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Open Access Thesis

Keywords

Choral music--Bibliography; Music--16th century--History and criticism; Choral music; Music; 1500-1599; Bibliographies; Criticism, interpretation, etc;

Abstract

The decade of the 1960's witnessed a growing interest in choral chamber music. This became increasingly apparent in clinics and conventions across the country which devoted considerable attention to chamber choir literature, style , and performance practice. This trend was further manifested through informative articles, which appeared in music periodicals with growing regularity late in the decade, concerning the chamber choir and inherent problems. Choral chamber music took on added significance in Iowa in 1968 when the Iowa High School Music Association introduced chamber choir competition into the state music contest series. This action prompted numerous questions regarding the definition of a chamber choir, appropriate literature, style, and performance practice. Research has indicated the absence of any single source which deals with the chamber choir and its intrinsic problems. There is a need for a comprehensive source regarding the area of chamber choir performance and related information. Study in this field has revealed that the Renaissance, Baroque, and Contemporary Periods possess the greatest wealth of chamber choir literature. Due to the potential magnitude of the material in dealing with the subject, this thesis has been limited to a study of Renaissance style, performance practice, and literature as it applies to present-day performance. This body of material has been gathered from a variety of scholarly sources, many of which were theoretical rather than performance oriented.  The body of the thesis covers two basic areas of study: (1) musical style and performance practice of the Renaissance period (tempo, rhythm and meter, dynamics, texture, and cadences); (2) choral types of the Renaissance (mass, motet, frottola, Italian madrigal, chanson, polyphonic lied, and English madrigal). The appendix of this thesis includes a selected sampling of Renaissance choral literature in modern performing editions as well as individual analysis of each selection regarding voice range, tessitura, level of difficulty, and comments pertaining to specific problems or characteristics of the music. This study may be of great value since the information included was found in many diverse sources. The concomitant value of such a study is that the theoretical facts of Renaissance choral chamber music are translated into practical, useful information applicable to the present-day chamber choir.

Year of Submission

1972

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

School of Music

First Advisor

Emil Bock

Second Advisor

David Smalley

Third Advisor

Leslie W. Hale

Comments

If you are the rightful copyright holder of this thesis and wish to have it removed from the Open Access Collection, please submit a request to scholarworks@uni.edu and include clear identification of the work, preferably with URL.

Date Original

1972

Object Description

1 PDF file (140 leaves)

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

Included in

Music Commons

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