Date Available
7-30-2018
Year of Publication
2018
Document Type
Doctoral Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA)
College
Fine Arts
Department/School/Program
Music
Advisor
Dr. Jefferson Johnson
Abstract
American composer Christopher Theofanidis’s choral-orchestral work The Here and Now (2005) is a setting of Jalal ad-Din Rumi’s thirteenth-century poetry as translated by Coleman Barks. Theofanidis employs a cappella sonic contrasts, silence, rhythmic text setting, and a libretto based on fragments of Rumi’s poems to tell a story about the search for love, longing, joy, and gratitude. While rooted in traditional Western composition methods, this twenty-first-century work uses musical elements like color chords (bichords), cluster chords, changing meters, and modality, as well as imitative polyphony and unifying motifs within a new, tonal American aesthetic espoused by the Atlanta School of Composers, of which Theofanidis is a founding member. This DMA project presents warmups, rehearsal strategies, and teaching methods to guide the choir and conductor through the challenges of rhythmic text setting and dense harmonic language so that learning and performing The Here and Now is a rewarding endeavor.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.13023/etd.2018.329
Recommended Citation
MacNay, Regan Arlene, "A CHORAL CONDUCTOR’S APPROACH TO CHRISTOPHER THEOFANIDIS’S THE HERE AND NOW" (2018). Theses and Dissertations--Music. 124.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/music_etds/124
