This document examines Stravinsky's treatment and use of the bassoon in three of his chamber works: L'Histoire du Soldat, Octet, and Septet. The research contained within will, in part, assess the extent to which Stravinsky has affected the development of the bassoon's role in a chamber ensemble, and will provide a general evaluation of his varied treatment of the bassoon in terms of technique, range, articulation, and ensemble. Another aspect of this study considers the possibility that Stravinsky wrote for the French system bassoon. A comparison of the two types of bassoon systems will demonstrate why Stravinsky's works seem so ungrateful to many modern bassoonists who have been trained on the German system instrument.

There exists no autograph manuscript for the six suites for solo violoncello by J. S. Bach. Three manuscript copies of the suites by Anna Magdelena Bach, J. J. H. Westphal, and J. P. Kellner are available but vary in many aspects including pitches, slur markings, and scordatura tuning. These differences make it difficult for the cellist to determine what most accurately displays Bach' s intentions for performance. A version of Suite V for the lute survives in its original manuscript form by J. S. Bach. Although much of the version is not playable on the cello, due to the lute's many strings, significant and pertinent information can be gained from this manuscript. Chords, intervals, differing sequence patterns, and differing pitches are all evident when comparing the lute version with the manuscript copies. Many of the added notes from the lute version are playable on the cello and add to the resulting harmony. These playable notes are included in the Appendix in the author's own edition of the Prelude to Suite V based upon the lute score. While a cellist may not choose to follow the lute score, many questions stemming from the variances found in the manuscript copies can be made clearer. The Prelude to Suite V was written in the French overture form. There is much controversy as to the manner in which a French overture should be performed. Thus, the performance practice of the French overture style is discussed and presented. Proponents of the style feel it pertained to music of the Baroque period, irregardless if it was written by a French composer, while others feel that no such style existed and there was no basis to include Bach's music in the use of the French overture style. Both sides of the French overture style are presented and related to the performance, specifically, to the Prelude of Suite V for cello solo.

Luigi Legnani (1790-1877) was an important guitarist/composer of the early nineteenth century Italian Romantic school. In addition, he was also a highly skilled singer, violinist, and luthier. Legnani's guitar compositions represent the logical next step after Giuliani; fully evocative of the operatic vocal style characterized by Rossini, and technically adventurous in much the way Paganini's compositions were for the violin, although not to the same degree. His contributions to guitar literature form an important link in the chain of compositional and technical development during the nineteenth-century. This study is in two parts. The first will present as concise a biography as possible, particularly regarding Legnani's concert itineraries, contributions to guitar construction, and relationship with Paganini. An examination of little-known contemporary reviews of his performances will serve as a means of both documenting his concertizing and developing a concept of Legnani's performance style. The second part, an annotated performance edition of selections from Legnani's most famous composition, 36 Capricci per tutti i tuoni maggiori e minori, opus 20, will provide a basis for the understanding and successful performance of Legnani's music by modern guitarists. In conclusion, Legnani's unique contributions to both guitar composition and construction are reevaluated, and an up-to-date list of compositions appended.

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The present thesis is an investigation into the musical rhetoric of Protestant funeral music in seventeenth-century Germany. The study begins with an exposition on the present state of musicological inquiry into occasional music in the Baroque, focusing primarily on ad hoc funeral music. Because funeral music is not discussed in any of the basic music reference works, a cursory overview of existing critical studies is included. The survey of this literature is followed by a brief discussion of methodological obstacles and procedure with regard to the present study. Chapter Two comprises a general discussion of Protestant funeral liturgy in Baroque Germany. Although numerous examples of the Divine Service in the Lutheran Church have survived the seventeenth century, not a single order of service for the funeral liturgy from the period seems to exist. This chapter provides both the social and extra-liturgical background for the music as well as a plausible Lutheran funerary liturgy based on documents from the period and modern studies. Prosopopoeia, the rhetorical personification of the dead, is the subject of Chapter Three. After examining the theoretical background of this rhetorical device, from Roman Antiquity to the German Baroque, the trope is examined in the context of funerary sermonic oratory. The discussion of oratorical rhetoric is followed by an investigation into the musical application of the concept of prosopopoeia in various styles of funerary composition, from simple cantional-style works to compositions in which the personified deceased assumes certain physical dimensions. Chapter Four includes an examination of various other musical-rhetorical figures effectively employed in funeral music. Also treated in this chapter are musica1-rhetorical aspects of duple and triple metre, where triple metre in particular, depending on the text, can be understood figuratively, metaphorically or as a combination of both. As this chapter makes clear, owing to the perceived antithetical properties of metre and certain figures, musical rhetoric was often used to illustrate the distinction between this world and the next. / Arts, Faculty of / Music, School of / Graduate

The selection of the subject, “The New in Music,” was prompted by an interest in the frequent appearance of new aspects in the art music. The following critique is the result of an attempt to uncover forces which work toward forming the new, to evaluate essential factors of newness, and to consider the reaction of the public to new musical trends. Although the accent of the work is placed on the music of the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries, consideration is also given to essentially new aspects of music during the earlier period since the Fourteenth Century. Complexities of modern composition become more easily understood when viewed in the light of previous attainment. The listener who wishes to hear modern music intelligently must needs be learned, for the entire world is included in the scope of modern music, not only the realm of emotion, but also the actual and the transcendental. One must be able to follow the common thread of thought and inspiration which runs through the works of Monteverde, Bach, Debussy, and Irving Berlin.

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