Matching Items (44)
Description
Zwischen in the German language means `between,' and over the past century, as operatic voices have evolved in both range and size, the voice classification of Zwischenfach has become much more relevant - particularly to the female voice. Identifying whether nineteenth century composers recognized the growing opportunities for vocal drama, size, and range in singers and therefore wrote roles for `between' singers; or conversely whether, singers began to challenge and develop their voices to sing the new influx of romantic, verismo and grand repertoire is difficult to determine. Whichever the case, teachers and students should not be surprised about the existence of this nebulous Fach. A clear and concise definition of the word Fach for the purpose of this paper is as follows: a specific voice classification. Zwischenfach is an important topic because young singers are often confused and over-eager to self-label due to the discipline's excessive labeling of Fachs. Rushing to categorize a young voice ultimately leads to misperceptions. To address some of the confusion, this paper briefly explores surveys of the pedagogy and history of the Fach system. To gain insights into the relevance of Zwischenfach in today's marketplace, I developed with my advisors, colleagues and students a set of subjects willing to fill out questionnaires. This paper incorporates current interviews from two casting directors of national and international opera houses, an emerging American mezzo-soprano, a mid-career working European mezzo-soprano, an operatic stage director, an education director for opera houses and a composer. These interviews, along with modern examples of zwischenfach voices are analyzed and discussed.
ContributorsAllen, Jennifer, D.M.A (Author) / Norton, Kay (Thesis advisor) / FitzPatrick, Carole (Thesis advisor) / Dreyfoos, Dale (Committee member) / Ryan, Russell (Committee member) / Barefield, Robert (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Musical Impressionism has been most significantly reflected through the works of Claude Debussy (1862-1918) and Maurice Ravel (1875-1937). These two key figures exhibit the essence of this art and their piano music remains substantial, influential, and frequently assigned and played today. Nevertheless, from a pedagogical perspective, important factors required in achieving a successful performance of Debussy and Ravel's piano music--delicate tone production, independent voicing, complicated rhythm, sensitive pedaling, and a knowledgeable view of Impressionism--are musically and technically beyond the limit of early advanced students. This study provides a collection of short piano pieces by nine lesser-known European and American composers--Edward MacDowell (1861-1908), Charles Griffes (1884-1920), Marion Bauer (1887-1955), Cyril Scott (1879-1970), Arnold Bax (1883-1953), Selim Palmgren (1878-1951), Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936), Jacques Ibert (1890-1962) and Federico Mompou (1893-1987). They were influenced by impressionistic aesthetics or composed at one time in an impressionistic manner over a span of their lifetimes and their music provides a bridge to the more advanced impressionistic pieces of Debussy and Ravel for early advanced students. These composers' selected short piano pieces display richly colored sonority through the use of impressionistic techniques such as non-functional harmony (parallel chords and free modulation), exotic setting (e.g. modality, pentatonic and whole-tone scales), ostinato figures, bell-sound imitation, and extended texture. Moreover, personal interpretive elements, such as poetic and folklore references, were incorporated in some piano works of MacDowell, Griffes, Bauer, Scott, and Bax; among them MacDowell and Bax were particularly inspired by Celtic and Nordic materials. Mompou infused Spanish folklores in his individual naïve style. Most importantly, these selected short piano pieces are approachable and attractive to early advanced pianists. These works, as well as other largely undiscovered impressionistic piano character pieces, ought to be a great source of preliminary repertoire as preparation for the music of Debussy and Ravel.
ContributorsChien, Chieh Jenny (Author) / Thompson, Janice Meyer (Thesis advisor) / Hamilton, Robert (Committee member) / Humphreys, Jere (Committee member) / Norton, Kay (Committee member) / Pagano, Caio (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
ContributorsRussell, Timothy Wells (Conductor) / Shelton, Lucy (Performer) / Barefield, Robert (Performer) / University Symphony Orchestra (Performer) / Choral Union (Performer) / ASU Library. Music Library (Publisher)
Created2004-10-22
ContributorsWang, Liang-Yu (Performer) / Barefield, Robert (Performer) / Ryan-Kelzenberg, Matthew (Performer) / ASU Library. Music Library (Publisher)
Created2005-10-31
ContributorsBarefield, Robert (Performer) / Mills, Robert (Performer) / Allen, Jennifer (Performer) / Bass, Lauren (Performer) / Thompson, Darrell (Performer) / Winston-McPherson, Lauren (Performer) / Robinson, Johnathan (Performer) / Chavis, Dawnya (Performer) / Avent, Matravius (Performer) / Pannell, Judith (Performer) / ASU Library. Music Library (Publisher)
Created2008-02-10
ContributorsBarefield, Robert (Performer) / Thompson, Janice Meyer (Performer) / ASU Library. Music Library (Publisher)
Created2004-03-01
ContributorsFitzPatrick, Carole (Performer) / May, Judy (Performer) / Dreyfoos, Dale (Performer) / Barefield, Robert (Performer) / Campbell, Andrew (Pianist) (Performer) / Peterman, Jeremy (Performer) / Scripps, Scott (Performer) / ASU Library. Music Library (Publisher)
Created2006-11-19
ContributorsMills, Robert (Performer) / Buck, Nancy (Performer) / Hoffer, Warren (Performer) / Spring, Robert (Performer) / Campbell, Andrew (Pianist) (Performer) / Landschoot, Thomas (Performer) / FitzPatrick, Carole (Performer) / Dreyfoos, Dale (Performer) / Barefield, Robert (Performer) / Cheng, Anny (Performer) / Fanning, Patrick (Performer) / McCann, Karen (Performer) / Stapley, Sara (Performer) / Yekel, Amy (Performer) / Baker, Dian (Performer) / Hoffer, Mary Pendleton (Performer) / Chen, Chia-I (Performer) / Sherman, Courtney (Performer) / Shepherd, Hope (Performer) / Bae, Solim (Performer) / Solomon, Melissa (Performer) / Wang, Liang-Yu (Performer) / Nouri, Sahar (Performer) / Ginger, Kerry (Performer) / Peterman, Jeremy (Conductor) / Miller, Kenny (Musician) (Performer) / Nagell, Ann (Performer) / Die Herberger Philharmoniker (Performer) / ASU Library. Music Library (Publisher)
Created2008-04-24
ContributorsBarefield, Robert (Performer) / ASU Library. Music Library (Publisher)
Created2010-04-15
ContributorsBaker, Dian (Performer) / Sellheim, Eckart (Performer) / May, Judy (Performer) / Barefield, Robert (Performer) / ASU Library. Music Library (Publisher)
Created2005-01-28