The document consists of a commentary on the historical background of the work and an edition of the restored score. The commentary treats its relationship to the ballad opera, sources and alternate settings of the music and libretto, a history of the development of "Hail to the Chief," biographical sketches of the primary composers, and a section on early productions in England and America. The commentary includes a history of the English and American premieres, lengths of the first-runs, and the names of the theatres in which the performances were mounted. The reconstructed score is a piano-vocal performance edition with dialogue, cues, scenery, costume and property plots indicated in detail.

The musical structure of Santa Claus is similar to Alban Berg's statements about his opera Wozzeck, that the audience does not need to be aware of the underlying processes that are in motion.Seen from the highest level of stratification, Santa Claus the opera is essentially a single sonata-allegro movement. The first scene is the exposition, scenes two through four are the development, and the fifth scene the recapitulation. Also at this level can be seen the overall arch shape of the formal structure. This arch reflects not only the melodic material, but tempo, texture, and structural design.At the next level of stratification each of the five scenes is a movement of a fivemovement sonata form. The first scene is a sonata-allegro form. The second scene is a scherzo and trio with a repetition of the scherzo during the interlude. The third scene is a fantasy and canon; the fourth scene is an Adagio in ABA form. And lastly the fifth scene, again not strictly a sonata movement, contains an aria and a march and trio.The third layer of stratification is the continuous development and variation of four melodic/harmonic units. The development of these units forms the structural base of the entire opera at both the local level and the global level, and it is through this process that the both global and local structures can be identified. / School of Music