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Master of Music / Department of Music / Reginald L. Pittman / This master’s report is a discussion of the selections and composers presented on my graduate recital performed in All Faiths Chapel on Thursday, April 28, 2010. This report is also an in-depth look at the history and evolution of opera arias, oratorio, and art songs beginning in the Renaissance period. The first chapter discusses song in the Renaissance period and the origin of opera. Chapter two discusses oratorio and the Baroque period. Chapter three discusses art song and opera arias in the Classical period, with particular emphasis on Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Chapter four discusses art song and opera aria in the Bel Canto style and Romantic period. Chapter four will also include information about the operetta. Chapter five discusses art song and opera aria in the Modern period.

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This dissertation, organized in two parts, is comprised of an essay on my song cycle Perle Noire: Meditations for Josephine and its scores. Perle Noire consists of a flexible musical score that I composed for soprano Julia Bullock, select members of the International Contemporary Ensemble, and myself, with two performance editions. The primary edition, which stems from part of a production conceived of by theater director Peter Sellars, includes recited poetry about Josephine Baker by Claudia Rankine and choreography by Michael Schumacher. The second edition is a musical performance with neither poetic texts nor choreography. The world premiere of Perle Noire took place at the 2016 Ojai Music Festival in California, with subsequent performances at Lincoln Center in New York; Da Camera in Houston, Texas; and the Stony Island Arts Center in Chicago, Illinois. The entire performance of the 90-minute song cycle entails the following five recompositions and one “head arrangement” for a mixed ensemble of improviser-performers and soprano: Part I—1. Bye Bye Blackbird, 2. Sous le Ciel d’Afrique, 3. C’est ca le Vrai Bonheur and Madiana (medley); Part II—4. Si J’etais Blanche, 5. C’est Lui, 6. Terre Seche (Negro Spiritual). The essay centers on the compositions in Part II of Perle Noire: “Si J’etais Blanche,” “C’est Lui,” and “Terre Seche” (Negro Spiritual). To begin, I briefly discuss my aesthetic exigencies in relation to the Black creative musics initiated during the latter part of the twentieth century as well as the inspiration informing the creation of this song cycle. Next, I discuss the aforementioned songs to demonstrate how my aesthetics play out in this work. Finally, I detail the controversial critical reception of the song cycle’s world premiere performance and my response to it.

In the Philippines, a type of love song known as the Kundiman had existed since the early 19th century. But in the early 20th century Kundiman had developed into art song. The term Kundiman comes from the Tagalog phrase “kung hindi man” or “if it were not so”. Written in the Tagalog language, these folksongs were subtly patriotic but typically disguised as love songs. Filipinos, in their long struggle against an oppressive Spanish regime, saw it as a tool that would ultimately unite Filipino revolutionaries to wage war against the Spaniards in 1896 during the Spanish-American War. The composer Francisco Santiago (1889-1947) is sometimes called the “Father of Kundiman Art Song.” While his masterpiece is considered to be his Concerto in B flat minor for pianoforte and orchestra, one of his most significant piece is his song “Kundiman, (Anak-Dalita)”, the first Kundiman art song. Santiago regarded the Kundiman art song as something “that expresses the lofty sentiment of love, and even heroism in a melancholy mood.” Given the cross-fertilization of Spanish and Filipino cultures in the 19th century, Kundiman art songs were typically a blend of melodic material from native folksong and European music traditions. The result is a song characterized by smooth flowing lines and beautiful melodies. The piano accompaniments are typically full in texture, sometimes containing countermelodies, sometimes merely harmonizing with the vocal line in thirds and sixths. One other significant early composer of Kundiman art songs was Nicanor Abelardo (1893-1934). His songs, together with those of Santiago’s became models for other Filipino composers such as Constancio De Guzman (1903-1982) and Miguel Velarde, Jr. (1913-1986) in the decades following Abelardo’s death. The purpose of this essay is to shed some light on this unique genre of song, and provide the tools necessary to study and perform these representations of Filipino culture and history. To do this, I have provided brief background information on the origins of Kundiman art song. I have also provided a guide to pronunciation, grammar and the idiosyncracies of the Tagalog dialect. Finally, this essay contains a performance guide for 20 representative Kundiman art songs, including original texts, literal and prose translations, International Phonetic Alphabet (I.P.A.) transcriptions, and suggestions for interpretation and style. In researching and analyzing these songs I have gained an understanding of the aesthetic appeal of Kundiman art songs. More importantly, these songs are not widely known in the classical world. But because of their unique connection to Filipino history and culture, they deserve serious attention. These songs would indeed make a great addition to a recital program.

We remember Penelope as the faithful wife of the eponymous character from Homer's Odyssey, which focuses on Odysseus's ten-year journey home following the ten-year Trojan War. Despite the outwardly happy ending of Odysseus's return, Penelope is a tragic figure defined by her fidelity if little else. In my telling of Penelope's story, I explore the emotional landscape and loss of identity when one is reduced in such limiting ways and unable to speak for oneself in any other terms than love and devotion to another. Penelope, for soprano and large chamber ensemble, is scored for flute, oboe, bass clarinet (doubling on clarinet), bassoon, horn in F, trumpet in C, trombone, two percussionists, piano, soprano, two violins, viola, cello, and double bass. This ensemble is diverse enough to offer a great range of contrasting--but also complementary--colors while small enough to allow clarity of individual parts. The piece consists of three movements: I. Be still, my heart, my heart, be still II. I do [interlude #1] Twenty Long Years [interlude #2] III. I need him I wish I could remember Odysseus The three movements mark stages of Penelope's decreasing sense of self. The first portrays falling in love characterized by metric ambiguity, rhythmic complexity, and a spectrum built on a B1 fundamental given in the double bass. The second consists of Penelope's vow of fidelity, which is then challenged by Odysseus's abandonment for war. The final movement consists of Penelope professing her love and need for Odysseus once again. But now that twenty years have gone by, those feelings and memories are fading. The music returns to the B fundamental in the last section. But where B had been the fundamental for falling in love at the beginning, now the spectrum conveys a sense of tragic permanence: all Penelope can do is utter Odysseus's name, slightly morphed in each incantation via varying IPA syllables. Though the audience may know the ending to Homer's poem, my piece ends on any day before Odysseus's return: the drama for me lies in the unknowing. Liminal processes in music intrigue me and so I have implemented various liminal techniques throughout the piece. At the beginning of the first movement, for example, the piano has a regular eight-beat-plus-one-eighth-note "pulse". That is to say I do not expect a pulse to be felt, per se. Instead of a perceived periodicity, I suspect a listener will hear long tones of indeterminate lengths. I use the term literally (as in subliminal) in the section "I wish I could remember". Penelope tries, but fails, to recollect a concert she and Odysseus attended before the war. In the music I quote pieces by the composers she is incorrectly recalling, thus externalizing her failing memory. One other liminal process I use often in Penelope is the process of timbral morphing. This term pertains to the process wherein one instrument seems to morph into another. In measure 25 of "Be still, my heart, my heart, be still" the double bass harmonic blends into a cello which then is blended by violin II and bass clarinet. This type of orchestration projects a state of intermediacy such that I suspect the listener may not accurately identify the instrument(s) being heard. This technique occurs in the last movement in measures 106-107 where the oboe subsumes Penelope, as if mistaking her identity for the woodwind. These liminal processes help contribute to the transition of Penelope's emotional state from gain to loss.

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The purpose of this study is to present various insights into Frank Ticheli's song cycle, An American Dream. Frank Ticheli is an American composer, born in 1958, mainly known for his music for concert band and wind ensemble. He has also composed various orchestral pieces, which are very important. This essay provides a general overview of all his orchestral oeuvre until 2010. It then focuses on the genesis and creation of his orchestral song cycle An American Dream. Deep study of the score and preparation for performance and recording were used to give insights into this work, which is subtitled: A Symphony of Songs for Soprano and Orchestra. Direct communication with Frank Ticheli proved most helpful. The essay also refers to performance issues and assessment of the work for performance with various types of orchestras. Part of this essay is the inclusion of the recording of An American Dream, which took place in November 2009, at the Gusman Hall, University of Miami, Frost Symphony Orchestra, Zoe Zeniodi, conductor. Leilah Dione Ezra is the soprano on the recording.

The reform-minded aspect of Wang's writing is frequently emphasized while its rhetorical component is overlooked. Similarly, in texts which appear poetic in nature the underlying subject matter of reform fails to be recognized. Both rhetoric and its antithesis function in tandem in all of Wang's texts, the one serving to balance the other; stylistic writing serves to soften political discourse. When Wang writes poetically, the problem of reform is served through allusion. In contrast, when direct terminology is employed, this is balanced by rhetorical analogy (often citing the past to prove the present, jie gu yu jin). Because his subject matter is predominantly political, Wang's memorials and prose texts are well known, while his poetry has remained in relative obscurity. Nevertheless, even the memorials rely on the balance of rhetoric and aesthetics, which he describes in his best known text "Shang Ren Zong Huang Di Yan Shi Shu".