Description |
I wrote this thesis in connection with my hour-long senior recital, held April 19, 2015 as the culmination of my work as an undergraduate student in the piano performance program. The thesis includes extended and short program notes for each of the compositions included in my recital: Frederic Chopin's Andante spianato and Grande Polonaise brill ante, op. 22; Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 17 in D Minor, op. 31, no. 2 ("The Tempest"); Franz Liszt's piano transcriptions of "Sonetto 104 del Petrarca" and "Widmung"; and two movements from William Bolcom's The Garden of Eden Suite-"Old Adam" and "The Serpent's Kiss." The extended program notes give a detailed history of each work and composer, as well as a description of each piece. The short version of the notes will be handed out at my recital. This thesis also includes a narrative analysis of the first movement of Beethoven's Piano Sonata op. 31, no. 2, which also incorporates a detailed formal analysis of the movement. A narrative analysis is a written description of the abnonnalities in the structure of a composition and an explanation, in narrative form, of how these abnonnalities function and affect the piece as a whole. |