No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

The grand motet was the major large musical form of state-sponsored religion in France in the 17th and 18th centuries. It emerged from the double chorus motet of the early 17th century, influenced by the new musical trends from Italy and French secular genres such as the air de cour and dances, and remained essentially unchanged until the French Revolution. The period covered in this study, beginning with the assumption of power of Louis XIV in 1661 and ending with the death of Delalande in 1726, represents the full blooming and highest musical development of the grand motet. Composers in this form whose names and works have come down to us were associated primarily with the Chapelle Royale at Versailles and, in a few cases, with the more important Paris churches. These composers include some whose names may be familiar: Dumont, Robert, Lully, Campra, Charpentier and Delalande; the repertoire of motets which they produced represents possibly the largest untapped body of Baroque church music still left. The number of motets extant in score or parts is unknown, but numbers in the hundreds. Of these, perhaps ten are available in a decently performable modern edition. It may indeed be that a certain portion of this repertoire deserves to languish in obscurity, but the attractiveness of some of the motets now available suggests the existence of others of high musical worth.

This work is a setting of the hymn of Thanksgiving written by St. Nicetius in the sixth century, the TE DEUM. In the Roman Catholic liturgy it replaces the last responsory of Matins on Feast Days and Sundays and in the Anglican liturgy it is one of the canticles of Morning Prayer. The text is one of the few surviving examples of Latin "Psalmus Idioticus" which were, along with the GLORIA of the Ordinary of the Mass and the EXULTET, early Latin texts written in imitation of the Psalms. This TE DEUM was written to continue a tradition of choral settings of this text, in Latin, English, and German, beginning with Palestrina and Handel, and continuing with Haydn, Mozart, Berlioz, Bruckner, Dvorak, Verdi, Britten, Walton, Kodaly, Persichetti, and Vaughan Williams to the present. The quotes from the Metamorphoses for 23 strings of Richard Strauss are used in honor of Strauss' quote of Beethoven's EROICA Funeral March at the end of the Metamorphoses. Strauss was acknowledging the "Master" and his compositional tradition and in the same way I humbly respect the artistic legacy I have inherited. The text and the music have symbiotically wended their way through the centuries out of the pens of the masters. The work is set using the English translation of the Anglican Church, is in one movement and is scored for the following forces: double woodwind with alto saxophone, four horns, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, tuba, timpani, suspended cymbal, tam tam, tubular chimes, vibraphone, triangle, crash cymbals, SATB soli, SSAATTBB chorus, and strings.

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A common misconception in our understanding of the history of conducting stems from a failure to identify properly the origin of beat patterns. Berlioz's L'Art du chef d'orchestra, written in 1844, has long been accepted as the first major text to codify both the principles of conducting and the beat-patterns conductors have employed to facilitate communication with performers.The beat-patterns illustrated in L'Art du chef d'orchestre had actually been in existence for well over a century before Berlioz wrote about them. The present study will document the existence of beat patterns prior to 1844 and examine their influence on performance practice.

The practice of applying variation to a given musical statement is one of the oldest of musical concepts. Before written notation was developed, the aural transmission of musical ideas naturally involved some degree of personal interpretation and variation. Documented history of variations as a musical form begins in the sixteenth century when the variation was established as an important musical procedure which increased the length and expression of a musical idea. In The Technique of Variation, Robert Nelson distinguishes seven categories of variation types developed from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries: 1. Renaissance and baroque variations on secular songs, dances, and arias. 2. Renaissance and baroque variations on plain songs and chorales. 3. The baroque basso ostinato variation. 4. The ornamental variation of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. 5. The nineteenth -century character variation. 6. The nineteenth -century basso ostinato variation. 7. The free variation of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Variation remains an important process in music in the twentieth century -- as a viable compositional technique, as a virtuosic showpiece for the concert stage, and as a basic element of jazz music, where ornamentation and variation are integral elements of improvisation. The theme and variations is particularly suited to the harp. Elements of the form, such as its sectional aspects, allow the exposition of many facets of the instrument in one composition. The harp is endowed with an outstanding capacity for tone color and interpretive effects. Certain techniques available only to the harp, such as the glissando, bisbigliando, and pedal slide can be incorporated into a theme and variation, presenting a vast range of interpretive possibilities. The following four variation works offer a comprehensive representation of Theme and Variations originally written for the harp: Tema con Variazioni, G. F. Handel, Variations on a Theme of Mozart, M. I. Glinka, Fantaisie pour Harpe sur un theme de Haydn, M. Grandjany, Variations sur un theme dans le Style Ancien, C. Salzedo. These works span a period from the early eighteenth century to the twentieth century, during which time many advancements were made in the construction of the harp and also in the development of harp technique. Themes and variations are extremely worthwhile for pedagogical purposes as well as for performance on the concert stage. Suitability of the form for the harp and the virtuosic nature of the works have made them an important part of the harp repertoire.

Most choral conductors, at some point in their career, will be faced with the prospect of performing a composition that utilizes both voices and instruments. There is a considerable amount of material to turn to for assistance in the areas of gesture, instrumental conducting terminology, and suggestions for improving communication with a group of instrumentalists. However, very little information is available to help determine proper placement of the musicians for performance. This aspect is critical since one of the major difficulties in dealing with instruments and voices is achieving a dynamic balance between the two forces. Too often the method of obtaining an acceptable balance is limited to the conductor imploring the orchestra to play as soft as possible and the chorus to sing louder. Frequently, especially in large choral/orchestral performances, subtle nuances which have been carefully rehearsed seem to either be disregarded or sacrificed during the performance. The purpose of this study is to provide the choral conductor with information on seating arrangements, acoustical properties of voices, instruments and architecture, and demonstrate how, utilizing this material, a seating arrangement for Trinity Presbyterian Church in Tucson, Arizona was designed. It is hoped that this study will provide information which will assist the conductor in making knowledgeable decisions concerning the placement of musicians toward a more satisfactory dynamic balance.