Music

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Research from the Department of Music. The department website may be found at https://www.ndsu.edu/performingarts/music/

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    Championing the Lives and Works of American Women Artists: a Performance Guide to Libby Larsen’s Song Cycle Mary Cassatt (1844-1926): Seven Songs for Mezzo-soprano, Solo Trombone, and Orchestra (With 15 Projections of Cassatt’s Paintings) (1994)
    (North Dakota State University, 2022) Tlusty, Catherine
    Libby Larsen (b. 1950), one of America’s leading composers, has written in nearly every genre of classical music. Among her catalogue of vocal music are choral works, operas, art song, and song cycles. Larsen’s song cycles are known for their texts that portray strong women and are written by female writers. Larsen’s declamatory text settings, which are influence by her training in Gregorian chant, capture the struggles and triumphs of these strong female figures. Her recitative-like melodies bring to life these women such as the artist Mary Cassatt (1844-1926) in Larsen’s song cycle Mary Cassatt (1844-1926): Seven songs for mezzo-soprano, solo trombone, and orchestra (with 15 projections of Cassatt’s paintings) (1994). In addition to her plainchant-influenced vocal melodies, Larsen utilizes the solo trombone to communicate Cassatt’s inner voice and projections of Cassatt’s paintings to demonstrate the artist’s evolution. The use of the trombone in this song cycle arose from the terms of the commission. The Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra and The Keller Foundation commissioned Mary Cassatt to be premiered by Fred P. Keller’s (b. 1944) wife, Linn Maxwell Keller (1943-2016). Fred Keller chose the trombone as the solo instrument because he thought it would be an interesting combination with mezzo-soprano and orchestra. Transcribed interviews published in journals, newspapers, and dissertations, my personal interview with Larsen, a review of biographical information about the composer, and my own analysis of the score will provide a thorough background of Larsen’s use of this ensemble in this song cycle. Few song cycles in modern repertoire are accompanied by a full orchestra and utilize a solo instrument as an equal partner to the voice. This dissertation will bring to the forefront an awareness of Mary Cassatt and will provide thorough background information about the composer and the artist and an analysis of the score to support performances of this song cycle.
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    Cornets, Creativity, and Celebration: The Life and Works of Virtuoso Cornetist Alessandro Liberati (1847-1927)
    (North Dakota State University, 2022) Ward, Byron
    Alessandro Liberati (1847–1927) lived during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when music for solo cornet was one of the most popular musical outlets in America. He and many performers of this instrument were virtuosos and traveled the world performing beautiful melodies and stylistic acrobatics on the instrument. They were the stars of their day and were often also conductors who led their own bands. Scholarly literature has only been written about a select few of these cornet soloists and band leaders. Names like Herbert L. Clarke (1867–1945), Jean Baptiste Arban (1825–1889), and John Phillip Sousa (1854–1932), are far more commonplace and receive more attention and performance. This leads to trumpet players playing their music and not the music of any of the other cornetists and band leaders of the past. Significant cornet music and band arrangements are overlooked, simply because trumpet teachers and performers do not know of the other cornetists and their music. In this dissertation, I address the life and works of virtuoso cornetist Alessandro Liberati to bring forth new evidence that Liberati deserves greater attention as an important cornetist and band leader, a musician on par with his contemporaries. Liberati was an active soloist, band leader, and notable composer in Italy, Canada, and the United States. Liberati’s generous output of compositions for both solo cornet and band is compiled in the appendix of this study. I rely on biographies, encyclopedias, dictionaries, method books, historical band books, newspaper articles, scholarly articles, and historical recordings of Liberati from Gold Moulded Records (1902). In addition, I consulted Liberati’s musical scores and other archival documents housed in his collection at the Library of Congress. These sources show his wide influence as a cornetist, band leader, and composer. To this end, I suggest that Alessandro Liberati was just as successful as his contemporaries, well-liked by the public, sought after in his time, and deserves the same attention and performance today as his more well-known contemporaries.
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    The Development and Dissemination of the Collaborative Piano Program from the United States to China
    (North Dakota State University, 2021) Wei, Xiang
    For over 71 years, the collaborative piano major has been one of the most important music performance programs at American universities and conservatories, such as the University of Southern California, the Julliard School of Music, and the New England Conservatory. For over half a century, these collaborative piano programs have been successful in the United States, and they continue to influence the field of music world-wide. Therefore, the development of collaborative piano programs in the United States not only plays a significant role for students who want to have a career in this field, but it has also influenced universities and music conservatories in countries all over the world. Furthermore, because the demand for excellent collaborative piano programs by music students and music scholars is growing world-wide, in order to meet that growing demand, it is both logical and timely to study how successful collaborative piano programs in the United States were both established and developed. This analysis can provide information that is integral to the effective development of high-quality collaborative piano programs. The purpose of this disquisition is to analyze how collaborative piano programs have flourished in the United States. More specifically, I will document the history of collaborative piano programs, the curricula for collaborative piano programs, and the influence of the collaborative piano programs to China. I will draw on the following sources: Martin Katz’s 2007 Book, The Complete Collaborator, Pei-Shan Lee’s 2008 dissertation, The Collaborative Pianist: Balancing Roles in Partnership, interviews with program designers, and surveys of music schools chosen from university websites and the directory list from the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM). This disquisition will give a comprehensive understanding why these collaborative piano programs have become successful in the United States over the past 71 years.
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    An Examination of Selected Chinese Ethnic Choral Music from Inner Mongolia, Yunnan Province, and Central Plains Area
    (North Dakota State University, 2024) Cheng, Kewen
    The landscape of choral music in modern China is characterized by a rich and varied repertoire, despite its relatively brief history within the nation. Diverging from the trajectories of traditionally Christian countries, the evolution of Chinese choral music has been shaped by unique historical, social, religious, and folk music traditions. This paper embarks on an examination of selected Chinese ethnic choral music, commencing with an overview of the development path of Chinese choral music in Chapter One. It then delves into an analysis of choral traditions across three distinct ethnic regions in the following three chapters. Each of them is dedicated to a specific ethnic region, namely Inner Mongolia, Yunnan province, and Central Plains area. The analysis starts with introducing the geographical, social, and folk music backgrounds. Subsequent sections explore the characteristic musical elements of each region, offering in-depth examinations of selected representative repertoire. Furthermore, this study aims to provide valuable insights into rehearsal suggestions and performance practices tailored for non-Chinese speaking choral groups. This disquisition draws upon primary sources, such as unpublished Chinese choral music scores, and a spectrum of secondary sources including scholarly works, dissertations, journal articles, encyclopedic entries, and online resources authored by both Chinese and non-Chinese scholars regarding this research topic.
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    From Paintings to Opera: Discovering the Reimagination of William Hogarth's A Rake's Progress in Igor Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress
    (North Dakota State University, 2022) Ng, Hong Liang
    The Rake’s Progress (1951) is a well-known satirical opera in three acts with an epilogue by Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971), with a libretto written by Wystan Hugh Auden (1907-1973) and Chester Kallman (1921-1975). This opera is based on William Hogarth’s (1697-1764) series of eight paintings, A Rake’s Progress (1734), which inspired Stravinsky during his visit to the Art Institute of Chicago on May 2, 1947. Even though many scholars have conducted discussions on the opera itself, there is little scholarship on the influence of Hogarth’s paintings on Stravinsky’s opera. This dissertation considers how Stravinsky, Auden, and Kallman translated Hogarth’s series of satirical paintings into a period opera to which audiences in the mid-twentieth century could relate. As I am a collaborative pianist that works extensively with singers and opera projects, I aim for this document to be helpful as a guide for singers, vocal coaches, or other interested individuals who wish to have a fresh perspective on this opera. I have divided this dissertation into three parts. In the first part of my disquisition, I investigate Stravinsky’s motivation to write this opera by researching the societal culture, in both early-eighteenth-century London and the mid-twentieth-century United States. In the second part of this paper, I track the collaborators' creative decisions in altering the opera's narrative. I review the libretto of the opera and the iconography of Hogarth’s series of paintings which consists of religious and cultural symbols reflecting Hogarth’s perspective on morality during his time. I also consult modern scholarships in interpreting the narrative and proceed to establish the relationship between the libretto and Hogarth’s paintings. In the third part of this dissertation, I critically analyze selected arias of the opera to investigate how Stravinsky employs neoclassicism in bringing the libretto to life in the music. Ultimately, this dissertation provides a fresh perspective on Stravinsky’s opera by giving a better understanding of Hogarth’s views on morality and culture in eighteenth-century London through his series of engravings as well as how Stravinsky, Auden, and Kallman translated Hogarth’s intentions for their own purposes in this opera, The Rake’s Progress.
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    Political Activism Through Music for Piano: A Performer’s Guide to Interpreting the Ideology in Frederic Rzewski’s (1938-2021) North American Ballads (1979) and Cornelius Cardew’s (1936-1981) Thälmann Variations (1974)
    (North Dakota State University, 2022) Langer, Michael Jorge
    Political music is an emerging and relevant phenomenon. These works can pose challenges to performers in terms of understanding and interpreting their nuanced historical and political ideology. This dissertation is about the philosophical intersection of politics and works for solo piano. The primary works I examine are Thälmann Variations (1974) by English composer Cornelius Cardew (1936-1981) and North American Ballads (1979) by American composer Frederic Rzewski (1938-2021). I investigate the political ideology of each composer and connect it to their works. I explore the theoretical and philosophical implications of these works and offer my interpretive and programmatic recommendations to the performer. Rzewski’s North American Ballads (Ballads for short) are well known and have received generous scholarship; however, missing is a deeper philosophical examination, especially of the inclusion of improvisation. I have drawn together the best research while offering my interpretations and performance recommendations. There is little existing research on Cardew’s Thälmann Variations, so I have provided an ideological and theoretical analysis. I begin by establishing a foundation on the political music scholarship of Garratt, Mattern, and Rosenthal and Flacks as well as the philosophy of Foucault. I then draw on Rzewski’s lectures and interviews to understand his ideology and apply it to my interpretation of his Ballads, building on the work of Hayashi, Paul, Zuraw, Cornett, Hershberger, and Hamm. This provides the framework for my interpretation and analysis of Cardew’s Variations. I argue that understanding the political underpinnings of the solo piano works of Rzewski and Cardew through the lens of Foucault’s philosophy of power structures will help pianists understand each work’s ideology while also allowing for better engagement with the repertoire. I additionally assert that these works act as objects of protest where the performer can embody resistance. To understand the political underpinnings, performers need to be aware of the broader political and historical connections of each work and composer. To present the best performance which communicates the composer’s intent, pianists will benefit from analysis of the music and philosophical examination of the ideology therein.
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    The Rehearsal Plan and the Preparation of Brazilian Art Songs: An Autoethnographic Study in Collaborative Piano
    (North Dakota State University, 2020) da Silva Gonçalves Santos, Elisama
    The objective of this research was to investigate the effectiveness of the rehearsal plan in the preparation of Brazilian art songs. This disquisition proposes a rehearsal plan model based on the concept of the class plan used in the field of education. The rehearsal plans were applied in a series of rehearsals with two singers at North Dakota State University in which we worked on four art songs composed by the Brazilian composer Francisco Mignone (1897-1986). This qualitative study adopted the autoethnography as research method. In this autoethnographic research I worked both as researcher and as pianist in the rehearsals. This disquisition relied upon two axes of theoretical framework, one musical and one educational: the musical axis was formed of studies regarding performance and preparation of art songs as developed by Katz (2009), Kimball (2006), Stein and Spillman (1996), Moore (1984), Bernac (1978), and Adler (1971). The educational axis was based on the studies of Libâneo (2006) and Coll, Pozo, Sarabia, and Valls (1998) and provided the concept, philosophical basis, structure, and applicability of the class plan. This educational axis also included studies supporting the effectiveness of the rehearsal plan in various musical contexts, such as Gorelick (2001), Brunner (1996), and Figueiredo (1990). The research data revealed that the rehearsal plan was an effective pedagogical tool in the preparation of Brazilian art songs. The rehearsal plans provided outlines of clear objectives and focused rehearsal strategies and facilitated the development and application of specific rehearsal strategies for art song performance preparation. The plans also promoted connectivity between rehearsals and a sense of accomplishment for the pianist and singers. In addition, the rehearsal plans detailed the preparation of Brazilian art songs with respect to three distinct dimensions of knowledge: conceptual, practical, and attitudinal.