An Original Chamber Opera and a Critical Essay on the Trajectory
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VIOLETTING THROUGH AUGUST’S END (OR THE SUNSET IN WATER, THE CARILLON-CHIME IN SQUARE): AN ORIGINAL CHAMBER OPERA AND A CRITICAL ESSAY ON THE TRAJECTORY OF AMERICAN MINIMALIST OPERA James Joseph Doyle Thesis Prepared for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS December 2014 APPROVED: Joseph Klein, Major Professor and Division Chair Peter Mondelli, Minor Professor Andrew May, Committee Member Benjamin Brand, Director of Graduate Studies in the College of Music James Scott, Dean of the College of Music Mark Wardell, Dean of the Toulouse Graduate School Doyle, James Joseph. Violetting through August’s End (or the sunset in water, the carillon-chime in square): An Original Chamber Opera and a Critical Essay on the Trajectory of American Minimalist Opera. Master of Arts (Composition), December 2014, 130 pp., 35 figures, bibliography, 37 titles. When the dust settles, John Adams’s Nixon in China and Philip Glass’s Einstein on the Beach may stand as the most important operas of the latter twentieth century. The critical essay portion of this thesis examines the trajectory of minimalist opera, from its beginnings with Glass’s Einstein on the Beach through the more romantic operas of John Adams, Steve Reich’s multimedia opera The Cave, David Lang’s musical-influenced The Difficulty of Crossing a Field, and finally the post-minimalist operas currently being staged by young composer Nico Muhly. It examines the differences between the more abstract trajectory established by the early Glass operas and the plot driven trajectory established by operas more commonly associated with John Adams, most significantly Nixon in China. Additionally, the aforementioned pieces are compared and contrasted with the author’s newly composed chamber opera Violetting through August’s End (or the sunset in water, the carillon-chime in square). Copyright 2014 by James Joseph Doyle ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I cannot even begin to express my gratitude to all the people who supported me while I pursued my master’s degree. First and foremost, I would like to thank Dr. Joseph Klein for his constant support, great insight, and seemingly endless patience. Similarly, I would like to thank Dr. Peter Mondelli and Dr. May for agreeing to be on my committee and for their insight and assistance. I was fortunate to have a number of great professors during my time at the University of North Texas and I will forever be grateful for their mentorship. Thanks are due to Dr. Panayiotis Kokoras for his mentorship in electronic music and to Dr. Margaret Notley for her assistance in honing my writing. Last but certainly not least, I would like to thank Dr. William Coble for fostering my love of vocal music. I am sincerely grateful for all the learning opportunities each and every one of these professors provided. My completion of this project could not have been completed without my family who have never faltered in their support. Likewise, many thanks are due to my understanding friends, especially those who dealt with my sometimes borderline psychotic behavior as this paper and music followed me across five states, four countries, and two continents. My heartfelt thanks to all. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................................. iii LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................................... vi PART I: A CRITICAL ESSAY ON THE TRAJECTORY OF AMERICAN MINIMALIST OPERA ............................................................................................................................................1 Chapter 1 Contextualization of Einstein on the Beach and Nixon in China in the Operatic Repertoire .............................................................................................................................2 1.1 Philip Glass and Einstein on the Beach: A Brief Background .....................3 1.2 Einstein on the Beach: A Musical Analysis .................................................9 1.3 John Adams and Nixon in China: A Brief Background .............................17 1.4 Nixon in China: A Musical Analysis .........................................................23 Chapter 2 Impact of Nixon in China and Einstein on the Beach: Subsequent Minimalist Opera—Steve Reich’s The Cave and David Lang’s The Difficulty of Crossing a Field ...30 2.1 Steve Reich’s The Cave .............................................................................30 2.2 David Lang’s The Difficulty of Crossing a Field.......................................35 Chapter 3 Minimalist Opera in the 21st Century-Nico Muhly’s Two Boys and Dark Sisters ............................................................................................................................................41 Chapter 4 Analysis of Violetting through August’s End (or the sunset in water, the carillon-chime in square) ...................................................................................................50 Appendix: Milos Raickovich’s Catalog of Themes in Philip Glass’s Einstein on the Beach..................................................................................................................................63 Bibliography ......................................................................................................................67 PART II: VIOLETTING THROUGH AUGUST’S END (OR THE SUNSET IN WATER, THE CARILLON-CHIME IN SQUARE): AN ORIGINAL CHAMBER OPERA .................................71 Plot .....................................................................................................................................73 Notes ..................................................................................................................................73 Instrumentation ..................................................................................................................73 iv Structure .............................................................................................................................74 Libretto ...............................................................................................................................75 Prologue: July 21st, the sunrise red(fr)acted ......................................................................80 Interlude No. 1 ...................................................................................................................90 July 27th, Obadiah Lawl: the ratchet hands of (gods) ........................................................91 Interlude No. 2 .................................................................................................................107 July 30th, Jed Hedgerow Wallace the third, declined an interview ..................................108 Epilogue: August 2nd, the (viscose) shadows of sunset had graced .................................122 v LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 1.1. Structure of Einstein on the Beach. ...............................................................................8 Figure 1.2. Phasing in Steve Reich’s Piano Phase........................................................................10 Figure 1.3. Block additive process in Reich’s Drumming.............................................................11 Figure 1.4. Linear additive process in Frederic Rzewski’s Les Moutons de Panurge. .................12 Figure 1.5. Linear additive process in the violin part in the Trial scene from Einstein on the Beach .............................................................................................................................................12 Figure 1.6. Cyclic structure in Train..............................................................................................13 Figure 1.7. Milos Raickovich’s diagram on the macro-form and themes of Einstein...................15 Figure 1.8. Reduction of Theme in f-E..........................................................................................16 Figure 1.9. Theme in f-D. ..............................................................................................................17 Figure 1.10. Opening of Nixon in China. ......................................................................................24 Figure 1.11. Metric displacement in Act I of Nixon in China. ......................................................24 Figure 1.12. Polymeters in Nixon’s “News” aria. .........................................................................25 Figure 1.13. Polyrhythms in Pat’s aria-“This is prophetic!” .........................................................26 Figure. 1.14. Hemiola in Chiang Ch’ing’s aria-“I am the wife of Mao Tse-tung”........................26 Figure 1.15. Timothy A. Johnson’s list of primary transformations in Nixon...............................28 Figure 1.16. Other possible chromatic mediant relations with one common tone. .......................28 Figure 2.1. Structure of Reich’s The Cave.....................................................................................32 Figure 2.2. Speech melodies in Act I: Scene 7: Who is Sarah?.....................................................34 Figure 2.3. Opening of Lang’s Difficulty of Crossing a Field.......................................................39 Figure 2.4. Polymeters in Scene 7 of Difficulty of Crossing a Field.............................................39 Figure 3.1. Notation of unsynchronized voices in Two Boys.