Reconciling Eros and Agape: The English Catholic Artistic Response to Reforms

This study explores the English Catholic artistic response to reforms--reforms being both internal and external to the Catholic Church--as part of the Catholic Reformation. Response, for the purposes of this project, may be defined in terms of an answer in an ongoing dialogue about the Catholic position and may be seen as both conciliatory and apologetic in nature. Understanding this response is useful when we consider the role of rhetoric and poetry in society and the attendant contemporary theories thereof, in their historical context, especially the duty of the poet. The recent revisionist history is central to understanding art contextually. While identifying the key doctrinal debates between Catholics and Protestants, this study traces these elements in the English Catholic art of Edmund Campion, Robert Southwell, and William Byrd and focuses, especially, on the way art attempts to reconcile man\u27s human and divine natures, or Eros and Agape. This can enrich our understanding of the degree to which the spiritual may be found in the temporal to represent how important the concept of the soul and its believed afterlife was to Renaissance artists and their audiences particularly during a time of sustained religious unrest, censorship, and persecution. From the Catholic perspective, a significant recurring trope is the Blessed Sacrament in the then-forbidden rite of the Catholic Mass and its meritorious powers: to impart grace--even when simply gazed upon; to unify members of the Church as Christ\u27s Earthly Body and Bride; to nourish the soul; and, ultimately, to secure the salvation necessary for eternal life. As rhetoric, poetry, and drama are the fruits of education central to the Ignatian charism of helping souls, the Jesuit influence on Byrd and other lay figures among the Catholic recusant community such as Sir Thomas Tresham and Sir John Harington may be detected in music, buildings, and verse. This project endeavors to broaden the critical base for additional studies concerned with reforms in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England to enrich our understanding of artistic work in this period, most pointedly in terms of reconciling Eros and Agape

Education in conducting through ensemble experience

This creative project paper discusses the need for young conductors to find or create experiences to work directly with ensembles as part of their conducting education. The paper serves as both a record and description of my creative project recital and accompanying DVD recording and as an examination of the need for experiential education through interaction with ensembles. It includes insight from my own personal experience, working with university ensembles and outside groups, as well as the experience of an undergraduate student preparing for graduate conducting applications. The main part of this paper will review past literature and studies around the topic of conducting education, especially as it relates to the benefits of increased ensemble experience for conductors. The conclusion includes suggestions for implementing immersive education programs for conductors such that they can similarly gain these important conducting experiences while in school.School of MusicThesis (M.M.