Date of Graduation

2017

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Type

DMA

College

College of Creative Arts

Department

School of Music

Committee Chair

Mikylah Myers McTeer

Committee Co-Chair

Peter Amstutz

Committee Member

Pablo Garcia-Loaeza

Committee Member

Andrew Kohn

Committee Member

William Skidmore

Abstract

Violinist, composer and pedagogue, Jesus de Monasterio had a transcendent role at the Madrid Royal Conservatory, where he pioneered the use of Franco-Belgian violin school techniques. He imported the academic structure of the Brussels Conservatory, where he was a student of Charles Auguste de Beriot, to the Madrid Conservatory, where he served as violin professor for more than 40 years and as director of the Conservatory for three years. Monasterio's "20 Estudios Artisticos de Concierto" (20 Concertante Artistic Studies) follows the fashion of other Franco-Belgian treatises for two violins, combining espressivo challenges in one part, and technical difficulties in the other. It is a clear reflection of Beriot and his "Violin Method" and is certainly influenced by the technical and artistic needs of Monasterio's students at the Madrid Conservatory. As a result of the new methodology implemented by Monasterio in the Conservatory, the overall numbers of students and their playing levels grew dramatically, and the academic and artistic standard of the Conservatory increased, attracting a larger student population. Through the application of modern teaching techniques and regulations the Madrid Conservatory grew in relevance and produced a great number of important performers, including Monasterio's most influential students Enrique Fernandez-Arbos, Antonio Fernandez-Bordas and Pablo Casals.;Monasterio was as well a crucial figure in the foundation of musical societies like the Sociedad de Socorros Mutuos, the Sociedad de Cuartetos and the Sociedad de Conciertos, in which German instrumental music was promoted---a genre abandoned in Spain for almost a century in favor of Italian vocal genres. Through these societies, works by the greatest classical European composers, like Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, were premiered in Spain almost 50 years after their composition.;Today, we should consider Monasterio as an indisputable figure in influencing the musical evolution of the twentieth century. Monasterio made an enormous contribution as a composer, a promoter of a modern violin school, a founder of instrumental societies, and above all, an essential revolutionary figure who transformed the future of instrumental music.

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