abstract: Venezuelan maraca playing is largely unknown to musicians with Western Art Music backgrounds. While some composers utilize the instrument and its associated performance practices, the resources available to learn about the subject are limited and scattered. Through research, observations, and studying with correspondences, this document will explore the vastness of Venezuelan musical concepts and maraca techniques to seek out common goals and generate a resource that is accessible to musicians and musicologists. A large part of this research will focus on the Contemporary Music in the Western tradition that has been inspired by Venezuelan maraca playing. I will explain the context in which this music is commonly found and how to apply it to a contemporary setting. The individuals I interviewed span a variety of backgrounds and expertise. All have extensive experience in Venezuelan maraca traditions. Their individual points of view will give unique perspectives to help affix the music of the past to the creation of music in the future. The limited resources on this subject inhibit education, performance quality, new music, and further research. Ultimately, my document and recordings will provide imperative examples to help develop a greater understanding of an understudied Venezuelan art form. / Dissertation/Thesis / recording of Music for Botany / recording of Javier Alvarez's Temazcal / D.M.A. Music 2012

This essay introduces readers to the music of the Venezuelan composer Modesta Bor (1926-1998) and provides a resource for interpretation of her art songs for voice and piano. Bor was an important composer in Venezuela with a successful career in composition, pedagogy, and conducting. However, she is not widely known outside of Venezuela and scholarship on her art song is limited. This study seeks to fill that void by examining Bor’s twenty-nine published art songs for solo voice and piano. These works include the song cycles/collections Tres canciones infantiles para voz y piano, Canciones infantiles, Primer ciclo de romanzas para contralto y piano, Segundo ciclo de romanzas para contralto y piano, Tríptico sobre poesía cubana, and Tres canciones para mezzo-soprano y piano, as well as nine ungrouped songs. Bor’s art songs are notable for her imitation of Venezuelan folk and popular music in the vein of Figurative Nationalism, her sophisticated harmonic language, and neoclassical techniques such as ostinato and motivic variation. This essay aims to help performers begin to understand the allusions to the national music of Venezuela. Her music elevates the llanero, the common rural laborer, and comments on the social issues of her people. This essay provides a brief history of Venezuelan music, a biography of Bor, and brief biographies of the poets used. It also contributes original poetic and musical analyses of her art songs, exploring the areas of form, melody, rhythm, and harmony. Venezuelan Spanish and the lyric diction appropriate for Bor’s songs are discussed. Poetic translations, word-for-word translations, and International Phonetic Alphabet transliterations are included for all of the poetry used.