All My Pretty Ones by Stephen Paulus; A Song Cycle for Soprano and Piano on a Text by Michael Dennis Browne

Stephen Paulus (b. 1949) is emerging as one of America’s accomplished composers for the voice. He is skilled in writing sensitively for the demands of the solo voice and is becoming known as an important contributor to the genre with approximately 50 art songs, 12 song cycles as well as 10 operas and 250 choral pieces. This paper will discuss the song cycle, All My Pretty Ones, for soprano and piano, which was published in 1984 with a text by Michael Dennis Browne. The cycle was Paulus and Browne’s first collaboration and since its conception the two have continued to work together on operas, oratorios, and song settings. All My Pretty Ones, consists of eight songs and was commissioned by a National Endowment for the Arts as a Composer/Librettist Fellowship. The written document is composed of five chapters and will introduce Paulus as a prolific American composer, provide performance considerations, as well as an overview and interpretation of the song cycle and its poetry. Chapter One provides biographical information on Stephen Paulus. Chapter Two includes information pertaining to Paulus’ compositional style and inspiration in composing. Chapter Three includes biographical information on poet, Michael Dennis Browne as well as a comprehensive interpretation of the eight songs of the cycle. Chapter Four contains a detailed examination of the musical settings of the eight songs, and finally, Chapter Five will draw conclusions

Department of Music Programs 1977 - 1978

Includes the music program flyers from the year 1977 - 1978.https://digitalcommons.olivet.edu/musi_prog/1011/thumbnail.jp

Department of Music Programs 1977 - 1978

Includes the music program flyers from the year 1977 - 1978.https://digitalcommons.olivet.edu/musi_prog/1011/thumbnail.jp

Department of Music Programs 1978 - 1979

Includes the music program flyers for the year 1978 - 1979.https://digitalcommons.olivet.edu/musi_prog/1012/thumbnail.jp

Music by members of the Choral Foundation of Durham Cathedral in the 17th century.

In 2 volsAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:DXN034733 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreSIGLEGBUnited Kingdo

CHORAL WRITING IN SELECTED SACRED WORKS OF IGOR STRAVINSKY: A CONDUCTOR'S GUIDE

This 'guide' pursues two aims: to provide a model for the exhaustive score preparation needed by any choir—trainer, professional or amateur and to put Stravinsky’s choral canon into historical and critical perspective. A twofold analysis includes technical details of the works and an assessment of their aesthetic qualities from both the audiences and the choral singer’s standpoints. The technical analysis contains a) the conductor’s survey of scores under the headings of form, choral textures, melody, rhythm, harmony and instrumental accompaniments b) advice on rehearsal and concert procedures c) stylistic recommendations gleaned from the composer’s own writings and recordings (listed in an annotated discography) Additionally, a brief history, an identification of texts used (with translations of less familiar Latin verses), details of instrumentation and some contemporary judgements by professional critics are provided for each work. The aesthetic analysis covers a) the quantity and quality of the sacred choral works in relation to the rest of Stravinsky’s output and that of major contemporaries b) their relationship to sacred choral music in Stra­vinsky’s Russian past c) the degree to which they embody the composer’s cultural and religious tenets. The composer’s personal religious philosophy and his idiosyn­cratic views on word-setting are quoted from many sources (chiefly the published ’conversations’ with his assistant Robert Craft) together with the composer-conductor’s ideas concerning perfor­mance practice. Stravinsky is an important composer for his longevity, eclecticism, variety of compositional media and strength of personal artistic and spiritual principles. Nearly one quarter of his original compositions employs massed voices yet, with few exceptions, it remains seldom heard in live or recorded perfor­mances. This is explained in terms of executant difficulties and also aesthetic estrangement from performers and audiences alike. Such arguments underlie the dual aims of the thesis, both directed principally at the choral conductor in whose hands may lay the antidote to this music’s current neglect

A Conductor\u27s Analysis of Poetry and Music in J. A. C. Redford\u27s Antiphons

J. A. C. Redford’s Antiphons is a reverent and mystically beautiful, choral song cycle, consisting of seven settings and written for a cappella divisi mixed chorus. Based on texts originating from the seven, ancient Great O Antiphons, each of Redford’s settings interweave the original antiphon text with one of seven Advent sonnets written by English poet-priest, Malcolm Guite. The texts of the Great O Antiphons coincide with the seven verses of the familiar Advent hymn, “O Come, O Come Emmanuel.” This study contains a brief history and a comprehensive textual analysis of the ancient antiphons, an in-depth textual analysis of Guite’s sonnets, and a thorough musical analysis of Redford’s Antiphons, as well as biographies on the American composer, J. A. C. Redford and the English poet, Malcolm Guite. The musical analysis of this study examines the musical structure as it relates to the original antiphon and the sonnet text. Redford strategically positions the ancient chant within the structure of the sonnet to incite a conversation between ancient and modern texts. The structure of Malcolm Guite’s Advent sonnets is also discussed. The quatrains and couplet are identified and the location of the volta is revealed for each sonnet. Redford has stated that his primary goal is to musically portray the essence of the text’s meaning. This study endeavors to offer insight into the composer’s journey. Significant considerations include his nontraditional approach to musical structure, his employment of a variety of tonal centers and music textures, his incorporation of intricate rhythmic schemes and frequent meter adjustments, and his unique harmonic language applied to color the music

The style and development of Herbert Howells' Evening Canticle settings

It is the aim of this dissertation to look at the style and development in style of Howells' evening canticles from the first set, written in 1918 through to the final set of 1975. Chapter one will put Howells' life in the Anglican Church into context. It shows an outline of Howells' life and will observe briefly the musical world into which he was born, viewing the reforms that took place religiously and musically during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Howells' religious scepticism will be discussed alongside the fact that he composed in a style which many believed to be the perfect aid to worship - neither under nor overstated, highly reflective and emotive, yet sensitive and tremendously insightful to the Office of Evensong. How did Howells manage to change the face of Anglican music so much after the dominance of Stanford, as he effectively became the one individual who 'wrote the soundtrack of Anglican cathedral worship' for the twentieth century

Music in English Renaissance Drama

Nowhere is the richness and variety of the English Renaissance better shown than in the dramatic works of the period which combined to an unusual degree the arts of poetry, music, acting, and dance. This collection of essays by a number of distinguished scholars offers a series of views of the music of this drama—ranging from the mystery cycles still performed in the late sixteenth century to the cavalier drama of the early seventeenth. The essays included here are mainly concerned with the minor dramatic forms—the mystery plays, the “entertainments,” the masques, and the works of such playwrights as Marston and Cartwright—which reveal more extensively the blending of music and drama; and they illustrate a variety of approaches to the dramatic art. The collection as a whole demonstrates the need for an interdisciplinary consideration of this important area of study. Of especial value to musicologists is the bibliography of extant music used in dramatic works of the period. John H. Long is professor of English at Greensboro College, North Carolina.https://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_music/1001/thumbnail.jp