Since the late seventeenth century, Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707) has been acknowledged as one of the great organists and composers of the North German tradition. Nowadays, his free organ preludes are considered both as examples of the Stylus Phantasticus, and also as the repertoire in which he developed most of his innovations. My goal is to analyze these works, interpreting the preludes' pitch and textural organization in terms of seventeenth-century music theory, in order to incorporate an awareness of the organist's perspective, and to further the appreciation of Buxtehude's contributions to the organ tradition of his time. Most of the analyses of the preludes written during the past 34 years have focused on explicating their texture, and pitch organization in terms of eighteenth-century tonality as well as the seventeenth-century tradition of musical rhetoric. In contrast, William Porter (1986) and Geoffrey Webber (2007) have analyzed the preludes in terms of a theoretical system contemporary to Buxtehude: the psalm-tone tonalities. Their analyses also draw on Harold Powers's theory (1981) regarding the transition from psalm tones to keys, which proposes an alternative system of church tones based on the organ practice of the early seventeenth century. In my analysis of Buxtehude's free organ preludes I aim to build on these insights and study the musical content in contemporary terms, by integrating a church-tone analysis of the pitch organization with a rhetorical analysis of the texture. My findings suggest an awareness of the church tones as an organizing factor in the preludes' compositional process.

An examination of the iconography (primarily ceiling fresco) in the library hall in the German monastery of Schussenried. Thesis deals with the historical context surrounding the creation of this space and how the depicted scenes reflect both the influences of the Counter Reformation and Enlightenment.

By the eighteenth century, the business of music publishing in Europe had exploded. Europe had become more culturally international, and interest in purchasing and performing music written by foreign composers was in vogue. Unfortunately laws governing copyright and editing of music were either difficult to enforce or non-existent, and most were not applicable on an international level. Around 1750 music publishers Leclerc and Boivin published an edition of flute sonatas in Paris. This edition was attributed to Georg Friderich Handel, whose work, at the time, was the most sought after in Western Europe. This particular collection is identical to an earlier edition published in 1729 in Hamburg, Germany by an unknown German composer, Johann Christoph Schultze. This paper is the first modern critical edition of Schultze’s Six Sonate â Doi Flauti Traversi Senza Basso Con una Ciacconna tra mischiata di doi Canoni nella medesima nascosti (Six Sonatas for Two Flute without Basso and A Chaconne for Two Equal Voices in Canon) and marks the first time the Chaconne has appeared in modern notation. The edition aims to be as true as possible to the 1729 publication, notes standard performance practices, and answers the question as to why the 1750 edition may have been falsely attributed to Handel.

The author investigates the voice in diverse genres and styles, documenting and interpreting vocal performance through a contextual analysis of specifically chosen repertoire. This repertoire is drawn from collaboration with two musical groups, the Renaissance Players and Coda and from the author's artistic direction and presentation of four diverse recitals: American Songs, Italian Baroque, American Folk and Theatre and Nostalgia. Each recital is treated as a separate case study, in which the process of selecting, rehearsing and performing the repertoire is closely examined. Recordings and selected examples of scores are included to illustrate the findings. The discussion concludes with a synthesis of context and process within the framework of a global perspective celebrating diversity. / Master of Arts (Hons)

Les romans fantastiques de Marcel Brion sont aujourd'hui peu lus. Cet auteur a été globalement peu étudié par les universitaires français, peu pris en compte par les théoriciens du fantastique, ce qui place l'oeuvre en situation de marginalité. Cela tient peut-être à ce que Liliane Brion-Guerry appelle les " qualités particulières " du fantastique brionien. Quelles sont les caractéristiques de ce fantastique ? Ce travail a pour but d'étudier comment Marcel Brion, dans ses romans, écrits entre 1929 et 1984, interroge le réel, installe un" autre côté", propose au lecteur d'abandonner les conceptions habituelles et de se mettre à la recherches des dimensions cachées de 1 'homme et du monde. Proche des écrivains pour lesquels " la dimension métaphysique est englobée dans l'expérience fantastique ", Marcel Brion place ses personnages dans le jeu des métamorphoses et du voyage initiatique, les fait évoluer dans un univers où s'impose la mythologie des labyrinthes intérieurs et extérieurs. Dans les romans où l'esthétique prend une place considérable, se manifeste un esprit particulier que le lecteur peut situer sur les frontières du baroque et du romantisme, ces deux catégories n'étant pas prises dans leur dimension historique mais révélatrices d'un état de la conscience humaine.

Ce travail met en relief une relecture du Baroque, en particulier du courant culterano, qui a eu lieu au Mexique au début du 20e siècle. La génération d'écrivains réunis autour de la revue Contemporaneos joue un rôle central dans un mouvement de fond de récupération du lien avec la tradition de la Nouvelle Espagne, dont notamment la figure centrale de Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. Cette vision ample de l'histoire de la littérature du Mexique se centre plus précisément sur le rôle de deux poèmes, qui constituent des paradigmes des enjeux qu'un tel passage culturel implique, "Muerte sin fin" de José Gorostiza et "Primero Sueno" de Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz.

Marc-Antoine Charpentier's setting of the Messe pour Monsieur Mauroy is the only composition in his oeuvre which was dedicated to a particular person. Each of Charpentier's twelve mass settings is unique; this mass setting is his longest at over 1,500 measures. Charpentier masses are diverse: one composition for women's voices, a mass for instruments only, a Christmas mass, as well as settings of the Requiem text. This document traces the history of the missa concertata up until the time of Charpentier. It examines the intricacies of Charpentier's compositional process: form, melody, harmony, and self-borrowing. This paper also analyzes recent findings as to the pronunciation of Latin in France during this time period. It also explores the correlations between the Mass and oration - the understanding and implementation of rhetoric. Musical examples from the Mass, period treatises, and phonetic transcriptions of French-Latin are a part of this document.

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“Urban Cartographies: The Spanish Baroque City and the Contemporary Latin American City” examines baroque and postmodern narratives through the representation of urban life. This study argues that the baroque reflects the crisis posed by the encounter with the other in the new continent of America, while the postmodern is related to a crisis of knowledge. Selected narrative texts illustrate the main literary tendencies of these two periods and demonstrate similarities in the responses of literary characters to their urban settings. The sense of crisis is both a central literary theme and a response to the historical conditions of urban life during the two periods. Even though the concept of crisis appears to involve a unique experience, the parallels between the two periods suggest that the postmodern crisis is not unique. The social and cultural responses of literary characters to the sense of crisis are similar in both periods. Postmodern social conditions of urban existence are seen as repetitions of the patterns of the baroque. This observation emphasizes literary traditions; parallels and differences between baroque and postmodern texts attest to the idea that all literature revisits previous literary forms through the dynamics of intertextuality. Another focus is the value of the concept of mapping, as a literary theme and a personal practice. As a means for discovering of urban spaces and of defining the human subject mapping suggests that in times of crisis subjects produce parallel systems to control their circumstances. Lastly, this work discusses an experimental literature generated in response to urban disorder, in which disruption and chaos lead to new narrative forms. Ultimately, picaresque and postmodern narratives both respond to complex urban spaces through forms that innovate and integrate new cultural and literary elements.

“Urban Cartographies: The Spanish Baroque City and the Contemporary Latin American City” examines baroque and postmodern narratives through the representation of urban life. This study argues that the baroque reflects the crisis posed by the encounter with the other in the new continent of America, while the postmodern is related to a crisis of knowledge. Selected narrative texts illustrate the main literary tendencies of these two periods and demonstrate similarities in the responses of literary characters to their urban settings. The sense of crisis is both a central literary theme and a response to the historical conditions of urban life during the two periods. Even though the concept of crisis appears to involve a unique experience, the parallels between the two periods suggest that the postmodern crisis is not unique. The social and cultural responses of literary characters to the sense of crisis are similar in both periods. Postmodern social conditions of urban existence are seen as repetitions of the patterns of the baroque. This observation emphasizes literary traditions; parallels and differences between baroque and postmodern texts attest to the idea that all literature revisits previous literary forms through the dynamics of intertextuality. Another focus is the value of the concept of mapping, as a literary theme and a personal practice. As a means for discovering of urban spaces and of defining the human subject mapping suggests that in times of crisis subjects produce parallel systems to control their circumstances. Lastly, this work discusses an experimental literature generated in response to urban disorder, in which disruption and chaos lead to new narrative forms. Ultimately, picaresque and postmodern narratives both respond to complex urban spaces through forms that innovate and integrate new cultural and literary elements.