Recital Document

An educated performance of vocal works requires knowledge of Historically Informed Performance Practice (HIP), historical background information, theoretical analysis, and correct diction of foreign languages. In this document I used each of these approaches as a focus for my study of each set of music that I have prepared to perform in my Graduate Recital. In the first chapter, I summarize common HIP practice ideals and use them to justify my articulation, ornamentation, and instrumentation choices in the aria “Ich folge dir gleichfalls” from Bach’s St. John Passion. In chapter two, I use history to focus my character study of both “Anne Boleyn” and “Katherine Howard” from Libby Larsen’s Try Me, Good King: Last Words of the Wives of Henry VIII. My character analysis is further informed by three compositional techniques that Larsen incorporated into the work: lute song, repeated note Figure s, and bell-tolling. Chapter three contains an in depth look at the first three songs in Poulenc’s song set La courte paille, in which I use linear, formal and hermeneutic analytical techniques to discuss the use of dissonance within a tonal foundation to highlight dualities between adult and childhood themes in the text. The focus of chapter four is Czech language and diction as it pertains to the text of Dvořák’s Cigánské melodie. The components used within each of these chapters facilitate performance that is historically, technically, and expressively informed.