Date on Master's Thesis/Doctoral Dissertation

5-2022

Document Type

Master's Thesis

Degree Name

M.M.

Department

Music Composition

Degree Program

Music with a concentration in Music Composition, MM

Committee Chair

Ogden, Allison

Committee Co-Chair (if applicable)

Ramach, Michael

Committee Member

Ramach, Michael

Committee Member

Wolek, Krzysztof

Author's Keywords

Opera; vocal; ensemble; contemporary; American; New York

Abstract

This thesis is an intimate chamber opera which explores an original story of a young woman finding her place in the world at the same time she is dealing with unresolved feelings of regret, jealousy, and confusion over her sister’s death. This journey is complicated by people on all sides seeking to benefit by exploiting her and her sister’s legacy. As these two threads collide, the opera reveals itself to be about introducing and synthesizing dualities (in the dialectical sense of thesis→antithesis→synthesis), both musically and dramatically. Octatonic and whole tone pitch sets learn to intermingle, as do whole families of instruments. Even the role of the voice splinters and is reconstructed as principals give way to an onstage chorus, only for the line between character and chorus to be blurred at the climax of the final scene.

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