Thesis (M.M.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1967. / Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis--Florida State University. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 118-124).

Thesis (M.M.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1967. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

No description available.

Thesis (M.A.)--Eastern Illinois University, 1966. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 96-98).

The lecture recital was given July 18, 1977. The lecture began with the performance of the Three Preludes and a discussion of these final works in relation to the composer's last period of composition which included the Sonata for Piano. After the biographical foundation was laid, the Sonata for Piano was detailed concerning form and compositional techniques. All works were performed from memory. In addition to the lecture recital, three public recitals were performed. The first solo recital, performed on August 11, 1975, consisted of works by Schubert and Liszt-Busoni. The second recital, a chamber recital, performed March 29, 1976, consisted of solo and chamber works of Messiaen. The final solo recital, performed on August 1, 1977, consisted of works by Clementi, Satie, and Rubinstein. All four programs were recorded on magnetic tape and are filed, along with the written version of the lecture recital, as part of the dissertation.

In the Fall of 1919, the Boston Symphony, under Pierre Monteaux, and the Philadelphia Orchestra, led by Stokowski, premiered works cf Charles T. Griffes. The performances met with phenomenal success. A reviewer in the Boston Globe found Griffes' music to exhibit "genuine originality and power of a sort that entitles its composer to be judged by the same standard as men like Ravel, Rachmaninoff and Stravinsky, not by that usually applied to..works by unfamiliar Americans." The following Spring Griffes died at the age of thirty-five. Most sources agree that American composition suffered a great loss in the early death of Charles Griffes. His music has gained critical prestige and has won a small but significant position in the orchestral and solo repertoire in the concert hall as well as in the teaching studio. Griffes' creative life spans the first two decades of the twentieth century. He was a pianist and over half of his compositions were for solo piano. In addition, many of his orchestral works are transcriptions of piano pieces. And yet, except for The White Peacock and the Sonata, his piano works are almost unknown and rarely performed. This study seeks to trace the influences contributing to Griffes' general style, and explore the technical components characteristic of that style as they relate to his piano music. Its purpose is to create an interest in the study and performance of this important source of twentieth century American piano music.

Charles Tomlinson Griffes becomes a remarkable figure in American music when one considers the musical influences which surrounded him. The first of these influences, and the one of longest tenure, was that of his piano teacher, a Miss Mary Selena Broughton. An eccentric woman and, considering the times, an extremely unorthodox teacher, she instructed Griffes in piano for twelve years. In addition to giving him thorough technical training and sound musicianship, she allowed his imagination free rein. This freedom of expression was to be the biggest factor in the next and last phase of his musical training - the four years of study in Germany. In the last decade of two of the 19th century and on into the first two of the 20th, Germany held the position as the foremost center for music education. That Griffes should choose to study there was only natural; that he should be able to throw off the powerful influences of Wagner and Strauss was, however, remarkable. For most of the pilgrims to Germany the effect was disastrous, as they were never able to free themselves from the german influences. Griffes was one of the fortunate few who, having been exposed to a rigorous and disciplined training in the groundwork of music, had the resilience to outgrow it. During his stay in Germany, under the tutelage of such an eminent man as Humperdinck (one of Griffes’ several teachers), he wrote music which was typical academic but which showed the progress of his craftsmanship. It seems almost as if he were biding his time until he could get back to Americana and away from the German influence, but appreciating all the while the excellent instruction that he was receiving. All his compositions were derivative in this period. He even used foreign language texts for his songs. Some of the German songs are worth some attention as they have been looked upon as being as good as those of “the masters of song”, Brahms and Strauss. Griffes assimilated their technique to a remarkable degree. One of the last of this German group, “Auf geheimem Waldespfade”, shows a definite trend toward Impressionism, which was then at its zenith. Strangely enough, Griffes’ work in the Impressionistic medium was a fairly independent parallel to that of Debussy and Ravel and the others in France, as he had had no instruction in it, nor had heard much of it in Germany. His study and use of Oriental scales and melodies contributed to the similarity which his music had with that of the Impressionists.