First Advisor

Bryan Johanson

Date of Award

7-15-2015

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in Music and University Honors

Department

Music

Language

English

Subjects

Secular cantatas -- Scores, James Laughlin (1914-1997) -- Musical settings, James Laughlin (1914-1997) -- Poetry

DOI

10.15760/honors.202

Abstract

"The Avalanche" by James Laughlin was originally written as two poems, "The Avalanche" and "The Shape of Love," then published as one in 1945. It unfolds the turmoil one faces with a new love and a looming past. I set the poem to music in four movements with an instrumental prelude for mezzo-soprano, flute, viola, and harp, thus making my piece a cantata, which is typically defined as a work for one or more voices and orchestral accompaniment in multiple movements that divide a single text. Although seemingly counterintuitive, the decision to have the text delivered by a mezzo-soprano was intentionally unfaithful to the source of the poem. In contradiction with common practice in the Western classical music tradition, my intent was to displace the poem from its heterosexual origin. Prominent examples of such gender displacement include folk pop artist Marissa Nadler’s adaptation of the first three stanzas of Poe’s "Annabel Lee," composer Judith Weir’s setting of Keats’s "I Had a Dove," part of her song cycle, The Voice of Desire, and many of the folk song arrangements of Benjamin Britten, who often allowed for gender transgressive treatments of the text by leaving otherwise gendered voice parts unspecified.

The cantata, The Avalanche, was recorded on June 15, 2015, in Portland State University’s Lincoln Hall chamber music hall by Michelle Fernandez (mezzo- soprano), Selina Kent (flute), Julia McGarrety (viola), and Lily Breshears (harp) with sound engineer James Pearson.

Rights

In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

Comments

An undergraduate honors thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Science in University Honors and Music and Mathematics.

Persistent Identifier

http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/16788

Included in

Music Commons

Share

COinS