Doctor of Musical Arts, The Ohio State University, 2022, Music

The following document discusses Katherine Hoover's Clarinet Concerto (1987), while setting the Concerto in context with the rich history of women in classical music, jazz, and feminist theory. It traces the intersection of history, feminism, and genre, discussing feminist theory and its application to music. Flutist and composer Katherine Hoover (1937-2018) was a world-renowned composer, known for her elegant and intense style for wind instruments, primarily the flute. Her repertoire for clarinet is not only versatile, but virtuosic, and explores a wide variety of genres, from jazz to Greek folk song. The Clarinet Concerto (1987), written for jazz clarinetist Eddie Daniels, is a powerful work, which presents challenges both with traditional performance and jazz-based improvisation. An in-depth biographical sketch of Katherine Hoover is provided, documenting her development from a young student with limited music education, into a world-renowned artist and composer. Also included is a brief history of women composers and performers in both classical music and in jazz, along with biographical sketches of historic jazz clarinetists and their impact on the genre. Finally, the Clarinet Concerto is explored as a performance guide, including tips on improvisation for those who might be uncomfortable with the medium. The Clarinet Concerto is promoted herein for clarinetists, not only for its invaluable musical elements that blend jazz and classical sounds, but for its reflection of a feminist work that has helped to shape music today.

Committee: Caroline Hartig (Advisor); Russel Mikkelson (Committee Member); Karen Pierson (Committee Member); Graeme Boone (Committee Member) Subjects: Music; Womens Studies

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2019, Theatre

Scholarly and literary women are some of the most beloved characters on the musical stage, yet the importance of these character's intelligence and creativity has received virtually no scholarly attention. In this study I seek to understand how intelligent and creative heroines are constructed in American musicals and whether they are empowered feminist role models. Relying on an understanding of women's intellectual history and the slow and inconsistent growth of women's broader acceptance as intellectual and creative experts, I strongly suggest that the reading, writing, teaching, and studying activities of bookish female characters in musicals offer us an opportunity to speak back to and re-envision our feminist and intellectual histories and oppressions. Furthermore, I argue that the musical form is uniquely suited to the representation of bookish women who empower themselves and others through their bookish activities. When bookish women are able to reveal their intellectual and creative inner life, we see more clearly how they exhibit attitudes and action whereby they claim power themselves and others. Seven traits common in the construction of bookish women in musicals are also identified and deployed. These traits make legible the empowering use and effect of bookishness in the character's personality and experience. These include 1) their adaptation from film and literature sources; 2) their heroine journeys of development or becoming (sometimes referred to as a bildungsroman(e); 3) their experience of marginalization in their community and/or expression of feelings of marginalization that are sometimes due to, or exacerbated by, their bookishness; 4) experience of prolonged singleness or expectations of prolonged singleness; 5) their comparison with non-bookish women; 6) their significant father/daughter relationships, often because of the absence of a mother; 7) and their resistance to racialized and gendered stereotypes. Using a variety of theoretica (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Michael Ellison PhD (Advisor); Andrew Pelletier PhD (Other); Angela Ahlgren PhD (Committee Member); Cynthia Baron PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Theater

Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA), Bowling Green State University, 2017, Contemporary Music

The vocalizing pianist is a genre in which the pianist speaks, sings, and/or acts while playing the piano. Because of the presence of the voice, the audience perceives the performer's sex and gender not only visually, but also aurally as part of performance. The voice connects the audience to the performer intimately, revealing the normative conceptions and gender ideologies inscribed on the performer's body. Because the vocalizing pianist compositions specify neither the performer's gender nor the voice type, cross-gender, cross-identity performance have been freely undertaken without an established performance practice. Although such gendered performances are common in vocal genres, pianists are now entering this unfamiliar field with the emergence of the vocalizing pianist genre. As a step toward an interpretive performance practice, this document investigates the role of the performer's voice, body, and gender, by reading the genre through the lens of feminism. Feminist theories such as gender performativity and l'ecriture feminine are introduced and applied to case studies of selected compositions: Amy Beth Kirsten's (speak to me), Brian Ferneyhough's Opus Contra Naturam, and Stuart Saunders Smith's Lazarus. Using the concept of the Death of the Author by Roland Barthes, the author also explores the performer-centric interpretative practice that emphasizes the centrality of gender in musical performance. This project articulates the importance of performer's gender as an integral element of vocalizing pianist performance and demonstrates how understanding the gendered aspect of a composition adds greater depth and nuance to the performer's interpretation.

Committee: Thomas Rosenkranz (Advisor); Nora Engebretsen (Committee Member); Mikel Kuehn (Committee Member); Sidra Lawrence (Committee Member); Mihai Staic (Committee Member) Subjects: Gender; Music; Performing Arts