This research contributes valuable contextual information to the study of Karol Szymanowski's little-known song cycle Seven Songs to Poems of James Joyce, op. 54 (1926), providing a reliable, comprehensive reference for singers and scholars. In this research, I establish separate historical contexts for James Joyce's Chamber Music and Szymanowski's settings of the poems in op. 54. Using these established historical contexts, I then analyze Joyce's poems and Szymanowski's text settings, focusing on their styles and aesthetics. Szymanowski reorders the seven selected poems, creating a new storyline related to—but different from—the original. Where Chamber Music presents a chronological emotional arc, Seven Songs presents a roller coaster-like storyline, achieved by flashing back and forth between the protagonist's past and present. I demonstrate how Szymanowski's newly-created, complex storyline fits both the surface and deeper meanings of each poem, using specific musical elements to enhance emotional conflicts in the texts. I conclude with a detailed analysis of the relationship between the text and music of this song cycle, serving as a performance guide. I hope that my analysis and complete performance of this cycle will reignite interest in Szymanowski's music outside of Poland, especially in countries where English is the native language.

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The purpose of this dissertation is to provide vocal teachers and singers with a reference handbook of twenty-first century art songs for solo voice and piano accompaniment, written in English by composers from the United States. This handbook presents songs composed between the years of 2000-2015 by level of difficulty, from songs appropriate for high school students through collegiate students, and including professional singers. This handbook will familiarize teachers with over two hundred solo songs of seventeen composers, furthering the study and performance of contemporary art songs.

Original exercises based on the work of Sanford Meisner (as well as Viola Spolin, Jeffrey Agrell and others) are presented in a hypothetical voice studio to address truthfulness, point of view, and "reality of doing" on the vocal recital stage. The exercises present a way of addressing work on the "self" before work on the "role."

When singers perform art songs, how many of them, especially students, learn about the poem and poet behind the lyrics? It might be that a number of singers focus on composers, however not poets. Even in concert programs, it is common to only write the composer’s name. I am one of the singers that has learned lyrics in the last minute before a concert or an examination. I will experiment with changing my learning process and see if that makes any difference when performing the art song.  The purpose of this study is also to focus on the poet Emily Dickinson. Furthermore, to find out about the music of composers from the 20th century onwards using Dickinson’s poems. I choose Aaron Copland’s song cycle “Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson”.  Finally, I will perform the work and demonstrate if there is a difference in the singing interpretation by studying not only the music but also the poems behind the lyrics. “Who is Emily Dickinson?” The study explores this question first. After researching 100 songs using her poems, I chose three composers, Aaron Copland, Libby Larsen and Niccolò Castiglioni. Thereafter, “Bind me - I can still sing” of Larsen and “Dickinson-Lieder” of Castiglioni is mentioned. Furthermore, the song cycle “Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson” by Copland is analyzed deeply to find out more about the piece and why the composer was inspired by Dickinson. It was discovered that one is able to understand the piece deeply, knowing not only about the life of the composer, but also the poet leads to a better understanding of the work. From the singer’s point of view, the level of expression and singing performance has improved after researching the poet Emily Dickinson.  The study concludes knowing deeply about the poet that there is no doubt how important the poem is when understanding and interpreting art song. / <p>Soprano: Hitomi Ohki</p><p>Piano: Anders Kilström</p><p></p><p>Aaron Copland (1900-1990)</p><p>Twelve Poems of Emily Dickonson</p><p>1, Nature, the gentlest mother</p><p>2, There came a wind like a bugle</p><p>3, Why do they shut me out of Heaven?</p><p>4, The world feels dusty</p><p>5, Heart, we will forget him!</p><p>6, Dear March, come in!</p><p>7, Sleep is supposed to be</p><p>8, When they come back</p><p>9, I felt a funeral in my brain</p><p>10, I've heard an organ talk sometimes</p><p>11, Going to Heaven!</p><p>12, The Chariot</p>

The objective of this research was to investigate the effectiveness of the rehearsal plan in the preparation of Brazilian art songs. This disquisition proposes a rehearsal plan model based on the concept of the class plan used in the field of education. The rehearsal plans were applied in a series of rehearsals with two singers at North Dakota State University in which we worked on four art songs composed by the Brazilian composer Francisco Mignone (1897-1986). This qualitative study adopted the autoethnography as research method. In this autoethnographic research I worked both as researcher and as pianist in the rehearsals. This disquisition relied upon two axes of theoretical framework, one musical and one educational: the musical axis was formed of studies regarding performance and preparation of art songs as developed by Katz (2009), Kimball (2006), Stein and Spillman (1996), Moore (1984), Bernac (1978), and Adler (1971). The educational axis was based on the studies of Libâneo (2006) and Coll, Pozo, Sarabia, and Valls (1998) and provided the concept, philosophical basis, structure, and applicability of the class plan. This educational axis also included studies supporting the effectiveness of the rehearsal plan in various musical contexts, such as Gorelick (2001), Brunner (1996), and Figueiredo (1990). The research data revealed that the rehearsal plan was an effective pedagogical tool in the preparation of Brazilian art songs. The rehearsal plans provided outlines of clear objectives and focused rehearsal strategies and facilitated the development and application of specific rehearsal strategies for art song performance preparation. The plans also promoted connectivity between rehearsals and a sense of accomplishment for the pianist and singers. In addition, the rehearsal plans detailed the preparation of Brazilian art songs with respect to three distinct dimensions of knowledge: conceptual, practical, and attitudinal.

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