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Confronting the Celebrant of Bernstein’s Mass: A Study of Musical Borrowing

Wright, John W.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1397734822

Abstract Details

2014, DMA, University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music: Voice.
This document studies musical borrowing in the five principal solos of the Celebrant, the central character of Bernstein’s Mass: A Theatre Piece for Singers, Players and Dancers (1971), with words by co-lyricist Stephen Schwartz. The solos treated are “A Simple Song,” “The Word of the Lord,” “Our Father . . .,” “I Go On,” and “Fraction: Things Get Broken.” Drawing on reports of borrowing found in published secondary literature by Jack Gottlieb, Paul Laird, and Helen Smith, and also in unpublished research by Copland scholar Daniel Mathers, this study documents Bernstein’s sources, analyzes their compositional uses for Mass, and explores them critically in light of the work’s eclectic musical conception and aims. Critical findings treat how Bernstein chose and manipulated his sources in view of several objectives crucial to this work’s composition, its function of dedicating the opening of Kennedy Center (on September 8, 1971), and its long, controversial reception. These objectives include the widely discussed “reaffirmation of faith” which Bernstein strove to express in Mass; defiance of political and religious dogma; use of his own personalized faith symbolism; and continued synthesis of vernacular and classical influences for which he remains most celebrated. In all, the music of the Celebrant emerges as a linchpin for understanding Bernstein’s eclecticism as indeed something carefully and strategically managed.
David Adams, M.M. (Committee Chair)
Kenneth Griffiths, M.M. (Committee Member)
Mary Stucky, M.M. (Committee Member)
119 p.
Music
Bernstein Mass; Celebrant; musical borrowing; Bernstein eclecticism faith symbolism; Kennedy Center; Simple Song

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Wright, J. W. (2014). Confronting the Celebrant of Bernstein’s Mass: A Study of Musical Borrowing [Doctoral dissertation, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1397734822

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Wright, John. Confronting the Celebrant of Bernstein’s Mass: A Study of Musical Borrowing. 2014. University of Cincinnati, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1397734822.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Wright, John. "Confronting the Celebrant of Bernstein’s Mass: A Study of Musical Borrowing." Doctoral dissertation, University of Cincinnati, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1397734822

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ucin1397734822
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This open access ETD is published by University of Cincinnati and OhioLINK.