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This thesis investigates, analyzes, and discusses Picasso's imagery in the cultural context of the nineteenth-century Spanish tradition of flamenco. Two published photographs featuring the elderly artist with the gypsy guitarist Manitas de Plata initiated the study, and led me to the conclusion that selected works by Picasso were influenced psychologically, thematically, and formally by his youth which was spent in the Andalusian province of Malaga and later in Barcelona. Picasso's early artistic education occurred at precisely the same time and place as The Golden Age of Flamenco in Spain, a cultural phenomenon that profoundly affected both his life and art.

Der spanische Maler Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velázquez (1599-1660) präsentiert in dem Berliner Bildnis eine elegante, aber bis heute nicht eindeutig identifizierte Dame in entspannter Körperhaltung in Dreiviertelansicht vor einem einfarbigen, braun-beigen Hintergrund (Abb. 1). Zwar deutet sich auf den Lippen der Porträtierten ein scheues, zurückgenommenes Lächeln an, doch lässt ihr direkt auf den Betrachter gerichteter Blick aus dunklen Augen sie nichtsdestotrotz selbstbewusst erscheinen.

Master of Arts / Department of Modern Languages / Douglas K. Benson / Students have opportunity to reach learner autonomy and achieve real world applications utilizing communicative competence, a learner centered environment and comprehensible input, incorporated into a unit for student success. The acquisition of language and culture is facilitated in the classroom environment with low affective filters and comprehensible input combining different learning strategies. The activities in this cultural thematic art unit engage student’s interest and activate his or her background knowledge, making meaningful connections with the unit content and their personal lives. Literature, paintings, grammar and vocabulary enable students to build communicative competence in L2. Language learners collaborate and engage in the target language while simultaneously learning about literature, history and culture and learning how artists and writers represent empathy for others as they process words by various Spanish speakers. Additionally, authentic texts and the use of technology enhance students’ linguistic performance. The unit begins with my teaching philosophy followed by a sequence of activities that allow students to process language while they study the consequences of war on those who are affected by it, and a brief section on potential learning outcomes for those who participate in the activities.

The underrepresentation of Mexican art song has left classical singers with few Spanish-language repertoire options. Currently, the music of Spain dominates this scene and Mexican art song has yet to earn a place in academic curricula and concert halls. Manuel María Ponce (1882-1948) retains an important position in Mexican music. However, Ponce's vocal repertoire—consisting of over 150 songs—remained dormant for many decades after his death due to its misclassification by music aristocrats in Mexico that greatly affected their diffusion. Consequently, few copies were published during Ponce's life, making them difficult to find. The need in the singing community for repertoire of this kind has raised many questions not only about its existence and availability, but also about its origins and relationship to the established Art Song canon. To promote the diffusion of this underrepresented repertoire, a style analysis of Ponce's Romantic Mexican Art Song is offered through the lens of his writings about Mexican Song. The analysis includes vital information about the origins, form, style, and subjects of these songs. Tangible examples of these traits are provided from Ponce's Doce Canciones Mexicanas along with historically-informed suggestions for singers and translations of the text with IPA transcriptions.

Spanish composer María Teresa Prieto (1895-1982) belongs to a group of Spanish exiles who left their country for Mexico as a result of the Spanish Civil War. She arrived in Mexico in 1936 and developed her compositional career in there. Her first composition after her arrival in the new country was the song cycle Seis Melodías, a work that includes six songs with poetry by Ricardo de Alcázar, Juan Ramón Jiménez, Federico García Lorca, and María Teresa Prieto herself. This document analyzes each one of the songs, both musically and poetically, as well as the relationship between music and text. Seis Melodías' structural organization as a cycle is very particular, since Prieto organized the cycle in pairs—namely I and II, III and IV, and V and VI—each group with strong poetic and thematic unity. The songs belonging to this cycle, present the duality of being independent and dependent at the same time, given that each song stands by itself, but together they create a meta-narrative that progresses from hope to desolation, not as a political statement, but as a homage to, as well as a lament, for the Spanish land and freedom. The cyclical nature of this work is accomplished by Prieto through motivic unity, a clear harmonic plan, and poetic relationships between the songs.