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ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

The Lighthouse

Wuest, Dalen L
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1459253167

Abstract Details

2016, Master of Music (MM), Bowling Green State University, Music Composition.
The Lighthouse is a twenty-minute chamber opera for five vocalists, flute (doubling alto flute and piccolo), clarinet (doubling bass clarinet), violin, cello, and trombone. The work is in six movements (referred to as scenes) with short breaks between each scene. No two movements have the same instrumentation; each has been altered by doubling or selective omission. The orchestration of the work connects certain instruments and motives to certain characters. The six-scene structure is a realization of an original story by the composer. Based on the perception of reality and the nature of obsession, it is loosely inspired by Luis Buñuel’s 1965 film, Simon of the Desert. The libretto was written by Fort Wayne, Indiana-based playwright, Jack Cantey, and is in English. The story revolves around four mental patients and one guard who share in a collective hallucination centered on a patient who believes himself to be a lighthouse on a seacoast. Throughout the story, the Lighthouse slowly convinces the other characters to share in his hallucination. The melodic and harmonic material of the work comes from multi-octave scales with repeated intervallic patterns and contains a number of leitmotifs. The primary leitmotif is a chord progression that accompanies every instance of a character discovering or being given a new identity related to the seacoast. Other leitmotifs accompany the vocal solos of various characters, are introduced in the instruments that are connected to them, and re-orchestrated as needed. The sound world for the work is largely inspired by Lou Harrison’s opera, Rapunzel (1952), and Igor Stravinsky’s ballet, The Rite of Spring (1913). Their unique approaches to compositional construction and melodic material served as major inspirations for The Lighthouse.
Marilyn Shrude, DM (Advisor)
Mikel Kuehn, PhD (Committee Member)
90 p.
Music

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Wuest, D. L. (2016). The Lighthouse [Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1459253167

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Wuest, Dalen. The Lighthouse. 2016. Bowling Green State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1459253167.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Wuest, Dalen. "The Lighthouse." Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1459253167

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

bgsu1459253167
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© 2016, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Bowling Green State University and OhioLINK.
Release 3.2.12