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The aim of this thesis is to provide a study of political conflict and local-national relations during the English Revolution, in the context of the county of Surrey, a county in which a moderate parliamentarian administration was able to survive until 1649. The thesis concentrates in particular on political developments in the period from 1640 to 1653. The character of local society in Surrey before 1640 is examined in Chapter One, as are relations between the Surrey gentry and the government of Charles I. The importance of localism is emphasised, despite the cosmopolitan nature of society in the county. Political and religious developments in Surrey between the autumn of 1640 and the, end of 1642 are examined in Chapter Three; Chapter Four provides a study of patterns of civil war allegiance in the county. In Chapters Five and Six, political conflicts from 1642 to 1646 are studied, and in particular the campaign to remove Sir Richard Onslow and his associates from their dominant position in local administration. It is argued that parliament's sensitivity to localism helped to ensure Onslow's political survival during the 1640's. The Surrey petitioning movement of 1648, the Earl of Holland's rising, and local reactions to the establishment of the Commonwealth in 1649, are discussed in Chapter Six, The final chapter provides a study of the Surrey Digger movement, and of social conflict in the county during the civil war and after. Although it is clear that the Diggers met with considerable opposition in Walton, it is suggested that there was some sympathy for them in Cobham, and that they should not be dismissed as outsiders in that parish.

Richard Strauss was only nineteen when he wrote the Serenade and soon the Suite was among his list of compositions. Not until he was nearing the end of his life did he again turn his attention to wind music with the Sonatine and the Symphonie. This paper provides a comparison of sonorities, root movement and representative harmonic progressions, cadences, harmonic rhythm, treatment of dissonances, keys employed, and modulation types in the four works. Its purpose is to determine how works from the years between the Suite and Sonatine may have affected the above parameters in the Sonatine and Symphonie. Included in the intervening years are such works as Elektra, Salome, and others during which time Strauss was most innovative in his use of sonorities, dissonances, and harmonic progressions. This study proves that in later compositions for wind instruments, Strauss did not continue the advances he had made earlier; rather he looked back to the language of the Serenade and Suite. The importance of major and minor triads, and the major-minor seventh remained in the Sonatine and Symphonie; beat duration totals for these three sonorities for the Serenade and Symphonie shows a less than one percent difference between the two works. Although there is less emphasis placed on ascending perfect fourth root movement in the Symphonie than in the other works, it still retains nearly one-fourth the total number. Authentic cadences have a higher percentage in the later Sonatine and Symphonie than in either of the two earlier compositions. Dissonance treatment favors conservative means; passing tones, neighbor tones, leap up-step down and leap down-step up appoggiaturas, suspensions and retardations are most common regardless of time-frame. Regarding modulations: although the widest variety is found in the Symphonie, emphasis is on diatonic and chromatic pivot chords, third relation, and enharmonic diminished seventh chords. One must conclude from the study that conservatism is the hallmark in each of the four compositions.

Richard Wagner was appointed Hofkapellmeister to the Dresden Court in 1841. In conjunction with the duties of his office, he composed four works for male chorus, categorized by him as "occasional works". These works written during the first year-and-a-half of his Dresden tenure demonstrate Wagner's early assimilation of his artistic and philosophical ideals that would culminate in the composition of the opera-cycle, Der Ring des Nibelungen. Wagner's association with the male-voice choral unions of Dresden allowed him opportunity to express and define his compositional goals in his constant quest for a true and pure German art form. The "occasional works" influenced and affected his use of male chorus in the operas Lohengrin, Tannhauser and Die Meistersinger. Wagner, forced to flee Dresden after the May 1849 uprising, no longer had access to the Dresden male-voice choral unions. Consequently, the frequency of male choruses in his operas composed after this time diminishes assuming a different position, both musically and dramatically than in those operas composed prior to and during his Dresden tenure. The "occasional works" demonstrate more than a servial obligation, rather, they encapsulate the very essence of Wagner's compositional thought in a highly condensed and intensely focused form.

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In Capriccio. Richard Strauss and Clemens Krauss examine the very nature of opera with the core of their thesis being the relationship of words and music. A work that is, in essence, an extended discussion poses two problems to the composer and librettist: how to sustain the argument of the thesis without losing the attention of the audience, and how to prevent a conversational opera from sounding like endless recitative. Strauss and Krauss manage to present their case without having to resort to an actual discussion for the duration of the opera. Their characters are engaging, identifiable human beings who are also allegorical figures. Their participation in the stage action sustains the argument of the thesis even when the dialogue itself addresses other subjects. The players symbolize various facets of opera, theatre, and the public with all of them, principal and secondary characters, being sharply etched. The little stage action that Capriccio does contain is carefully paced and closely coordinated with the presentation of the work's thesis. The octets, similar in dramatic function to the central finale of a Mozart opera buffa, provide the climax of the stage action and come soon after the Fugal Debate, the centerpiece of the collaborators' argument. The final section of the central scene, which also contains the aforementioned octets and Fugal Debate, serves as the denouement of both the plot and thesis. Such close attention to dramatic structure gives Capriccio and the argument it presents cohesion and dramatic shape. The text itself is written in clear, concise prose and is set in Strauss's patented "conversational style." This style, a rapid syllabic declamation, is delivered "mezza voce" in order to simulate natural speech and is sung over continuous melos in the orchestra. This accompaniment keeps it from sounding like dry recitative. This study explores the work's characters, dramatic structure, vocal style, and the issues raised by Strauss and Krauss. Other topics to be addressed include the genesis of Capriccio. how the careers of the composer and librettist led them to write an opera about opera, common criticisms of the work, and Capriccio's place in the operatic repertoire today.

As a former UC Berkeley undergraduate and a University of Vermont graduate student, this is an educational autobiography of a self-identified Hapa, or mixed-race Asian American, through the lens of race and identity. Exploring what it means to be “white” and “privileged,” and realizing that these concepts--like identity--are fluid, this thesis adopts a dual methodology that includes personal narrative, as well as a meta-critical reflection. This thesis focuses on three memoirs: Bone Black and Wounds of Passion by bell hooks, and Hunger of Memory by Richard Rodriguez, each of which explore themes of reclaiming voice and reconstructing identity with regards to race, class, and culture.

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MMus, Dept of Music, Faculty of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand

Thesis (M.F.A.)--Boston University