Conducting Elgar's Wand of Youth suites : programming possibilities and perspectives on performance

The purpose of this monograph is to provide a performer’s guide and conductor’s analysis for both of Sir Edward Elgar’s suites op. 1a and 1b, titled The Wand of Youth: Music to a Child’s Play. Sources for this work draw from the extensive scholarly writings on Elgar’s biography, compositional practice, and recordings, as well as from sources discussing issues of conducting analysis, gesture, and concert programming. As common techniques in formal and harmonic analysis are a standard component of performance guides, this work also includes commentary to that effect. The first section of this work briefly situates the composition of Elgar’s Wand of Youth suites into the already well-established biography of that composer. This section also provides readers with an account of the works’ compositional genesis, placement within Elgar’s oeuvre, and a review of literature for current scholarly debate regarding these works. The second section gives a conductor’s analysis of both of Elgar’s Wand of Youth suites based on the conductor’s analytical perspective used in Norman Del Mar’s performance guides. This perspective uses a narrative description of a piece of music as a framework to discuss the necessary shifts of attention required from a well-prepared conductor while rehearsing or performing a work. In addition to a narrative description of events, this perspective also offers practical commentary on effective gestures tailored to the musical material at hand, as well as warnings of potential difficulties in rehearsal or performance. This analysis also discusses issues of pacing and of compositional architecture. The conclusion of this work is a discussion of programming possibilities for the Wand of Youth suites as part of symphonic, youth outreach, or mixed media concert programming. This section also discusses relevant performance practices and revisions or reductions that may be taken from Elgar’s own performances as a conductor and recordings of the works.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA)

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Music

Grantor

Music

Year dc:date.available

2014

Author dc:creator

• Cardona, Vaughn Aristides

• orchestra repertoire
• conducting analysis
• Wand of Youth
• orchestral performance guide
• Sir Edward Elgar
• orchestral suites

Statement dc:rights

• unrestricted
• Release the entire work immediately for access worldwide.

Identifier

etd-04142014-134154
https://repository.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/488

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:repository.lsu.edu:gradschool_dissertations-1487