Master of Music / Department of Music / Kelvin T. Kerstetter / CHRISTOPHER ROBERT NICHOLS 138 Years of the Clarinet: Program Notes for a Master's Clarinet Recital of Works by Reger, Smith, Donizetti, Muczynski, and Schumann (Under the direction of Tod Kerstetter) This study provides a stylistic and structural analysis of Max Reger's Sonata in B-flat for clarinet and piano, Op. 107, William O. Smith's Five Pieces for Clarinet Solo (1959), Gaetano Donizetti's Primo Studio for solo clarinet (1821), Robert Muczynski's Six Duos for flute and clarinet, Op. 24, and Robert Schumann's Soiréestücke for clarinet and piano, Op. 73. This study contains five chapters, one devoted to each piece. Chapters include the composer's biographical information, harmonic and structural analyses, performance considerations, date of completion, premiere, dedication or commission information, and publication information. INDEX WORDS: Clarinet, flute, piano, woodwind, chamber music, Donizetti, Muczynski, Reger, Schumann, Smith, performance.

Many have criticized Schumann's compositional style as being incompatible with sonata form. For example, his Fantasia, Op. 17 appears to be a series of cleverly interactive themes which, by virtue of their poetic diversity and dramatic momentum, manage barely to function within the confines of a quasi-sonata form. Schumann's discomfort, some would say, is made evident by the absence of developmental sections in the outer two movements, by the invasion of literary and musical quotation, and even by the rhetorical presentations of his too lyrical themes. Such appraisals focus on that which is absent or unusual, ignoring the inherent craftsmanship and masterful motivic manipulation exhibited throughout the Fantasia. Schumann does not explore and reveal the latent energy in a collection of motives; rather, he varies, transforms, mutates and metamorphizes a few cellular ideas into a collage of richly diversified themes, all of which bear the stamp of these "genetic" cells. Much of the musical momentum in the Fantasia derives its energy from the surface interplay of those themes; thus the engine of the form is more closely akin to variation and cyclic techniques than to those involving thematic development. The essential purpose of this paper is to explore thematic processes in Schumann's Fantasia, these being fundamental to the language of the work. The paper also encompasses a history of the fantasia genre, an overview of Schumann's aesthetics, and a brief discussion of the Fantasia's structure. / Arts, Faculty of / Music, School of / Graduate

Like a number of early compositions by Schumann, the Impromptus, Op. 5, was considerably revised in later years. It is one of only several works whose early and later versions are both included in the complete edition of his works published by Breitkopf and Hartel. Brahms, co-editor with Clara Schumann of this edition, was probably responsible for the inclusion of the two separate versions, recognizing the distinct virtues of the first, possibly even its superiority to the second. [TRUNCATED]

The marriage between Clara and Robert Schumann is one of the most popular relationships in music history. In 1840, a song cycle named Liebesfrühling with songs from Clara Schumann as well as from her husband was collectively published under their names. Despite the fact that the married couple did not specify the voice register and gender of the vocal parts within the score, some hints indicating the gender of the personas can be found for instance in the personal pronouns of the text. Yet, some parts of the song cycle do not provide such clues, leaving the question, to which gender the vocal parts are ascribed, completely open. Nevertheless, some scholarly examinations like Melinda Boyd’s publication Gendered voices. The “Liebesfrühling” Lieder of Robert and Clara Schumann try to answer this question using semiology as a method to indicate gender assignments. However, this raises the question of how far gender aspects can be examined through semiotic approaches. What symbols are used to specify gender? Did this change in history? And can these ascriptions be found in the music of Clara and Robert Schumann? The chosen method will show difficulties because of its time-constraint and the problem of relevancy. This is why the proposed theses of Boyd will be inspected regarding the text and the score of the song cycle Liebesfrühling. At the same time, the investigation will try to consider the importance of contemporary performance practice.

The turn to the nineteenth century saw a growing interest in notions of gender, including androgyny. This interest presents itself in art and literature starting in the late eighteenth century, including Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s novel Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre. The novel contains several androgynous characters, such as Mignon. Mignon is also the character with the strongest connection to music sings almost half of the poems in the novel. Several of Goethe’s texts have served as inspiration for composers well into the nineteenth century, including Franz Schubert and Robert Schumann. Both of these composers set poems from Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre in song cycles, Schubert’s Gesänge aus ‘Wilhelm Meister’ D877 (1826) and Schumann’s Lieder und Gesänge aus Wilhelm Meister” Op. 98a (1849).[1] Both of these composers take different approaches toward the text in order to present idiosyncratic representations of gender and androgyny by deploying, vocal range, phrasing, cadences, harmonies, chromaticism, and repetition. By expanding upon scholarship from literature on the androgynous nature of Mignon, this thesis not only provides new analyses of little-studied song cycles by Schubert and Schumann, but also expands knowledge about representations of androgyny in nineteenth century music. In the process, it contributes new knowledge LGBTQ+ studies within musicology. [1] Franz Schubert, Gesänge aus ‘Wilhelm Meister in Schubert’s Werke, Serie XX: Sämtliche Lieder und Gesänge, No. 488-491 (Leipzig: Breitfopf & Härtel, 1985). Robert Schumann, Sämtliche Lieder, Band II: Originalausgabe (Hohe Stimme), ed. Max Friedlander (Leipzig: Peters, 1920).

Robert Schumann’s compositional work during 1840 stands out as an unexpected turn of events. With relatively no background composing songs, Schumann suddenly produced a plethora of widely successful and monetarily lucrative songs all within one year. Perhaps most fascinating was the amount of detail Schumann placed into each song. This detail can be seen in the sketches which include the composer’s handwritten edits in both the piano and vocal scores. With a focus on Schumann’s song cycle, Frauenliebe und -leben the qualities of Schumann’s songs and the compositional process used to create the songs’ final versions are examined through this study. The origins of the poems and their author, Adelbert von Chamisso, are investigated in addition to the relationship created by Schumann between the poems and vocal lines. Main emphasis is placed on tracing the progression from the rough vocal lines found in the autograph score to the relatively finished copyist’s score and finally to the final published version of the cycle

No description available.

No description available.

La première moitié du XIXe siècle germanique voit le sacré se déplacer de façon massive et multiple vers la sphère profane. Le vocabulaire, les schémas et les idéaux religieux se refondent dans le prisme historique pour pénétrer philosophie, littérature, arts visuels et musique. Dans un climat esthétique, politique et social tendu vers la Bildung, l’édification morale mais aussi religieuse de la société, la représentation communautaire devient l’objet privilégié de l’art. En témoignent le ressourcement architectural gothique, les tableaux d’activisme nazaréen, ainsi que des modalités de représentation grandioses dans l’opéra et l’oratorio. L’insertion plus insolite du religieux dans la symphonie trouve ici un champ de contextualisation qui permet d’élucider les mutations contradictoires du genre en plein essor. Engagée depuis le classicisme dans une vocation spirituelle récusant l’intelligible, la symphonie ne s’en trouve pas moins investie de représentations religieuses se focalisant sur l’image communautaire. Dans l’attraction de l’œuvre beethovénien, Mendelssohn et Schumann, parallèlement à Spohr, font dans leurs symphonies une place décisive aux topoï connotant ou dénotant le religieux, à commencer par les cantiques et les styles anciens. Leurs corpus symphoniques respectifs apparaissent singulièrement homogènes, non moins qu’en correspondance. Par l’amplification des représentations spirituelles via la technique cyclique, ils s’appréhendent dès lors dans une vocation religieuse d’accomplissement, en probable résonance avec les conceptions historicistes d’immanence ou de transcendance. / The first half of the Germanic Nineteenth Century saw the shift of the religious expression in a massive and multiple way towards the profane sphere. Vocabulary, patterns and religious ideals are recast in the historical prism to enter philosophy, literature, visual arts and music. In a tense aesthetic, political and social climate to « Bildung », the moral and religious edification of society, the community representation becomes the privileged aim of art. Evidence of this is found in the Gothic architectural renewal, the activism of Nazarene paintings and grandiose representation arrangements in historical-religious opera and oratorio. The more unusual religious penetration into the symphony finds a significant field of contextualization that allows to elucidate the contradictory mutations of the booming genre. Committed since classicism to a spiritual vocation rejecting the intelligible, it is nonetheless true that the symphony is invested with religious representations focusing on community image. In the attraction of the work of Beethoven, symphonies by Mendelssohn and Schumann, along with those of Spohr, give emphasis to topoï connoting or indicating the religious, starting with hymns and old styles. Their respective symphonic corpus appear remarkably homogeneous, no less than in retrospect correspondence. By amplifying the spiritual representations via the cyclic technique, they are subsequently grasped in a religious vocation of accomplishment, likely in resonance with the historicist conceptions of immanence and transcendence.

Not available / text