Masters Thesis

The Image of True Death: An Analysis of Benjamin Britten's Variations

This thesis presents extended program notes on my graduate recital. I will be providing detailed historical background and analysis of the following works: Jean-Philippe Rameau (September 25, 1683 - September 12, 1764), Les Tendres Plaintes, Les Sauvages, and Sarabande in A minor; Nikita Koshkin (February 28, 1956), Prelude and Fugue in F-sharp minor, and Prelude and Fugue in C-sharp minor; John Dowland (January 2, 1563 - February 20, 1626), Preludium, The Most Sacred Queen Elizabeth, Her Galliard, The Frog Galliard, and Fantasia no. 7; Benjamin Britten (November 22, 1913 - December 4, 1976), Nocturnal after John Dowland. The repertoire performed not only displays a contrasting style between music in different countries. In Nocturnal after John Dowland, Benjamin Britten uses a theme and variations of John Dowland's "Come Heavy Sleep," a song that was written about death. I will argue how Benjamin Britten not only uses Nocturnal after John Dowland as a musical mechanism to bridge the gap between Dowland's theme of death in Come Heavy Sleep but also harness its energy and translate that into terms that the listener can interpret and understand more clearly, sleep.

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