Am 8. Dezember 1747 feierte die sächsische Kurfürstin und polnische Königin Maria Josepha (1699–1757) ihren 48. Geburtstag. Zu diesem Anlass verfasste ihre Schwiegertochter Maria Antonia Walpurgis den Text der Kantate »Che ti dirò Regina«. Die sächsische Kurprinzessin hatte den ältesten Sohn des Herrscherpaares, Friedrich Christian (1722–1763), im gleichen Jahr geheiratet und war im Juni nach Dresden gekommen.

abstract: This fifteen-minute cyclical mass uses excerpts from the text of the Mass Ordinary and is laid out into five movements and across three different languages: Kyrie (Latin), Gloria (Chinese), Credo (English), Sanctus (Chinese), and Agnus Dei (Latin). Rather than following the tradition of celebrating devotion, this mass tells the story of the abuse of power in political and religious leadership. Movements sung in Latin represent the devout Christian base whose motives and inspiration remain pure and divine. The English movement, Credo, has been altered from the original and represents the manipulation and distortion of scripture, truth, and facts by self-serving leaders and politicians. Finally, Chinese movements represent those who are persecuted for their convictions and their identity. The turmoil of the Chinese movements is characterized by atonality and fast tempos with contrasting, meditative, lyrical B sections. The outer Latin movements contain the familiar Kyrie and Agnus Dei texts in triple canon with the orchestra. The English middle movement is simultaneously familiar and awkward, with harmonies that almost function, under an altered Credo text. After an aria-like passage, the orchestra takes the “I believe” figure and manipulates it in a modal fugato, culminating in a climactic version of the main motive. A repeated double-dotted quarter note—sixteenth-note rhythm followed by a fast tremolo in the castanets make up the central “bangu motive.” This motive is derived from traditional Beijing Opera, in which the bangu is the principal percussion element. As a rhythmic motive, fragments of it appear in every movement and in several different instrument groups. These fragments undergo various transformations before a version of it arrives as the final Agnus Dei rhythmic figure. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Music 2018

OVERGROWN discusses the music elements found in the thesis composition of the same name. OVERGROWN was written for soprano solo, flute, bass clarinet, soprano saxophone, baritone saxophone, trumpet, trombone, vibraphone, percussion, cello and double bass. The text was written by Matthew Raymond Smith.

Am 8. Dezember 1747 feierte die sächsische Kurfürstin und polnische Königin Maria Josepha (1699–1757) ihren 48. Geburtstag. Zu diesem Anlass verfasste ihre Schwiegertochter Maria Antonia Walpurgis den Text der Kantate »Che ti dirò Regina«. Die sächsische Kurprinzessin hatte den ältesten Sohn des Herrscherpaares, Friedrich Christian (1722–1763), im gleichen Jahr geheiratet und war im Juni nach Dresden gekommen.

Johann Gottlieb Naumann ist einer der wenigen Hofkapellmeister am kurfürstlich-sächsischen Hof, der auch aus Dresden stammt. Er wurde am 17. April 1741 in Blasewitz bei Dresden geboren. Nach einer entbehrungsreichen Jugend und frühzeitigen musikalischen Ausbildung in Italien übertrug die hochmusikalische Kurfürsten-Witwe Maria Antonia Walpurgis bereits dem 23jährigen Naumann das verantwortungsvolle Amt als Kirchen-Compositeur in einer desolaten Lage der musikalischen höfischen Kultur. Naumann hat den Text – die Arie des Arpago aus Metastasios »Ciro riconosciuto«, Wien 1736 – nochmals vertont. So sind mehrere Abschriften eines Duettes für zwei Soprane und Basso continuo in Venedig und Padua überliefert. Eine Datierung des Werkes ist ungewiss, es gibt aber zwei indirekte Hinweise auf eine mögliche Entstehungszeit. 1778 erschien die Canzonette »Ecco quel fiero istante« nach Metastasio für zwei Violinen, Sopran und Basso1, neben dem vorliegenden Werk die einzige Canzonette mit Begleitung mehrere Instrumente. Weitere Gesänge auf italienische Texte für Solostimme und ausschließlicher Klavierbegleitung gehen auf das Jahr 1769 zurück. Naumann war mit Johann Adolf Faustinus Weiss, dem Sohn von Silvius Leopold Weiss, befreundet, der seit 1763 bis zu seinem Tod 1814 als Kammerlautenist an der Dresdner Hofkapelle verpflichtet war. Er kann als Interpret infrage kommen.

abstract: The combination of soprano, trumpet, strings and continuo was used with much frequency by Baroque composers in their cantatas, oratorios and operas of the time, giving the trumpet a very important place as a solo instrument from 1600 to 1750. The discovery of two pieces by Neapolitan Baroque composers Domenico Sarro (1679-1744) and Gennaro Manna (1715-1779) enlarges the already important body of known works for this instrumentation. Presenting them in performance editions is a valuable contribution to this repertory. Making performance editions available to performers is always an important and exciting task, especially if they exhibit features that have rarely been seen in this combination of instruments and voices. This is specifically the case with Manna's Tuba Sonora Exclama, which shows many interesting features of the Early Classical style. Both works were discovered by the author in a digital archive sponsored by the Ministry of Heritage and Culture for the Italian Government. The original copies of these works are held at two Neapolitan libraries: Biblioteca Statale Oratoriana del Monumento Nazionale del Girolamini (Manna's piece), and Biblioteca del Conservatorio di musica San Pietro a Majella (Sarro's Per abbattere il mio core, from his opera Partenope.) The manuscripts, obtained in digital format, are well preserved and easy to understand. Along with the scores prepared for this document, some historical background about each composer, a discussion of the use of the trumpet as a solo instrument in arias with voice, and descriptions of the pieces are presented. Other important information, such as editorial procedures and critical notes, is also given. / Dissertation/Thesis / D.M.A. Music 2011

abstract: Everyday Arias for soprano and orchestra was composed largely in Arizona and completed in February 2011. The text was taken from a small collection of the composer's own poetry referencing her memories of life in rural Mississippi. Everyday Arias endeavors to elevate these prosaic experiences and settings to art, expressing the everyday as beautiful and worthy of artistic treatment. The primary compositional model for this work was Samuel Barber's Knoxville: Summer of 1915, but other influences included Charles Ives, Aaron Copland, Benjamin Britten, and Dominick Argento. Barber's and Argento's musical treatment of prose style seemed particularly appropriate to the goals of Everyday Arias. Ives and Copland used hymn tunes both to evoke certain associations of worship and as sources of interesting material. The vocal writing of all five composers was influential, but the orchestration techniques for winds are largely a product of studying Ives and Argento, while many string gestures are more obviously tied to Britten and - more historically - Debussy.The primary motive that weaves through the work features an ascending major second followed by a descending perfect fourth, in a long-short-long rhythmic pattern. As a melodic fragment, the motive is often inverted to a descending-ascending pattern, or distorted slightly by expanding the second interval to a perfect fifth, or used in retrograde. The motive was derived from the first measure of the melody "Toplady" (1830) by Thomas Hastings, better known as the hymn "Rock of Ages." In the first movement, the motive is used most frequently in sequences. The second movement treats the motive as a melodic element and as a unit in ostinati. The final movement humorously transforms it into a syncopated gesture to evoke ragtime. / Dissertation/Thesis / D.M.A. Music 2011

Master of Music / Department of Music, Theatre, and Dance / Patricia Thompson / The purpose of this graduate report is to explore the influential stories and historical aspects behind the composition of selected works from the soprano repertoire. This document is completed in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Music degree in vocal performance. The recital was held on Sunday, April 29, 2018, at seven-thirty o’clock in the evening at the First Presbyterian Church, located on 801 Leavenworth Street in Manhattan, KS. Works for this recital were chosen to create a contrasting and unique program to span the soprano repertoire from the Baroque era to late twentieth century, and to display the histories and influences of these compositions. The following works are examined in detail within this document: 1. “Komm in mein Herzenhaus” from Ein’ feste Burg ist unser Gott, BWV 80, by Johann Sebastian Bach 2. “On mighty pens” from The Creation by Franz Joseph Haydn 3. Fêtes galantes I (1882) by Claude Debussy 1. “En sourdine” 2. “Fantoches” 3. “Clair de lune” 4. “Senza mama” from Suor Angelica by Giacomo Puccini 5. As it fell upon a day by Aaron Copland 6. A Letter from Sullivan Ballou by John Kander 7. “What Good Would the Moon Be?” from Street Scene by Kurt Weill 8. Les filles de Cadix by Léo Delibes Each chapter of this document is dedicated to a specific work from the program, and contains the following: 1) biographical information on the composer, 2) historical information and influences on the composition as well as from its grander counterpart if the selection is from a larger work, and 3) a textual and musical analysis of the selection.

abstract: This project’s goal is to expand the repertoire for soprano saxophone featuring improvisation. Each work detailed in this document features improvisation as an integral component. The first piece, Impetus, was written by Grant Jahn for soprano saxophone and piano. The second piece, Sonata, was written for the same instrumentation by Brett Wery. Ethan Cypress wrote the third work for solo soprano saxophone, Noir et Bleu. The final composition on the project, Counterpunch by Gregory Wanamaker, was written for saxophone sextet. This paper also includes composer biographies, program notes, performance guides, and composer questionnaires. The central component of this project is a recording of all these works which features the author. / Dissertation/Thesis / Counterpunch for Saxophone Sextet, by Gregory Wanamaker / Sonata for Soprano Saxophone and Piano, II. Adagio sognando – “Bluesy” andantino by Brett Wery / Sonata for Soprano Saxophone and Piano, III. Danza ritmica, by Brett Wery / Noir et Bleu for Solo Soprano Saxophone, by Ethan Cypress / Impetus for Soprano Saxophone and Piano, by Grant Jahn / Sonata for Soprano Saxophone and Piano, I. Allegro ma non troppo, by Brett Wery / Doctoral Dissertation Music 2018

This thesis presents extended program notes for a sixty-minute vocal graduate recital consisting of the following repertoire for soprano: “How Beautiful are the Feet of Them” and “He Shall Feed His Flock” from Messiah and “Lascia ch’io pianga” from Rinaldo by George Frederick Handel; “La morte d’Ophélie” by Hector Berlioz; the Swedish art songs “Vingar i natten” by Ture Rangström and “Jung fru Blond och jung fru Brunette” by Wilhelm Stenhammar; the contemporary art song “Animal Passion” by Jake Heggie; and the following arias and duets by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: “Mi tradi quell ‘alma ingrata” from Don Giovanni, “Bei Männern, welche liebe fuhlen” and “Papageno, Papagena” from Die Zauberflöte, “Deh vieni, non tardar o gioja bella,” “Venite inginochiatevi,” and “Via resti servita” from Le nozze di Figaro, and the Concert Aria “Ch’io mi scordi di te?...non temer, amato bene,” K.505. These works encompass a variety of styles, musical periods and forms spanning over four centuries. The recital itself is documented on the accompanying compact disc, while these program notes contain discuss historical context, musical analysis, and performance practice for this repertoire.