Musicology
Dissertation research in Venice, Summer 2016
“Unanswered Questions of the Trio Sonata”
UNT Spring 2019 Graduate Seminar
In this UNT graduate seminar in Musicology, we sought to uncover new insights on mysterious aspects of this chamber genre, which is small in performance scope but rich in musical complexity. Examinations of Baroque metaphor, alchemy, and the Cabinet of Curiosities rounded out our discussions, which centered on the culturally dependent meanings inherent in composers’ textural, instrumentation, and content choices. Participants produced exciting new research on Bach’s approach to the trio sonata texture for organ and flute; transcribing Baroque chamber music for modern instruments; relationships between vocal and instrumental ornamentation in Handel’s music; and more!
AMS-Southwest, April 6
Paper Presentation: “Non cercar più, la verità ti dico: Musical Depiction of Deceit in the Operas of Monteverdi and Cavalli”
Musicology on stage
In the collaborative effort to produce an entirely new score for Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea (Bärenreiter Verlag, 2018), I realized a lifelong ambition to combine my research and applied skills in a deeply meaningful way.
In this UNT project, admirably led by Dr. Hendrik Schulze, graduate students from many divisions of the College of Music applied skills in musicology, seventeenth-century music theory, and music technology to preserve and interpret this historical masterwork. UNT Opera performers then brought our new edition to life in a spectacular world-premiere performance.
Roughly twenty-five dedicated UNT Music graduate students contributed to the score edition over the course of a year. Using the existing seventeenth-century manuscripts from the Naples Conservatory and the Biblioteca Marciana in Venice, we carefully deciphered the music, transcribing it from delicate handwriting (much of it his student, Cavalli’s) and producing a meticulously detailed and elegant critical score edition. My own editorial contributions were six scenes, notably including the attempted murder in the Act II finale, and the preface, as well as extensive proof checking.
I was honored to then apply the historical knowledge gained in the editing and research processes by serving as the assistant director for UNT’s world-premiere performance of this new score. Under the musical direction of Paul Leenhouts and stage direction of David Ward, these astonishingly moving performances by UNT performers brought our audiences entirely new perspectives on this opera’s richly enigmatic artistic content.
More Coming soon:
New projects
Sneak peeks at future seminar topics
Archive of recent conference papers and publications