Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Identifier

4777

Date

2016

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Musical Arts

Major

Music

Concentration

Composition

Committee Chair

John Baur

Committee Member

Kamran Ince

Committee Member

Janet Page

Committee Member

Kenneth R Kreitner

Abstract

Postmodern Deeds is an opera that takes place in a dystopian postmodern world where multinational corporations and greed run amok. There are five main characters; The CEO, Epsilon, Omicron, Gaia, and Epsilon’s Mega Smartphone, each representing various ideas and concepts as well as being persons themselves. The CEO represents manipulative nature and overwhelming desire for commodity; Epsilon represents the alienated person, suicidal but still hanging on to what little he has as he is unable to change the system; Omicron symbolizes children all around the world who were wronged by society and their justified anger; Gaia embodies nature andserenity, and is whom Epsilon finds salvation in; Epsilon’s Mega Smartphone typifies humans’ addiction to technology and their anti-sociality. The choir is featured in three different roles; First, they are the Associates in the big corporation, representing the ignorant and proud common folk. Second, some of the tenors and the basses perform the businessmen, symbolizing the rapaciousmasterminds of environmental catastrophe. Third, some of the altos and sopranos acts as the nymphs of Gaia, following her around to benefit from her wisdom.A full symphonic orchestra accompanies the cast. The compositional procedure utilizes styles from all eras of western classical music to tell the story in a postmodern way. This is to enhance the storytelling, which itself is about postmodern times, and add multiple techniques to the composer’s arsenal. Sudden rhythmic and sonic shifts are widely present in the work to support the narrative and the mechanical aspects of postmodern times. The music and the text actively bothers the audience to question their place in the society and their lives in general.The libretto was written by the composer.

Comments

Data is provided by the student.

Library Comment

Dissertation or thesis originally submitted to the local University of Memphis Electronic Theses & dissertation (ETD) Repository.

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