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Forget the Familiar: The Feminist Voice in Contemporary Dramatic Song

Scangas, Alexis
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1522672693855537

Abstract Details

2018, Master of Music (MM), Bowling Green State University, Music History.
Female figures are rarely prominent characters in classic literature, nor are they featured in history. Many of them are often remembered only in relation to their male counterparts. Such is not the case for subjects of three contemporary dramatic vocal works, each of which reimagines and engages with familiar female characters from history, literature, and myth. Three versions of Shakespeare's Ophelia manifest in Amy Beth Kirsten's chamber opera Ophelia Forever, three conceptions of the siren myth interact in Kate Soper's music theater piece Here Be Sirens, and five wives of Henry VIII take center stage in Libby Larsen's song cycle Try Me, Good King: The Last Words of the Wives of Henry VIII. In this thesis, I investigate how contemporary composers portray and dramatically construct female characters through music and the voice. Although I am not using a specific feminist approach, the discussion itself is inherently feminist as it critiques the societal structures that surround these familiar women as well as the gendered roles they are expected to fulfill. Building on interviews I conducted with each of the composers, I engage in hermeneutic musical analysis by observing the conformation or refusal of operatic vocal conventions, studying text-music relationships, and interpreting the compositional voice of each composer. I argue these female characters are empowered because these pieces expose the sexism embedded in their past artistic and historical representations. I also suggest, however, that although all three of these pieces give voice only to women, they also demonstrate that the influence and reach of men is still very present. Nevertheless, in dramatizing these familiar figures in a musical setting, these composers attribute agency to females who have traditionally lacked voices of their own.
Eftychia Papanikolaou, Ph.D. (Advisor)
Ryan Ebright, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
106 p.
Gender Studies; History; Music
feminist; feminism; voice; opera; contemporary; song; chamber opera; music theater; song cycle; Amy Beth Kirsten; Kate Soper; Libby Larsen; Ophelia; sirens; wives of Henry VIII

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Scangas, A. (2018). Forget the Familiar: The Feminist Voice in Contemporary Dramatic Song [Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1522672693855537

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Scangas, Alexis. Forget the Familiar: The Feminist Voice in Contemporary Dramatic Song. 2018. Bowling Green State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1522672693855537.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Scangas, Alexis. "Forget the Familiar: The Feminist Voice in Contemporary Dramatic Song." Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University, 2018. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1522672693855537

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

bgsu1522672693855537
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This open access ETD is published by Bowling Green State University and OhioLINK.