Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / The sublime represented the height of musical achievement in mid-eighteenth-century England. It stretched the imagination and overwhelmed the mind with astonishing depictions, shocking imagery, and evocations of the infinite. Yet sweeping applications of the term sublime thwarted attempts at a logical and consistent definition in the eighteenth century and continue to discourage modern scholarly inquiries into this marker of musical excellence. This dissertation redresses the matter by examining the sublime in four oratorios composed by George Frideric Handel and premiered in the mid-1740s: Samson (1743), Semele (1744), Belshazzar (1745), and Judas Maccaboeus (1747). I correlate musical examples regarded as sublime with the contemporary usage of the term drawn from a survey of poems, novels, treatises, periodicals, literary and musical criticism, correspondence, and other primary sources. The image that emerges reveals that Handel, his librettists, and his audiences frequently agreed on what constituted the sublime, and even distinguished among classes of sublimity. I identify four sublime types--rhetorical, religious, choral, and ineffable--and dedicate a chapter to each. Handel and his librettists employed a range of literary and musical devices to elicit praise for the sublime quality of the oratorios. Librettists altered literary models through spotlighting astonishing and shocking passages, excising irrelevant descriptions, and modifying stage directions and scene descriptions. They also added content when source texts lacked sufficient sublimity, interpolating selections from other works and introducing original material. Autograph scores and revisions reveal that Handel responded to their adaptations. His repertoire of sublime gestures comprises frenetic passagework, choral outbursts, martial themes, and an array of melodic, rhythmic, harmonic, textural, and timbral devices. In sum, this dissertation illuminates the art of adapting literary content for oratorio setting. It provides a fuller perspective of Handel's compositional style, recasting the composer as a figure attuned to the sublime potential of both music and literature, and reveals the composer's coherent (albeit wide-ranging) conception of the musical sublime. More broadly, the project elucidates the sublime in its formative age, when it assumed a central place within musical aesthetics and fortified an oratorio performance tradition that continues today. / 2031-01-01

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität Hamburg.

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität zu Köln. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 247-266) and index.

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität zu Köln. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 247-266) and index.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / The dissertation examines adaptations of Shakespearean plays in the operatic libretti of Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901), who dominated Italian opera in the second half of the nineteenth century. Although Verdi relied on the assistance of librettists with all his operas, he maintained scrupulous control over the textual details. The primary focus is on the triangle formed by Shakespeare, Verdi, and the librettist with considered attention to the ways in which a dramatic crux, or challenge, will both differ from and be cognate with an operatic crux. The monograph explores original Shakespearean sources, literary and musicological criticism, and the impact of historical circumstances on the genesis of Verdi's Shakespearean libretti. A brief biographical account of the composer is followed by a synopsis of the development of opera and an overview of the role of the librettist. It then addresses the distinguishing features of Shakespeare's writing that need to be considered when assessing adaptations of his plays into libretti. The second, third, and fourth parts of the study focus respectively on the three operas: Macbeth (1847) written with librettist Francesco Piave, Otello (1887), and Falstaff (1893), the latter two written with Arrigo Boito. Additional research includes new evidence regarding Verdi's unfinished Re Lear. The three complete operas are examined in close textual comparison with their original sources. Particular attention is given to the translations used in the libretti; textual and plot conformity; replication of rhyme and meter; diction and syntax; character portrayal and replication; and distinctions between dramatic and operatic settings. The study also compares different editions of the plays upon which the operas were based, as well as various editions of correspondence. The conclusion assesses Verdi's contribution to Shakespearean adaptation and the subsequent implications for the task of the librettist in creating a quality text that enhances, rather than detracts from, the composer's effort. / 2031-01-02

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität, Tübingen, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 547-567) and index.

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität, Tübingen, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 547-567) and index.