-century musicologist about music in settecento Venice.

The bulk of this work consists of …

The Relationship Between Lowell Mason And The Boston Handel And Haydn Society, 1815-1827, Todd R. Jones

Theses and Dissertations--Music

The relationship between Lowell Mason (1792–1872) and the Boston Handel and Haydn Society (est. 1815) has long been recognized as a crucial development in the history of American music. In 1821, Mason and the HHS contracted to publish a collection of church music that Mason had edited. While living in Savannah, GA, Mason had imported several recent British collections that adapted for church tunes works by Franz Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Ignaz Pleyel. His study with German émigré Frederick L. Abel allowed him to harmonize older tunes in standard counterpoint. In the historiography of American …

Unlocking The Paradox Of Christian Metal Music, Eric S. Strother

Theses and Dissertations--Music

In 1984, Stryper released its first album The Yellow and Black Attack and introduced audiences to a different kind of heavy metal. Instead of lyrics about sex, alcohol, and Satan, Stryper sang about Jesus, salvation, and God. While there were a number of fans ready for this change more were not. Members of the Church as well as members of the metal subculture were in agreement that Christianity and heavy metal were incompatible. Despite these objections, however, more bands emerged, and Christian metal became a significant genre within the Christian music industry. These bands presented Christian-oriented lyrics within the full …