Master of Music (MM), Bowling Green State University, 2020, Music History

As Nico Muhly's 2017 opera, Marnie, comes to a close, the eponymous character stands center stage, handcuffed and surrounded by police. She sings, paradoxically, “I'm free.” The plot arrives at this juxtaposition following a twisted and mysterious series of events in which Marnie, a thief, is tormented by her crimes and ultimately freed by admitting her lies. While the ending remains the same, Marnie's outlook on her life and future differ from the ending of the opera's source: Winston Graham's 1961 novel of the same name. Throughout her story, Marnie is plagued by mental illness and pressured by the sexual advances of her employers, Mark and Terry. While issues of mental health and sexual violence have been prominent in opera going back hundreds of years, such themes were even more salient in the social climate surrounding Marnie's premiere. The 2010s saw an increased awareness of both issues, and while Graham's novel left them relatively unacknowledged, the post-2000 era stressed the importance of representing redemption for victims. By confronting her trials with mental illness and sexual coercion, as well as her own mistakes, Marnie is able to rise above her dark past and redeem herself in a way that sets her apart from many of the canonic operatic heroines still represented frequently in the twenty-first-century opera house. In this thesis, I analyze the social issues of mental illness and sexual politics inherent in Marnie's story, with particular attention to how they are treated in Muhly and librettist Nicholas Wright's version. I juxtapose the history of both issues on the operatic stage and in the surrounding social climate with Muhly's interviews and writings in order to explicate the motivation behind Muhly's compositional choices. I also conduct musical and dramatic analyses of the four main characters to show how musical elements represent their respective challenges with mental health. Through these methods, I highlight how Marnie responds to t (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Ryan Ebright PhD (Advisor); Eftychia Papanikolaou PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Music

Master of Music (MM), Bowling Green State University, 2017, Music History

Musicologists have been debating the concept of European national music styles in the Baroque period for nearly 300 years. But what precisely constitutes these so-called French, Italian, and German “tastes”? Furthermore, how do contemporary sources confront this issue and how do they delineate these musical constructs? In his Music for a Mixed Taste (2008), Steven Zohn achieves success in identifying musical tastes in some of Georg Phillip Telemann's instrumental music. However, instrumental music comprises only a portion of Telemann's musical output. My thesis follows Zohn's work by identifying these same national styles in opera: namely, Telemann's Orpheus (Hamburg, 1726), in which the composer sets French, Italian, and German texts to music. I argue that though identifying the interrelation between elements of musical style and the use of specific languages, we will have a better understanding of what Telemann and his contemporaries thought of as national tastes. I will begin my examination by identifying some of the issues surrounding a selection of contemporary treatises, in order explicate the problems and benefits of their use. These sources include Johann Joachim Quantz's Versuch einer Anweisung die Flote zu spielen (1752), two of Telemann's autobiographies (1718 and 1740), and Johann Adolf Scheibe's Critischer Musikus (1737). I will supplement the information provided by these writings with my own analysis in order to clarify their meanings. Next, I will examine a selection of Telemann's other operas with the intention of showing how language can be used for dramatic purposes. Finally, I will conduct a thorough analysis of selections from Orpheus, drawing on conclusions made in the two previous chapters. By drawing on genre-based musical elements and aligning them with texted portions of this opera, Orpheus emerges as a key to national tastes in Baroque music.

Committee: Arne Spohr (Advisor); Mary Natvig (Committee Member); Gregory Decker (Committee Member) Subjects: European History; Foreign Language; History; Language; Music; Performing Arts

Master of Music (MM), Bowling Green State University, 2021, Music Composition

Stuck in My Head is a short, one-act comedic opera composed for the BGSU College of Musical Arts' annual MicroOpera workshop. The opera is scored for piano and three vocalists (soprano, mezzo soprano, and unspecified voice type). The libretto was written by Case Kellum of Atlanta, Georgia. The opera is presented in three scenes. In Scene I, a college student named Madison (soprano), wakes up to find she cannot speak without singing and that her bedroom furniture has been replaced by stage blocks. In a frantic sense of hurry, Madison leaves her room to learn more about her situation. In Scene II, Madison stumbles into a park where she finds her friend, Dana (unspecified voice type). Madison explains her situation to Dana, who does not notice anything is out of the ordinary, or that they cannot speak without singing. Dana then suggests going to one of their teachers, Professor Callas, to get help. Madison and Dana enter Professor Callas' office in Scene III. After being filled-in on the situation, Professor Callas arrives at the conclusion that the three of them are stuck in an opera. In an effort to make the opera come to an end, Professor Callas suggests performing some famous opera endings, such as the seppuku-style suicide from Puccini's Madama Butterfly. In a campy ending reminiscent of a lesson learned in a television show for kids, Madison discovers all she needed to do was learn to express herself. The libretto is set in a manner that intertwines music and dialogue in a through-composed style. The characters engage primarily in sung conversational dialogue that moves the plot forward in short musical fragments for the majority of the opera. The composed lines are melodically and rhythmically very similar to spoken speech in an effort to both mimic the real world and give the opera an appearance akin to a comedy sketch. There are occasional moments where the characters sing longer, more melodic passages. These usually occur when a character is expressing (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Mikel Kuehn Ph.D. (Advisor); Elainie Lillios DMA (Committee Member) Subjects: Composition; Music; Performing Arts

Master of Music (MM), Bowling Green State University, 2021, Music Composition

"Nuclear" is a fourteen-minute chamber opera based on the 'nuclear family,' a propagandized ideology from the post-WWII era. "Nuclear" portrays a small family, representative of the American Dream, in a darkly comedic, surreal vignette built from a romanticized exaggeration of traditional American values. The characters, triggered by a looming feeling of dread, gradually begin to question their reality and descend into chaos and darkness as toxic masculinity, paranoia (reminiscent of the Red Scare), and a repressed need for individuality seep through the filter of conservative social expectations. The nuclear family, blown apart, is ultimately an allegory of the failures of modern American culture.

Committee: Marilyn Shrude DMA (Advisor); Elainie Lillios DMA (Committee Member) Subjects: Music; Performing Arts; Theater

Master of Music (MM), Bowling Green State University, 2020, Music Composition

Chanflin is a micro-opera written for five singers (soprano, mezzo-soprano, two altos, and baritone), flute, bass clarinet, two percussionists, piano and cello. It is set to an original libretto, re-imagined from a Dominican folk song. The story takes place in Gurabo (Dominican Republic) in 1936 and tells the tale of two siblings: Chanflin (14) and her brother Bilin (16), who have been in love since childhood. Chanflin recently learned she is pregnant with Bilin's nephew and knowing he would find a way to keep the child, she plots a way out. She starts an affair with Don Ventura (36), owner of Flor de Oro tobacco factory, and she plans to get caught. On the next morning, the whole town finds out about the affair and people start confronting Don Ventura during Carnival festivities. Soon after, Bilin joins the crowd and they take Don Ventura to jail. Later that day, Bilin gets executed by Don Ventura's entourage. Chanflin's intricate plan works out: she flees town with the desire to abort the baby, and start anew in Tamboril, a nearby town. After Bilin gets executed, a parasite emerges from his body to sing and mourn its dead host. Through song, the parasite embodies the twisted ideas that used to govern Bilin's mind. The music is the sum of contrasting elements: it combines rhythmic and melodic contours from Dominican merengue with jazz-infused harmonies and atmospheric orchestrations. The ensemble features two Dominican percussion instruments: the tambora, a two-headed drum, and the guira, a metal scraper, which are characteristic of traditional Dominican music. In the middle section, the piano plays tumbaos and the woodwinds and the cello play jaleo passages, typically associated with the saxophone section of a merengue de orquesta. Due to the twisted nature of this story, the work calls for sinister dramatic devices such as the juxtaposition of perverted situations and the use of adult language, both in English and Spanish. For instance, Bilin and Chanflin sin (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Mikel Kuehn DMA (Advisor); Christopher Dietz DMA (Committee Member) Subjects: Music

Master of Music (MM), Bowling Green State University, 2019, Music Composition

Stream of Consciousness is a fifteen-minute one-act opera scored for solo soprano, three voices, piano, electric guitar, and electronics. It is based on an original libretto by Rachael Smith (MM Composition, University of Louisville) that focuses entirely on the fictional character Liv_Is_Live, a young woman who is a full-time video game streamer. The work showcases some of the struggles that streamers face: isolation, constant questioning of their chosen profession, and interaction with a chat room full of anonymous viewers who are often rude or abusive. Beyond that, it addresses the more universal theme of being a woman working in a male-dominated industry.

Committee: Marilyn Shrude PhD (Advisor); Elainie Lillios PhD (Committee Member); Katherine Meizel PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Music

Master of Music (MM), Bowling Green State University, 2016, Music History

Moravian-born impresario Max Maretzek was one of the leading opera managers in nineteenth-century America, specializing in Italian opera. During his career, Maretzek highlighted three cities as being "musical centers" in America: New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. While he noted that these cities were the most important for opera, he did not treat each one the same. Indeed, each of these cities had a heritage that affected their responses to opera. For example, the Puritanical heritage of Boston caused Maretzek to cancel his production of Verdi's Rigoletto in 1861, because citizens were revolted by the opera's immoral plot. In this project, I will explore, discuss, and analyze reception of Maretzek's Italian operas, and how this reception affected how he produced opera. Using Jauss's ideas on reception theory, specifically the "horizon of expectations," I will explore the historical and cultural contexts of Maretzek's three musical centers, coupled with research on opera in nineteenth-century America by Katherine Preston, John Dizikes, and June Ottenberg. Since Maretzek was an early proponent of Verdi's operas, I will discuss the reception of Maretzek's productions of Italian opera, with emphasis on Verdi and the various controversies his operas engendered. I will show that Maretzek responded to criticism differently in each of the three cities: his productions were more adventurous in his home base of New York, and more conservative in Boston and Philadelphia. Finally, I will situate Maretzek and his work in the overarching cultural context of Italian opera in nineteenth-century America, drawing on the work of Lawrence Levine and Kristen Turner. While Italian opera is commonly discussed as representing the interests of the wealthy upper class in America during this time, I will argue that discussions of Maretzek in this context require a more nuanced discussion. While there were efforts by wealthy citizens to claim Italian opera as their own, Maretzek marketed (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Eftychia Papanikolaou Ph.D. (Advisor); Ryan Ebright Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Music

Master of Arts, University of Akron, 2015, Theatre Arts-Arts Administration

This thesis explores the differences and nuances of an opera production from the point of view of an opera stage manager. This work is geared towards a student stage manager who wishes to gain knowledge of how to work as a stage manager for an opera production.

Committee: Kara Stewart Ms. (Advisor); Durand Pope Mr. (Committee Member); Jonathon Field Mr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Arts Management; Theater

M.M., University of Cincinnati, 0, College-Conservatory of Music: Music History

Chromatically meandering, even teasing, Carmen's Seguidilla proves fatally seductive for Don Jose, luring him to an obsession that overrides his expected decorum. Equally alluring, Dalila contrives to strip Samson of his powers and the Israelites of their prized warrior. However, while exotic femmes fatales plotting ruination of gentrified patriarchal society populated the nineteenth-century French opera stages, they contrast sharply with an eighteenth-century model populated by merciful exotic male rulers overseeing wandering Western females and their estranged lovers. Disparities between these eighteenth and nineteenth-century archetypes, most notably in treatment and expectation of the exotic and the female, appear particularly striking given the chronological proximity within French operatic tradition. Indeed, current literature depicts these models as mutually exclusive. Yet when conceptualized as a single tradition, it is a socio-political—rather than aesthetic—revolution that provides the basis for this drastic shift from femme ideale to femme fatale. To achieve this end, this thesis contains detailed analyses of operatic librettos and music of operas representative of the eighteenth-century French exotic archetype: Arlequin Sultan Favorite (1721), Le Turc genereux, an entree in Les Indes Galantes (1735), La Recontre imprevue/Die Pilgrime von Mekka (1764), and Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail (1782). Taking cues from Edward Said's concept of Orientalism as a reflection of the collective fears of western society, it places them within a socio-political and cultural context via appropriate primary and secondary sources. It applies the same method to operas representative of the nineteenth-century French exotic archetype: L'Africaine (1865), Carmen (1875), Samson et Dalila (1877) and Lakme (1883). To account for the nineteenth century's break with eighteenth-century exotic plot archetypes, this study documents the socio-political backlash against female li (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Jonathan Kregor Ph.D. (Committee Chair); bruce mcclung Ph.D. (Committee Member); Mary Sue Morrow Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Music

M.M., University of Cincinnati, 2004, College-Conservatory of Music : Music History

Historians have struggled with defining German opera of the early-nineteenth century. Those who adopt “German Romantic opera” as a sole designator tend to focus on canonical works, purporting a teleological culmination with Wagner. These approaches, however, fail to account for concurrent explorations with German Grand opera and comic opera. This thesis investigates historiographic problems and proposes a contextual approach via national identity, exploring operas of Louis Spohr, Heinrich Marschner, and Albert Lortzing. Spohr's attempt to remove foreign elements and integrate national ones in Jessonda resembles Aristotle's view on how theater affects audiences through a catharsis of purgation and clarification. National writings often employ gendered language, suggesting that national identity relates to sexual identity. Marschner's Hans Heiling presents several characters that react to nineteenth-century constructions of gender. Revolution created a more nationally conscious middle class. Lortzing's Czar und Zimmermann shows mediation between comic opera and art music for this emerging class.

Committee: Hilary Poriss (Advisor) Subjects: Music

Master of Arts, University of Akron, 2008, Theatre Arts-Arts Administration

Many organizations embark on major changes without fully understanding the process of evaluating the feasibility of these changes. One approach to guiding this process is to have a consultant to guide decision-making. For many organizations this is too costly. The model I am creating will help those organizations to self-evaluate the likelihood of success through strategic analysis. This model will be specifically geared toward non-profit arts organizations contemplating a change of venue.I chose to examine the Atlanta Opera after completing an internship with them in the development department. During this internship, I found out about the changes going on within the organization. The Atlanta Opera was not only embarking on a change of venue, but was also facing a deficit and planning to raise more money for a capacity building initiative. I will create this model by evaluating an existing feasibility study which was used by the Atlanta Opera. In order to understand the background behind the feasibility study, I must understand the structure, background and history of the Atlanta Opera, leading up to the problems and questions raised in the study.

Committee: Durand Pope (Advisor); Neil Sapienza (Committee Member); Janet Kramer (Committee Member) Subjects: Business Community

Master of Music (MM), Bowling Green State University, 2024, Music Composition

The Sacrifice of Isaac is a micro-opera in one act scored for soprano, mezzo-soprano, baritone, and piano. The story is based on the events of the Biblical story found in Genesis 22, in which Abraham (baritone), the ancestor of the people of Israel, is commanded by God to sacrifice his son, Isaac (mezzo-soprano), as a burnt offering. Just as Abraham is about to cut Isaac's throat, an Angel (soprano) appears and stops the sacrifice. The libretto is largely adapted from the Biblical text and includes an original poem by Skyler Cash for Abraham's aria. The Sacrifice of Isaac aims to capture the unspoken emotions of this highly dramatic and controversial story while retaining theological accuracy, highlighting the faith-filled obedience of Abraham and the eternal faithfulness of God.

Committee: Marilyn Shrude D.M.A. (Committee Chair); Christopher Dietz Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Composition; Music

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2022, Musicology

Many of today's vocal techniques and ideas about vocality originate at the turn of the previous century. Over the course of the nineteenth century, science and aesthetics, theory and practice, the medical and the musical came together. Arthur Chervin exemplifies the nineteenth-century impulse toward blending theory and practice in his journal La Voix Parlee et Chantee, published from 1890 through the end of 1903 in Paris. From 1848 onward, doctors and medical practitioners in France began to infiltrate many aspects of politics, social life, and art. As an acknowledged expert in stuttering and a state-appointed physician and the Paris Opera, Chervin was well positioned to facilitate a multi-disciplinary publication that merged medical perspectives with those of performers and pedagogues. His journal is unique in its interdisciplinarity and its wide-ranging arguments about vocal health and aesthetics. A close reading of La Voix enables an exploration of the many sociological, cultural, and artistic implications of voice, health, and pathology in 1890s France. In the early chapters of this dissertation, I show how physicians' interventions into the bodies of ailing singers both constricted the timbres available for expressive singing and contributed to the idea that vocal anatomy determines vocal sound. And, moving beyond the physical, I investigate the relationship between mental interiority (sanity, trustworthiness, identity, etc.) and vocality, showing that contributors to La Voix believed they could evaluate an individual's innermost feelings by listening to the sound of their voice. Later chapters examine pedagogies designed to shape children's voices, and finally an exploration of timbral practices in three distinct groups of voice users—amateur choristers, professional orators, and singers/actors. Throughout, I synthesize contents from La Voix and other period sources, as well as from contemporary scholarship on vocality, contemplating how fin-de-siecle vocal (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Francesca Brittan (Advisor); David Rothenberg (Committee Member); Peter Bennett (Committee Member); Andrea Rager (Committee Member) Subjects: Medicine; Music

Master of Music (MM), Bowling Green State University, 2021, Music Composition

Nocturnal Angels is a twelve-minute chamber opera for three vocalists (who will also play crotales) and piano. The opera is in three sections: I. LABELING, II. BULLYING and III. CHANTING. Five characters (Labeler 1 and 2, Nocturnal Angels 1, 2 and 3) are allocated to the three singers. The opera explores how different attributes of a person, such as sexuality, gender and social class, are labeled and stereotyped by the mainstream ideology. This message is represented abstractly in this opera – there is no clear storyline. The first scene features the labelers' duet, outlining their ideologies. In the next scene, Nocturnal Angel 1 enters and is teased and bullied by the two labelers. The final scene starts with a deeply contemplative solo sung by Nocturnal Angel 1; at last, Nocturnal Angels 2 and 3 join in and all angels peacefully chant.

Committee: Marilyn Shrude (Advisor); Christopher Dietz (Committee Member) Subjects: Composition; Music

Bachelor of Arts (BA), Ohio University, 2020, Music

Apollon Marie-Rose Barret published "Fantaisie sur La derniere Rose d'ete de l'opera Martha de Flotow" for oboe and piano in 1873. This thesis creates a new edition for publication, provides explanation and justification of all editorial decisions made, and contextualizes the piece with a historical background.

Committee: Michele Fiala Dr. (Advisor) Subjects: Music

Doctor of Musical Arts, The Ohio State University, 2019, Music

Although opera presents a sizeable portion of classical music, many bassoonists are oblivious of opera literature. Besides the Marriage of Figaro many bassoonists are blithely unaware of the excerpts on opera bassoon audition lists. This document attempts to introduce and analyze the most popular opera excerpts for principal and second bassoon. Thirty-four opera companies were contacted in an effort to obtain the most accurate listing of opera bassoon excerpts. This document intends to enlighten the reader on a pedagogical approach to opera bassoon excerpts through the history of the composition, a synopsis of the opera, and a pedagogical approach to each excerpt.

Committee: Karen Pierson (Advisor); Arved Ashby Dr. (Committee Member); Katherine Jones (Committee Member); Robert Sorton (Committee Member) Subjects: Music; Pedagogy; Performing Arts

Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA), Bowling Green State University, 2019, Contemporary Music

Gender inequality is pervasive in the world of performing arts. There are far more female dancers, actresses, and singers than there are male performers. This inequality is amplified by fewer numbers of roles for women. This document examines gender inequality in contemporary North American operas, including the various factors that can influence the gender balance of a cast, with focused studies on commissioning organizations and ten works that feature predominantly female casts. Chapter 1 presents the analysis of all operas in OPERA America's North American Works database written and premiered from 1995 to the present. Of the 4,216 roles in this data, 1,842 (43.6%) are for female singers. Operas written by a female composer or librettist have 48% roles for female singers, operas with a female lead character have 51%, and intentionally feminist or female-focused operas have 53% roles for female singers. Chapter 2 considers ten companies devoted to the creation and production of contemporary opera in North America. Works premiered by these companies have an average of 47% roles for women, and companies with a female executive or founder are more likely to have a higher average. Companies that use language like “innovative” or “adventurous” in their mission statement are more likely to have greater female representation in the casts of their commissioned works. Chapter 3 discusses ten contemporary operas that feature at least 50% female casts in a wide variety of stories, with multi-layered female characters and diverse musical styles. The works profiled are Hildegurls Electric Ordo Virtutum (1998) by Kitty Brazelton, Eve Beglarian, Elaine Kaplinsky, and Lisa Bielawa, Amy Beth Kirsten's Ophelia Forever (2005), Catherine Reid and Judith Lane's The Yellow Wallpaper (2008), Ana Sokolovic's Svadba (2011), Errollyn Wallen's ANON (2014), Kate Soper's Here Be Sirens (2014), Kamala Sankaram and Susan Yankowitz's Thumbprint (2014), Sean Ellis Hussey's …for the sake (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Jane Rodgers DMA (Advisor); Kristen Rudisill PhD (Other); Kevin Bylsma MM (Committee Member); Ryan Ebright PhD (Committee Member); Emily Brown PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Music; Performing Arts

Master of Music (MM), Bowling Green State University, 2018, Music History

Female figures are rarely prominent characters in classic literature, nor are they featured in history. Many of them are often remembered only in relation to their male counterparts. Such is not the case for subjects of three contemporary dramatic vocal works, each of which reimagines and engages with familiar female characters from history, literature, and myth. Three versions of Shakespeare's Ophelia manifest in Amy Beth Kirsten's chamber opera Ophelia Forever, three conceptions of the siren myth interact in Kate Soper's music theater piece Here Be Sirens, and five wives of Henry VIII take center stage in Libby Larsen's song cycle Try Me, Good King: The Last Words of the Wives of Henry VIII. In this thesis, I investigate how contemporary composers portray and dramatically construct female characters through music and the voice. Although I am not using a specific feminist approach, the discussion itself is inherently feminist as it critiques the societal structures that surround these familiar women as well as the gendered roles they are expected to fulfill. Building on interviews I conducted with each of the composers, I engage in hermeneutic musical analysis by observing the conformation or refusal of operatic vocal conventions, studying text-music relationships, and interpreting the compositional voice of each composer. I argue these female characters are empowered because these pieces expose the sexism embedded in their past artistic and historical representations. I also suggest, however, that although all three of these pieces give voice only to women, they also demonstrate that the influence and reach of men is still very present. Nevertheless, in dramatizing these familiar figures in a musical setting, these composers attribute agency to females who have traditionally lacked voices of their own.

Committee: Eftychia Papanikolaou Ph.D. (Advisor); Ryan Ebright Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Gender Studies; History; Music

PHD, Kent State University, 2017, College of the Arts / School of Music, Hugh A. Glauser

Todd Goodman's dissertation is in two parts: Part I is an operatic setting of the classic 1968 horror film Night of the Living Dead, with the original screenplay by George A. Romero and John Russo. The work, in two acts, is scored for eight principal soloists, six supporting soloists, chorus, and chamber orchestra--flute (doubling piccolo and alto flute), clarinet (doubling bass clarinet), violin, violoncello, piano, synthesizer, and percussion. The libretto for the opera is an adaptation by Stephen Catanzarite of the original screenplay, currently in the public domain. The opera is approximately two hours in duration. Part II, How Music Sounds: a Comprehensive Guide to the Study of the Grammar of Music, is a textbook intended for high-school students to help in their study of musicianship. This book creates a comprehensive foundation for teenage students to have a better understanding of the fundamentals of music through basic harmony, simple compositional technique, keyboarding skills, aural skills, and rhythmic comprehension. This textbook also includes historical contexts of how the theoretical understanding of music evolved—all at a pace that is conducive to the learning of that age group. This dissertation also includes a review of the current music theory, aural skills, and rhythmic studies textbooks currently in use throughout secondary education in the United States.

Committee: Ralph Lorenz PHD (Committee Co-Chair); Frank Wiley DMA (Committee Co-Chair); Jay White DMA (Committee Member); Mark Lewis PHD (Committee Member) Subjects: Music; Music Education

Master of Music (MM), Bowling Green State University, 2017, Music Composition

Short Opera for Five Voices is a ten-minute music theatre piece for five unaccompanied voices of any gender or voice type. The performers do not sing, but rather phonate in such a way as to give the impression of conversational speech. The score is notated with specific rhythms and pitch contours that emulate the prosodic elements of speech: stress, intonation, cadence, etc. To place greater emphasis on the prosody, the performers' text is limited to a small collection of syllables based on spoken American English. The syllables are distinct enough to differentiate the voices and add variety to the texture yet similar enough to give the text cohesion. While their words will be unintelligible to the audience, the characters' emotions and motivations will come across through the prosody and acting. The plot is an informal gathering of five friends in which the increased tension between two of them results in a verbal altercation. In addition to the theatrical convention to showcase the most dramatic aspects of the human experience, this piece dwells on the pedestrian and mundane qualities of social interaction in an attempt to show audiences the quiet poignancy in everyday life. The notation for this piece was informed by Aperghis's Recitations, Berio's Sequenza III, and Ligeti's Aventures while the textual and conceptual elements were inspired by Glass's Einstein on the Beach, Monk's Atlas, Reich's The Cave, and Sciarrino's Lohengrin. BGSU music students Hillary LaBonte, Nicholas Fox, Mavis MacNeil, Vincent Sauer, and Crystal Lau will perform the piece on Saturday, March 18, 2017.

Committee: Christopher Dietz Dr. (Advisor); Mikel Kuehn Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Music