Wintter Watts (1884-1962) was one of the most admired composers of American art song in the early twentieth century. The history of great singers who performed his songs at that time attests to the reputation of Watts as a song composer. Unfortunately the songs of Watts have become largely neglected by singers from later generations. The song cycle Vignettes of Italy (1919) for high voice is regarded by many as Watts♠ best-known composition. Vignettes of Italy was frequently performed by many famous singers in America in his day, but is little known in the current repertoire of American art song and rarely performed today. Vignettes of Italy is worthy of reintroduction to contemporary audiences and singers. This study explores the significant contributions Wintter Watts made to the body of American art song in the early twentieth century and presents a thorough investigation of Watts♠ compositional techniques of Sara Teasdale♠s texts in his song cycle Vignettes of Italy. These techniques include the use of carefully tailored rhythms, modulations, harmonic progressions, and accompaniment figures to give unique treatment to the musical setting of individual words, poetic ideas, and broader moods. I hope this research provides a foundation of understanding of this cycle, assists singers and pianists in presenting artistically coherent performances, and creates a fuller comprehension and appreciation of Watts songs.

In this thesis, Ned Rorem's Poems of Love and the Rain is analyzed, with conclusions being drawn in the sphere of musico-textual relationships within individual songs.

No description available.

In 1126, the Song Dynasty (960-1279) was faced with an exigent political crisis: after testing the borders for years, the neighboring Jin state marched its armies south, destroyed the capital city Bianjing, and reduced its territories by half. The dynasty’s collapse and reconstitution in southern China has prompted ongoing scholarly debate about what types of political, economic, and cultural differences emerged between the Northern and Southern Song periods. My project uses the narrative handscroll Illustrations of Auspicious Responses to study the development of the imperial cult and images of rulership in the Southern Song. It is the first monograph length study of the scroll since it was rediscovered in 2009 and examines how the reigning Zhao house effectively used visual and material culture to argue for its legitimacy, employing the rhetoric of moral justice and acculturation, rather than overt depictions of military dominance, to describe the establishment of the Southern Song and its first ruler. Works such as Illustrations demonstrate that the sophistication of court-based art was not destroyed along with its physical structures. Rather, with the move south artists became essential to promoting the political aims of the court: using cultural legacy as the most expedient way to purchase political legitimacy in a time of uncertainty. Illustrations acts as an expertly articulated defense of the court’s right to rule, echoes of which have filtered through the late imperial period and can be seen in how China positions itself in relation to the world today.

The aim of the study is to examine how songs are included in Swedish EFL coursebooks aimed at the courses English 5 and English 6, what functions they serve and what this communicates about the pedagogical value of songs for EFL teaching and learning. This study also aims to examine what differences there are in the inclusion and usage of songs targeting the different courses. The material was gathered through a content analysis of six coursebooks, three aimed at English 5 (Viewpoints 1, Solid Gold 1, and Blueprint A Version 3.0) and three intended for use in English 6 (Viewpoints 2, Solid Gold 2, and Blueprint B Version 2.0). The books were analysed by applying the concepts of explicit and implicit communications of pedagogical value through the lens of Krippendorff’s approach to textual analysis (Krippendorff, 2019, p. 29). The results show that most differences in the inclusion and usage of songs in the coursebooks targeting the different courses relate to how songs are included, but also that there are significant differences in how the songs are used. Furthermore, the results also show that the inclusion and usage of songs in the examined coursebooks convey conflicting messages about their pedagogical value. The usage of songs shows that there is a reliance on the intrinsic pedagogical value of songs for EFL teaching and learning. Nonetheless, songs are used sparingly in relation to other text types in the coursebooks.

No description available.

Letters from a Black Snake is a song cycle by living Australian composer, George Palmer. The cycle sets curated excerpts of text taken from letters written or dictated by Australia's most notorious bushranger (bandit) turned folk hero, Edward "Ned" Kelly (1854-1880), creating a cohesive narrative arc that establishes and explores Kelly's character through the precipitating events of his short life, exclusively in his own words. But what happens when the narrator doesn't tell the whole story? Framed as an expositional analysis of Letters from a Black Snake, this dissertation explores the importance of context on the interpretation and reception of this, and narrative song cycles generally, outlining potential approaches to performance, and proposing an expansion of Palmer's work.

Title from accompanying document. / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

Ndumo Game Reserve is the only officially protected area within the Phongolo Floodplain; an area in the northern parts of KwaZulu-­‐Natal known to boast a rich diversity of amphibians, thus becoming one of the focal areas for this study. The study’s aim was to monitor and record amphibian diversity, as well as associated blood parasite biodiversity. For the purpose of monitoring, a number of active and passive techniques were employed. Habitat preferences for the expected species were divided into five types, namely endorheic, lacustrine, palustrine, riverine and terrestrial. Endorheic habitats were found to harbour the highest diversity (70%) of frog species. A permanent song meter was used to passively record calling activity of frog species associated with endorheic systems. This call data indicated peak breeding season, preferred calling times and intensities of the different species. Historical records from the same area were used as a basis to which this study’s data were compared. In the case of the polychromatic Argus Reed Frog Hyperolius argus Peters, 1854, questions were raised concerning the major colour changes during development of the apparent sub-­‐adult to adult life stages, an observation which was has caused some confusion as to whether these forms represented a single species or multiple cryptic species. These issues were clarified using techniques such as DNA extraction and polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Furthermore, a blood parasite survey was conducted. Thin blood smears for morphometrics and whole blood for molecular work, were collected from 29 species and 436 individual frogs. For the majority of the recorded parasites, techniques such as light microscopy were utilized for the morphological description and classification of these parasites. Among the recorded frog blood parasites observed, 20% of the frog specimens were infected with at least one blood parasite group. Hepatozoon and Trypanosoma species accounted for most of the infections; the former demonstrated significant differences in intensity of infection across species, families and habitat types (P = 0.028; P = 0.006; P = 0.007 respectively). Methods, such as transmission electron microscopy, examining the ultrastructure, as well as parasite DNA extraction and 18S rDNA gene sequences for the molecular and phylogenetic characterization, were reserved for Hepatozoon species infecting common toad species (Amietophrynus). Parasite stages observed were measured and compared to each other, as well as to other described African bufonid haemogregarines. Resulting sequences were compared with each other and to comparative haemogregarine sequences selected from GenBank. In the current study a number of important aspects with regards to monitoring and assessment of amphibians in their natural environment were explored, including looking at and determining diversity and prevalence of blood parasites. Furthermore, important data on gaining a better understanding of amphibians and their behavioural activities were also gathered, which should be able to assist in conservation actions to effectively protect South African anurans and their required habitat types. / MSc (Environmental Sciences), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

Ndumo Game Reserve is the only officially protected area within the Phongolo Floodplain; an area in the northern parts of KwaZulu-­‐Natal known to boast a rich diversity of amphibians, thus becoming one of the focal areas for this study. The study’s aim was to monitor and record amphibian diversity, as well as associated blood parasite biodiversity. For the purpose of monitoring, a number of active and passive techniques were employed. Habitat preferences for the expected species were divided into five types, namely endorheic, lacustrine, palustrine, riverine and terrestrial. Endorheic habitats were found to harbour the highest diversity (70%) of frog species. A permanent song meter was used to passively record calling activity of frog species associated with endorheic systems. This call data indicated peak breeding season, preferred calling times and intensities of the different species. Historical records from the same area were used as a basis to which this study’s data were compared. In the case of the polychromatic Argus Reed Frog Hyperolius argus Peters, 1854, questions were raised concerning the major colour changes during development of the apparent sub-­‐adult to adult life stages, an observation which was has caused some confusion as to whether these forms represented a single species or multiple cryptic species. These issues were clarified using techniques such as DNA extraction and polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Furthermore, a blood parasite survey was conducted. Thin blood smears for morphometrics and whole blood for molecular work, were collected from 29 species and 436 individual frogs. For the majority of the recorded parasites, techniques such as light microscopy were utilized for the morphological description and classification of these parasites. Among the recorded frog blood parasites observed, 20% of the frog specimens were infected with at least one blood parasite group. Hepatozoon and Trypanosoma species accounted for most of the infections; the former demonstrated significant differences in intensity of infection across species, families and habitat types (P = 0.028; P = 0.006; P = 0.007 respectively). Methods, such as transmission electron microscopy, examining the ultrastructure, as well as parasite DNA extraction and 18S rDNA gene sequences for the molecular and phylogenetic characterization, were reserved for Hepatozoon species infecting common toad species (Amietophrynus). Parasite stages observed were measured and compared to each other, as well as to other described African bufonid haemogregarines. Resulting sequences were compared with each other and to comparative haemogregarine sequences selected from GenBank. In the current study a number of important aspects with regards to monitoring and assessment of amphibians in their natural environment were explored, including looking at and determining diversity and prevalence of blood parasites. Furthermore, important data on gaining a better understanding of amphibians and their behavioural activities were also gathered, which should be able to assist in conservation actions to effectively protect South African anurans and their required habitat types. / MSc (Environmental Sciences), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015