Date on Master's Thesis/Doctoral Dissertation
5-2020
Document Type
Master's Thesis
Degree Name
M.M.
Department
Music History
Degree Program
Music with a concentration in Music History and Literature, MM
Committee Chair
Burke, Devin
Committee Co-Chair (if applicable)
Brody, Christopher
Committee Member
Brody, Christopher
Committee Member
Carithers, Kirsten
Author's Keywords
musical analysis; gender; new music; extended techniques; voice; 20th century music
Abstract
Meredith Monk’s decades of work embody an interdisciplinary art that exists at the intersection of sonic, visual, and kinesthetic artistic media. To date, scholars and critics of music and dance have only studied aspects of her work in isolation and have tended to omit the other critical aspects of Monk’s compositional language. For example, music scholars omit analysis of movement in their analyses, while dance scholars omit musical analyses. This has led to inappropriate categorization of her work, particularly into the vein of minimalism. My project represents the most in-depth study of all aspects of Monk’s music to date by analyzing musical, visual, and stylistic facets of her work. The project also considers Monk’s work alongside social philosophies and will argue that Monk scrutinizes gender and embodied voice in order to challenge socially constructed gender norms.
Recommended Citation
Monaghan, Tracy, "Rethinking Meredith Monk." (2020). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 4261.
https://doi.org/10.18297/etd/4261