Zugl.: Osnabrück, Univ., Diss., 2004

Texte remanié de: Thesis Ph. D.--Indiana, Pa.--University of Pennsylvania. / Bibliogr. p. 155-162. Index.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2005.

abstract: Self-awareness and liberation often start with an analysis of the relationship between individual and society, a relationship based on the delicate balance of personal desire and responsibility to others. While societal structures, such as family, tradition, religion, and community, may be repressive to individuals, they also provide direction, identity and meaning to an individual's life. In Kate Chopin's The Awakening and André Gide's L'Immoraliste the protagonists are faced with such a dilemma. Often informed by gender roles and socio-economic class, the container or filter that society offers to shape and mediate human experience is portrayed in both novels as a fictitious self donned for society's benefit --can seem repressive or inadequate. Yet far from being one-dimensional stories of individuals who eschew the bonds of a restrictive society, both novels show that liberation can lead to entrapment. Once society's limits are transgressed, the characters face the infinitude and insatiety of their liberated desires and the danger of self-absorption. Chopin and Gide explore these issues of desire, body, and social authority in order to portray Edna's and Michel's search for an authentic self. The characters' search for authenticity allows for the loosening of restriction and embrace of desire and the body, phenomena that appear to liberate them from the dominant bourgeois society. Yet, for both Edna and Michel, an embrace of the body and individual desire threatens to unsettle the balance between individual and society. As Edna and Michel break away from society's prescribed path, both struggle to find themselves. Edna and Michel become aware of themselves in a variety of different ways: speaking and interacting with others, observing the social mores of those around them and engaging in creative activity, such as, for Edna, painting and planning a dinner party, or for Michel, teaching and writing. Chopin's 1899 novel The Awakening and André Gide's 1902 novel L'Immoraliste explore the consequences of individual liberation from the constricting bonds of religion, society, and the family. In depicting these conflicts, the authors examine the relationship between individual and society, freedom and restraint, and what an individual's relationship to his or her community should be. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. French 2011

Thesis (D.M.A.)--Boston University.

abstract: This study compares the Hummel Concertos in A Minor, Op. 85 and B Minor, Op. 89 and the Chopin Concertos in E Minor, Op. 11 and F Minor, Op. 21. On initial hearing of Hummel's rarely played concertos, one immediately detects similarities with Chopin's concerto style. Upon closer examination, one discovers a substantial number of interesting and significant parallels with Chopin's concertos, many of which are highlighted in this research project. Hummel belongs to a generation of composers who made a shift away from the Classical style, and Chopin, as an early Romantic, absorbed much from his immediate predecessors in establishing his highly unique style. I have chosen to focus on Chopin's concertos to demonstrate this association. The essay begins with a discussion of the historical background of Chopin's formative years as it pertains to the formation of his compositional style, Hummel's role and influence in the contemporary musical arena, as well as interactions between the two composers. It then provides the historical background of the aforementioned concertos leading to a comparative analysis, which includes structural, melodic, harmonic, and motivic parallels. With a better understanding of his stylistic influences, and of how Chopin assimilated them in the creation of his masterful works, the performer can adopt a more informed approach to the interpretation of these two concertos, which are among the most beloved masterpieces in piano literature. / Dissertation/Thesis / D.M.A. Music 2013

In The Awakening we meet Edna, a woman in search of her female identity. She is uncomfortable in her role as the “patriarchal woman” and has trouble becoming either a “modern woman” or an “emancipated woman” To fully understand Edna’s search one must understand the patriarchal society in Chopin’s works and what it means to internalize this system. Edna searches for a different female role than that of the “patriarchal woman” but she has problems internalizing any one of the roles due to her previous choices, current social position and lack of support in her quest. This essay explores what these previous choices are and why they have placed her in her current position. She has a lack of support, which is crucial if she is to break out of her current female position. Edna’s realization that she cannot obtain a full acceptance in either one of these three female roles finally led to her choosing suicide. This essay also explores why she chooses this final way to resolve her problem. Critics have said that the suicide is not in tune with the rest of the novel, but I will in contrast show how the ending is indeed very much in tune with Chopin’s portrayal of Edna. The confusion that Chopin shows in Edna’s character throughout the novel explains why Edna in the end takes her own life. Our protagonist is a woman who searches for an identity that she cannot find due to choices she has already made and a society which she cannot change, and in that light suicide is a viable alternative.

Master of Music / Department of Music / Slawomir Dobrzanski / This Master's report encompasses analysis of the four works performed on November 14th, 2007 for the author's Master's recital. The analysis was based on the author's experience with the pieces. Many sources were utilized to discuss composers' biographies and background information of the works. The compositions are Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata in F major, Op.10, Franz Schubert's Sonata in A major, D. 664, Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin's Nocturne in F sharp major, Op. 15, and Sergei Prokofiev's Piano Sonata No.3 in A minor.

One area related to Fryderyk Chopin which has received little attention is his influence upon literature. In order to develop two aspects of this theme a key word "basilisk" has been introduced which Robert Schumann as music critic used in explaining the unusual impression that Chopin's music first presented on the printed page. This word, with its overtones both magical and ominous, suggests the symbol for the growing wave of aestheticism with which the cult of Chopin came to be associated. Translated into literature the expression of the Chopin cult found its way into the early writings of Thomas Mann, Hermann Hesse, and John Galsworthy. Later, as the twentieth century progressed and the pendulum swung in a new direction for the arts and for literature, a suitable antidote to the basilisk was to be found in the parody of the Chopin cult offered by T. S. Eliot in his "Portrait of a Lady" and in "Chopin" by Gottfried Benn, which explores the use of biography in a poem, and moves away from the extreme subjectivity of many nineteenth-century portrayals of the Polish composer. It is the purpose of this study to trace the changing image of Chopin in a selection of literary works which belong to the period between 1890 and 1950. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

The relationship between piano manufacturer and composer is interactive, and consequently both compositions and performance styles evolved organically due to this relationship. Early on, the instrument had more influence on the composer, whereas with the instrument’s establishment, composers began to exert more influence on the subsequent development of the instrument through their requests of manufacturers. The relationship between pianist-composers and manufacturers is important for pianists to study and understand, as well as the actual sound of a composer’s fortepiano and the way he performed on it. Through studying the development of the piano and the relationship between manufacturers and composers, pianists can reinterpret compositions before the mid nineteenth century, such as Mozart, Beethoven, Dussek, Chopin, and Liszt, using their knowledge of the aforementioned to bring a different perspective to their performances on the modern piano. There are numerous manufacturers and composers who made important contributions to the development of the piano. This dissertation focuses on selected pianist-composers and fortepiano manufacturers, and the impact of their relationship on piano literature before 1860.