Washington University in St. Louis Washington University Open Scholarship All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) 1-1-2011 Not Just a Pretty Voice: Cathy Berberian as Collaborator, Composer and Creator Kate Meehan Washington University in St. Louis Follow this and additional works at: https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/etd Recommended Citation Meehan, Kate, "Not Just a Pretty Voice: Cathy Berberian as Collaborator, Composer and Creator" (2011). All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs). 239. https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/etd/239 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by Washington University Open Scholarship. It has been accepted for inclusion in All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) by an authorized administrator of Washington University Open Scholarship. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS Department of Music Dissertation Examination Committee: Peter Schmelz, Chair Bruce Durazzi Craig Monson Anca Parvulescu Dolores Pesce Julia Walker NOT JUST A PRETTY VOICE: CATHY BERBERIAN AS COLLABORATOR, COMPOSER AND CREATOR by Kate Meehan A dissertation presented to the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of Washington University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2011 Saint Louis, Missouri copyright by Kate Meehan 2011 Abstract During her relatively brief career, Cathy Berberian (1925-83) became arguably the best- known singer of avant-garde vocal music in Europe and the United States. After 1950, when she married Italian composer Luciano Berio, Berberian premiered almost thirty new works by seventeen different composers and received the dedications of several more. Composers connected to her include: John Cage, Igor Stravinsky, Darius Milhaud, Sylvano Bussotti, Henri Pousseur, Bruno Maderna, Bernard Rands, Roman Haubenstock- Ramati, and of course, Berio.