Identifier

etd-11072007-103105

Degree

Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA)

Department

Music

Document Type

Dissertation

Abstract

Emma Lou Diemer (1927- ), an eclectic, still active American composer, has composed in many different musical genres for both professional and amateur groups. She is well-known for her vocal music Three Madrigals (1962) and her Concerto in One Movement for Piano (1991), which won Kennedy Center Friedheim Awards in 1992. Diemer’s piano music includes pedagogical works as well as concert pieces. Her piano sonatas are sophisticated compositions for piano which combine both advanced technical elements and musical complexities. Of her three piano sonatas, Piano Sonata No.3 is particularly accessible to listeners. The Sonata for Piano in One Movement was submitted successfully for a Fulbright Scholarship for study in Belgium (1952-53) and the Second Sonata for Piano won the Missouri Federation of Music Clubs Award (1955). Piano Sonata No. 3 (2000) is her most recent publication. The purpose of this project is to provide a stylistic and analytic guide helpful to the preparation and performance of the three sonatas by Diemer. The opening chapter provides a biography of the composer, the following chapter centers on various influences on her compositional style, and her transformation from early Romanticism and Neo-Classicism to her later use of electronic and pop music. The subsequent chapter is an analytical observation of the three sonatas in addition to the particular characteristics of each sonata. The last chapter focuses on performance and interpretive issues._x000C_

Date

2007

Document Availability at the Time of Submission

Release the entire work immediately for access worldwide.

Committee Chair

Gregory Sioles

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_dissertations.1660

Included in

Music Commons

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