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Vibrato Rate And Extent In The Baritone Voice Through The Twentieth And Early Twenty-First Century, Scott Purcell

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Observations of vibrato rate and extent through the twentieth and early twenty-first century point to an overall decrease in rate and increase in extent. This descriptive analysis studied fifty-five randomly selected recordings of professional operatic baritones, five from each decade from 1910 to 2021, and analyzed their vibrato rate and extent with VoceVista Video Pro. Results showed a consistent decrease in mean vibrato rate from 1910 to 1960, with small increases and decreases from 1960-2021. Vibrato extent was less consistent, but still increased from 1910-2021. The mean vibrato rate was 5.84 Herz (Hz), with a coefficient of variation (CV) of …

A Performance Guide To Kurt Erickson's Song Cycle Here, Bullet, André Yong Chun Chiang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this document is to supply a comprehensive performer’s guide to American composer Kurt Erickson’s Here, Bullet, a song cycle consisting of four songs for baritone and piano set to the poetry of American poet Brian Turner. Additionally, an overview of its unique consortium-based commissioning process will be included in examination of the entrepreneurial nature of its creation.

Here, Bullet focuses on the soldier’s interaction with the bullet, suicide, foreign lands, and deployment in Iraq. The text comes from a book of poetry, which originated the song cycle’s name, and was written during Turner’s yearlong deployment to …

A Performer's Guide To Virgil Thomson's Five Songs From William Blake, Andrew David Whitfield

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Though perhaps his most well-known vocal works might be his operas, Four Saints in Three Acts and The Mother of Us All, American composer Virgil Thomson (1896-1989) did write nearly seventy songs for voice and piano, including several important song cycles. One of these cycles, the Five Songs from William Blake, represents an impressive composition for the baritone voice. Unfortunately, much of the previous scholarship about Thomson did not award these Blake songs adequate attention, nor was it able to draw upon many of the primary sources about Thomson’s life and work that are now available. The purpose of this …