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Extended Program Notes for Thesis Voice Recital Shanna Nolan Florida International University, Shannoll@Aol.Com Florida International University FIU Digital Commons FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations University Graduate School 2012 Extended Program Notes for Thesis Voice Recital Shanna Nolan Florida International University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd Recommended Citation Nolan, Shanna, "Extended Program Notes for Thesis Voice Recital" (2012). FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 646. http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/646 This work is brought to you for free and open access by the University Graduate School at FIU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of FIU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY Miami, Florida EXTENDED PROGRAM NOTES FOR THESIS VOICE RECITAL A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER in MUSIC by Shanna Nolan 2012 To: Dean Brian D. Schriner College of Architecture and the Arts This thesis, written by Shanna Nolan, and entitled Extended Program Notes for Thesis Voice Recital, having been approved in respect to style and intellectual content, is referred to you for judgment. We have read this thesis and recommend that it be approved. __________________________________________ John Augenblick __________________________________________ Joel Galand __________________________________________ Robert Dundas __________________________________________ Kathleen Wilson, Major Professor Date of Defense: March 22, 2012 The thesis of Shanna Nolan is approved. __________________________________________ Dean Brian D. Schriner College of Architecture and the Arts __________________________________________ Dean Lakshmi N Reddi University Graduate School Florida International University, 2012 ii DEDICATION For their loving support this thesis is dedicated to my husband, Craig Gundry, my family, and Dr. Kathleen L. Wilson. iii ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS EXTENDED PROGRAM NOTES FOR THESIS VOICE RECITAL by Shanna Nolan Florida International University, 2012 Miami, Florida Professor Kathleen Wilson, Major Professor This thesis presents extended program notes for a sixty-minute vocal graduate recital consisting of the following repertoire for soprano: “How Beautiful are the Feet of Them” and “He Shall Feed His Flock” from Messiah and “Lascia ch’io pianga” from Rinaldo by George Frederick Handel; “La morte d’Ophélie” by Hector Berlioz; the Swedish art songs “Vingar i natten” by Ture Rangström and “Jung fru Blond och jung fru Brunette” by Wilhelm Stenhammar; the contemporary art song “Animal Passion” by Jake Heggie; and the following arias and duets by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: “Mi tradi quell ‘alma ingrata” from Don Giovanni, “Bei Männern, welche liebe fuhlen” and “Papageno, Papagena” from Die Zauberflöte, “Deh vieni, non tardar o gioja bella,” “Venite inginochiatevi,” and “Via resti servita” from Le nozze di Figaro, and the Concert Aria “Ch’io mi scordi di te?...non temer, amato bene,” K.505. These works encompass a variety of styles, musical periods and forms spanning over four centuries. The recital itself is documented on the accompanying compact disc, while these program notes contain discuss historical context, musical analysis, and performance practice for this repertoire. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. George Frederick Handel…..………………………………………………….1 a. Rinaldo………………………………………..…………………………...1 b. Messiah……………………………….………….………………………..3 II. Jake Heggie: The individual style of a modern American composer….…...…6 III. Hector Berlioz: “La morte d’Ophélie”…...……………………………...…...9 IV. Swedish Romantic Art Song..………………….………………………….....14 V. Mozart’s Muses….……………………………..…………………..…….......23 a. Caterina Cavalieri…………………………………………...…………25 b. Anna Gotlieb...………………………………………………………...28 c. Nancy Storace and Adrianna Ferrarese…………………......................31 REFERENCES………………………………………………….……………………….38 v LIST OF EXAMPLES EXAMPLE PAGE 1. “Lascia la spina” 2 2. “Lascia ch’io pianga” 2 3. “How Beautiful are the Feet” 4 4. “How Beautiful are the Feet” 5 5. “Animal Passion” mm 68-71 7 6. “Animal Passion” mm 72-74 8 7. Theme a “La morte d’Ophélie” 9 8. Symphonie fantastique mm 72-79 10 9. “La morte d’Ophélie” mm 1 11 10. “La morte d’Ophélie” mm.43-47 11 11. “La morte d’Ophélie” mm.67-73 12 12. “Jung fru Blond och Jung fru Brunett” mm. 23-30 16 13. “Jung fru Blond och Jung fru Brunett“ mm. 1-3 17 14. “Jung fru Blond och Jung fru Brunett“ mm. 40-45 18 15. “Jung fru Blonde och Jung fru Brunette” mm 64-81 19 16. “Vingar i Natten” mm5 20 17. “Vingar i Natten” mm17-25 21 18. Act II Die Entfürung, “Marttern aller Arten” 24 19. “Mi tradi quell ‘alma ingrata” 27 20. Paminas aria “Ach ich fühls” 28 21. “Papageno, Papagena” mm 9-15 29 vi 22. “Papageno, Papagena” mm27-31 29 23. “Papageno, Papagena” mm 68-72 30 24. “Deh vieni non tardar” 33 25. “Deh vieni” word painting 33 26. “Venite inginochiatevi” nota e parole or one note per syllable 34 27. “Per pietà, ben mio” from Così fan tutte 35 28. “Un moto di gioia” from Le nozze di Figaro 36 vii Chapter 1 George Frederick Handel (1685–1759): “How Beautiful are the Feet of Them” and “He Shall Feed His Flock” from Messiah “Lascia ch’io pianga” from Rinaldo Handel arrived in England in 1711, and within a year he had already composed Rinaldo, the first opera written in Italian specifically for an English audience. The aria “Lascia ch’io pianga” exemplifies two characteristics of Handel’s earlier operas. The first is his use of pre-existing material. In the Baroque era, composers regularly borrowed from earlier works. This technique is called pastiche, aptly named due to the pasted- together nature of these operas. While it seems unethical by today’s standards, in Handel’s day pastiche was not only accepted but expected and necessary because of the incessant demand for new works, which exceeded what original music a composer could produce in a single season. Today when major opera houses have essentially become monuments to the historical operatic canon, it is hard to imagine the hectic productivity demanded of the eighteenth-century operatic composer. Essentially, the idea of the original genius is a nineteenth-century Romantic construct and should not be applied to another era. In Rinaldo, the melodic content of “Lascia ch’io pianga” is first found in an aria “Lascia la spina” from Il trionfo del tempo e del disinganno, Handel’s first oratorio. The 1 arias have different lyrics and tempos but the melodic material is clearly identical (compare the openings of the two arias, shown in Figures 1 and 2). 1 Figure 1. Handel: Opening of “Lascia la spina.” Figure 2. Handel: Opening of “Lascia ch’io pianga.” The earlier incarnation of this melody is not well remembered today because Rinaldo has become one of the best known of Handel’s operas. The second technique exemplified by the present aria is the use of thematic content and musical symbolism, or, more precisely, iconicism. The most obvious example of this is heard in the fluttering of the orchestral flutes in the initial scene, set in an idyllic garden inhabited by lovers who are unaware their perfect world will soon be 1 Anthony Hicks, “Rinaldo,” in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians On- Line. http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com. (Accessed January 28, 2012.) 2 disrupted. In the original production, at the moment the flute fluttering began, birds were released on the stage (Grout 2003, 191). The libretto by Giacomo Rossi from a scenario by Aaron Hill is loosely based on the epic poem Geruselemme liberate (Jerusalem Liberated) by Torquato Tasso, and it relies heavily on baroque operatic conventions and the suspension of disbelief. The plot allows for the spectacular use of stage machinery that was common in the baroque era and was deployed in Rinaldo to great acclaim. Armida’s descent from the heavens––like a deus ex machina to steal away Almirena, the boat that takes Rinaldo to Armida’s lair, and the ever popular battle scene are perfect examples of typical Baroque stage craft. Messiah is an oratorio based on sacred texts written by Charles Jennen, a wealthy country squire who had written other librettos for Handel. Like many of Handel’s works, Messiah was composed very quickly. Handel began it on August 22, 1741 and finished it by September 14. This was much too fast for its librettist. Jennen remarked that “his Messiah has disappointed me, being composed in great hast, tho’ he said he would be a year about it…I shall put no more sacred works in his hands to be thus abus’d.”2 Messiah is unique in that its text was directly derived from scripture. This caused a significant amount of controversy. Its sacred content was considered unsuitable for performance in the theater, where most oratorios were performed. The performers, both male and female, were considered too immoral to speak its revered words. The work had to be referred to as a “new sacred oratorio” to avoid an outcry from using a sacred word like Messiah on 2 Howard Serwer, “Handel, Jennens and Messiah,” in Handel Studies, ed. Richard G. King (Hillsdale: Pendragon Press, 1998), 199. 3 theatre posters. Over time it became acceptable to the general public and is now one of Handel’s most popular and commonly performed works. Controversy still follows Messiah, although today it has to do more with performance practice than the content of its libretto. The major debate is whether to remain faithful to familiar, though anachronistic, performance traditions that arose in the nineteenth century performance or to turn for inspiration to performance practices appropriate to Handel’s time. Even if performing Messiah in an anachronistic recital setting, with keyboard accompaniment rather than with orchestra, and even if, for reasons of expediency, one uses a modern piano rather than a Baroque continuo group, as in the present recording, it is still possible to make a choice between more or less historically informed alternatives.
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