Matching Items (63)
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Description
Hungarian composer, Miklós Rózsa, is primarily known for his career as a film composer, but he wrote over forty-five pieces for the concert hall. The most famous of these works, Theme, Variations, and Finale, was composed in 1933 and premiered the following year, ushering in a long history of performances

Hungarian composer, Miklós Rózsa, is primarily known for his career as a film composer, but he wrote over forty-five pieces for the concert hall. The most famous of these works, Theme, Variations, and Finale, was composed in 1933 and premiered the following year, ushering in a long history of performances throughout Europe and abroad in the 1930s and 1940s. This document serves as a guide for performers of Theme, Variations, and Finale by offering biographical information about Rózsa, the compositional history and performance history of the work and recorded legacy, details about its two versions, and a detailed analysis of the score. This document also clarifies important details about the work's performance history, which have previously been recorded inaccurately.
ContributorsAlpizar, Mark Daniel (Author) / Meyer, Jeffery (Thesis advisor) / Feisst, Sabine (Committee member) / Spring, Robert (Committee member) / Caslor, Jason (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
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Description
This fifteen-minute cyclical mass uses excerpts from the text of the Mass Ordinary and is laid out into five movements and across three different languages: Kyrie (Latin), Gloria (Chinese), Credo (English), Sanctus (Chinese), and Agnus Dei (Latin). Rather than following the tradition of celebrating devotion, this mass tells the

This fifteen-minute cyclical mass uses excerpts from the text of the Mass Ordinary and is laid out into five movements and across three different languages: Kyrie (Latin), Gloria (Chinese), Credo (English), Sanctus (Chinese), and Agnus Dei (Latin). Rather than following the tradition of celebrating devotion, this mass tells the story of the abuse of power in political and religious leadership. Movements sung in Latin represent the devout Christian base whose motives and inspiration remain pure and divine. The English movement, Credo, has been altered from the original and represents the manipulation and distortion of scripture, truth, and facts by self-serving leaders and politicians. Finally, Chinese movements represent those who are persecuted for their convictions and their identity.

The turmoil of the Chinese movements is characterized by atonality and fast tempos with contrasting, meditative, lyrical B sections. The outer Latin movements contain the familiar Kyrie and Agnus Dei texts in triple canon with the orchestra. The English middle movement is simultaneously familiar and awkward, with harmonies that almost function, under an altered Credo text. After an aria-like passage, the orchestra takes the “I believe” figure and manipulates it in a modal fugato, culminating in a climactic version of the main motive. A repeated double-dotted quarter note—sixteenth-note rhythm followed by a fast tremolo in the castanets make up the central “bangu motive.” This motive is derived from traditional Beijing Opera, in which the bangu is the principal percussion element. As a rhythmic motive, fragments of it appear in every movement and in several different instrument groups. These fragments undergo various transformations before a version of it arrives as the final Agnus Dei rhythmic figure.
ContributorsXu, Eric (Author) / Rogers, Rodney (Thesis advisor) / Suzuki, Kotoka (Committee member) / Meyer, Jeffery (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
ContributorsEvans, Bartlett R. (Conductor) / Schildkret, David (Conductor) / Glenn, Erica (Conductor) / Concert Choir (Performer) / Chamber Singers (Performer) / ASU Library. Music Library (Publisher)
Created2018-03-16
ContributorsLarson, Brook Carter (Conductor) / Gentry, Gregory R. (Conductor) / Garrison, Ryan D. (Conductor) / Schildkret, David (Conductor) / Men's Chorus (Performer) / Symphonic Chorale (Performer) / Women's Chorus (Performer) / Chamber Singers (Performer) / Choral Union (Performer) / ASU Library. Music Library (Publisher)
Created2007-12-03
ContributorsUmberson, George (Performer) / Kelly, Kathleen (Performer) / Chamber Singers (Performer) / ASU Library. Music Library (Publisher)
Created1985-10-10
ContributorsSteiner, Kiernan (Conductor) / Schildkret, David (Conductor) / Chamber Singers (Performer) / ASU Library. Music Library (Publisher)
Created2019-02-03
ContributorsMeyer, Jeffery (Conductor) / Rodrigues, Christiano (Performer) / Micklich, Albie (Performer) / Chamber Orchestra (Performer) / ASU Library. Music Library (Publisher)
Created2017-02-27
ContributorsMeyer, Jeffery (Conductor) / Alpizar, Mark (Conductor) / Gupta, Kamna (Conductor) / Lucas, Cullan (Conductor) / Chen, Grace (Performer) / Skinner, Wesley (Performer) / Rodrigues, Christiano (Performer) / Symphony Orchestra (Performer) / ASU Library. Music Library (Publisher)
Created2017-01-27
ContributorsMeyer, Jeffery (Director) / Landschoot, Thomas (Performer) / Symphony Orchestra (Performer) / ASU Library. Music Library (Publisher)
Created2016-11-04
ContributorsMeyer, Jeffery (Conductor) / Symphony Orchestra (Performer) / ASU Library. Music Library (Publisher)
Created2017-03-24