{"id":{"repo_id":"umkc","oai_identifier":"oai:mospace.umsystem.edu:10355/49003"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/umkc/oai:mospace.umsystem.edu:10355/49003","repository":{"repo_id":"umkc","name":"University of Missouri - Kansas City","base_url":"https://mospace.umsystem.edu/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"Till Coffee Do Us Part","abstract":"Till Coffee Do Us Part is a chamber opera scored for two violins, cello, electronics, soprano, and tenor. The opera was written as a part of Black House Collective’s and the Kansas City Electronic Music and Arts Alliance's Rites of Being project. The electronics in the piece are playback files designed to be triggered by a person, and are constituted primarily from a Catholic chant and synthesizers. For the performance, Ableton Live was used for triggering the files. The vocalists employ spoken words, Sprechstimme, and bel canto. The story is meant to mirror and exaggerate real life, bringing into sharp focus how trivial events can explode out of control. Some might say this is “un‐operatic,” but take many classic operas and compare the plots, especially how couples act regarding love—Cosí fan tutte's conceit of comparing whose fiancée would be most faithful; Das Rheingold's Wotan wanting to build a castle, and not having the cash on hand; Max in Der Freischütz trying to find a way to win the Agathe in a shooting competition; Salome, and the title character's obsessions over John the Baptist, to the point of committing an act of necrophilia. Also consider the lengths to which characters fall in love and have amazing misadventures in musicals, ranging from Sweeney Todd's Mrs. Lovett’s willingness to go along with murder and make “meat”‐pies, to Brigadoon’s Tommy and Fiona’s amazingly quick love, and ability to throw a life away on a possible dream. To me, Till Coffee is the satirical reject of these shows, supremely self‐aware of its own existence. The music mirrors other shows and styles as the action changes, from Mozart to Verdi to Berg and beyond. While the piece is a single continuous scene, the music is episodic. The electronics add an air of supernaturalness to the ritual, and to the music—the somewhat misplaced bursts of static in a seemingly classical‐esque string section are meant to punctuate the separation. We have grown accustomed to hearing a backing track of some kind in opera, movies, and even theater. By creating a somewhat dichotomous sonic world, I hoped to remind the audience just how artificial the construct is. This is not unlike Bertolt Brecht wishing the lights to be seen, and the singing in Brecht shows (such as Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, collaborations with Kurt Weill) to be separated from the action. The largest struggle was putting all these disparate parts together in a short time‐frame, which led to large amounts of the electronics being cut in the first performance, and the vocalists having scores on stage.","abstract_html":"Till Coffee Do Us Part is a chamber opera scored for two violins, cello, electronics, soprano, and tenor. The opera was written as a part of Black House Collective’s and the Kansas City Electronic Music and Arts Alliance's Rites of Being project. The electronics in the piece are playback files designed to be triggered by a person, and are constituted primarily from a Catholic chant and synthesizers. For the performance, Ableton Live was used for triggering the files. The vocalists employ spoken words, Sprechstimme, and bel canto. The story is meant to mirror and exaggerate real life, bringing into sharp focus how trivial events can explode out of control. Some might say this is “un‐operatic,” but take many classic operas and compare the plots, especially how couples act regarding love—Cosí fan tutte's conceit of comparing whose fiancée would be most faithful; Das Rheingold's Wotan wanting to build a castle, and not having the cash on hand; Max in Der Freischütz trying to find a way to win the Agathe in a shooting competition; Salome, and the title character's obsessions over John the Baptist, to the point of committing an act of necrophilia. Also consider the lengths to which characters fall in love and have amazing misadventures in musicals, ranging from Sweeney Todd's Mrs. Lovett’s willingness to go along with murder and make “meat”‐pies, to Brigadoon’s Tommy and Fiona’s amazingly quick love, and ability to throw a life away on a possible dream. To me, Till Coffee is the satirical reject of these shows, supremely self‐aware of its own existence. The music mirrors other shows and styles as the action changes, from Mozart to Verdi to Berg and beyond. While the piece is a single continuous scene, the music is episodic. The electronics add an air of supernaturalness to the ritual, and to the music—the somewhat misplaced bursts of static in a seemingly classical‐esque string section are meant to punctuate the separation. We have grown accustomed to hearing a backing track of some kind in opera, movies, and even theater. By creating a somewhat dichotomous sonic world, I hoped to remind the audience just how artificial the construct is. This is not unlike Bertolt Brecht wishing the lights to be seen, and the singing in Brecht shows (such as Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, collaborations with Kurt Weill) to be separated from the action. The largest struggle was putting all these disparate parts together in a short time‐frame, which led to large amounts of the electronics being cut in the first performance, and the vocalists having scores on stage.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Chittum, John Rupert"],"institution":"University of Missouri--Kansas Citye","degree_name":"D.M.A.","degree_level":"Doctoral","degree_discipline":"Music Composition (UMKC)","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":["Mobberley, James"],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2016,"date_issued":"2016","date_published":"2016","updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:16:44Z","subjects":[],"languages":["en_US"],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://hdl.handle.net/10355/49003","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier.uri"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor.advisor","label":"Advisor","values":["Mobberley, James"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Chittum, John Rupert"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.accessioned","label":"Dc Date Accessioned","values":["2016-05-03T17:40:33Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2016-05-03T17:40:33Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.issued","label":"Date","values":["2016"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Music Composition (UMKC)"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Doctoral"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["D.M.A."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Missouri--Kansas Citye"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language.iso","label":"Language (ISO)","values":["en_US"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.uri","label":"Identifier URI","values":["https://hdl.handle.net/10355/49003"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Title from PDF of title page, viewed on May 6, 2016","Dissertation advisor: James A. Mobberley","Vita","Thesis (D.M.A.)-- Conservatory of Music and Dance. University of Missouri--Kansas City, 2016"]},{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Till Coffee Do Us Part is a chamber opera scored for two violins, cello, electronics, soprano, and tenor. The opera was written as a part of Black House Collective’s and the Kansas City Electronic Music and Arts Alliance's Rites of Being project. The electronics in the piece are playback files designed to be triggered by a person, and are constituted primarily from a Catholic chant and synthesizers. For the performance, Ableton Live was used for triggering the files. The vocalists employ spoken words, Sprechstimme, and bel canto. The story is meant to mirror and exaggerate real life, bringing into sharp focus how trivial events can explode out of control. Some might say this is “un‐operatic,” but take many classic operas and compare the plots, especially how couples act regarding love—Cosí fan tutte's conceit of comparing whose fiancée would be most faithful; Das Rheingold's Wotan wanting to build a castle, and not having the cash on hand; Max in Der Freischütz trying to find a way to win the Agathe in a shooting competition; Salome, and the title character's obsessions over John the Baptist, to the point of committing an act of necrophilia. Also consider the lengths to which characters fall in love and have amazing misadventures in musicals, ranging from Sweeney Todd's Mrs. Lovett’s willingness to go along with murder and make “meat”‐pies, to Brigadoon’s Tommy and Fiona’s amazingly quick love, and ability to throw a life away on a possible dream. To me, Till Coffee is the satirical reject of these shows, supremely self‐aware of its own existence. The music mirrors other shows and styles as the action changes, from Mozart to Verdi to Berg and beyond. While the piece is a single continuous scene, the music is episodic. The electronics add an air of supernaturalness to the ritual, and to the music—the somewhat misplaced bursts of static in a seemingly classical‐esque string section are meant to punctuate the separation. We have grown accustomed to hearing a backing track of some kind in opera, movies, and even theater. By creating a somewhat dichotomous sonic world, I hoped to remind the audience just how artificial the construct is. This is not unlike Bertolt Brecht wishing the lights to be seen, and the singing in Brecht shows (such as Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, collaborations with Kurt Weill) to be separated from the action. The largest struggle was putting all these disparate parts together in a short time‐frame, which led to large amounts of the electronics being cut in the first performance, and the vocalists having scores on stage."]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Till Coffee Do Us Part"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor.advisor":["Mobberley, James"],"dc:creator":["Chittum, John Rupert"],"dc:date.accessioned":["2016-05-03T17:40:33Z"],"dc:date.available":["2016-05-03T17:40:33Z"],"dc:date.issued":["2016"],"dc:description":["Title from PDF of title page, viewed on May 6, 2016","Dissertation advisor: James A. Mobberley","Vita","Thesis (D.M.A.)-- Conservatory of Music and Dance. University of Missouri--Kansas City, 2016"],"dc:description.abstract":["Till Coffee Do Us Part is a chamber opera scored for two violins, cello, electronics, soprano, and tenor. The opera was written as a part of Black House Collective’s and the Kansas City Electronic Music and Arts Alliance's Rites of Being project. The electronics in the piece are playback files designed to be triggered by a person, and are constituted primarily from a Catholic chant and synthesizers. For the performance, Ableton Live was used for triggering the files. The vocalists employ spoken words, Sprechstimme, and bel canto. The story is meant to mirror and exaggerate real life, bringing into sharp focus how trivial events can explode out of control. Some might say this is “un‐operatic,” but take many classic operas and compare the plots, especially how couples act regarding love—Cosí fan tutte's conceit of comparing whose fiancée would be most faithful; Das Rheingold's Wotan wanting to build a castle, and not having the cash on hand; Max in Der Freischütz trying to find a way to win the Agathe in a shooting competition; Salome, and the title character's obsessions over John the Baptist, to the point of committing an act of necrophilia. Also consider the lengths to which characters fall in love and have amazing misadventures in musicals, ranging from Sweeney Todd's Mrs. Lovett’s willingness to go along with murder and make “meat”‐pies, to Brigadoon’s Tommy and Fiona’s amazingly quick love, and ability to throw a life away on a possible dream. To me, Till Coffee is the satirical reject of these shows, supremely self‐aware of its own existence. The music mirrors other shows and styles as the action changes, from Mozart to Verdi to Berg and beyond. While the piece is a single continuous scene, the music is episodic. The electronics add an air of supernaturalness to the ritual, and to the music—the somewhat misplaced bursts of static in a seemingly classical‐esque string section are meant to punctuate the separation. We have grown accustomed to hearing a backing track of some kind in opera, movies, and even theater. By creating a somewhat dichotomous sonic world, I hoped to remind the audience just how artificial the construct is. This is not unlike Bertolt Brecht wishing the lights to be seen, and the singing in Brecht shows (such as Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, collaborations with Kurt Weill) to be separated from the action. The largest struggle was putting all these disparate parts together in a short time‐frame, which led to large amounts of the electronics being cut in the first performance, and the vocalists having scores on stage."],"dc:identifier.uri":["https://hdl.handle.net/10355/49003"],"dc:language.iso":["en_US"],"dc:title":["Till Coffee Do Us Part"],"dc:type":["Thesis"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Music Composition (UMKC)"],"thesis:degree_level":["Doctoral"],"thesis:degree_name":["D.M.A."],"thesis:institution_name":["University of Missouri--Kansas Citye"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:16:44Z"}