Graduate recital in accompanying a voice recital

Includes recorded audio files in WAV and MP3 formats, 130:46 in length.In this recital the Baroque Period is represented by two songs from Purcell's dramatic works. One of these, "Music for a While," written on a text by Dryden and Nathaniel Lee, appears in the play, "Oedipus." The accompaniment uses a popular Baroque technique, the ground bass, which serves to organize the harmonic structure of the song. Programatic accompaniments appear in the French songs of Bachelet, Paladilhe, and Georges. The tremolos and bass arpeggios suggest the glorious rays of sun in "Hymne au Soleil," and the quiet sextuplet figures create the serenity of "Chere Nuit". Mahler's Cycle, "Songs of a Wayfarer," is the story of a young man unhappily in love. The music is influenced by folk osng, as evidenced by the use of thirds and open fifths. Originally written for orchestra and transcribed for piano and voice, the accompanist has the challenge of imitating the plucking of harps, ringing of bells, and rolling of the timpani. While the Mahler cycle is linked by a common storyline, in "Winter Words" by Benjamin Britten, the Thomas Hardy text is united by the use of a storyteller. Certain images reappear in the accompaniment throughout the cycle. In the closing song, "Before Life and After," the discord between the voice and piano creates a feeling of emotional disorientation