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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ItemCarried away: an interpretative phenomenological analysis of optimal aesthetic states of consciousness on the professional operatic stage.( 2018)ABSTRACT This thesis examines professional opera singers’ experience of optimal aesthetic states of consciousness when performing, particularly ‘peak’ and ‘flow’ states. While students have been the dominant research populations, it is argued that elite or expert opera singers, as a homogeneous group, are worthy of separate study owing to their highly skilled, extensive experience in the practice of this art form at professional and international levels. Published literature on consciousness and opera has highlighted that a 'bottom-up' process in the production of opera might lead to greater aesthetic connection, as opera too often suffers from reduced collaborative creativity, with each member of the cast and creative team focusing only on their own part. In view of the integrated and irreducible nature of opera as an art form, this examination takes place within professional practice of opera in order to add ecological validity to findings. A series of in-depth, open-ended interviews with nine elite professional opera singers forms one source of data, with emergent themes including both idiographic descriptions and common themes, including an altered sense of time, a sense of mastery, ecstasy, spiritual insight, and serenity. Descriptions of antecedent conditions that were thought to induce these positive states included focused attention, filtering out external stimuli, the primacy of text, rigorous musical preparation and openness to experience. These conditions were under the conscious control of the singers and point to the existence of highly developed psychological executive functioning, while still fully inhabiting the imaginative and spontaneous world of their character. In the second component, the author examines and reflects on her own practice, with respect to altered states of consciousness, as the principal singer in five public performances. Themes arising from rehearsals sessions and performances were analysed to produce an ethnographic narrative from within the professional culture of opera. The artistic ambition is set out and justified with respect to the literature in music and consciousness. By upsetting the usual relationship of performers to audiences in the physical performing space, it was possible to explore the nature and function of the dialogic in operatic performance. This led to a reflection on the difference it made to interior (psychological) space and its ultimate effect on consciousness as a performer. Overall, three themes in optimal performance experience united the two component parts of this thesis. Firstly, the necessity of the presence of the audience and the idea of a shared consciousness. Secondly, the mechanism by which opera singers reach peak states, particularly the role of the text. Thirdly, the benefit, role and meaning of habitual peak and flow experiences in performance to the personal development, wellbeing and career commitment of singers. Finally, a new model of peak experience is proposed, as it applies to professional operatic performance. This model allows, through expertise and the alteration of normal consciousness, a resolution of dichotomies that exist at lower levels of performance and in normal life. This perspective lends real world validity and contributes qualitatively rich information about the internal experience of elite musicians, uniting academic and practice-based research insights in music psychology.
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Item'A universal art, an art for all'?: The reception of Richard Wagner in the Parisian Press, 1933–1944( 2016)From the time that Wagner began to feature as a subject of interest in the French press, writers, critics, and journalists used their discussions of the composer, his music and his writings to articulate ideas about France and Germany. Debate about Wagner became a means to examine national identity, musical and cultural identity, and the Franco-German relationship. This thesis examines the reception of Richard Wagner through the lens of the Parisian press between 1933 and 1944. It follows a body of literature that investigates the reception of Wagner in the French press, particularly in relation to how it reflects upon French identity and the Franco-German relationship. It considers the ways in which the French continued to use Wagner to discuss nation, identity and culture during the period of the Third Reich, and the extent to which Wagner reception from the 1930s and the Occupation interacted with earlier French reception of Wagner. The thesis also considers the question of continuity and rupture, both between the period 1933–44 and previous periods, and between 1933–39 and the Occupation. It examines the extent to which the dramatic change in the French political landscape—which took place when France was invaded by German troops in the summer of 1940—affected the press reception of Wagner, and what this can tell us about how the French nation thought about itself and its relationship with Germany. The thesis includes an Introduction, followed by five chapters and a short Conclusion. The chapters are organised both chronologically and thematically, covering two main time periods during the Third Reich: 1933–39, and 1940–44. The thesis draws predominantly on sources from the Parisian press, including daily newspapers and weekly or monthly periodicals, supplemented by a limited number of other sources, including musicological and music literature, and concert programme archives. Although the study does not rely heavily on any particular theoretical model, it is situated within the domain of reception theory. This study argues, through an examination of themes emerging from the Parisian press, that Parisians used Wagner to confront Nazism, grapple with the idea of rapprochement, situate France within a potential New Europe, understand past Franco-German conflict, manage life under the Occupation, and come to terms with the policy of Collaboration.
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ItemVerdi's exceptional women: Giuseppina Strepponi and Teresa Stolz( 2015-05-15)This thesis investigates several of the persistent myths that surround Verdi’s life and career and those of the women with whom he had intimate relationships. Verdi’s self-image as a poor peasant whose success owed nothing to anyone else except his father-in-law, and the unwillingness in the scholarly literature to acknowledge any permanent threat to the unassailable solidarity of his marriage to a saintly wife whose past left no scars, reveal conflicts between public myth and private reality. In addition, the stereotype of the imperiously demanding ‘diva’, when applied to the two women under discussion, is not sustainable on close investigation. This thesis explores Verdi’s professional and personal relationship with exceptional women, focussing on two of the most important women in his life, the singers Giuseppina Strepponi and Teresa Stolz. It demonstrates his shifting power-balance with Giuseppina Strepponi as she sought to retain intellectual self-respect while his success and control increased. It presents a fresh appraisal of Teresa Stolz through examination of her letters from 1871 to 1895 and claims that, far from showing her to be an unintelligent and sometimes malicious gossip as is often stated in the scholarly literature, the letters demonstrate her astute evaluations of operatic performances and her buoyant affection for Verdi. The thesis argues that the two women fulfilled different functions as ‘handmaidens’, the one supporting and enhancing Verdi’s creativity at the beginning of his professional life, the other sustaining his sense of self-worth, at the end of his professional life; that each woman was an essential benefactor without whom Verdi’s career would not have been the same.
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ItemComposition Portfolio( 2014)The research focus of this PhD thesis is the composition of two large-scale musical works. Central to this research is the exploration of how eclecticism, in terms of shifting methods of pitch-organisation, might be used as an expressive, aesthetic and philosophical response to the composition of an opera, and more broadly as the principal means of musical expression in the twenty-first century. To achieve concinnity within an eclectic framework, a limited number of styles or methods of pitch organisation have been used in both works. These are modes, pitch clusters, pitch sets and tonality. The major component of this PhD submission is a folio of two large-scale original works (with attached CD recordings). These are an opera in three acts, The Juniper Passion, and a triple concerto, Convergence for violin, cello, piano and orchestra. The purpose of the dissertation is to provide a background to eclecticism within the context of stylistic pluralism and postmodernism, to address the musical responses to the libretto in terms of character, time and place, and to show how philosophical and aesthetic perspectives have been interpreted and presented musically. The dissertation also provides technical analysis of key extracts from both works. Although there is no philosophical underpinning in the concerto per se, the analysis highlights a consistency in composition methods, especially in the use of the use of pitch clusters and modality
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ItemEssential and inevitable ideas: a musico-dramatic analysis of Fritz Hart's 1919 opera "The Fantasticks" op. 35( 2010)The aim of this thesis is to examine musico-dramatic development and motivic organisation in Fritz Bennicke Hart's seventh opera, "The Fantasticks" op. 35. It examines and comments on Hart's approach to the correlation between musical procedures, and dramatic and textural elements. It argues that Hart created and manipulated motifs that are effective and appropriate to the accompaniment and illustration of dramatic events, character elucidation, interpretation of emotional response, and generation of form. This thesis accompanies critical editions of the full score, piano/vocal score, and orchestra parts, and included a critical commentary. It also accompanies a premiere concert performance of the opera with full orchestra.