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).
Persistent Identifier
http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/16788
Recommended Citation
Breshears, Lily, ""The Avalanche" : A Cantata for Mezzo-soprano, Flute, Viola, and Harp" (2015). University Honors Theses. Paper 200.
https://doi.org/10.15760/honors.202
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.