Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959) is regarded as the composer of highest distinction in twentieth-century Brazilian music. His musical compositions, representing virtually every musical genre, reflect his concerted effort toward developing a nationalistic Brazilian style. While the importance of this composer's ouvre and his contribution to a national Brazilian style is well established, particularly with regard to his instrumental works, his sacred choral compositions are generally considered to be peripheral in his overall compositional productivity. Although his major sacred choral works such as Bendita Sabedoria, Missa Sad Sebastian, and Magni scat Alleluia are programmed occasionally, the smaller sacred choral pieces found in his Musica Sacra collection remain less well-known.Musica Sacra, initially published by Vincente Vitale in 1951-52, is an out-of-print collection of twenty-three unaccompanied motet-style pieces, composed throughout Villa-Lobos's lifetime. Limited availability to many of these pieces has resulted in a paucity of programming of this music by choral conductors, as well as a lack of understanding of its place in his collected works.This study provides an updated and corrected performance edition of selected choral pieces from Musica Sacra, providing choral conductors with appropriately edited material for concert programming. It includes historical background, editorial notes, and performance notes to provide context and clarity.In this study, I have compared seventeen pieces from the original Vitale edition with manuscripts provided by the Museu Villa-Lobo, in an effort to represent the composer's musical intent in a manner accessible to the contemporary choral conductor. I have alsoidentified and discussed salient musical traits in this music, exemplifying not only the Spanish Renaissance influence as it existed in the Brazilian society during Villa-Lobos's lifetime, but more broadly reflecting, through its diverse assortment of musical features, an expression of the overall religious syncretism in Brazil at the time.Within the sacred choral framework of Musica Sacra, one discovers the composer's stylized representation of Brazilian musical eclecticism. This is exhibited through elements of musical spontaneity, Brazilian multi-cultural ethnicity, nationalism, European impressionism, Renaissance imitation, and twentieth-century harmonic dissonance. These features represent Villa-Lobos's synthesis of style that, according to Latin American music scholar, Gerard Behague, illuminates "Brazil's Musical Soul." / School of Music

This study is a practical tool for all conductors of women’s voices, in the form of an annotated and indexed bibliography of repertoire. This resource will specifically present literature by women composers, with texts by women authors, written intentionally for women’s choral ensembles. I invite the reader to become an informed consumer of music by and for women. We owe it to our women performers to find works that meet the collective musical, social, intellectual, spiritual, and emotional needs of the ensemble members. Making music is a personal and emotional experience, thus, our performers deserve to sing music that represents, in part, what they believe in, and embodies who they are. This document contains annotated entries for more than 150 musical compositions of choral music for women’s voices. Each annotation is intended to inform and educate readers as to the specific characteristics of a given piece. Annotation entries include: title of work, composer name and dates, author name and dates, date of the composition, voicing, accompaniment, duration, subject matter, and publisher’s information, as well as detailed commentary related to the textual and musical aspects of the piece. All compositions are also given ratings for level of difficulty in each of six categories: Range and Tessitura, Vocal line and Melody, Harmony, Rhythm and Meter, Text setting and Language, and Expression. By the very nature of this topic, a fully comprehensive list of all available choral repertoire written by women for women will never truly exist. It will always be a work in progress. However, it is my hope that the information contained within this study will assist conductors of women’s choral ensembles in the continuing search for material that best suits the voices and interests of their singers. Women’s ensemble conductors must be familiar with the literature in the ‘by women, for women’ category, so that each individual may make an informed choice regarding repertoire for his or her own ensemble. The literal and figurative voices of women deserve to be heard. As conductors of women’s choral ensembles, it is our responsibility to let those voices sing. / School of Music

The object of this thesis is to lay open a repertory of music which has long been ignored, the music for two and more choirs composed by Roman composers of the generation of Palestrina and his immediate successors. Polychoral music is taken to mean music in which two or more independent and consistent groups of voices take part, singing separately and together; the parts should remain independent in tuttl sections, with the possible exception of the bass parts. By this definition, the first real polychoral music to be published in Rome was that by Giovanni P. da Palestrina in his Motettorum liber secundus of 1575. This is taken as the starting point for this study. Music which might have influenced Roman composers is examined, as well as eight-voice music by Roman composers which is not polychoral according to the above criteria. The development of polychoral music in the city is then traced through the reigns of the various popes from Gregory XIII to Paul V, whose death in 1621 is taken as a convenient place to end the study. Particular emphasis is laid on structural and textural aspects and the way these were adapted by successive composers. The ground for the Roman concerts to style was laid in the early experiments by composers such as Giovanni Animuccia, Palestrina and Tomas Luis de Victoria; this is traced through what is termed the 'fragmented' style of the last two decades of the sixteenth century to the full flowering of the large-scale concerts to motet after 1605. The music is studied in the context of the institutions for which it was written. The archives of these Institutions have been researched for information on performance practice, which is presented here. The broader cultural, social and religious background which spawned the idiom is also examined and polychoral music related both to the new propagandist attitude of church leaders from Gregory XIII onwards, and to a general expansion in musical activity in the city of Rome through the period under investigation. The various printed and manuscript sources for this music have been researched and the resulting catalogue of pieces by fifty or so composers who worked in the city is presented. A more detailed examination is carried out of the primary manuscript sources, from which valuable information on various aspects of the music can be obtained.

This portfolio of compositions and exegesis submitted for the degree of Master of Music in Composition, at the Elder Conservatorium of Music, comprises original creative works supported by a detailed commentary. The creative investigation has focused on ‘Composing for a Choral Spectrum.’ This was investigated through practical experiments in choral composition, designed to test the compositional limitations of the choral spectrum, and resulted in a portfolio of choral works. The portfolio includes: simple choral works for young children in one part; choral works for children in two parts; choral works for children in three parts; a choral work for teenage treble voices; a multimedia choral work for boys with changing voices with a moving image DVD; a choral work for male voices; choral works for adult female voices; a complex choral work for adult choirs of a professional standard; and a larger scale choral and orchestral work. The exegesis provides a commentary on the genesis, composition processes, limitations and solutions, for each original work included in the portfolio. / http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1345050 / Thesis (M.Mus.) -- University of Adelaide, Elder Conservatorium of Music, 2008

Thesis (D. M. A.)--University of Oregon, 2003. / Sacred oratorio for female narrator, 4 solo female voices, SA chorus, and chamber orchestra. Libretto compiled from biblical sources and the writings of Makeda, Queen of Sheba, Mechthild of Magdeburg, and Hildegard of Bingen. Includes libretto, p. 309-313. Includes vita and abstract. Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Teachers College, Columbia University, 1968. / Typescript; issued also on microfilm. Sponsor: Frederick D. Mayer. Dissertation Committee: Charles Walton, Lawrence Taylor, . Appendix A: Musical Scores of the A Cappella Choral Music for mixed voices of Arnold Schoenberg. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Th. M.)--Dallas Theological Seminary, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references(leaves [121]-123).

Thesis (M. Mus.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1959. / For varying combinations of soloists and chorus (mixed, women's, men's, unison, or children's voices), unaccompanied or with organ (and, in part, trumpet). Texts primarily from the Bible (Revised Standard Version). Holograph. Includes pref. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record.

Thesis (Th. M.)--Dallas Theological Seminary, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references(leaves [121]-123).

The Prayer of Daniel is a chamber piece in the style of an oratorio for vocal bass-baritone soloist, flute doubling on alto flute, B flat clarinet doubling on bass clarinet, violin, cello, piano, percussion on vibraphone and marimba, doumbek (a middle eastern drum), and men's chorus (TTBB). The approximate duration is thirty minutes. The text comes from the Old Testament book of Daniel, Chapter 9 verses 4 through 19. In these passages the prophet Daniel rends from his heart a prayer of repentance, mercy and forgiveness on the behalf of a fallen nation. The harmonic language of the composition combines both classical contemporary and jazz sonorities. The rhythmic language is drawn from the meter of the text, and is used to underscore the emotion of the prayer. These elements combine to form a rich music experience that conveys the penitent heart of the prophet Daniel.