Dramatic exposition and musical structure in Puccini's operas.
Item
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Title
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Dramatic exposition and musical structure in Puccini's operas.
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Identifier
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AAI9119633
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identifier
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9119633
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Creator
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Greenwald, Helen M.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Allan W. Atlas
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Date
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1991
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Music | Theater
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Abstract
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Nearly every aspect of Puccini's operatic canon--whether scene type, set piece, or orchestral interlude--is represented in his first acts. Puccini's first acts project in the microcosm the musical catalogue of an entire work, much in the same way that the smaller details within those acts can be shown to project the macrostructure of the scene or the act in its entirety. And it is in the first acts that Puccini grapples with and solves in a most individual way some of the most important problems of the drama, be they musical or spoken: how to capture the interest of the audience, how to introduce the main characters, and how to present the argument. Puccini was equally at home in his one-act operas as in his full-length operas, and he realized his own powers of musical and dramatic invention just as completely within these tighter, smaller structures.;This dissertation uses Puccini's first acts and one-act operas as a laboratory sample for the study of tonality, rhythm, vocal discourse, texture, and time as they pertain to the large-scale musical and dramatic organization of his works. The first part of the dissertation is topical and deals with all of the works. It quite literally begins with the first event of each opera--the beginning--and grows progressively from a discussion of the opening curtain to consider the structure of the entire first act or one-act opera. There are individual chapters on beginnings, rhythm, tonality, vocal discourse, time and light, and, finally, texture and the macrostructure. The second part of the dissertation is a detailed study of Acts I and II of La Boheme. In addition to examining the combined structure of the two acts and shedding some light on the details of its genesis and composition, this section of the dissertation demonstrates how the discussion and methodology of the first part may be applied to a single work.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
