Masters Research - Master of Creative Arts / The study of Love and Death in Art Song and Opera is all- encompassing, threading the study of music with the other arts – literature, especially poetry and drama, and the visual arts, especially painting – and linking the study of philosophy and history, to provide a reference point for the societal attitudes of the time in which my repertoire was written. As the themes of love and death began to be expressed in literature and the arts in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, my exploration of this theme has grown into a journey through some of the most beautiful, expressive and well-known vocal music of the Romantic era, and into the twentieth century. The Romantics were intimately concerned with the expression of individual emotions, providing me with many opportunities to study repertoire relating to the many aspects of both love and death. It was interesting to discover how musical expression changed within the different national schools I studied – German, French, Spanish, and some Italian arias. I began my study in 1810 with the songs of Franz Schubert. As the master who revolutionized the German Lied, I felt it appropriate to open my first recital, indeed the first two recitals, with a set of Schubert Lieder. I also studied the works of Robert Schumann in the first two recitals, the only composer whose Lieder I studied as single songs and as a song cycle, the well-loved Frauenliebe und Leben. In Recital 2 I turned my attention to French repertoire, with the study of the magnificent song cycle of Hector Berlioz, Les nuits d’été. In the first two recitals I also studied bel canto and French arias. In the third recital I decided to continue my exploration of French Romantic music in relationship to love and death with a set of songs by Gabriel Fauré. My attention turned back to German repertoire - very different, however, from the works of Schubert and Schumann, in the famous song cycle by Richard Wagner, Wesendoncklieder. Two French songs completed this recital. My final recital featured an all-Spanish program, in which I explored my theme in two song cycles, Spanish opera and zarzuela.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/280661 |
| Date | January 2009 |
| Creators | Powell, Vivienne |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | Copyright 2009 Vivienne Powell |
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