BA, Oberlin College, 2022, Comparative Literature

Why do we make analogies? The standard definition suggests “[a] comparison between two things, typically for the purpose of explanation or clarification” (Oxford Languages); an analogy is when something borrows another vocabulary, another set of terms, or another paradigm, to facilitate a deeper understanding. But here, I argue that analogy is more than a didactic tool for making explanations more convenient: rather, analogy is the essential way that we understand ourselves in relation to others—for my purposes, how artists understand their own medium in relation to other mediums. Specifically, I use the concept of analogy to explore the encounter between music and language; I take as my starting point the French Symbolist poet Stephane Mallarme, one of the major poets in France at the time of his death in 1898, with a legacy which resonates today in poststructuralism and experimental poetry. Mallarme interests me because he exemplifies an analogical approach to understanding poetry: in order to articulate his poetics, Mallarme found inspiration in a diverse array of mediums from dance to mime to acting, and most importantly, in music. This project adopts a three-part approach, investigating the encounter between music and language first from the perspective of language, then from the perspective of music, and finally examining art which reconciles music and language in a more liminal status. Chapter 1 discusses how Mallarme's ideal language parasites music: he uses music to articulate the terms of his ideal language, but in doing so silences music, removing its status as actual sound. Chapter 2 explores how composer Pierre Boulez turns this parasitism around, using music as a parasite on language: Boulez sets Mallarme's poetry, but in doing so, he renders it into sound, deprivileging its linguistic qualities while embedding them into the musical structure. Chapter 3 explores contemporary manifestations of music/language art with composer Georges Aperghis and Or (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Patrick O'Connor (Advisor); Matthew Senior (Committee Member); Brian Alegant (Committee Member) Subjects: Comparative Literature; Music

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2017, Musicology

Claude Le Jeune's Octonaires de la vanite et inconstance du monde (1606), a collection of thirty-six Calvinist chansons spirituelles, are a neglected source of evidence relevant to his compromised position as a Huguenot in a French academic milieu controlled by Catholic royalists. Le Jeune is best known for his association with the Neoplatonic Academie de poesie et de musique (est. 1570) as a composer of musique mesuree a l'antique. In the Octonaires, he creates metric disorder by vacillating continually between homophonic musique mesuree and the imitative style that it was meant to replace. He also appears to select musique mesuree in a targeted way for verses that undermine its cosmological purpose, which was to represent and facilitate the Neoplatonic doctrines of universal harmonic movement (harmonia mundi) and divine reunion. Along with the circumstances of Le Jeune's career, the work's broader theological and philosophical context gives it the appearance of a retrospective critique, begun at the end of his life and after the Academy had been disbanded. This study draws new attention to the musical ramifications of a shift in ontological thought during the Renaissance: away from Platonic dualism and toward a Neoplatonic theory of cosmic unity and divine extension into matter, which became exposed thereby to the Protestant indictment of vanity. The study also identifies a hitherto overlooked connection between the poetic genre of "octonaires" on vanity and a contrary use of that term in sixteenth-century Neoplatonic and Hermetic literature. Both contexts relate the term to Psalm 119 (the psaume octonaire); in the latter context, the octonaire describes a metaphysical passage through the octave and, by analogy, the philosopher's ascent from the terrestrial to the eighth sphere -- a vain affront to Calvinist sensibilities.

Committee: Susan McClary (Advisor); Georgia Cowart (Committee Member); Peter Bennett (Committee Member); Catherine Scallen (Committee Member) Subjects: Art Criticism; Art History; Music; Philosophy; Religious History; Theology

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2016, Music

Based on data from two years of fieldwork in Nigeria, a new methodology for contour analysis is presented with two motivations: 1) extend contour theory into an applied computational approach appropriate for a wide range of symbolic and recorded music; 2) develop a new discretization of pitch, similar to solmization but without an association to a scale or tonal qualia, that can be used to measure pitch prominence (or markedness) in both music and speech. As an alternative to the conventional contour matrix for a segment of cardinality n which compares pitches at all degrees of adjacency up to n-1, a continuous matrix is introduced, with unspecified cardinality and a fixed number of degrees of adjacency. The continuous matrix is a series of contour slices. Each slice compares a pitch to the pitch before and after up to the degrees of adjacency. The elements in each contour slice (a column in the continuous matrix) can be summed creating a measure of relative pitch height, a contour level. The analysis implementation is based on a relationship between contour recursion and segmentation of pitch series. Thematic unity, as provided by contour recursion, is presumed to be intentional on the part of the producer and salient to the receiver. Non-overlapping iterations of a highly recursive contour are both semiotically and structurally important in a wide variety of monophonic signals. The analysis is made more robust by searching for transformations and using reductive processes that make it possible to compare segments of different cardinalities. Contour level analysis is applied to the phenomenon of “tone-and-tune”, wherein a single pitch series carries both linguistic and musical or paralinguistic communication. First the concept of a toneme (a pitch contrast in speech) is explored. Phoneticians and phonologists have described the toneme with paradigmatic (context-independent) and syntagmatic (context-dependent) features, but neither seems to satisfactorily (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: David Clampitt (Advisor); David Huron (Committee Member); Udo Will (Committee Member) Subjects: Acoustics; African Studies; Linguistics; Music

Master of Music, University of Akron, 2010, Music-History and Literature

As an avid listener of Russian music I often noticed the tendency of Russian composers to produce music that tells a story, often a specifically Russian story. This proclivity is evident not only in vocal works such as solo songs or opera, but in the story choice for ballets and programmatic instrumental works. I sought to understand why Russians were so attracted to storytelling. As Richard Taruskin says in the introduction to his article, “Some Thoughts on the History and Historiography of Russian Music:” “We are simply curious to know and understand the music we love as well as we possibly can, and eager to stimulate interest in it.” Historically, Russia (and later the Soviet Union) has been dominated by totalitarian regimes and the flow of information into and out of the country has often been strictly controlled. The setting apart of Russian music (and the Russian arts as a whole) has helped create its mystique. But, in the opinion of musicologist Richard Taruskin, it has also marginalized the music. The music of Russian composers has become defined by how well it fulfills a stereotypical set of stylistic traits. As Taruskin says: “Verdi and Wagner are heroic individuals. Russians are a group.” Russian music has thus been held apart and—to borrow Taruskin's term—“consigned to the ghetto.” But in actuality the Russian intelligentsia, (of which authors and composers were members), were highly cosmopolitan and saw themselves as part of the European community. Many of the trends we associate with Russian music were not the result of some unique and original expression but rather were important trends across Europe during the nineteenth century. Nationalism, program music, and the interest in orientalism/exoticism, all had their origins in Western Europe. Russians then took these models and made them personal and national forms of expression. In this paper I argue that the inclination to produce music that tells a story can be attributed to the close development (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Brooks Toliver Dr. (Advisor); George Pope Mr. (Committee Member); William Guegold Dr. (Committee Member); Dudley Turner (Committee Member); George Newkome (Committee Member) Subjects: Music; Performing Arts; Russian History

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2013, Arts and Sciences: Romance Languages and Literatures

My dissertation studies the musical adaptations of poetic texts by a group of Spanish songwriters from 1960 to 2010 such as Paco Ibanez, Joan Manuel Serrat and Amancio Prada. These musical adaptations are treated as works of new creation considering the songwriter the author or creator of these new adaptations. As a result, I establish the foundations that take place at the moment of adaptation, considering the songwriter as a reader of the primary source (the text) and as an interpreter of the same. As my study aims to point out, these adaptations are used with an ideological goal, which in the context of Franco's Spain translates into a powerful tool to spread the ideals of democracy and freedom, as well as a vehicle for the expression and support of the rebirth of nationalisms in Spain. After Franco's dictatorship, the songwriters contribute to the ideological agenda of memoria historica (historic memory) and the fight against forgetfulness. Simultaneously, through these adaptations these songwriters are incorporating themselves into the literary tradition by using canonical texts from different centuries as they create a new marketable product to educate and reach the masses. On the other hand, the live performance of the musical adaptations will contribute to the creation of `interpretative communities' based on the ideological, social and cultural horizon of expectations of the audience. The dissertation examines the different `interpretative communities' created around the fight for freedom during Franco's Spain and/or the vindication of historic memory of those killed, exiled or forgotten during those years

Committee: Maria Moreno Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Carlos Gutierrez Ph.D. (Committee Member); Andres Perez-Simon Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Literature

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

breaking in torrent ⸺, is a composition for a two percussionist, two pianist quartet with fixed media that was inspired by the poem “River Sonnet” by Tacey M. Atsitty. The imagery of place and memory informed the creation of a collection of sonic moments inspired by the textual landscapes of this text. breaking in torrent ⸺'s formal structure is through-composed, following the progression of six continuous scenes of various densities, rhythms, timbres, and harmonic material derived from particular phrases and/or words of the poem. The first section flow, explores the motion of rushing water with the constant rhythmicity of sixteenth-note runs. The second section stars, features a delicate, suspended atmosphere. The third section undercurrent, emerges as an ostinato that grows in both volume and range, that transitions into the fourth section rise, containing rapidly ascending gestures. These release into the fifth section, plumes of pang, during which a gentle harmonic progression emulates the sense of yearning and at times regret present within the text. The piece finishes with a return to flow material, recast into a different form than its initial presentation. breaking in torrent ⸺'s harmonic content originated from the progression (B♭M6, Dm, FM43, F♯M64(♭5), E♭M7), that was divided to create two pitch “zones” spread across multiple octaves. Arranged horizontally, each zone formed an irregular scale comprising six pitches. An additional ten pitch melodic phrase is introduced later as a third pitch zone. Rhythm in the work includes metrically driving rhythmic passages, ametric atmospheres, and varying combinations of the two. For example, layers of rapid tuplet figures create washes of sound while streams of steady eighth-note ostinati churn in rapidly shifting meters. Rhythmic lines at times act independently, creating contrapuntal intricacy and rhythmic hocketing. Other moments feature the ensemble in dramatic tutti, with unified rhythmic (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Elainie Lillios Dr. (Advisor); Mikel Kuehn Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Composition; Fine Arts; Music; Performing Arts

Master of Fine Arts (MFA), Bowling Green State University, 2018, Creative Writing/Poetry

Swarm Sounds is a collection of poems that explores the various roles encountered and inhabited over the course of a lifespan. We eat, we poop, we make love, and above all, we hope to charm a nearby ear with our song.

Committee: Larissa Szporluk MFA (Advisor); Frank Daniel Rzicznek MFA (Committee Member) Subjects: Literature

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2017, College-Conservatory of Music: Music (Musicology)

Since 1991 music of the First New England School has become readily accessible through critical editions. The compilers of these volumes edited the music, traced the compositional styles and methods of these composers, and documented their biographies. However, no one has explored how composers of this era edited scripture and sacred poetry for anthems and how these editorial acts might reflect the politics of the Colonial and Federal Periods. Anthems afforded composers more creative liberty than strophic genres such as plain tunes and fuging tunes. Because anthems are long, through-composed works, composers had wide latitude regarding the text they set; most drew from Biblical scripture, sacred poetry, or a combination of the two. This study traces the texts that First New England composers chose and how composers edited them for anthems. In some cases, composers employed straightforward, unedited sections of scripture, but in most cases, they or their collaborators edited scripture and drew on diverse literary sources. This study addresses such issues as musical setting, geographical locale, and politics. Included are where composers lived, what their personal religious practices may have been, and how involved they were in politics and civic activities. The methodology includes an original database of eighteenth-century anthem texts, including when they were first published, if and how the source texts were edited, the general topic of each anthem, and each scriptural citation. This study builds on recent scholarship on ministers' use of scripture during the American Revolutionary War. This study examines the texts from First New England School anthems in a similar manner, showing the similarities and differences in the way that preachers and composers quoted, edited, and employed Biblical scripture and sacred poetry during a period of political turmoil and revolution.

Committee: bruce mcclung Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Jonathan Kregor Ph.D. (Committee Member); Stephanie Schlagel Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Music

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2017, Music History and Literature (Fine Arts)

Using Senegal's Islam-infused popular music as lens, this dissertation examines the ways in which modern Senegalese singers have used musical lyricism and performance to celebrate collective Muslim identities, but also to negotiate a pan-ethnic and trans-religious discourse of national unity. Focusing on mbalax and jolof rap as the country's signature music genres, the dissertation proposes that contemporary Senegalese singers blend indigenous verbal art with modern poetry to create a new musical language aimed for bridging over religious and ethnic marginalities. By codeswitching the Wolof language with French, Arabic, and other local languages, I suggest that this musical language embodies a culture politics whereby the pan-ethnic national is prioritized over the ethnic. To put it differently, I propose that the lyrics and performances of mbalax and jolof rap artists foreground symbols of a collective Senegalese national identity, as well as a response to the postcolonial challenges of national integration. Grounded in the theories of nationhood, modernity, and cosmopolitanism, this dissertation argues that popular music, as a cultural element, can have impact on the grassroots processes of nation building, especially in a postcolonial context. Approaching Senegal's mbalax and jolof rap musics as such, I study both genres as collective (entertainment) symbols through which artists seek to reconcile the Islamic with the non-Islamic, the local with the foreign, with a tendency to blur local ethnic boundaries. Along these lines, I have studied mbalax and jolof rap as two distinct - but dialogically related - musical forms around which popular musicians construct and circulate narratives of collective identity, pluralism, and national solidarity. In addition, I analyze mbalax and jolof rap as synthetic musics, because the compositions of both blend local elements with foreign imports. I suggest that this creative synthesis is what defines Senegal's musical moderni (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Andrea Frohne PhD (Committee Chair); Garrett Field PhD (Committee Member); Steve Howard PhD (Committee Member); Loren Lybarger PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: African Literature; African Studies; Art Criticism; Black Studies; Comparative Literature; Cultural Anthropology; Ethnic Studies; Film Studies; Folklore; Gender Studies; Islamic Studies; Literature; Mass Media; Music; Religion; Spirituality; Sub Saharan Africa Studies; Womens Studies

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 1971, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects: Music

Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing, Youngstown State University, 2015, Department of Languages

Dear Goth is a collection of poems that chronicles the tumultuous life of a modern-day "goth kid" in small-town USA, how his musical heroes have influenced him, his relationships, and his ultimate conclusion that perhaps life isn't all about doom and gloom all the time.

Committee: Mary Biddinger PhD (Advisor); Catherine Wing MFA (Committee Member); Steven Reese PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Fine Arts; Language; Literature; Modern Literature; Music

BM, Kent State University, 2014, College of the Arts / School of Music, Hugh A. Glauser

During the Middle Ages, oral poets often sang the tale of the hero Siegfried, his murder, his widow Kriemhild';s revenge, and the downfall of the Burgundian kingdom. A medieval epic poem written in Middle-High German, the Nibelungenlied is widely known among German citizens and scholars alike. Its historical and mythological roots include the defeat of the Burgundians during the Volkerwanderung (Great Migration Period) and the legend of Siegfried. I applied my own knowledge of medieval Germanic literature and music by performing this work in its original language, and this paper discusses the research and planning that went into my performance. Medieval epic poetry was often sung when performed, and the Nibelungenlied is no exception. To prepare the performance, I selected sections of the text to perform and set them to the Hildebrandston, a melody that is believed to be similar to that of the Nibelungenlied, whose original melody is no longer known. I also examined certain phonological aspects of Middle High German so as to present the text as authentically as possible. I accompanied my singing of the Nibelungenlied on a lap dulcimer, a three-stringed, fretted instrument and member of the zither family. I used variations in dynamics, vocal color, and accompaniment to enhance the dramatic aspect of the performance. After my investigations, I was able to consider the cultural context and reception of the Nieblungenlied, as well as interpret its many themes such as honor, duty, betrayal, revenge, and destruction. The entire work can be viewed as a commentary on the shift in ideals from heroic victory to lawful rule and order. In completing this project, I have had the opportunity to explore the relationship between literature and music in their historical and cultural context.

Committee: Jay White (Advisor); Geoffrey Koby (Committee Member); Jane Dressler (Committee Member); Don-John Dugas (Committee Member) Subjects: Germanic Literature; Medieval Literature; Music

Master of Arts (MA), Wright State University, 2008, English

A collection of poems composed as an exercise with imagination and the attempt to convey the mind as medium for experience without forgetting the reader remembers something else.

Committee: Gary Pacernick PhD (Advisor); Annette Oxindine PhD (Committee Member); Carol Loranger PhD (Committee Member); Henry Limouze PhD (Other); Joseph F. Thomas, Jr. PhD (Other) Subjects: English literature

DMA, University of Cincinnati, 2011, College-Conservatory of Music: Conducting, Choral Emphasis

This study focuses on the connection between poetry, choral composition, and choral performance, specifically how an understanding of the constructive elements of poetry can influence the interpretation of a choral score. The focus is on secular, English-language, accentual-syllabic poetry written in the United States and set to music by composers from the United States; free verse is not included in this document. Most studies of the interconnectedness of poetry and choral music have focused on either the meaning of the text or on “text painting.” By contrast, this study focuses on poetic constructive devices such as meter, form, and punctuation, and the implications such devices can have for choral performance, especially in regard to tempo, phrasing, articulation, and dynamics. Understanding these implications and incorporating them into one's preparation of a choral score can lend insight into the compositional process, and can also aid the conductor in achieving an interpretation of the score that serves the intentions and interests of both poet and composer.

Committee: Earl Rivers (Committee Chair); Donald Bogen (Committee Member); Kenneth Griffiths (Committee Member) Subjects: Music

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2009, Arts and Sciences : English and Comparative Literature

New To The Lost Coast is a book-length collection of poems that engages the themes of loss and exile. Popular music and the movies play prominent roles in the exploration of these themes. The subsequent critical essay investigates Robert Hass's work as a poet of the environment.

Committee: Donald Bogen PhD (Committee Chair); Michael Griffith MFA (Committee Member); John Drury MFA (Committee Member) Subjects: American Literature

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2008, College-Conservatory of Music : Music (Musicology)

The first quarter of the sixteenth century witnessed tightening connections between rhetoric, poetry, and music. In theoretical writings, composers of this period are evaluated according to their ability to reflect successfully the emotions and meaning of the text set in musical terms. The same period also witnessed the rise of the five- and six-voice chanson, whose most important exponents are Josquin des Prez, Pierre de La Rue, and Jean Mouton. The new expanded textures posed several compositional challenges but also offered greater opportunities for text expression. Rhetorical analysis is particularly suitable for this repertory as it is justified by the composers' contacts with humanistic ideals and the newer text-expressive approach. Especially Josquin's exposure to humanism must have been extensive during his long-lasting residence in Italy, before returning to Northern France, where he most likely composed his multi-voice chansons. The present dissertation explores the musico-rhetorical resources that demonstrate how composers read and interpreted contemporary poetic texts in conjunction with their efforts to accommodate larger textures in the secular domain. Musical rhetoric is thus understood as the totality of musical gestures that aim to secure a successful delivery of musical speech. Musico-rhetorical analysis of the repertory demonstrates that composers of the time read more in the poetry they set than the rhyme scheme and the syntax of the verses. They responded, albeit by various and subtle musical means, to the semantic implications of the text, its bawdy, serious, or mixed register, to the changes from indirect speech to personal declaration or third-person address, to the sonorous quality of the verse and its projection through the expanded polyphonic fabric, and to the resonances of the text with other texts or musical settings. Especially in chansons in the courtly register, composers frequently employed gestures derived form classical rhetoric (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Stephanie P. Schlagel PhD (Committee Chair); Miguel Roig-Francoli PhD (Committee Member); Edward Nowacki PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Music

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2012, English (Arts and Sciences)

This thesis, entitled, (Don't Anybody Laugh) contains a collection of essays and a critical preface entitled, "Pockets of Confession: Exploring Issues of Narrator Persona in Creative Nonfiction." The preface describes the parallel nature of the nonfiction essayist, specifically in regards to issues of voice and humor. I draw extensively from the works of David Foster Wallace and John Jeremiah Sullivan, as well as some brief essays by Mark Twain, Anne Lamott, and Montaigne to show the inherent difficulties and uniquely joyous aspects of essaying the self in the modern American tradition of "long-form" journalism. I hope that the critical work serves to enlighten the reader as to why certain thematic and stylistic choices were employed in the crafting of this collection.

Committee: Eric LeMay Dr. (Advisor); Mark Halliday Dr. (Committee Member); Dinty Moore Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Literature

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2009, English (Arts and Sciences)

This Thesis includes a collection of original poems with an introduction which attempts to explain some of the authors intent. Most of the poems convey a sense of embarrassment through unsure speakers. These speakers feel confused by the world they are in and try to come to some understanding of what loneliness, embarrassment, and stoic behaviors are worth. The moments where the speaker is sure of himself are few and far between. The inheritance of bad habits and melancholy are also examined in some of the poems. All of these poems are about a search for art and love. The Introduction attempts to show embarrassment in T. S. Eliot's work as well as my own, pulling quotes from a book by Christopher Ricks called, Keats and Embarrassment.

Committee: Mark Halliday PhD (Committee Chair) Subjects: American Literature

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2007, Comparative Arts (Fine Arts)

This dissertation demonstrates through intertextual analysis that the songs of Francis Poulenc's 1956-57 song cycle Le Travail du Peintrecan be considered “surrealist” and “cubist” because of aesthetic, stylistic, thematic, and theoretical similarities found among the poetry, painting, and music of the song cycle. The seven poems of the song cycle are from surrealist poet Paul Eluard's 1948 collection Voir, which includes poems about and paintings and drawings by cubist and surrealist painters Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, Georges Braque, Juan Gris, Paul Klee, Joan Miro, and Jacques Villon. Poulenc's music forms an intertextual network with Eluard's poetry and, through it, with the painters' works. The song cycle serves as an intertext in which the cubist and surrealist artworks, poems, history and philosophies meet and is, therefore, an example of musical Cubism and Surrealism. The intertextuality of the song cycle creates a further interdisciplinary connection through its parallel with the dialogic nature of art, music, and literary history and, ultimately, with the kinetic nature of subjectivity itself.

Committee: Dora Wilson (Advisor) Subjects:

MLS, Kent State University, 2012, College of Arts and Sciences / Liberal Studies Program

The goal of this Essay is to map out, from start to finish, the process of Media Production—generating an idea, honing it into a viable product, and the eventual marketing and management of the project. Not all original ideas in this Essay are primarily focused on profit; however, the core purpose of my education has had, at its crux, the notion of generating an income from my Media projects. The ideas presented here are organized in a definitive way, though the traditional pattern of a business document has been altered to fit in elements of my own Media creations, hence a Manuscript-like aesthetic. Included are a business plan, creative writing, original music, and business memoirs.

Committee: Eileen Bridges Dr. (Advisor); Tammy Clewell (Committee Member); Richard Berrong Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Entrepreneurship