Date of Award

Spring 6-8-2018

Document Type

Honors Project

University Scholars Director

Dr. Christine Chaney

First Advisor/Committee Member

Dr. Chérie L. Hughes

Second Advisor/Committee Member

Dr. Eric A. Hanson

Keywords

American composers, Mrs. H.H.A. Beach (1867-1944), women composers, Western art music

Abstract

Jephthah’s Daughter (Op. 53), a concert aria for soprano and orchestra written by Amy Beach (1867-1944) in 1903, has long suffered neglect due to the fate of its manuscript and the fate of Beach’s work in general. This investigation seeks to probe how Beach engaged the Biblical subject matter and mid-1800s French text in her setting. I discuss this engagement through stylistic comparison with the musical traits of her other work, translation comparison between the literal meanings of the original poem and Beach’s English rendition, and contextualization of Beach’s setting within the history of how this story has been interpreted. The aria fits within Beach’s dramatic Romantic style and deliberate molding of text, and tells a story with notable connections to her life and work.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

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Musicology Commons

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