Graduate recital in voice performance

Includes recorded audio files in WAV and MP3 formats, 60.18 in lengthThe repertoire chosen calls for a wide range of stylistic interpretation, vocal technique and musicianship skills. Three musical eras are represented: the Baroque, the Romantic and the Twentieth Century. Seufter Tranen, Kummer, Noth by J.S. Bach is typical of Bach's expressive cantatas in the musico-dramatic style. The piccolo trumpet is used throughout the piece not for imitation or accent of vocal line, but as a contrapuntal exchange of melody. The two forces weave an expressive tableau from which the text can resound. \ud Eternal Source of Light Divine is the opening solo in G.F. Handel's oratorio Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne. The voice and trumpet utilize a call and response technique that allows for fluid expressive intetplay. Let the Bright Seraphim from Handel's Samson closes the group. The aria, in da capo form, has musical character which is ornate and gives the soloists ample opportunity for virtuosity. \ud Richard Strauss' song cycle Madchenblumen was written in 1888 at the end of Strauss' first lieder period. The first two pieces of the group are typical of this early period. In Kornblumen (Cornflower), the piano provides simple and straightforward accompaniment to the vocal line. In his setting of Mohnblumen, the poppy's carefree nature is portrayed in a frolicking vocal line. The accompaniment is marked to be played "allegro giocoso." The vocal line is constructed of trills, register shifts, and varied dynamic markings. \ud In Strauss' setting of Epheu (Ivy), he fuses the provocative text with a mood-shaping accompaniment that takes this piece out of the realm of song and puts it in the category of a romantic tone poem. He explores the ivy's apparent strength and its fragile reality. Its silent strength resounds in an accompaniment of ascending arpeggios that are held for the final two beats of each measure. As the meter changes, the sustained chords give way to rising arpeggios and a forte marking as the text exclaims: "But [Ivy] is destined to cleave ever loving to another being." In the piece's final moments, the accompaniment becomes sparse and allows the voice in triple piano to express the bittersweet resolution of text: "On love's first frail tendril hangeth, all her fate in life forever, she is numbered with the same rarest flower that once only blossom." (See more in text.