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Personnage musical parfaitement identifié aujourd'hui, le chef d'orchestre apparaît au début du XIXe siècle dans le contexte d'un bouleversement du paysage symphonique (accroissement des effectifs de l'orchestre, virtuosité nouvelle des instrumentistes, œuvres à l'orchestration plus élaborée et exigeante). Issu des formes de direction multiples du XVIIIe siècle, le chef prend peu à peu son autonomie par rapport à la collectivité orchestrale, à l'instrumentiste et au compositeur. Doté d'une formation très complète, de dons particuliers, d'une autorité et d'un magnétisme hors du commun, il s'impose comme une figure centale de la musique, tandis que son métier, aux procédures de plus en plus précises, se trouve progressivement formalisé dans une littérature théorique spécifique (Fétis, Kastner, Berlioz, Deldevez). A l'instar du violoniste jouant son violon, le chef « joue de l’orchestre » (selon l'expression de Berlioz), et en cela fonde cet orchestre comme une entité réifiée. Seul entre tous après le créateur à accéder au détail et à la totalité de l'œuvre, il la façonne et la résume dans sa pantomime expressive, point de mire du regard des musiciens mais également du public, incarnation gestuelle et spatiale du sens de la musique - surtout lorsqu'elle est purement instrumentale. De ces phénomènes découle son affirmation comme figure d'un héros en musique : le chef d'orchestre, par qui l'œuvre est révélée au monde, est devenu le porte-parole voire même l'alter ego du compositeur, à la fois responsable de l'exécution dans ce qu'elle a de plus concret et dialoguant avec le sublime, dont il se fait le médiateur. Paris est l'un des creusets de ces évolutions, en particulier à travers la personnalité de François-Antoine Habeneck (1781-1849). Mieux que quiconque en France, et peut-être en Europe, Habeneck incarne le premier « chef d'orchestre » au sens moderne, exclusivement dévolu à sa tâche d'exécutant ; il forge ainsi sa propre personnalité musicale en même temps que la stature d'un nouveau type de musicien. Dans les cinq décennies qui suivent ses débuts en 1803 à la tête de l'orchestre d'élèves du Conservatoire, Habeneck devient l'un des acteurs centraux de la vie symphonique française. Il dirige l'orchestre de l'Opéra d'une main de fer, créant les partitions des maîtres du grand opéra (Auber, Rossini, Meyerbeer, Halévy), officie dans maints « concerts-monstres » (ces événements rituels qui consacrent la grandeur et la puissance du chef), et fonde en 1828 l'orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire. Avec cette phalange, glorieuse s'il en fut, Habeneck révèle l'œuvre de Beethoven à la France. Dans la fameuse salle de la rue Bergère, lieu d'une écoute et d'une conception changées de la musique, de nouveaux liens s'instaurent entre le chef, son orchestre, les œuvres et leur public - avec les symphonies du Maître de Bonn pour évangile et Habeneck comme grand-prêtre. / Although an identified musical figure today, the orchestral conductor appeared at the dawn of the 19th c. in the context of major upheavals in the symphonic world. A product of the 18th c.'s conducting modes, the conductor gradually acquired autonomy in relation to the orchestra, the instrumentalists and the composer. He emerged as a central figure in music-making, whilst the rules of his profession were documented in a theoretical literature. Like the violonist playing his violin, the conductor "plays the orchestra", and as such creates the orchestra as an entity. The sole person other than the composer to confront the detail and the totality of a work, he resumes it through his expressive pantomime, the focal point of musicians' and audience's gaze alike, the gestural incarnation of the music's meaning. The conductor has become the spokesman and the very "alter ego" of the composer, both responsible for the work's performance, in concrete terms, and dialoguing with the sublime. Paris is a crucible of these transformations, in particular through F.-A. Habeneck. The first in Europe, Habeneck embodies the modern "orchestral conductor", devoted exclusively to his role as performer. Following his debut at the head of the students of the Conservatoire, he directed the Opera orchestra with supreme control, officiating at any number of "concert-monstres" and foundig the "Societé des Concerts du Conservatoire". In the rue Bergère's auditorium, where the very way music was listened to and apprehended was to change, new links were established between the conductor, his orchestra, works and their audiences - with the symphonies of Beethoven for gospel and Habeneck for high priest.

Master of Music / Department of Music / Slawomir Dobrzanski / This Master's report encompasses analysis of the four works performed on November 14th, 2007 for the author's Master's recital. The analysis was based on the author's experience with the pieces. Many sources were utilized to discuss composers' biographies and background information of the works. The compositions are Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata in F major, Op.10, Franz Schubert's Sonata in A major, D. 664, Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin's Nocturne in F sharp major, Op. 15, and Sergei Prokofiev's Piano Sonata No.3 in A minor.

Master of Music / Department of Music / David A. Littrell / This document contains an overview of the music performed in my graduate cello recital. Included is biographical information about the composers, historical background, theoretical analysis, stylistic and technical considerations. The recital was given at 5:45 p.m., April 28, 2008, in All Faiths Chapel, Kansas State University with pianist William Wingfield. Program: Sonata in F Major for Piano and Violoncello, Op. 5, No. 1, by Ludwig van Beethoven, Concerto in B-flat Major for Cello and Piano, by Luigi Boccherini, ed. by Friedrich Grützmacher, and Suite No. 3 for Unaccompanied Cello in C major by Johann Sebastian Bach. Also included is an in-depth look at the Suite for Unaccompanied Cello in C-sharp Minor, which was performed by David Littrell at a recital given at 5:45 p.m., May 6, 2008 in All Faiths Chapel, Kansas State University. This recital featured works by Michael V. Inman. Program: Short Pieces for Trumpet, Bass and Percussion, Elegie for Anyone, Matrix I, and Suite for Unaccompanied Cello in C-sharp Minor.

The numerous piano figurations, exercises and experimental ideas that are found throughout the leaves of Beethoven’s sketchbooks remain a largely unexplored area within the field of Beethoven sketch-scholarship. Their existence is commonly known, but the purpose for which they served the composer has not been explored fully. Moreover, there has been little attempt to catalogue these ideas in order to make them more accessible and approachable. This study is divided into two parts. Part one provides the biographical context in which the subsequent analysis of the figurations is based. It presents an assessment of Beethoven as a student, performer and teacher by evaluating contemporary sources and including a discussion on performance anxiety. This evidence is used to demonstrate that Beethoven could be prone to lapses in technique; that he undertook his studies with complete dedication; and that he also created exercises for some of his pupils, which supports the notion that a number of the figurations could have been designed as piano exercises. Part two analyses the figurations, classifying them by type and grouping them into themes related to specific areas of piano technique. The analysis establishes that many of the figurations are highly inventive; that occasionally developments can be traced (in particular the evolution of the ‘Beethoven’ trill); and that in many cases there are parallels with Beethoven’s published works for piano, which proves that a single classification for the figurations is often problematic. The analysis further reveals that a significant number of the figurations were written in 1793 and, in conjunction with the earlier biographical study, strongly suggests that Beethoven’s move to Vienna was a major impetus for their creation. Volume two presents a separate catalogue of the transcribed piano figurations, some of which are previously unknown. Within the catalogue, the figurations are arranged by type to correspond with the categories discussed in the analysis and ordered chronologically to enable them to be examined alongside the accompanying text.

Beethoven’s vocal works are often neglected or overshadowed as a result of his prominent involvement with large-scale instrumental genres such as sonata, symphony, or string quartet. Nevertheless, he sustained throughout his life a significant interest in literature and poetry; his personal library, as well as his letters, Tagebuch, and conversation books all document this by way of numerous direct quotations from—and indirect references to—the literary materials that interested him. The numerous vocal works he produced between 1783 and 1826 are one relevant manifestation of this interest and engagement with words. Beethoven produced a significant body of vocal works, the majority of which have not received the same intensity of analytical treatment as the instrumental works. Specifically, this study examines the relationship between words and music in the solo songs and other vocal works of Beethoven. The points of intersection between literary and musical expression are evaluated within four aspects of text setting: structure, rhythm, meaning, and narrative. Firstly, elements of derivation and deviation are explored to determine the diverse ways that he deliberately constructed musical structures in response to the poetic (and semantic) structures of each source text. Secondly, and by extension, rhythm and metre—and varying degrees of derivation, deviation, and manipulation—are assessed so as to demonstrate how these works illustrate Beethoven’s awareness of the expressive possibilities for adhering to or altering the relationship between poetic and musical metre. Thirdly, various types of musical rhetoric—including Beethoven’s implementation of the conventions for affective tonality, as well as the reliance on both conventional and uniquely-Beethovenian depictive idioms and gestures—illustrate his response to various levels of semantic content. Fourthly, his response to individual (though interrelated) aspects of narrative in his selected texts are evaluated. Drawing concepts from key figures of narrative theory—including Gérard Genette, Roland Barthes, Mieke Bal, and others—this study assesses the narrative content in selected texts as a means by which to gauge Beethoven’s compositional response to aspects of temporality, focalisation, spatiality, and so forth, both individually and in combination. Ultimately, this study demonstrates that—contrary to frequently voiced opinions—Beethoven responded quite closely and deliberately to the expressive implications of his selected texts, while aspects of poetic and musical structure, rhythm, syntax, imagery, and layers of meaning coalesce within complex narrative processes. Beethoven was aware of the inherent musicality of poetic texts and the significance of forging a close compositional relationship between words and music; thus he consistently demonstrated in composing these works his ideology that within vocal works ‘words and music form a unit’.

The multi-movement structures of Beethoven’s instrumental works include some of the most obvious manifestations of his originality as a composer. His very first Viennese publications—the Piano Trios op. 1 and the Piano Sonatas op. 2—adopt the four-movement cycle that had previously been associated primarily with the symphony. And in his last five string quartets he transformed the conventional multi-movement cycles almost beyond recognition, particularly in the seven-movement Quartet op. 131, in which each movement runs directly into the next. This study investigates Beethoven’s compositional approach to multi-movement structure, with the aim of gaining a better understanding of the underlying principles that influenced his musical decisions. Particular attention is given to an aspect of his sketching process that has received relatively little scholarly attention: multi-movement plans. These plans were generally sketched at an early stage in the compositional process, and outline preliminary ideas for the different movements of a work as a whole. Although Lewis Lockwood hypothesised that such plans were particularly frequent amongst Beethoven’s sketches from 1800 to 1804, until now there has never been a detailed study of their role within Beethoven’s sketching process throughout his career. This study reveals that multi-movement plans were a regular feature in sketches for instrumental works from 1800 onwards, and that they served a variety of purposes within the compositional process. Multi-movement plans from all stages of Beethoven’s compositional career are transcribed and examined for what they can reveal about his conception of multi-movement structures.

Beethoven is generally acknowledged to be the most important composer of the 19th century. However, many critics and musicologists dismiss Beethoven's Lieder as being of less musical value and sophistication than his more instrumentally conceived late vocal writings. The true musical sophistication of Beethoven's Lieder can be discovered by a careful study of the harmonic structure and the relationship between the vocal and the piano part in Beethoven's Lieder. In discussing Beethoven's Lieder style based on analysis, a number of aspects shall be examined: (1) the harmonic idiom and key relationships; (2) the role of the piano; and (3) other stylistic features.

Johann Nepomuk Hummel was a noted Austrian composer and piano virtuoso who not only wrote substantially for the instrument, but also transcribed a series of important orchestral pieces. Among them are two transcriptions of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 36- the first a version for piano solo and the second a work for piano quartet, with flute substituting for the traditional viola part. This study will examine Hummel’s treatment of the symphony in both transcriptions, looking at a variety of pianistic devices in the solo piano version and his particular instrumentation choices in the quartet version. Each of these transcriptions can serve a particular purpose for performers. The solo piano version is an obvious virtuoso vehicle, whereas the quartet version can be a refreshing program alternative in a piano quartet concert.

Syftet med denna studie är att formulera ny kunskap om analysens betydelse, till nytta för egen lärandeprocess. Första satsen ur Beethovens sjunde pianosonat står i fokus, där jag undersöker hur ett tvådelat analysverktyg utvecklar egen musikalisk gestaltning vid instrumentet; analys avdels notbild, dels en jämförande analys av fem olika inspelningar med erkända pianister. Urvalet inspelningar är baserat på variation i fråga om karaktär och inspelningsår, för att söka nå en vid syn på hur Beethovens sats interpreterats genom de senaste 75 åren. Analysen av notbild består av ackord- och funktionsanalys samt en beskrivning av satsens sonatform, vidare hur teman och motiv används i musiken. Den jämförande analysen utgörs av en studie utvalda takter ur olika delar av satsen, med fokus på fyra parametrar: tempo, rubato, artikulation och dynamik. Trots att jag inte är helt nöjd med min inspelning, menar jag att arbetets helhet ändå uppfyller uppsatsens syfte. Studiens resultat visar att analysen av notbild samt den efterföljande jämförande analysen, hjälper mig få en mångfacetterad syn på satsen, såväl avseende helheten som på detaljnivå. Den kontrasterande karaktären av de valda interpreternas ljuddokument, och deras olika förhållningssätt till musiken, ger mig ett brett spektrum av intryck och uttryck, från vilka jag kan hämta inspiration i egen lärandeprocess. För ännu bättre förståelse av denna musik, skriven för tidigare klaverinstrument än en modern konsertflygel, identifierar jag ett nödvändigt behov av att själv använda ett fortepiano vid musikalisk gestaltning av Beethovens tidiga pianomusik. Vid sådant instrument kan lärandeprocessen på ett än mer naturligt sätt ta sin utgångspunkt i uppförandepraxis, som instrumentet ger tekniska och klingande förutsättningar till. Själva instrumentet blir en pedagog. Inriktningen på mina stundande master-studier klarnar!