Not available / text

No abstract available. / Thesis (M.Mus.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1982.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, Los Angeles, 1997. / Thesis prepared for Dept. of Musicology. "Bibliography"-leaves 397-422.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1984. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaf 353).

The primary focus of this thesis is a selection of lesser-known Ballets Russes works, which, despite being largely neglected in academic studies, constitute important chapters in the history of the company. The bright light of publicity that shone on Stravinsky - in particular on Le Sacre du Printemps - has cast shadows over other Ballets Russes works, creating an over-simplified historical perspective. This is not to deny that Le Sacre was a watershed moment for the company, and in seeking to enrich our understanding of its place within broader musical trends, the thesis is divided into three sections, representing works composed before, around the same time as, and after, Stravinsky’s notorious masterpiece. Following a brief introduction, and a descriptive chapter outlining Diaghilev’s artistic heritage, as well as Paris before the arrival of his company, the first section deals with the Ballets Russes’s early modus operandi; focusing on Nikolai Tcherepnin’s Le Pavillon d’Armide and Reynaldo Hahn’s Le Dieu bleu. The next explores the Ballets Russes in the wake of Le Sacre du Printemps, using Erik Satie’s Parade as an example of a ballet indebted to Stravinsky’s innovations. However, influence was not entirely a one-way phenomenon, and part of this section also discusses connections between the early Ballets Russes works and Le Sacre. Finally, the season of French ballets performed in 1924 allows me to reflect on the stylistic changes that occurred in the later years of the company, using Darius Milhaud’s Le Train bleu, Georges Auric’s Les Fâcheux, and Francis Poulenc’s Les Biches as examples of the company’s shift to an enterprise that placed greater emphasis on the visual. This research argues that even the lesser-known works, despite their apparent lack of musical innovation, contributed to the more path-breaking scores that have come to command scholarly interest. Moreover, the seasons I have highlighted reflect the changing ideologies of Diaghilev and his company, as it evolved from a Russian troupe inspired by the Mir Iskusstva, to a European artistic collective presenting the ideas of Cocteau and Les Six to Paris. Areas of future research extend from this thesis, as many other lesser-known ballets not encompassed here would clearly benefit from detailed scrutiny. Applying the principles of musical examination here outlined, together with an open-minded approach to new historical perspectives, should further help to redress the balance of scholarly attention that has skewed the overall understanding of the Ballets Russes.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the numerous compositions by Darius Milhaud in which the violin plays an important role. Included here are discussions of the works for violin and piano, violin and orchestra, solo violin, and all chamber music which includes violin for three or fewer players. The eighteen string quartets, for instance, are not dealt with here, as these works alone could be the subject of an entire volume. Also included is a brief biography of the composer and a general discussion of Milhaud's music. The major compositions which include violin are then discussed individually. Resources for this thesis were obtained from materials at the libraries at the University of Arizona, Tucson, and through inter-library loan from the libraries of Mills College, the University of Illinois, the University of Oregon, and the University of Colorado. Other information was gained from Milhaud's autobiography, "Notes Without Music ", and from correspondence with Madeleine Milhaud, the composer's widow.

I detta konstnärliga examensarbete undersöks olika interpretationer av Darius Milhauds Saudades do Brasil i arrangemang för marimba och piano av den finländske slagverkaren Rainer Kuisma (f.1931). Som bakgrund presenteras tonsättaren Darius Milhaud (1892-1974) genom en kortare biografi över hans liv och komponerande. Särskilt intressant är Milhauds inspiration från resor till Brasilien men också hans säregna sätt att komponera polytonalt. Därefter följer en kortfattad historik om arrangören Rainer Kuisma och om slagverksinstrumentet marimba. Syftet med studien var att interpretera Darius Milhauds Saudades do Brasil, i arrangemang av Kuisma. Studiens resultat påvisar att genom tillämpning av olika instuderingsmetoder kan en musiker hitta det optimala sättet att interpretera musik skriven för marimba. Resultatet visar att en enskild interpret med hjälp av dessa metoder får ett starkare och mångsidigare system för att instudera och framföra musik på marimba. Att spela in sig själv ger en övertygelse av vad som fungerar vad gäller interpretation, klubbval och frasering. Det här skulle kunna vara en framkomliga väg för att också interpretera musik skriven för andra instrument och inte bara för marimba. Rainer Kuisma undervisade en tid på Kungl. Musikhögskolan i Stockholm men är kanske framförallt känd som slagverkssolist och kompositör med utgångspunkt i symfoniorkestern i Norrköping där han verkade som stämledare för timpani. Rainer Kuisma fyllde 90 år 2021 och slagverksklassen på KMH gav i samband med detta en hyllningskonsert med mycket av Kuismas musik. Bland annat danssviten Saudades do Brasil. / <p>Ur Der Paukenkrieg - Werner Thärichen</p><p>Saudades do Brasil - Darius Milhaud Arr. Rainer Kuisma</p><p>Spero - Michael Burritt</p><p>Japurá River - Philip Glass Arr. Andreas Nyström</p><p>Medverkande:</p><p>Andreas Nyström - Slagverk</p><p>Simon Landqvist - Slagverk</p><p>Sampo Kuusisto - Slagverk</p><p>Ivar Koij - Slagverk</p><p>Filip Korošec - Slagverk</p><p>Sabina Sehovic - Slagverk</p><p>Elias Gustavsson - Slagverk</p><p>Ludvig Gunne Lindström - Piano</p>

La polytonalité relève d’une démarche compositionnelle dont la définition d’ensemble s’avère extrêmement simple : il y a polytonalité quand deux ou plusieurs tonalités sont entendues simultanément. Mais cette apparente simplicité soulève paradoxalement une masse considérable de problèmes théoriques et analytiques, car cette forme d’écriture musicale, l’une des plus fluctuantes de l’harmonie contemporaine, ne permet précisément pas « d’entendre » deux tonalités simultanément de manière systématique. Cette thèse tente de dissiper un certain nombre de brouillards qui flottent depuis toujours autour de la polytonalité, d’un point de vue théorique et analytique tout d’abord, en proposant de refonder la théorie polytonale et en mettant en place une méthode analytique spécifique à cette forme d’écriture. D’un point de vue historique, cette thèse tente de dresser la filiation authentique de la polytonalité et de comprendre quelles sont les facteurs ayant entraînés son expansion et son déclin. Le sujet étant très vaste, de nombreuses études existent, offrant des perspectives très diverses sur ce phénomène complexe, mais peut-être qu’aucune n’avait jamais réellement tenté d’embrasser le sujet dans son intégralité. / Polytonality depends of a compositional approach which the definition of turns out extremely simple: there is polytonality when two or several keys are simultaneously heard. This visible simplicity creates paradoxically a considerable mass of theoretical and analytical problems, because this musical writing, one of the most fluctuating of the contemporary harmony, does not exactly allow "to hear" two keys simultaneously in a systematic way. This thesis tries to dissipate fogs which float for a long time around polytonality: from a theoretical and analytical point of view first of all, by suggesting re-establishing polytonal theory and by setting up a specific analytical method. From a historic point of view, this thesis tries to find the authentic origins of polytonality and to understand what are factors having pulled its expansion and its decline. Numerous studies about polytonality exist, offering very different perspectives on this complex phenomenon, but maybe no one had tried to embrace the subject in its entirety.

This dissertation illuminates the funding contexts that structured art music composition in interwar France. While music historiography tends to focus solely on patronage - an ill-defined and limited category - as the paradigmatic economy within which pre-paid composition takes place, I bring patronage into conversation with other, similarly enabling funding sources: publishing, radio, film, orchestras, and ballet companies. Through a series of case studies of the individuals, institutions, and practices that provided a market for interwar French art music, I pursue two central ideas: first, that musical works, genres, and styles present sonic traces of the economic forces that structured their composition, and second, that the funding context of music often determines its historiographical reception. The rich musical landscape of interwar France provides a unique setting through which to explore these ideas. Between a remarkable flowering of artistic movements, the rapid proliferation of new media for cultural expression, and steadily increasing institutional involvement in music composition and performance, we can observe a remarkable context of wealth and power exerting a significant impact on the practices of music composition and performance. In order to theorize patronage in the broader context of funding for music composition, I explore the conventions of individual, aristocratic patronage, focusing on commissions as contractual exchanges and as reflective of the "collections" to which they belong, both for patrons and composers. While the state lagged far behind individual patrons in terms of direct commissions to composers, it nevertheless found numerous ways to intervene in musical culture in the hope of stimulating the market for art music composition, particularly with respect to symphonic music. The clear-cut patronage of aristocratic individuals and public ministries contrasts sharply with the ambiguous roles played by the leaders of three influential ballet companies (Ballets Suedois, Soirees de Paris, Ballets Ida Rubinstein) whose competition with the Ballets Russes engendered precisely the market for new French music that the state sought vainly to encourage. Through my study of these ballet companies and of the business correspondence of Darius Milhaud, I show that rather than constraining or corrupting creativity, many sources of funding not ordinarily considered "patronage" nevertheless freed composers to pursue experimental avenues and enrich musical culture, in their time and in ours. / Music

The music and texts of the Jewish liturgy are commonly called the Sacred Service. Choral settings of this liturgy form a distinct genre of choral music. Despite the rich history and influence of the text itself, relatively few composers have set it chorally. Among the two most influential settings are Avodath Hakodesh (1933) by Ernest Bloch and Darius Milhaud’s Service sacré (Sacred Service) of 1947. Temple Emanu-El Reformed Congregation in San Francisco commissioned both under the leadership of Cantor Reuben Rinder, and the two pieces have many similarities. The focus of the present research is on expressive text-setting in the Service sacré of Darius Milhaud. My research suggests that study of Milhaud’s personal beliefs and religious background can help explain some of the composer’s compositional decisions in Service sacré. Milhaud’s background includes deep roots in the Jewish tradition, but he also shows a keen appreciation for aspects of Christian theology. Prior to this study, Milhaud’s intent to expressively set the text has not been thoroughly considered. Particularly interesting are his settings of texts that deal with themes such as salvation and redemption, including movements such as Tsur Yisrael (Mvt. V), Praised be Thou, O Lord (Mvt. VI), and Returning the Scroll to the Ark (Mvt. XII). These topics of salvation and redemption are usually deemphasized in the Reformed Jewish perspective. Yet, in Milhaud’s work, these portions are highlighted through his compositional settings.