Eighteenth-century London was a hotbed for instrumental arrangements, and many of these works were derived from the operas of George Frideric Handel (1685-1759). Thirty-one of his operas, in whole or in part, were arranged for recorder or flute, and there were over seventy keyboard transcriptions of the overtures to these operas. While the transcriptions of Handel overtures have been thoroughly examined, opera aria transcriptions have never received an appropriate level of study and analysis. The Ladys Banquet or The Lady’s Entertainment provides an excellent starting point. Not only does it include numerous opera aria arrangements, but its volumes were re-issued several times, suggesting a wide circulation. Its study raises a number of issues, including publication and authorship of Handel transcriptions, gendered music of the eighteenth century and analysis of opera transcriptions. The Ladys Banquet or The Lady’s Entertainment is a collection of six volumes of keyboard music published by John Walsh in the first half of the eighteenth century. The first two books were issued in 1704 and 1706 respectively, and included many undemanding pieces by fashionable composers such as Jeremiah Clarke (c.1674-1707) and Henry Purcell (1659-1695). The Third and Fourth Books followed in circa 1715 and 1716 and contain predominantly dance tunes and popular songs revised for the keyboard. When, in the early 1730s, the Fifth and Sixth Books appeared, the original four volumes were revised, and included wholly different material than the first editions. The publications of John Walsh are notoriously confusing owing to their lack of publication dates, repeated use of title pages, and misleading advertisements. The Ladys Banquet, as a whole, is especially bewildering because of the reissues of the collection and the changing repertoire. My research focuses on the Fifth Book of The Ladys Banquet, first printed around 1734, due to its abundance of opera aria transcriptions and consistency of content within editions. This document compiles relevant background information and offers a lucid guide to The Ladys Banquet. It provides historical context, examination and discussion of the contents of each volume, with specific details about the music in the Fifth Book, as well as analysis of the Handel aria transcriptions.

R. Murray Schafer (b. 1933, Sarnia, Ontario, Canada) is a seminal voice in Canadian music, due not only to the often controversial, but widespread international reception of his extensive spectrum of works, but also, due to his distinct approach to composition. Schafer’s Patria cycle (1966- ) employs unorthodox performance locales and contexts, a confluence of art forms and sensory experiences, and demands active audience participation, defining Patria as one of the most ambitious stage works. In this dissertation I explore two essential frameworks that are seminal in the discussion of Patria; firstly Schafer’s compositional processes, broadly defined, that come into play in Patria, and secondly, the performative and theatrical aspects in Patria. Through four ethnographic case studies, I suggest that the use of alternative performance spaces, participatory performance, and ritual performance foster an artistic and social environment that has the potential, if participants choose to fully engage in the experience, to alter participants’ perception of the importance of the environment, community, spirituality, and artistic and sensorial experience in contemporary society. In Chapter 1 I provide a discussion of Schafer’s concepts of soundscape and the theatre of confluence and how they are applied in Patria, and outline my research methodology, including my fieldwork experiences from working onsite during Patria productions from 2003 through 2007. In Chapter 2 I examine and contextualize four aspects of performance that reoccur throughout Patria and are specifically detailed in my four case studies: alternative performance space, participatory experience, and ritual performance. My four case studies, Chapter 3 The Princes of the Stars, Chapter 4 Asterion, Chapter 5 The Enchanted Forest, and Chapter 6 And Wolf Shall Inherit the Moon, argue that my participatory approach to Patria comprehensively illustrates how site, work, environment, and community interact, forming a distinctive performance experience.

Eighteenth-century London was a hotbed for instrumental arrangements, and many of these works were derived from the operas of George Frideric Handel (1685-1759). Thirty-one of his operas, in whole or in part, were arranged for recorder or flute, and there were over seventy keyboard transcriptions of the overtures to these operas. While the transcriptions of Handel overtures have been thoroughly examined, opera aria transcriptions have never received an appropriate level of study and analysis. The Ladys Banquet or The Lady’s Entertainment provides an excellent starting point. Not only does it include numerous opera aria arrangements, but its volumes were re-issued several times, suggesting a wide circulation. Its study raises a number of issues, including publication and authorship of Handel transcriptions, gendered music of the eighteenth century and analysis of opera transcriptions. The Ladys Banquet or The Lady’s Entertainment is a collection of six volumes of keyboard music published by John Walsh in the first half of the eighteenth century. The first two books were issued in 1704 and 1706 respectively, and included many undemanding pieces by fashionable composers such as Jeremiah Clarke (c.1674-1707) and Henry Purcell (1659-1695). The Third and Fourth Books followed in circa 1715 and 1716 and contain predominantly dance tunes and popular songs revised for the keyboard. When, in the early 1730s, the Fifth and Sixth Books appeared, the original four volumes were revised, and included wholly different material than the first editions. The publications of John Walsh are notoriously confusing owing to their lack of publication dates, repeated use of title pages, and misleading advertisements. The Ladys Banquet, as a whole, is especially bewildering because of the reissues of the collection and the changing repertoire. My research focuses on the Fifth Book of The Ladys Banquet, first printed around 1734, due to its abundance of opera aria transcriptions and consistency of content within editions. This document compiles relevant background information and offers a lucid guide to The Ladys Banquet. It provides historical context, examination and discussion of the contents of each volume, with specific details about the music in the Fifth Book, as well as analysis of the Handel aria transcriptions.

In 1988, Canada enshrined multiculturalism into law, a democratizing manoeuver that allowed practitioners of non-Western and non-classical forms of music to agitate for equitable access to public arts funding. This agitation ultimately forced government-funded Canadian arts councils to re-examine their Eurocentric granting programs and to expand the parameters by which they fund music. Today’s arts council peer assessors must now assess applications covering a broad range of musical genres and differing aesthetic values, and must incorporate into their evaluations the councils' sociopolitical priorities emphasizing diversity and inclusivity. Yet, few assessors understand why and how identity politics informs the contemporary music-making of ethnocultural minorities and how collectively held stereotypes influence Canadians’ expectation for ethnocultural representation. In this thesis, I endeavour to separate the historical, sociopolitical and philosophical threads that have contributed to the current musical environment in Canada. I begin by examining the parallel histories of funding for high culture—which led to public arts funding—and early celebrations of multiculturalism. I then examine liberal democratic philosophy and how it fostered the “politics of difference” that characterizes Canadian multiculturalism. Although liberal democracy holds that each citizen be recognized as equal and have equality of opportunity to nurture his or her individual, authentic self, Canadians have historically treated ethnocultural minorities unequally, resulting in the latter pursuing politics of difference based upon collective characteristics. Collective difference politics, though, are prone to stereotype. In the Canadian music world these stereotypes are manifest in external desires for authentic ethnocultural representation, which can overshadow a minority musician’s ability to cultivate a unique musical voice. I devote the second part of my thesis to examining the effects of equity initiatives on Canadian arts councils. Based upon interviews with music and equity officers from the Canada Council, the Ontario Arts Council and the Toronto Arts Council, I show how the dichotomy between collective and individual authenticities results in unequal modes of assessment that perpetuate both ethnocultural stereotypes and Western classical music’s monopoly over funding, limiting our definitions of Canadian music.

In 1988, Canada enshrined multiculturalism into law, a democratizing manoeuver that allowed practitioners of non-Western and non-classical forms of music to agitate for equitable access to public arts funding. This agitation ultimately forced government-funded Canadian arts councils to re-examine their Eurocentric granting programs and to expand the parameters by which they fund music. Today’s arts council peer assessors must now assess applications covering a broad range of musical genres and differing aesthetic values, and must incorporate into their evaluations the councils' sociopolitical priorities emphasizing diversity and inclusivity. Yet, few assessors understand why and how identity politics informs the contemporary music-making of ethnocultural minorities and how collectively held stereotypes influence Canadians’ expectation for ethnocultural representation. In this thesis, I endeavour to separate the historical, sociopolitical and philosophical threads that have contributed to the current musical environment in Canada. I begin by examining the parallel histories of funding for high culture—which led to public arts funding—and early celebrations of multiculturalism. I then examine liberal democratic philosophy and how it fostered the “politics of difference” that characterizes Canadian multiculturalism. Although liberal democracy holds that each citizen be recognized as equal and have equality of opportunity to nurture his or her individual, authentic self, Canadians have historically treated ethnocultural minorities unequally, resulting in the latter pursuing politics of difference based upon collective characteristics. Collective difference politics, though, are prone to stereotype. In the Canadian music world these stereotypes are manifest in external desires for authentic ethnocultural representation, which can overshadow a minority musician’s ability to cultivate a unique musical voice. I devote the second part of my thesis to examining the effects of equity initiatives on Canadian arts councils. Based upon interviews with music and equity officers from the Canada Council, the Ontario Arts Council and the Toronto Arts Council, I show how the dichotomy between collective and individual authenticities results in unequal modes of assessment that perpetuate both ethnocultural stereotypes and Western classical music’s monopoly over funding, limiting our definitions of Canadian music.

As the Enlightenment took hold in Europe, all aspects of eighteenth-century society felt its effects. Musical tastes, caught in this ideological shift, began to move from the more codified complexity of counterpoint toward the more simplified aesthetic known as galant. Johann Sebastian Bach, now in the most mature phase of a musical career rooted in the contrapuntal style, came under growing public criticism from proponents of galant who were increasingly dismissive of counterpoint as an out-dated compositional method. In 1741, during this time of growing censure, Bach created the wedding cantata BWV 210, O holder Tag erwünschte Zeit, based on an earlier cantata but with significant changes that are unique within this oeuvre. Rather than the typical celebratory libretto characteristic of his other wedding cantatas, Bach mounted a strong rhetorical argument in defense of music, deftly combining irony, humour, and pointed barbs to make his point. The rationale for this has not received significant scholarly attention. This dissertation explores the idea that Bach used BWV 210 as a specific personal response to his critics who favoured the changing musical aesthetic of the era, and as a defense of a contrapuntal style cherished by him but no longer valued by many advocates of the galant. This claim is supported through an aggregation of extant research linking the cantata to the circumstances in which it was created. Particular attention is given to the ideological conflict represented in the aesthetic shift of the eighteenth century, and Bach’s reactions evident in written documents, his compositions and in his unique synthesis of compositional styles intersecting the aesthetics of his era. The circumstances under which the cantata was written provide context for the significant libretto revisions undertaken to adapt the cantata from its closest known counterpart, BWV 210a. Finally, Johann Scheibe’s published criticism against Bach is explored as an important flashpoint for Bach’s use of BWV 210 as a musical rebuttal. Not only is a better understanding of a lesser-known cantata achieved, but a glimpse into the mindset of Bach is also realized through the unusually personal response included in BWV 210.

The academic analysis of drama often tends to privilege the written word over those sensory elements that are such critical aspects of live theatre. Rhythm, music, dialect, and silence – all these auditory features contribute significantly to the impact and meaning of a play, and they allow playwrights – together with the actors and stage directors who realize their dramatic visions – to convey political messages and address specific political issues without having to necessarily state them overtly within the dialogue. As Augusto Boal stated in his Theatre of the Oppressed, drama is a weapon to fight against oppressive regimes. Thus this dissertation analyzes the role of the senses – especially those related to hearing – in developing the themes and intentions of political plays from Latin America and Spain. The aim is to explore how this has – or has not – changed throughout the centuries, with the ultimate objective of finding common musical and sensory elements, as well as possible affinities in the use of auditory features, to further enable a deeper understanding of how theatre is different from other literary genres. To facilitate the analysis, this dissertation explores a total of six dramas: three Latin American political plays written in the second half of the 20th century and three Early Modern Spanish comedias that depict political scenes or themes. These plays are treated by pairs in each chapter and analyzed according to their use of auditory features in concert with written stage directions and dialogue as a means to reflect or denounce social problems pertaining to the different historical periods in which the plays were initially staged. Specifically, the dramatic pairings are as follows: Chapter 1: Death and the Maiden by Ariel Dorfman (1991) The Mayor of Zalamea by Pedro Calderón de la Barca (ca.1640) Chapter 2: Information for Foreigners, by Griselda Gambaro (1971) Fuenteovejuna, by Lope de Vega (ca.1610) Chapter 3: The Extentionist, by Felipe Santander (1978) Cruelty for Honour, by Juan Ruiz de Alarcón (ca.1621-22). Each play is analyzed according to the theoretical frames that better serve its specific needs and particularities. However, the theories of Giorgio Agamben, Augusto Boal, José Antonio Maravall, Angel Rama, Walter Ong, and especially Bertolt Brecht, form the spinal chord that sustain this study and tie the three chapters to one another. The attention given to each one of these critics and their theories is explained in each chapter’s introduction. As the conclusions show, these plays rely on sensory, linguistic and musical elements to denounce social and political problems of their time, and to try to move their different audiences towards reflection or action, in order to improve the society in which they lived.

As the Enlightenment took hold in Europe, all aspects of eighteenth-century society felt its effects. Musical tastes, caught in this ideological shift, began to move from the more codified complexity of counterpoint toward the more simplified aesthetic known as galant. Johann Sebastian Bach, now in the most mature phase of a musical career rooted in the contrapuntal style, came under growing public criticism from proponents of galant who were increasingly dismissive of counterpoint as an out-dated compositional method. In 1741, during this time of growing censure, Bach created the wedding cantata BWV 210, O holder Tag erwünschte Zeit, based on an earlier cantata but with significant changes that are unique within this oeuvre. Rather than the typical celebratory libretto characteristic of his other wedding cantatas, Bach mounted a strong rhetorical argument in defense of music, deftly combining irony, humour, and pointed barbs to make his point. The rationale for this has not received significant scholarly attention. This dissertation explores the idea that Bach used BWV 210 as a specific personal response to his critics who favoured the changing musical aesthetic of the era, and as a defense of a contrapuntal style cherished by him but no longer valued by many advocates of the galant. This claim is supported through an aggregation of extant research linking the cantata to the circumstances in which it was created. Particular attention is given to the ideological conflict represented in the aesthetic shift of the eighteenth century, and Bach’s reactions evident in written documents, his compositions and in his unique synthesis of compositional styles intersecting the aesthetics of his era. The circumstances under which the cantata was written provide context for the significant libretto revisions undertaken to adapt the cantata from its closest known counterpart, BWV 210a. Finally, Johann Scheibe’s published criticism against Bach is explored as an important flashpoint for Bach’s use of BWV 210 as a musical rebuttal. Not only is a better understanding of a lesser-known cantata achieved, but a glimpse into the mindset of Bach is also realized through the unusually personal response included in BWV 210.

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