Movement and Shape in the Choral Music of Roger Sessions

The study identified significant style characteristics of the choral compositions of Roger Sessions, by an extensive analysis of Session's major choral work, When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd, a cantata based on the poem by Walt Whitman. After providing information on the composer's life, literary and teaching contributions, and general compositional style, the essay presented Session's aesthetic views and his belief in an organic compositional method. Because Sessions only valued analyses which did not purport to determine the composer's "intentions", the selection of an appropriate analytical method for this study was required. Jan LaRue's "Growth" approach to analysis, outlined in Guidelines for Style Analysis, was selected as the best means for studying the canata because its design promotes the discovery of the composer's procedures that give his compositions movement and shape. In essence, the LaRue method does not differ with Session's published views on analysis.

Name thesis:degree_name

D.M.A.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Music

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2014

Author dc:creator

• Gorelick, Brian Lee

• Music

Identifier

(UMI)AAI8521771

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/70840