Several researchers have suggested that fluctuating estrogen levels may be responsible for certain physiological changes in the female body. The purpose of this study was to determine whether significant changes in the soprano voice quality occur due to the use of oral contraceptives.

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A three movement work for wind ensemble and soprano soloist.

In February of 2009 I began collaborating with the poet Margot Lurie on a series of songs for soprano voice and a large chamber ensemble. We worked separately for the following year and a half, meeting intermittently to exchange ideas and materials. I chose three poems of similar tone and thematic content, each illustrating a different "scene" which serves as a metaphor revealing a perspective of the human condition. Then I composed the music to support the text, preserving its raw clarity by allowing the piece to unfold on the surface level through simple harmonies and a primarily conjunct, speech-like vocal melody, as well as by controlling the density of instrumental textures and the rate at which new pitch information is introduced. The multiple meanings of the title are reflected in the work on several representational levels: as the vocal melody is rendered (distilled) from the surrounding harmony, the harmonies themselves render (surrender) their perceptual weight to the text, which is in itself a rendering (depiction).

We remember Penelope as the faithful wife of the eponymous character from Homer's Odyssey, which focuses on Odysseus's ten-year journey home following the ten-year Trojan War. Despite the outwardly happy ending of Odysseus's return, Penelope is a tragic figure defined by her fidelity if little else. In my telling of Penelope's story, I explore the emotional landscape and loss of identity when one is reduced in such limiting ways and unable to speak for oneself in any other terms than love and devotion to another. Penelope, for soprano and large chamber ensemble, is scored for flute, oboe, bass clarinet (doubling on clarinet), bassoon, horn in F, trumpet in C, trombone, two percussionists, piano, soprano, two violins, viola, cello, and double bass. This ensemble is diverse enough to offer a great range of contrasting--but also complementary--colors while small enough to allow clarity of individual parts. The piece consists of three movements: I. Be still, my heart, my heart, be still II. I do [interlude #1] Twenty Long Years [interlude #2] III. I need him I wish I could remember Odysseus The three movements mark stages of Penelope's decreasing sense of self. The first portrays falling in love characterized by metric ambiguity, rhythmic complexity, and a spectrum built on a B1 fundamental given in the double bass. The second consists of Penelope's vow of fidelity, which is then challenged by Odysseus's abandonment for war. The final movement consists of Penelope professing her love and need for Odysseus once again. But now that twenty years have gone by, those feelings and memories are fading. The music returns to the B fundamental in the last section. But where B had been the fundamental for falling in love at the beginning, now the spectrum conveys a sense of tragic permanence: all Penelope can do is utter Odysseus's name, slightly morphed in each incantation via varying IPA syllables. Though the audience may know the ending to Homer's poem, my piece ends on any day before Odysseus's return: the drama for me lies in the unknowing. Liminal processes in music intrigue me and so I have implemented various liminal techniques throughout the piece. At the beginning of the first movement, for example, the piano has a regular eight-beat-plus-one-eighth-note "pulse". That is to say I do not expect a pulse to be felt, per se. Instead of a perceived periodicity, I suspect a listener will hear long tones of indeterminate lengths. I use the term literally (as in subliminal) in the section "I wish I could remember". Penelope tries, but fails, to recollect a concert she and Odysseus attended before the war. In the music I quote pieces by the composers she is incorrectly recalling, thus externalizing her failing memory. One other liminal process I use often in Penelope is the process of timbral morphing. This term pertains to the process wherein one instrument seems to morph into another. In measure 25 of "Be still, my heart, my heart, be still" the double bass harmonic blends into a cello which then is blended by violin II and bass clarinet. This type of orchestration projects a state of intermediacy such that I suspect the listener may not accurately identify the instrument(s) being heard. This technique occurs in the last movement in measures 106-107 where the oboe subsumes Penelope, as if mistaking her identity for the woodwind. These liminal processes help contribute to the transition of Penelope's emotional state from gain to loss.

Who you are! Who are you? was originally commissioned by the Juventas New Music Ensemble for their Spring 2019 concert celebrating the freedom of speech. Even before the premiere of the chamber ensemble version of this piece with Juventas I had already expanded it into an orchestral work which was read by the Boston University Symphony Orchestra during the Fall 2018 reading sessions. Following the chamber ensemble premiere I again revised the piece and it won the Boston University CFA Composition Department Prize for Performance with Orchestra and was given its orchestral premiere by the BUSO under the direction of Maestro Bramwell Tovey. When I received the initial commission I instantly knew that this piece must include text, considering that the premiere would be on a program celebrating the freedom of speech. I spent a long time looking for texts and finally settled on this one by the 12th century Benedictine Abbas, composer, and philosopher Hildegard von Bingen. Her words are an exhortation to unapologetic self-expression and inspired me to be more personal in my writing of this piece than ever before. As a young composer it is easy to be influenced by what you think audiences, teachers, and performers want to hear and not use your own authentic voice. It was frightening at first to be so honest and personal with my writing however, it was what the text demanded and has led to a finished work of which I am proud.

The Wind Was There is a setting for soprano voice and orchestra of two poems by Bravig Imbs (1904-46). Imbs was an American writer active in France for most of his career. He was also a violinist and amateur composer. The piece is in two movements, with a total duration of approximately twenty-five minutes. Each movement represents a different stylistic approach to the musical material. Movement one represents the spirit, though not the harmonic language, of the early twentieth century. The second movement shows the influence of Lutoslawski and Lugeti. This eclectic approach was chosen due to the quite different moods imparted to me by the two poems.The relationship between the soprano and the orchestra is not one between soloist and accompaniment, but is more in the nature of a symphonic dialogue.

Songs out of Sorrow is a seven-movement work for wind ensemble and soprano. The text and title come from the second chapter of American poet Sara Teasdale’s collection Love Songs. The methodical use of trichord combinations provides the primary harmonic and melodic language of the work, creating rising tension through the first four movements and subsequent resolution through the final three. Movement one, Spirit’s House, utilizes non-functional triadic harmonies with the addition of fourths and seconds. The second movement, Mastery, contains whole tone language. An instrumental interlude precedes the vocal music of the third movement, Lessons. When the soprano enters, the harmonic material of the interlude intermingles with the octatonic nature of the vocal line to create a folk music quality. Another instrumental interlude follows, utilizing a truncated and re-orchestrated version of the musical material featured in the first interlude. This leads directly into the climatic fourth movement, Wisdom, which is characterized by chromatic lines and tritones. A subdued fifth movement, In a Burying Ground, follows, undulating with a percussion ostinato, which is also a feature of the first movement. Wood Song, the sixth movement, begins with a stylized birdcall based loosely on Messiaen's transcription of the call of the wood thrush, which is referenced in opening line of the text. The harmonies of this movement contain augmented triads. The final movement, Refuge, features a return to the triadic harmonic material of the first movement, providing a sense of large-scale resolution.

<p><italic>The Yellow Wallpaper</italic> is a one-act opera (in three scenes) for dramatic soprano and chamber orchestra (eleven instruments). The libretto is a free adaptation by the composer of the short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. The instrumentation required is: flute (doubling piccolo), oboe (doubling english horn), clarinet (doubling bass clarinet and E-flat clarinet), bassoon, horn, soprano, piano (doubling celesta), violin I, violin II, viola, cello, and contrabass. The approximate duration is one hour. The work is dedicated to soprano Aimee Marcoux.</p> / Dissertation