Theses and Dissertations
This collection includes both ASU Theses and Dissertations, submitted by graduate students, and the Barrett, Honors College theses submitted by undergraduate students.
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- All Subjects: Canon
- Creators: Norton, Kay
Description
Ruth Gipps was an English composer, performer, and conductor whose unique experiences and opinions shaped her compositional output and the musical world around her. Gipps was a conflicted individual throughout her life, facing challenges as an outsider in almost every area of her professional life: child prodigy turned adult musician, outspoken conservative English composer positioned against a new international style, and woman in a male-dominated space as an orchestral performer and conductor. Perhaps as a result of her many struggles, she developed internal dissonances between her beliefs, her words, and her actions. These inner conflicts, manifesting in her musical voice as well as her work as a conductor, greatly impacted her career and oeuvre. Despite her inner turmoil, Gipps was always passionately and unapologetically expressive of her personality and beliefs, refusing to compromise or change her behavior even when it negatively impacted her reputation and opportunities. It was this intensity and dedication that enabled her to positively impact musicians in her life, whom she deeply cared about, and to communicate with performers and listeners of her compositions. This document reviews the literature about Gipps, which includes two books by Jill Halstead as well as several dissertations. Information from these sources directly addressing Gipps as well as other pertinent literature is used to explore the disconnects and conflicts that characterized Gipps’s life and music. A discussion of four of Gipps’s oboe family works, Kensington Gardens Suite, op. 2 (1938), The Piper of Dreams, op. 12b (1940), Oboe Concerto in D minor, op. 20 (1941), and Threnody, op. 74 (1990), relates these impactful conflicts to Gipps’s unique musical voice and her contributions to oboe repertoire.
ContributorsDeMouy, Laura Anne (Author) / Schuring, Martin (Thesis advisor) / Norton, Kay (Committee member) / Buck, Elizabeth (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
ABSTRACT
Emilie Mayer (1812-1883) was a prolific composer whose musical works, which encompassed eight symphonies, four overtures, an opera, dozens of sonatas, eight string quartets, solo piano works, and nearly 130 songs for solo voice or vocal quartet, were performed in the foremost concert halls in Berlin and across Germany. She studied with lauded teachers: Carl Loewe (1796-1869), Adolph Bernhard Marx (1795-1866), and Wilhelm Wieprecht (1802-1872). Her talent was applauded by audiences and critics wrote favorably, despite their reservations about women composers. However, even with this unusual pedigree, Mayer’s works nearly disappeared from concert stages after her death. How did this happen? This study aims to answer this question and will delve into Emilie Mayer’s life and works in context with the prejudices against female composers at the time, in order to determine how those biases have shaped the classical canon. Included is an in-depth stylistic analysis of Mayer’s surviving seven Lieder, along-side comparisons to similar works of other composers. In addition, appendices present Mayer’s remaining Lieder in a new, modernized edition, with selected songs transposed for better accessibility for lower voices. Relative lack of female representation in modern-day concert halls and music history books correlates to previous misconceptions of female composers. Studying the works of Emilie Mayer will support her addition to the classical repertoire, help correct the male-gendered canon that persists, and help modern female composers realize their history is not confined to a footnote.
Emilie Mayer (1812-1883) was a prolific composer whose musical works, which encompassed eight symphonies, four overtures, an opera, dozens of sonatas, eight string quartets, solo piano works, and nearly 130 songs for solo voice or vocal quartet, were performed in the foremost concert halls in Berlin and across Germany. She studied with lauded teachers: Carl Loewe (1796-1869), Adolph Bernhard Marx (1795-1866), and Wilhelm Wieprecht (1802-1872). Her talent was applauded by audiences and critics wrote favorably, despite their reservations about women composers. However, even with this unusual pedigree, Mayer’s works nearly disappeared from concert stages after her death. How did this happen? This study aims to answer this question and will delve into Emilie Mayer’s life and works in context with the prejudices against female composers at the time, in order to determine how those biases have shaped the classical canon. Included is an in-depth stylistic analysis of Mayer’s surviving seven Lieder, along-side comparisons to similar works of other composers. In addition, appendices present Mayer’s remaining Lieder in a new, modernized edition, with selected songs transposed for better accessibility for lower voices. Relative lack of female representation in modern-day concert halls and music history books correlates to previous misconceptions of female composers. Studying the works of Emilie Mayer will support her addition to the classical repertoire, help correct the male-gendered canon that persists, and help modern female composers realize their history is not confined to a footnote.
ContributorsSadownik, Stephanie Beth (Author) / Weiss, Stephanie (Thesis advisor) / Norton, Kay (Thesis advisor) / Ryan, Russell (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020