Description
Oxford’s Grove Dictionary of Music describes art song as “song intended for the concert repertory, as opposed to a traditional or popular song,” but despite this broad
definition, poetry is the primary text source for art song. Poetry is stereotypically
considered more suitable for art song because of its rhythm, meter, and rhyme. However,
poems are not the only sources for art songs.
Many examples of prose are used in song, such as Libby Larsen’s Try Me, Good
King! which sets the last words of the wives of Henry XIII, and Patrice Michaels’ The
Long View: A Portrait of Ruth Bader Ginsburg in Nine Songs, which sets texts from
Justice Ginsburg’s life. Despite the wealth of potentials texts, there are not many songs
set to text from novels. Even setting letters is more common than novel excerpts,
including Stacy Garrop’s My Dearest Ruth and Libby Larsen’s Songs from Letters.
There may be concerns which prevent text from novels being set to song, for
example, the short length of a song may limit its ability to contextualize plot or character
relationships. Composers and performers may also face challenges in approaching
narration or dialogue from multiple characters to be sung by only one voice.
Additionally, prose often contains more filler words and colloquial language. All of these
are challenges which must be faced when adapting and performing text from novels.
Despite these challenges, using text from novels can be a rewarding experience
for musicians and audiences, as they bring to life the drama and emotion of a character.
Some authors, such as Jane Austen, use novels to reflect their characters’ worlds as well
as their own cultures and societies. Paired with art song, an intimate way of sharing
human experiences with audiences, songs with text from novels have the potential to
become profound snapshots of a character or author’s world.
This paper will discuss art songs with prose text excerpted from novels and will
analyze sources of both poetry and prose to determine if there are fundamental textual
differences which prevent the performance of songs with text from novels.
Details
Title
- A Novel Approach: Exploring Novels as Text Sources in Art Song
Contributors
- Marr, Mackenzie Lyn (Author)
- Campbell, Andrew (Thesis advisor)
- Aoki, Miki (Committee member)
- Aoki Navarro, Fernanda (Committee member)
- FitzPatrick, Carole (Committee member)
- Arizona State University (Publisher)
Date Created
The date the item was original created (prior to any relationship with the ASU Digital Repositories.)
2024
Resource Type
Collections this item is in
Note
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Partial requirement for: D.M.A., Arizona State University, 2024
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Field of study: Music