Masters Thesis

Graduate recital in voice

The musical program of this recital represents a range of periods, from baroque to romantic, and demonstrates an equally wide range of emotion through text and music. Sampling songs from England, Italy, Germany and France also reveals diversity in language and nationality. Studying this music has been a pleasure because of how the diversity of the music provided an opportunity for much learning and growth. In the end, this repertoire, through the beautifully interwoven text, melody, and accompaniment, draws the singer and audience into a colorful world of love, hate, beauty, wisdom, religion, new life, and death: a glimpse into the beauty of life. The first section is a brief one with two song selections from Handel's oratorios. Total Eclipse, from Samson (1741), is a snapshot in the middle of the 3-act story wherein Samson is found blind and in prison, comforted by his friend, Micah. After a brief piano introduction, the piano rests while Samson cries, "Total eclipse! No sun, no moon" in a haunting E minor melody. The accompaniment slowly comes back in, although not able to lift the heavy chains of sorrow from Samson. The text repeats and is embellished by the singer, expressing great sadness and longing for hope through dissonant half step suspensions and appoggiaturas. Sound an Alarm, from Judas Maccabeus (1746), is a battle cry in which Judas is rallying the people of Israel to destroy the pagan altars of the Seleucid Empire, who have overtaken them. The song opens with Judas calling in recitative, "My arms! Against this Gorgias will I go," after which he launches into a fast-paced, galloping war cry filled with melismas, ascending and descending with speed and agility. At many points, the voice acts as a trumpet, blasting triumphant calls to the people of Israel. The second section is composed of selections from Vincenzo Bellini's Sei Arriete da camera (1829). The first, Malinconia, Ninja gentile, is a typical Bellini song: graceful, tranquil, romantic, poetic, painting a beautiful and delicate picture with the voice. The second, Vanne, o rosa fortunata, is a playful lament of the envy this lover has for the rose upon his beloved's breast. Light-hearted repetitions, the confidence of the vocal lines, and the metaphor of death all point to a lover's interplay that is finally consummated and celebrated. The third, Per pieta, bell' idol mio (number five in Bellini's original group), is the most energetic and passionate of the set. The listener finds the lovers amidst an argument in which the singer is pleading with his beloved "non mi dir chi 'io sonno ingrato" (do not tell me that I am ungrateful). Before the song is over, the lover pledges his love to his beloved, assuring "se fedele a te son io, semi struggo ai tuoi bei lumi, Sallo amor, lo sanno i Numi, il mio core, il tuo lo sa"(that I have been faithful, that I languish under your bright gaze, love knows, the gods know, my heart (knows) and yours knows) (See more in text.)

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