The submission focuses on the performance of violin works that incorporate elements of folk music. It investigates some of the ways in which traditional folk melodies are utilised in violin repertoire and considers the implications for performance. It recognises that when performing music inspired by folk idioms the classical violinist often needs to adopt a different set of technical and musical objectives relevant to the cultural origin of the work. The submission takes the form of two CD recordings with a supporting exegesis. The exegesis discusses those aspects of the performances that stem from the cultural traditions to which the repertoire is related. Due to the broad nature of this topic my investigation was confined to selected works that stemmed from English and Hungarian traditional music. The exegesis examines the relevance of the research and the application of these discoveries in performance. The main focus is the incorporation of traditional Hungarian characteristics in the performance of Bartók’s Rhapsody No 2 for Violin and Piano, and Kodály’s Duo for Violin and Violoncello, Op 7. Discussion then moves to Vaughan Williams’s The Lark Ascending and the differences required to recreate the sound of the traditional English fiddler. / Thesis (M.Mus.) -- University of Adelaide, Elder Conservatorium of Music, 2007

Hungarian pianist, composer, conductor, teacher and administrator, Ernst von Dohnányi (Ernö Dohnányi in Hungarian), was considered one of the most versatile musicians and the first architect of Hungary's musical culture in the late nineteenth and early twentieth-century. Dohnányi composed the Four Rhapsodies, op. 11, between 1902 and 1903, and among his many piano compositions, op. 11 are regarded as some of his most substantial works. Without directly imitating the earlier works of Liszt and Brahms, Dohnányi contributed to the rhapsody tradition with op. 11 by using his own unique stylistic compositional elements in the textural and formal structure. Texture and form are the most indicative characteristics of his rhapsodic language because of the improvisational nature that permeates his compositional style in the rhapsodies. In this dissertation the works are examined from within its textural and formal structure. Within texture, rhythm and accompanimental figurations are examined. Each rhapsody's structural organization, including references to eighteenth-century forms, and the cyclical elements in the work is analyzed. Background information on Dohnányi and a brief history of the rhapsody in the 19th century is also included.

Giessen, Univ., Diss., 2003