The purpose of this study was to investigate, through stylistic analysis, the choral problems in twelve selected choruses from George Frederick Handel's oratorio, Messiah. The twelve choruses were selected for analysis in this study after consultation with several authorities in the field of choral music and on the basis that they are representative of problems encountered in the remaining choruses. Each of the twelve choruses was analyzed individually. Chapter I of this study presents the purpose of the study, the sub-problems involved, definitions of terms, delimitations, the basic hypothesis of the study, the basic assumptions of the study, methodology and the plan of the report. Chapter II of this study contains a brief biographical sketch of Handel, a discussion of the circumstances surrounding the composition of Messiah, and a survey of the Handelian oratorio Chorus. Chapter III presents the results of the analysis relevant to a discussion of each of the twelve choruses followed by a sectional presentation of the choral problems. In Chapter IV, a summary, some conclusions and recommendations are offered. Appendices A and B present reviews of selected recordings and vocal-piano editions of Messiah respectively.

Charles Jennens (1700-1773), the librettist of 'Saul', 'Messiah', 'Belshazzar', the final part of 'L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato', and probably 'Israel in Egypt', amassed a huge library of music that forms the bulk of what is now known as the Aylesford collection. Jennens's collection of Handel's music was unique among those of his contemporaries, not only because it includes part-books, but also because it is unusually comprehensive. The dissertation focuses on his copies of the sacred oratorios beginning with 'Saul' (1739) because most of the collection was copied in the 1740s, the sacred oratorios were the works that Jennens was most interested in, and 'Saul' was his first collaboration with Handel. As many of these manuscripts have not been the focus of modern scholarly attention, I first establish how, when, and by whom each manuscript was copied, in order to achieve a greater understanding of how and when Jennens assembled his collection, and what his reasons were for doing so. This close study of the manuscripts reveals that Jennens made extensive alterations to the verbal text, the structure, and the music of several oratorios in his collection. His amendments to 'Saul' and 'Belshazzar' shed light on his collaboration with Handel; and his amendments to 'Samson' and 'Joseph and his Brethren' provide insights into his attitude to Handel in the mid-1740s, his approach to word-setting, his views on the adaptation of Scripture for oratorio, and his beliefs and commitments. Jennens was a highly educated man whose activities were informed by two deeply held, conflicting allegiances: to the Anglican Church and to the deposed Stuarts. An examination of how he harnessed Handel's music to deliver his religious and political messages leads to a richer and more profound understanding of the works, of the relationship between Jennens, Handel, and Handel's music, and of their place in the religious and political context of the mid-eighteenth century.

The author of the thesis wants to examine the applicability of the concept of galant style as presented by Robert Gjerdingen in his treatise Music in the Galant Style (2007). As a musical material which he wants to analyze by using the mentioned concept he chooses three extant sepolcros by a schoolmaster from Bakov nad Jizerou Jiří Ignác Linek (1725-1791). Further, he deals with a thesis by Eva Tomandlová (1934- 2010) written in the late 1950's that had these sepolcros as its subject. Thus, at presenting Gjerdingen's approach and its specific possibilities, the author can make use of comparison with a method which can be considered an exemplar of the prevailing analytical tradition. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

In the process of carving a new England out of the southern end of Vancouver Island in the later nineteenth century, the population of Victoria, BC sought to forge a British identity for themselves through music and its associated rituals. They did this through the pursuit of purposeful acts of cultural meaning. In the social sphere, concerts, parades, religious services, and theatrical productions heightened and inspired loyalty to Mother England. Victoria’s upper classes could then dominate by excluding those people—including Jewish, Chinese, Indigenous, African-American, and Hawaiian residents—who did not conform to that identity. In late-nineteenth-century Victoria, music became more than just a way to celebrate, worship, and recreate; it defined social life for British and non-British peoples alike and shaped the physical space in which they lived. This dissertation explores late nineteenth-century Victoria’s creation of a British identity through music. Ensuring that their churches had a powerful organ and talented organists, Victoria’s religious community proved that they could undertake Britain’s highest social point of sacred musical performance: the choral festival. Positioning George Frideric Handel’s Messiah—with its strong connotations of Britain and her Empire—as their showstopper, these choral festivals served to cement relationships between those citizens who considered themselves British, while also proclaiming this identity as a mark of superiority to the community at large. Itinerant opera troupes further strengthened these imperial bonds by importing European and British opera to Victoria. Through the performances of these professional travelling musicians, Victorian Victorians were able to experience high art and popular operatic music of the Western world, joining the particularly British Pinafore and Mikado crazes of the 1870s and 1880s. These itinerant singers thoroughly impressed local musicians, who avidly tried to reproduce what they had heard, first in instrumental overtures and medleys in the 1860s and 1870s, then with vocal and instrumental operatic numbers in miscellany concerts in the 1870s and 1880s, and finally with full operatic productions in the 1880s and beyond. As with choral festivals in the religious sphere, taking part in opera productions also helped to create a shared sense of British identity among Victoria’s upper classes, during a time when other defining factors of social placement were not yet secure. Settlers in Victoria removed the Indigenous and natural impediments to the construction of their new metropolis, in effect silencing their cultural “voice.” Besides the Indigenous peoples of Vancouver Island, other recent settlers posed challenges to British hegemony, especially Chinese immigrants and “coloured” people of African origin, many of whom came from the United States. Even the gender demographics in the male-dominated frontier society posed challenges to the civilizing process. The Jews of Victoria, the majority of whom were of German or English origin, present an ambiguous case of a cultural and religious community at the crossroads in mid-nineteenth-century Victoria. The butt of rising anti-Semitism in continental Europe, Victoria’s Jewish minority used music and ritual to establish themselves as members of the dominant class. / Graduate / 0413 / 0334 / 0357 / libby.concord@gmail.com

This subject has been chosen by the writer for the purpose of discussing these problems of performance, arising with the composition, the St. Matthew Passion, by J. S. Bach. Since Bach was a German and wrote in that language, the edition used is called the American edition. The performances in America are, with few exceptions, based upon translations which must be accurately edited so as not to obscure Bach's intentions.

The thesis deals with the musical and stylistic analysis of the F. X. Brixi's oratorio Judas Iscariothes, that was preserved in the Osek Monastery under the name Oratorio pro die sacro parasceves. The first part of the thesis describes the musical history, preserved music sources and inventories of Osek. The next section deals with the oratorio in Osek. The main point of this chapter is to inventory oratorio productions performed in Osek during the 18th and early 19th century. The key part of the thesis is the musical and style analysis of the oratorio Judas Iscariothes. Appendix contains the edition of this oratorio.

Three works by Tippett stand together among his compositions because of their similarity of subject and performance medium. All are large works for soloists, chorus and orchestra, on meditative librettos, and intended for unstaged presentation. Only A Child of Our Time is given the genre designation "oratorio" by Tippett. An in-depth analysis of these works and the model for A Child of Our Time, Handel's Messiah, reveals that though they neither present religious subjects nor, in the case of The Vision of Saint Augustine and The Mask of Time, exhibit traditional formal divisions associated with oratorio, Tippett's works do indeed belong to the oratorio repertoire of the twentieth century.

This study examines two of the smaller American choral societies that together existed for just over 30 years, 1888 to 1919: The Gounod and New Haven Oratorio Societies of New Haven, Connecticut. These societies are important because, especially in the case of the New Haven Society, they were closely related to Yale University and the work of Horatio Parker. One must assume from the onset that the two choral groups examined in the following pages did not have the prominence of the many larger New England choral societies. However a more detailed knowledge about the struggles, successes, influence and leadership of two smaller societies illuminates a field of research in the history of American choral music that has been largely ignored.

The master thesis deals with the composition Stabat mater written by italian composer and maestro Antonio Ferradini (1718/19-1779). The thesis evaluates current research situation concerning the personality of Ferradini by criticising the surviving sources. Special care was taken for the music performance practice in the church of Knights of the Cross with the Red Star. Than the comparative method was used for the purpose of analysing author's compositional style. The works were chosen with care to the developement in Stabat mater writings since early 18th century. The comparation was conducted by analyzing the scope of aspects such as setting, instrumentation, scales, affects, rhetorical figures and text-music relationship.

Sans limiter notre propos aux seules voix masculines aiguës, il s'agit ici de refléter l'importance historique de l'évolution de la voix de ténor dans les mutations du goût et de la vocalité lyrique en France au cours du deuxième tiers du XIXe siècle. Aborder l'opéra, l'opéra-comique et les morceaux de salon via leurs interprètes permet d'insister sur la dimension théâtrale, vocale et oratoire de ces genres. En vue de définir les caractéristiques techniques du chant français, la thèse exploite largement les jugements portés par les artistes entre eux. Ces jugements sont notamment livrés par les méthodes et les mémoires imprimées, les archives du Conservatoire et les correspondances. Pour envisager les conditions pratiques des exécutions vocales, nous avons procédé à une étude des situations, des contraintes et des attentes des chanteurs comme des auditeurs, en fonction des lieux et des répertoires abordés. Afin de mieux appréhender les qualificatifs employés par les musicographes rendant compte des prestations publiques, on a mis en relation le lexique des traités avec les premiers enregistrements sonores. La meilleure connaissance des codes de la tradition permet en outre d'envisager avec une pertinence accrue la cohérence des divers paramètres concourant à la juste interprétation scénique et musicale. La réinvention d'après les sources d'un savoir-faire répond d'ailleurs à une attente croissante des programmateurs et des interprètes pour renouveler leur approche d'un répertoire ou redécouvrir une part du romantisme français oublié (www.lesfrivolitesparisiennes.com). / Looking at opera, opéra-comique and salon music through the eyes of the first performers stresses the histrionic and vocal dimension of their art. Thus, this dissertation drives from the mutual appraisals of artists, which can be found in treaties, memoirs, archives of the Paris Conservatoire, letters, etc. The vocabulary used to describe singing in the 19th-century has been linked to 78rpm records and cylinder recordings. The relative focus on high-pitched male voices is only relevant because changes in the general taste for opera voices were mainly triggered by leading tenors during the romantic era. The impact of various locations and repertory on the audience's expectations was studied in order to define the aesthetic and social frame of vocal performance. Reinventing the practical know-how from the sources actually meets the growing expectations of both schedulers and singers who want to renew the approach of the so-called "romantic" French repertory - which currently goes widely unknown and unsung. A better understanding of tradition allows for more consistent historically informed performances (www.lesfrivolitesparisiennes.com).