Date of Completion

10-3-2014

Embargo Period

9-28-2014

Major Advisor

Dr. Alain Frogley

Co-Major Advisor

Dr. Constance Rock

Associate Advisor

Dr. Peter Kaminsky

Associate Advisor

See Above

Field of Study

Music

Degree

Doctor of Musical Arts

Open Access

Open Access

Abstract

W. A. Mozart’s opera and concert arias for tenor are among the first music written specifically for this voice type as it is understood today, and they form an essential pillar of the pedagogy and repertoire for the modern tenor voice. Yet while the opera arias have received a great deal of attention from scholars of the vocal literature, the concert arias have been comparatively overlooked; they are neglected also in relation to their counterparts for soprano, about which a great deal has been written. There has been some pedagogical discussion of the tenor concert arias in relation to the correction of vocal faults, but otherwise they have received little scrutiny. This is surprising, not least because in most cases Mozart’s concert arias were composed for singers with whom he also worked in the opera house, and Mozart always paid close attention to the particular capabilities of the musicians for whom he wrote: these arias offer us unusually intimate insights into how a first-rank composer explored and shaped the potential of the newly-emerging voice type of the modern tenor voice. The rise of the tenor voice in the late eighteenth century is closely intertwined, especially in the operatic domain, with the decline of the castrato, and historical studies of vocal pedagogy have established a strong line of connection in terms of voice teachers and their methodology. This dissertation examines select opera and concert arias that Mozart wrote for three unique singers: Valentin Adamberger, Vincenzo Calvesi, and Anton Raaff. All of these tenors sang premieres of both a concert aria and/or ensemble and at least one of Mozart’s opera roles. This makes them ideal candidates for examination, because the technical demands made on the singers can be traced in the connection between the various compositions for their voices.

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