Graduate recital in voice

Includes recorded audio files in WAV and MP3 formats, 53:16 in length.The vocal recital program discussed in this abstract comprises works of four composers and represents four of the major bodies of song literature available to the recitalist. Each composer stands as a superior representative of a particular style of vocal music. Additionally, each of these composers incorporated both older and more progressive musical styles into their compositions. Christoph Wilibald Gluck (1714-1787), although less celebrated, stands with Mozart and Haydn as one of the major composers of the Classical era. The aria Le belle imagini is from the opera Paris and Helena, which was the third, last, and least successful product of the celebrated collaboration of Gluck and the librettist Calzabigi. The recitative is short and not overly elaborate, in keeping with Gluck's ideals of operatic reform. The aria itself is a model of Classical aria form. Each phrase has its own intrinsic balance as well as a symmetrical position within the overall structure. Although the musical language is strictly Classical in nature, the manner in which the melodic content is derived wholly from the material of the opening motive is an element which links this piece to the musical ideals of the Baroque. The music of Franz Peter Schubert (1797-1828) contains many elements of both Classical and Romantic musical styles. His songs represent the first flowering of the German Lied. Schubert's more than 600 songs can be divided into several different stylistic categories, and the five selected for this program are intended to represent some of these varieties. An die Musik and Standchen are similar in that they are strophic and folk-like in quality, with the piano providing primarily chordal support, but gaining melodic interest in interludes. Standchen has the added interest of an exotic, pseudo-Hungarian melody and an ambiguous alternation between major and minor forms of the triad, a favorite device of Schubert's. Both of these characteristics foreshadow major trends of nineteenth century Romanticism. Der Atlas illustrates Schubert's powerful facility in a more dramatic, declamatory context. Nacht und Traume possibly displays his artistry most concisely of these five selections, with its flowing through-composed melody, its unobtrusive yet essential accompaniment, and its delicate Romantic sentimentality. Die Taubenpost is again strophic and folk-like, but with an impulsive charm perhaps unique to Schubert. The chansons of Gabriel Faure (1845-1924), although conservative in comparison with some compositions of his contemporaries, nevertheless embody many elements which were to become standard components of the emerging musical language of the twentieth century. The four songs on this program were selected to exhibit various characteristics of Faure's music. In addition this group was designed to reflect a standard four-movement symphonic structure. L'Hiver a cesse, with its programmatic elements, its fanfare-like introduction and its broad, soaring melody represents a dramatic allegro opening, while the yearning, plaintive Apres un Reve serves as a melodic andante. Dans les ruines d'une abbaye is the irresistably charming tale of a pair of nesting love-birds, and with its lilting compound meter and three-part form it fulfills the function of a dance movement. The final allegro is represented by Faure's popular Nell, in which a bubbling accompaniment propels itself forward beneath an intensely lyric vocal melody. (See more in text