Semester

Spring

Date of Graduation

2024

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Type

DMA

College

College of Creative Arts

Department

School of Music

Committee Chair

Hope Koehler

Committee Member

Thomas Erik Angerhofer

Committee Member

Jennifer Walker

Committee Member

General Hambrick

Abstract

This research aims to outline the suitability of Vaughan Williams’s songs to a broader selection of performers, including singers in academic settings and professional musicians around the globe. The significance of Ralph Vaughan Williams's impact on the music world is difficult to question. Among his considerable accomplishments are the editing of the Anglican English hymnal, the advocation for traditional British folk songs as national works of art, the composition of the same number of symphonies as Beethoven and Dvořák, and, most notably for singers, the writing of song cycles and collections of songs. While these accomplishments are significant, his songs enjoy lesser popularity internationally than many other composers of the same era. In American universities, his music is assigned primarily to younger singers. Even then, only a select few songs are chosen with regularity. This handful of works offers only a glance into the broader world of his art songs and leaves many works that may have great artistic value untouched. Through close study of the song cycles House of Life, Four Last Songs, and Four Poems of Fredegond Shove, this project sheds light on the numerous issues that may prevent both singers and teachers from undertaking these works and provides suggestions as to how such problems may be overcome.

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