Date of Award
Spring 5-16-2025
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Music (MMUS)
Department
Music
First Advisor
Patrick Howle
Second Advisor
Andrew George
Third Advisor
Joanne Britz
Keywords
voice, opera, art song, operetta
Abstract
The thesis will consist of program notes for my graduate vocal performance recital. The recital included a variety of music from the composers Stanislaw Moniuszko, Wolfgang Mozart, Carl Loewe, Michael Costa, and John Philip Sousa. Each piece was accompanied by program notes that included a brief biography of the composer, information about the piece, text and translation, and a performance reflection. In this recital, I wanted to have a program of pieces that were rarely, if ever, performed. I’m personally part Polish from my moms’ side, which sparked a desire to include something in Polish. The Mozart aria was one of interest for several years. I had wanted to sing it in undergrad, but my voice teacher at the time rightfully said no due to the difficulty of the piece. With the Carl Loewe, I had previously sung Meeresleuchten as a graduate audition piece, and I was curious about the rest of the cycle. I admittedly have rarely enjoyed singing in French, and a lot of the reason is the general style of the music even more then the language itself. Vous qui faites l’endormie gave me a more German styled French piece. I found the oratorio by Costa in a collection on IMSLP and saw it went the lowest pitch-wise out of all of them (Eb 2). I found the Sousa operettas from looking for music for my community band that included soprano saxophone, and noticed some of them were based on operettas. From there I looked for every Sousa operetta score I could find.
Recommended Citation
Stephens, Matthew C., "A Graduate Recital in Voice" (2025). Electronic Theses & Dissertations. 786.
https://digitalcommons.pittstate.edu/etd/786
