Degree Name
Master of Music
Graduate Program
Music
Advisor
Mandat, Eric P.
Abstract
This scholarly document will examine the variety of clarinet compositions from American composers, including solo works for clarinet, works for clarinet and piano, and chamber music with collaboration between voice, clarinet, and piano. Elliot Carter will be programmed in recognition of his effective rhythmic approaches, including metric modulation, and the skill by which he challenges the clarinet performer with these tools. William O. Smith is programmed in recognition of his challenge to the definition of a clarinet, and the effectiveness of his works that utilize non-standard equipment. Dominick Argento is presented in appreciation for his works' common relation to lyric opera, the clarinet and voice genre, and the furtherance of the clarinet's presence in vocal art songs. Eric Mandat's refinement of extended techniques, as well as his works' common utilization of microtonal intervals, is programmed in a work for solo clarinet, in acknowledgment of his challenge to traditional harmonic structures and fingering systems for performing clarinetists. Norman Dello Joio is appreciated for his interests in the pedagogical benefits to composition through the performance of a work for clarinet and piano. Finally, the great artistic capacities of works of limited popularity and recognition will be extolled through the performance of a work by a composer about whom there is limited scholarly documentation, Rachel Matthews.