This dissertation explores the choices involved in being a composer in Latin America during the last decades of the eighteenth century and the first decades of the nineteenth century. My primary interest is to understand how composers adapted or not- their aesthetics, ideas and careers amid the rapid changes brought to this region between the 1790s and 1850s, a period often described as an “Age of Revolutions” and that saw the end of colonial rule and the foundation of modern independent nations. Composers in the region worked within European forms and styles, and with Europe as a cosmopolitan cultural model; but they also learned, composed and performed in a specific set of historical conditions that differed from those in contemporary Europe. In that sense, my interest is in the specific agency composers -as literate urban citizens- had in appropriating and shaping transatlantic cultural transfers during this period. My study focuses on two musicians working in the Andean region, today’s Bolivia, Peru and Chile, during this period: José Bernardo Alzedo (Lima, 1788-1878) and Pedro Ximénez Abrill Tirado (Arequipa, 1784 - Sucre, 1856). Born in late-colonial times, both composers adapted themselves and their musical styles to the new expectations created by the post-independence period. Through five chapters I explore their specific role as composers, and how their decisions and choices impacted their careers and music, both personally and in context. Some key problems discussed in the dissertation include the definitions of local, personal and national “schools” and styles of composition; the notion of the composer as a postcolonial letrado; the ways in which specific European influences (like printed scores and Italian opera) shaped local musical scenes; and the complexities of adapting colonial musical models to the new “republican” period and its changing values, perspectives and ideals.

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Many have noted nineteenth-century composers' tendency to undermine crucial formal boundaries normally found in eighteenth-century sonata forms. This dissertation examines phenomena that undermine the demarcation between the expositional secondary theme and closing section. In this document I refer to such events as "S-C Complications." In their Elements of Sonata Theory: Norms, Types, and Deformations in the Late-Eighteenth-Century Sonata (2006), James Hepokoski and Warren Darcy argued that this point of articulation plays a much more crucial role than that of merely forming a boundary between S- and C-space. Rather, it serves as the goal for the entire expositional trajectory, a goal whose presence is felt from the very outset of the movement. The authors refer to this moment as "essential expositional closure," or EEC. In this dissertation I attempt to show what role EEC in Hepokoski and Darcy's sense plays in nineteenth-century movements featuring S-C Complications. I conclude that nineteenth-century composers were very likely aware of the EEC's genre-defining status since they consistently and systematically undermined it. Further, whereas in the late-eighteenth-century repertoire S-C complications were rarely employed, in the nineteenth century they became more normative, and thus non-deformational. In addition to discussing the phenomena's dialogic relationship with eighteenth-century norms, I also address their effect on tonal structure and formal syntax, concluding that S-C Complications frequently have the effect of expanding closure beyond the scope of one cadence. For practical reasons I have limited the scope of this study to non-concerto movements written primarily by Schubert, Mendelssohn, and Brahms.

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Current and historical methods of metric analysis often assume that the first beat of a metric group is stronger than the second. This, however, is not the case in all repertoires. For example, a study by William Rothstein (2011) demonstrates that Verdi’s midcentury operas often place emphasis on even-numbered beats. This paper shows this metric trend to be even more prevalent in a corpus of 208 nineteenth-century operatic excerpts, (1809-1859). I present a formal model that classifies phrases according to anacrusis length and prosodic accent, showing where large-scale metric accents fall within a phrase. This model produces three metric types which align with Rosthstein’s (2011) previous work. Compositional and historical features (e.g., language, premiere date, librettist, etc.) were tracked alongside type in order to determine whether preferences for certain metric forms were more prevalent in certain contexts. This indeed was the case. For instance, use of even-emphasis meter increases over time, even though odd-emphasis meter remains most common. Individual composers also show a significantly distinguishable preference toward each type of meter. These results not only confirm that the highest concentration of even-emphasis meter occurs in Verdi’s midcentury operas (Rothstein 2011), but that Verdi is the primary user of this type overall. I also demonstrate that language and composer nationality do not significantly affect an excerpt's metric type; only Verdi shows distinction in these areas. With this finding, I argue against using nationalist language to identify metric types and instead propose suggestions that better-reflect an updated understanding of nineteenth-century metric conventions.

This study is concerned with the examination of choral symphonies by major nineteenth-century composers. Its purpose is to delineate the common characteristics which these works have. Emphasis is given to the investigation of the choral elements in the symphonies. Detailed musicological studies of nineteenth-century music are minimal; there has. been a particular lack of interest in nineteenth-century works for chorus. Therefore, the principal sources of data for this study were the full scores of the following nine symphonies: Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, Berlioz' Romeo and Juliet and the Funeral and Triumphal Symphony, Mendelssohn's Lobgesang, Liszt's Faust Symphony and Dante Syrmphony, and Mahler's Symphonies Nos. 2., 3, and 8. Other important sources included major biographies of the composers of the symphonies listed. chapter is devoted to each of these composers, subdivided as follows: a general survey of the composer's other works for chorus and/or orchestra; the historical facts connected with the composition and first performance of the individual symphonies; analysis; and conclusions.

Beethoven’s tempo indications have been the subject of much scholarly debate, but a coherent understanding of his intended tempos has not yet emerged. There are several reasons for this. Firstly, some of the discussion has been based on unreliable sources, or an unrepresentative sample of sources. Secondly, the substantial differences between tempo preferences in the early nineteenth century and now has made these tempo indications difficult to approach for musicians in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Thirdly, discussions of Beethoven’s tempo have typically focussed on works in one particular genre. This thesis overcomes these limitations by incorporating all of Beethoven’s works, and rooting the whole research in a wide variety of sources from the eighteenth and nineteenth century that have a plausible relationship with Beethoven’s practice. In particular the metronome marks by Beethoven, as well as those from his close contemporaries Carl Czerny, Ignaz Moscheles, and Karl Holz, provide great insight into the composer’s sense of tempo. By using as many sources on Beethoven’s tempo as possible, this approach makes reasonable estimations of the actual speeds that Beethoven had in mind for his works. Furthermore, it also allows an exploration of the musical intuitions that are the root cause of these speeds.

<p>This essay in musicology is combined with a CD-recording of piano improvisations. Its purpose is, on the one hand, to examine some of the ideas permeating piano improvisation during the first part of the nineteenth century, and, on the other, to find ways to apply these nineteenth century ideas of improvising to modern piano playing. The artistic part of the work is as important as the theoretical, and the two strands are supporting and reinforcing each other.</p><p>The first section of the text focuses on preluding – that is, a <em>genre</em> <em>of improvisation</em>. The second section investigates some aspects of the improvising of Franz Liszt – that is, different types of <em>improvisation as practised by an important nineteenth century musician.</em> The instructional music literature written by Carl Czerny is the basic source of reference in both portions.</p><p>The text and the recordings of my piano improvisations aim to show that monothematic strategies are simple and useful tools for improvising, regardless of tonal language used.</p><p>Half of the recordings consist of improvisations of separate pieces in a contemporary musical language. The other half are preludes, interludes and a cadenza improvised in the context of compositions by Liszt, Chopin, Mozart, Mendelssohn and Grieg.</p>

This essay in musicology is combined with a CD-recording of piano improvisations. Its purpose is, on the one hand, to examine some of the ideas permeating piano improvisation during the first part of the nineteenth century, and, on the other, to find ways to apply these nineteenth century ideas of improvising to modern piano playing. The artistic part of the work is as important as the theoretical, and the two strands are supporting and reinforcing each other. The first section of the text focuses on preluding – that is, a genre of improvisation. The second section investigates some aspects of the improvising of Franz Liszt – that is, different types of improvisation as practised by an important nineteenth century musician. The instructional music literature written by Carl Czerny is the basic source of reference in both portions. The text and the recordings of my piano improvisations aim to show that monothematic strategies are simple and useful tools for improvising, regardless of tonal language used. Half of the recordings consist of improvisations of separate pieces in a contemporary musical language. The other half are preludes, interludes and a cadenza improvised in the context of compositions by Liszt, Chopin, Mozart, Mendelssohn and Grieg.