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MARTIN BRESNICK'S FOR THE SEXES: THE GATES OF PARADISE: ANALYSIS OF A MULTI-MEDIA COMPOSITION

AULER, ROBERT M
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1148325150

Abstract Details

2006, DMA, University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music : Piano.
Martin Bresnick, b. 1946, is Professor of Composition at Yale University. His diverse output includes film music, computer music, chamber compositions, choral scores, and orchestral works. For The Sexes: The Gates of Paradise (1998) is a thirty-one minute piece featuring solo piano in partnership with an identically named William Blake work. Blake featured poetry and his own engravings in his 1818 illustrated book: the modern version weaves piano solo with a DVD adaptation of the Blake works, both visual and literary. Adding a further dimension, Bresnick asks the pianist to double as singer, evoking Blake’s untrained voice as he sang his own poetry. This partnership of voice, piano, projection, and poetry follows many other important developments in the field of multi-media composition, dating to Richard Wagner’s 1849 conception of “Gesamtkunstwerke,” or “Total art-work.” Since that time Alexander Scriabin, Olivier Messiaen, Arnold Schoenberg, John Cage, Sergei Prokofiev, and Erich Korngold, among others, have been notable in their fusion of music with other elements including colored light, dance, and film. This document traces the history of multi-media work, paying particular attention to collaborations between music and film. Next, owing a great debt to the work of Nicholas Cook, it establishes a framework for the evaluation of multi-media composition, evoking a linguistic term called the “Metaphor Model” first developed by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson. The document then explores the backgrounds of the two chief contributors to the work, William Blake and Martin Bresnick. Next, the document evaluates Martin Bresnick’s music, tracing antecedents and influences, finally exploring how the music relates with textual and visual elements.
Dr. Robert Zierolf (Advisor)
149 p.
Music
multi-media; martin bresnick; for the sexes: the gates of paradise

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • AULER, R. M. (2006). MARTIN BRESNICK'S FOR THE SEXES: THE GATES OF PARADISE: ANALYSIS OF A MULTI-MEDIA COMPOSITION [Doctoral dissertation, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1148325150

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • AULER, ROBERT. MARTIN BRESNICK'S FOR THE SEXES: THE GATES OF PARADISE: ANALYSIS OF A MULTI-MEDIA COMPOSITION. 2006. University of Cincinnati, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1148325150.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • AULER, ROBERT. "MARTIN BRESNICK'S FOR THE SEXES: THE GATES OF PARADISE: ANALYSIS OF A MULTI-MEDIA COMPOSITION." Doctoral dissertation, University of Cincinnati, 2006. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1148325150

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ucin1148325150
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© 2006, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by University of Cincinnati and OhioLINK.