MIRRORS is a cycle of songs composed for soprano voice and piano using five poems by Sylvia Plath. The work features the creation of a protagonist and tells a chronological story through the arrangement of the five poems colored and unified by the manipulation of a thematic twelve-tone row.

Jean Ahn (b. 1976) is one of the active Korean woman composers in the U.S. Ahn’s goal is to introduce her works in the U.S. by composing pieces that combine Korean musical elements with Western compositional techniques. The purpose of this study is to provide an introduction to and analysis of Folksong Revisited for solo piano by Jean Ahn. This work demonstrates how Jean Ahn integrates Korean traditional musical elements and Western musical compositional techniques. For better understanding of Ahn’s three Korean folksong arrangements in the Folksong Revisited, this document provides brief information about Korean traditional music and explores elements of it. This document also examines the folksong sources of each piece and Ahn’s compositional approaches to them, and then provides performance suggestions.

Songwriters have been creating music for the church for hundreds of years. The songs have gone through many stylistic changes from generation to generation, yet, each song has generated congregational participation. What measurable, traceable qualities of congregational songs exist from one generation to the next? This document explores the history and development of Congregational Christian Song (CCS), to discover and document the similarities between seemingly contrasting styles of music. The songs analyzed in this study were chosen because of their wide popularity and broad dissemination among non-denominational churches in the United States. While not an exhaustive study, this paper reviews over 200 songs spanning 300 years of CCS. The findings of the study are that songs that have proven to be successful in eliciting participation all contain five common elements. These elements encourage congregations to participate in singing when an anticipation cue is triggered and then realized. The anticipation/reward theory used in this study is based on David Huron’s ITPRA (Imagination-Tension-Prediction-Reaction-Appraisal) Theory of Expectation. This thesis is designed to aid songwriters and music theorists to quickly identify whether a CCS can be measured as successful (i.e., predictable).

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Parasitic wasps are highly diverse and play a major role in suppression of herbivorous pest populations, but relatively little is known of the mechanisms driving their diversity. Molecular studies indicate that cryptic species complexes resulting from adaptations to specific hosts or host-foodplants may be common. The gregarious endoparasitoid, Cotesia congregata (Braconidae), is a model system for understanding parasitic wasp biology. It is reported to attack at least 15 species of sphingid caterpillars, most of which are plant family specialists. Molecular studies have demonstrated genetic differentiation of two host-foodplant complex sources originating from Manduca sexta on tobacco (MsT) and Ceratomia catalpae on catalpa (CcC). Response to female pheromone and elements of their courtship songs differ. Wasps from both sources mated and produced F1 hybrid offspring in the laboratory; however, 90% of hybrid females resulting from one of the reciprocal crosses failed to produce offspring. I built on this previous work by evaluating an ecological barrier, the evolution of courtship songs within the genus, and patterns of hybrid sterility among four additional host-foodplant complexes, as well as differentiation of their symbiotic bracovirus. Tests of developmental tolerance to nicotine demonstrate that MsT wasps are highly adapted to hosts feeding on tobacco, whereas CcC wasps experience high mortality. Acoustic analysis of courtship songs among host-foodplant sources of C. congregata and eleven additional species of Cotesia demonstrates that songs are species specific and appear to be correlated with genetic relatedness. Cotesia congregata from all sources mated and produced F1 hybrid offspring in the laboratory; however, hybrid females resulting from specific reciprocal crosses failed to produce progeny. Dissections of hybrid females revealed that sterile wasps lacked mature ovaries and functional bracovirus, a symbiotic virus integrated into the wasp genome and necessary to suppress the host immune system. Relative in vivo expression of wasp bracovirus genes differs between MsT and CcC host-foodplant complexes. Cumulatively, these behavioral, ecological, and genetic barriers to reproduction indicate that C. congregata is diverged into two incipient species with limited gene flow, and provides insight into the role of varied reproductive barriers in speciation of parasitic wasps.

I work in the medium of song. A multidisciplinary artist and composer, I make work that is immersive, time-based and often participatory. I interact with landscape and the complexities of American history, bringing into focus local ecologies through the lens of song. This document accompanies my thesis performance The Sound of a Stone, an immersive exploration of song, language, ecology and locational listening performed in a 4-channel surround format. In the semi-improvised composition, I sample live vocals, mandolin and found natural objects in a combination of roots music traditions and experimental techniques. Utilizing the software Ableton Live to process and layer the samples in real time, I build a series of "songscapes" which connect to a specific site: the fall line of the James River. The Sound of a Stone premiered April 8, 2019 at Sonia Vlahcevic Concert Hall, W. E. Singleton Center for the Performing Arts, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia.

L‘étude de notre corpus porte sur les chansons d‘amour et d‘ami gallaïco-portugaises datées de la fin du XIIème jusqu‘au milieu du XIVème siècle. La problématique consiste à déterminer quelle dialectique entretiennent le troubadour et la figure féminine à travers ces deux genres lyriques dans le cadre de l‘amour et de l‘érotisme. Leur rapport amoureux repose sur une dialectique soit platonicienne, soit hégélienne, en fonction du genre lyrique, de la thématique de l‘amour et de l‘érotisme, de leur appartenance sociale, de la référence aux histoires amoureuses réelles et imaginaires de l‘époque, mais aussi de la matière, de la forme, de l‘origine et de la source d‘influence de la chanson. Le regard porté sur la femme dans la société médiévale ibérique a subi l‘influence d‘un double discours entretenu par les Penseurs de l‘Église qui a consisté, d‘une part à inférioriser la femme en la rendant responsable du péché originel, et d‘autre part à lui associer une image maternelle et mariale tout à la fois. Face à cette vision, le troubadour entend concevoir une nouvelle image féminine dans ses compositions lyriques, selon deux modèles de représentation. D‘abord, il décrit une figure féminine abstraite et inaccessible dans un espace et un temps sacrés à travers une peinture érotique de l‘amour. Cette figure s‘apparente à celle de la Dame de la cour, de la comtesse de Tripoli ou de la Vierge Marie. Mais aussi, proche de lui, il la met en scène dans des récits amoureux conformes au monde profane et à la réalité historique et sociale, en faisant une jeune femme célibataire ou mariée, appartenant soit à la noblesse, à la bourgeoisie, ou à la paysannerie. / The study of our corpus is about the gallaïco-portuguese songs of love and friend dated from the late twelfth to the mid-fourteenth century. The problem is to determine what dialectic maintain the troubadour and the feminine face through the two lyric genres in the context of love and eroticism. Their loving relationship is based on a dialectic either Platonic or Hegelian, depending on the lyric genre, the theme of love and eroticism, their social class, the reference to real and imaginary loving stories of the period, but also of the material, the shape, the origin and the source of influence of the song. The glance carried towards the woman in the iberian medieval society was under the influence of a double speech maintained by the Thinkers of the Church which consisted, on one hand to minimize the importance of woman in making responsible original sin and on the other hand to associate her a maternal image and Marian quite at the same time. In front of this vision, the troubadour intends to design a new image of woman in his lyrical compositions, according to two models of representation. At first, he describes an abstract and inaccessible feminine face in a space and sacred time through an erotic paint in the love. This face is similar to that of the Lady of the court, the countess of Tripoli or the Virgin Mary. But also, near him, he depicts her in loving narratives corresponding to the profane world and to the historic and social reality, as a young woman married or single, belonging either to the nobility, the middle-class, or the peasantry.

This essay introduces readers to the music of the Venezuelan composer Modesta Bor (1926-1998) and provides a resource for interpretation of her art songs for voice and piano. Bor was an important composer in Venezuela with a successful career in composition, pedagogy, and conducting. However, she is not widely known outside of Venezuela and scholarship on her art song is limited. This study seeks to fill that void by examining Bor’s twenty-nine published art songs for solo voice and piano. These works include the song cycles/collections Tres canciones infantiles para voz y piano, Canciones infantiles, Primer ciclo de romanzas para contralto y piano, Segundo ciclo de romanzas para contralto y piano, Tríptico sobre poesía cubana, and Tres canciones para mezzo-soprano y piano, as well as nine ungrouped songs. Bor’s art songs are notable for her imitation of Venezuelan folk and popular music in the vein of Figurative Nationalism, her sophisticated harmonic language, and neoclassical techniques such as ostinato and motivic variation. This essay aims to help performers begin to understand the allusions to the national music of Venezuela. Her music elevates the llanero, the common rural laborer, and comments on the social issues of her people. This essay provides a brief history of Venezuelan music, a biography of Bor, and brief biographies of the poets used. It also contributes original poetic and musical analyses of her art songs, exploring the areas of form, melody, rhythm, and harmony. Venezuelan Spanish and the lyric diction appropriate for Bor’s songs are discussed. Poetic translations, word-for-word translations, and International Phonetic Alphabet transliterations are included for all of the poetry used.

The Kalevala, first published in 1835 by Elias Lönnrot, is the Finnish national epic and was fundamental in formalizing the Finnish language. It is a collection of stories Lönnrot collected over many years, pieced together to create a coherent epic. The stories in the Kalevala stem from an oral tradition, in which singing and music was integral. The stories in the epic contain many different characters, with Väinämöinen and his quest in to find a wife at the forefront. Other major characters discussed include Kullervo, Lemminkäinen, and Luonnotar. Extensive research exists about the history of the Kalevala itself, as well as its impact on music in Finland in the areas of pop music, symphonic music, choral music, and opera. However, little scholarship exists, regarding how the texts from the Kalevala have been incorporated into 19th and 20th century art song. The lack of research about the Kalevala in art song is due partly to the fact that no catalogue of related songs exists. Also, works based on the Kalevala are hard to obtain, as many are only available in manuscript form, or are found only in the Finnish National Archives. This essay aims to bridge the research gap on art song inspired by the Kalevala, while evaluating the works available in the context of their incorporation of the folk singing tradition that would have been used in the early performance of these Kalevala texts. Songs analyzed include works by Gabriel Linsén, Emil Kauppi, Jean Sibelius, Otto Kotilainen, and Erkki Melartin.

Este trabalho tem como objetivo analisar o álbum Canções Praieiras (CAYMMI, 1954), a partir da descrição de cada uma de suas faixas, mas com ênfase no sentido gerado pelo álbum como um todo. Essa proposta se insere numa discussão mais abrangente sobre a discursividade dos álbuns musicais. Diferentes reflexões evidenciam a ocorrência de uma tensão enunciativa inerente ao tipo discursivo álbum: uma relação complementar entre, de um lado, a identidade do álbum (composta por uma reiteração de elementos de expressão e conteúdo que criam um senso de unidade entre as faixas) e, de outro, a autonomia discursiva das faixas (que ainda podem ser reconhecidas, cada uma, como uma peça musical ou cancional). Assim, a descrição satisfatória de um dado disco poderia se dar em dois tempos: num primeiro momento, na análise faixa a faixa (isto é, o exame de cada uma das partes), encaminhando-se, por fim, à análise do projeto enunciativo do todo (revelado nas relações entre as faixas), tanto em âmbito paradigmático quanto no sintagmático. Seguindo essas premissas, o trabalho se dirige à descrição analítica do álbum de Caymmi. As análises de cada uma das oito faixas do disco seguem o modelo descritivo da Semiótica da Canção, conforme proposto por Luiz Tatit. Tendo todas as canções devidamente examinadas, é possível descrever o universo figurativo instituído em discurso, que estabelece uma rígida hierarquia entre os atores místicos (o mar em todas as suas distintas manifestações, Deus e a Lagoa do Abaeté) e os atores terrenos (pescador e mulher praieira). Verifica-se, ainda, a importância do sequenciamento das faixas na geração de sentido em Canções Praieiras. Por fim, reflete-se sobre os possíveis desdobramentos deste trabalho, que parece apontar para a descrição dos fazeres enunciativos próprios do álbum cancional, bem como dos elementos que constituem a relação de dependência entre faixas e disco. / The aim of this work is to analyze the album Canções Praieiras (CAYMMI, 1954) from the description of each of its tracks, although emphasizing the meaning produced by the album as a whole. This proposition is placed inside larger and more comprehensive studies on discursivity in musical albums. Different considerations show the occurrence of an enunciative tension that is inherent to the discursive type \"album\": a complementary relationship between the album\'s identity (composed by the reiteration of elements of expression and content that produce a sense of unity among the tracks) and the tracks discursive autonomy (which can, each, also be recognized as a song or musical piece). Therefore, a satisfying description of an album can be given in two stages: first, analyzing each track (each as part of a whole); then, analyzing the relation established between the tracks (as they constitute a whole), both in the syntagmatic and paradigmatic extents. Following these premises, this work analytically describes Caymmi\'s album, each of its eight tracks, following the model proposed by Luiz Tatit in his Semiotics of Song. Having had all the songs properly examined, it is possible to describe the figurative universe of its discourse, which shows a strict hierarchy between mystic actors (the sea and all of its distinct manifestations, God and the Lagoa do Abaeté) and earthly actors (the fisherman and the women from the coast). It is also possible to see the importance of the sequence of the tracks in producing meaning. Lastly, one can reflect on how this work can be developed to more detailed analysis and investigation on the enunciative doings that are characteristics to the album of songs, as well as the dependence between tracks and album.