Theater without words: Music for movement theater by Bartok and Milhaud. Maramures, for solo viola and orchestra
Item
-
Title
-
Theater without words: Music for movement theater by Bartok and Milhaud. Maramures, for solo viola and orchestra
-
Identifier
-
d_2009_2013:c391deef8dbd:10429
-
identifier
-
10602
-
Creator
-
Teirstein, Andy,
-
Contributor
-
Royal Brown | Bruce Saylor
-
Date
-
2010
-
Language
-
English
-
Publisher
-
City University of New York.
-
Subject
-
Music | Theater | Dance | Death | Nature | Pantomime | Sexual | Symbolism | Words
-
Abstract
-
In the first three decades of the twentieth century, the world of movement theater was undergoing an upheaval. Several composers created works that defied categorization in any of the prevalent genres, but existed somewhere between ballet, modern dance, pantomime or drama with incidental music. This project focuses on two such works, Bela Bartok's The Miraculous Mandarin and Darius Milhaud's L'homme et son desir. Each of these pieces finds a new vision of the mixture of movement, music and theater. They also share some subject matter, including archetypal views of man and woman, the evocation of city and folk or nature contexts, and a redemptive view of death. Stylistically, the works have two elements in common. They each use a wordless chorus, and they draw on folk or vernacular musical styles in the broader context of art music. The works are discussed in terms of their collaborative techniques and their musical expression of subject matter. Although the particular relationship between movement and music differs in these pieces, they are examined and compared as paradigms for the defiance of established genres. In the process, the boundaries between abstraction and representation are explored.;Maramures, for Viola and Orchestra was written in memory of violist Jacob Glick, and commissioned by the Sage City Symphony in Bennington, Vermont. In February, 2008, the piece was recorded by the Kiev Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Robert Winstin, with Danielle Farina as viola soloist. The recording was included on a compact disc of music I have composed over the past few years, Open Crossings, which was released on the Naxos label in August, 2009.;Some of the melodic material for Maramures was inspired by tunes I collected while on an Artslink Fellowship in northern Romania along the Tisa River, the area called Maramures. This was one of the Bartok's favorite places to gather folk tunes in the years preceding his composition of The Miraculous Mandarin. While there, I was able to record fiddlers and singers who play traditional music. The concerto alludes to one melody in particular, "Saraca inima mea" (My poor heart begins to hurt again). I was told by the fiddler Gitzu Pirgas, from whom I learned it, that this was "the tune that will make any Transylvanian homesick.";Bartok outlined three ways in which folk music could be used in new music composition. In the first method, an arrangement is made of a folk tune. The composer may add an introduction or a new harmonic context, but the original tune is intact in the melody. The second method is for the composer to create his own "folk" tune. Lastly, the composer may become so imbued with a folk material, actual or simulated, is contained in it. In Maramures, I hope, I have found a place for each of Bartok's three methods.
-
Type
-
dissertation
-
Source
-
2009_2013.csv
-
degree
-
Ph.D.
-
Program
-
Music
