Melbourne Conservatorium of Music - Theses
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ItemHoratio Parker’s opera MONA (1912) and visions of U.S. identity in the early twentieth century( 2018)At the turn of the twentieth century, composers in the United States struggled to establish a national voice. While many musical minds promoted the use of American-derived musical material, some intellectuals endorsed whole-hearted participation in the hegemonic European legacy, assuming the composers’ American provenance would endow their creations with national properties. This thesis considers possible manifestations of these properties within Horatio Parker’s Mona, premiered as the first full-scale American opera produced on the Metropolitan Opera stage. Its language is post-Wagnerian, but several elements seem to betray a unique and sometimes American voice. This thesis comprises a dissertation (constituting 65% of the thesis) and performance folio (constituting 35% of the thesis, supplementing the content of the dissertation) that explore Mona and the opera’s musical, cultural and socio-political contexts. It is hoped that this exploration adds nuance and complexity to discussions of European-influenced American opera and national elements in early twentieth-century American operas. The dissertation first considers the early twentieth-century American milieu, describing Parker’s life and career, prominent theatrical and musical trends, and broader socio-political issues. There is then an exploration of aspects of the music and drama of Mona, highlighting the ways in which the opera projects contemporaneous American cultural preferences, anxieties, and prejudices. These includes the integration and extension of European musical and operatic production trends, the narrative’s allusions to imperial occupation (reflecting the US occupation of the Philippines), and the opera’s engagement with issues raised by the women’s suffrage movement. The performance folio, accompanying the dissertation, offers an aural context for the dissertation’s exploration, providing examples of the early twentieth-century audience’s musical environment, including works that had an impact on Mona. It also illustrates aspects of Parker’s compositional trajectory, the music of Parker’s colleagues and students, and subsequent attempts at English-language dramatic text-setting. List of Performance Folio Contents [except where noted, all recordings were Performed by Patrick MacDevitt (Voice) and David Barnard (Piano)]: 1. 3 Songs, Horatio Parker (1882). 1.1. Slumber Song 1.2. Wedding Song 1.3. Goldilocks 2. 7 Songs, Horatio Parker (1909). 2.1. I Shall Come Back 2.2. A Man’s Song 2.3. A Woman’s Song 2.4. Only a Little While 2.5. A Robin’s Song 2.6. Offerings 2.7. Together 3. Opera and Operatic Song. 3.1. Winterstürme, Die Walküre, Richard Wagner (1870) 3.2. Oh, Oh, quest-ce que c’est, Pelléas et Mélisande, Claude Debussy (1902) 3.3. An die Nacht, op. 68, Richard Strauss (1918) 3.4. Then let there be an oath between us, Mona Horatio Parker (1912) 4. British and American Songs—Video. Kade Greenland (Director/Editor) 4.1. 0:00: The Bobolink, 5 Songs, George Whitefield Chadwick (1914) 4.2. 1:38: Midsummer Lullaby, 8 Songs, Edward MacDowell (1893) 4.3. 3:44: Matin Song, 4 Songs, John Knowles Paine (1879) 4.4. 5: 49: Lonely, 12 Songs, Frederic Cowen (1892) 4.5. 10:11: Speak, Music, 2 Songs, Edward Elgar (1902) 4.6. 13:39: My Love’s an Arbutus, Songs of Old Ireland, Charles Villiers Stanford (1882) 4.7. 16:11: The Blackbird, 3 Songs, Amy Beach (1889) 4.8. 17:25: Oh My Luve’s Like a Red Red Rose, 5 Songs, Arthur Foote (1887) 4.9. 19:47: When I am Dead, 12 Songs, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1906) 5. Parlour and Heart Songs 5.1. Parlour Songs. Patrick MacDevitt (Voice) and Ken Murray (Banjo/Guitar) 5.1.1. Maggie By My Side, Stephen Foster 5.1.2. Old Dog Tray, Stephen Foster 5.1.3. If You’ve Only Got a Moustache, Stephen Foster 5.1.4. Believe Me if All Those Endearing Young Charms, Thomas Moore, arranged by Catherina Josepha Pratten 5.2. From Heart Songs, 1909 5.2.1. The Old Arm Chair, Henry Russell 5.2.2. Lull¬aby, Erminie, Edward Jakobowski 5.2.3. To the Evening Star, based on a melody from Tannhaüser, Richard Wagner 5.2.4. Chinese Baby Song, Trad. 5.2.5. The Lost Chord, Arthur Sullivan¬ 5.2.6. Toyland, Babes in Toyland, Victor Herbert 5.2.7. The Rainy Day, William R. Dempster 6. American Experimentalism. 6.1. From 114 Songs, Charles Ives (1922). 6.1.1. In the Alley 6.1.2. The Things Our Fathers Loved 6.2. There is not much difference between the two (Suzuki Daisetz), John Cage (1979)—Video. Patrick MacDevitt (Voice) 7. Arias from Billy Budd, Benjamin Britten (1951). 7.1. I am an old man 7.2. I accept their verdict
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ItemThe reception of Dmitri Shostakovich in twentieth-century France( 2015-11-06)This dissertation assesses the reception of Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich in twentieth-century France, focusing on the opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District (1932), and Symphony No. 5 (1937). These works represent artistic responses to the development of Socialist Realism and censorship under the Stalin regime. The research draws predominantly upon primary source material taken from archives at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France and the Association Internationale “Dimitri Chostakovitch”. The results of this study demonstrate how Franco-Soviet relations influenced French critical perspectives on Shostakovich throughout the twentieth century.
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ItemSpanish music and its representations in London (1878-1930): from the exotic to the modern( 2013)This thesis argues that the landscape of Spanish music in London evolved between 1878 and 1930 from Romantic exotic constructions to a recognition and appreciation of Spanish musical nationalism, which reflected some of the concerns of post-war musical modernism in a newly cosmopolitan context. This transformation will be traced through the study of specific protagonists and events that contributed to the English reception of Spanish music during this period. While the development of Spanish nationalist music and its important intersections with French music have been studied in numerous texts, little has been written on the English engagement with Spanish music. A key event in defining musical and theatrical Spain in the latter part of the nineteenth century came from France in the guise of George Bizet's Carmen (1875, London 1878). The opera, and its many parodies and theatrical re-workings in London, provides a foundation for discussions of Spanishness in late nineteenth-century England, and influenced the reception of Pablo Sarasate and Isaac Albéniz. In the Edwardian era, closer ties between England and Spain, increased travel possibilities and specialist writers rekindled enthusiasm for Spanish music. The anti- German currents of the pre-war years and the influence of French writers and musicians set the scene for the further English appreciation of Spanish music in the aftermath of the death of Enrique Granados in 1916. The English success of the Ballets Russes production of The Three-Cornered Hat (1919), with music by Manuel de Falla, marked the broader acceptance of Spanish musical nationalism. With the critical recognition of Falla's neoclassical works of the 1920s Spanish music achieved further acknowledgement in England from cosmopolitan critics. At the same time the Spanish guitar was seen to embody many aspects of post-war Spanish music, and through the concerts of Andrés Segovia established itself in a new guise in London. By 1930, the recognition and popularity of Spanish music indicated the extent to which it had integrated and evolved beyond the Romantic stereotypes prevalent half a century earlier.
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ItemOrchestral, chamber, electronic and visual compositions( 1999)This folio of orchestral, chamber, electronic and visual compositions collectively document a research period based on experiences with performance, free and structured improvisations, technology and visual art practices. The technical and aesthetic diversity of the material arises from opportunities and resources afforded by the research program. Of the many ideas traversed in these works, the principle focus has been towards the use of extended techniques for wind instruments and experiences from live performances. In pursuing these objectives, this research charts multiple performance practices, and diverse compositional techniques through traditional acoustic music to studio electronic soundscapes. Although the ordering of the compositions in this folio suggest that the acoustic works were completed first, many of the electronic compositions were produced in between. Consequently, compositional processes tended to inform each other in complex and often subtle ways. The two orchestral works and the quintet represent instances where extended clarinet techniques have been reconceptulized and orchestrated for larger ensembles. These techniques have also found a place together with traditional styles and intuitive performance experience in the suite for clarinet and piano, the trio and the guitar solo work. The five remaining electroacoustic works represent a rethinking of acoustic sound and performance practices not found in the approaches taken with the traditional acoustic compositions. The studio enabled a focus on issues such as context and space that do not have pre-eminence in the composition phase of traditional instrumental music. This is evident in the fact that the sounds, existing as recordings, could be subject to processing and arrangements in ways that are physically impossible through traditional musical world. The sounds in the computer based context assert a need for a different compositional outlook to that presented in the previous compositions. Finally the inclusion of visual imagery is intended to convey another creative input into the process of each musical work.
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ItemMusical composition in Australia in the period 1960-1970: individual triumph or historical inevitability?( 2000)An examination of oral records casts a fresh and first-hand light on the sudden flowering of Australian musical composition in the 1960-70 decade. Accepted accounts concerning the musical activity of this time are few and the composers who were involved in the new music world are cited rarely. Building on the views and perceptions of Roger Covell, James Murdoch, Frank Callaway, David Tunley and Andrew McCredie, the impressions concerning this period from eight composers - those from the pre•-1960 generation and those who came to prominence in the designated decade - are investigated, with a view to determining what caused the abrupt adoption of contemporary compositional practice fro1n 1960 onwards; whether the surge in activity and the adoption of a new vocabulary resulted chiefly from individual efforts, or from the influence of individuals (administrators, bureaucrats, entrepreneurs), or through the pioneering work of certain organisations (International Society for Contemporary Music), or as the result of an inevitable if delayed historical process. The investigation begins with a survey of the relevant available material still extant on this period, which serves the purpose as a support or contrast with the core of the thesis. This is the gleaning from interviews conducted by the writer or tapes made by the Australian Broadcasting Commission and other bodies of what the decade 1960-1970 meant to the composers themselves, the intention being to come to a clearer understanding of the significance of the years in question.