Poems and Interpretation of Dominick Argento’s Six Elizabethan Songs

• Main Authors: Yin-Hsin, Chang, 張尹馨
• Other Authors: 張詩欣
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2014
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/65742477268398172405

碩士 === 國立臺灣師範大學 === 表演藝術研究所 === 102 === Dominick Argento (b. 1927) is one of the most distinguished vocal composers in America in the twentieth-century. His song cycle “Six Elizabethan Songs” was commissioned by tenor Nicholas Di Virgilio and written for high voice and piano in 1958. Argento selected six lyric poems from five Elizabethan poets’ works, and used diverse compositional methods to express the text. This set of songs continues to be one of his most popular vocal works. This paper will discuss the following topics: an overview of American art song in the twentieth-century, the biography of Dominick Argento and his music style in art songs, literature in the Elizabethan Period in general, and the analysis of both music and poems, as well as suggestions for interpretating “Six Elizabethan Songs”. The purpose of this study is to explore how Argento made use of musical devices to express the English prosody and the artistic conception in six poems. Through such efforts, the author sincerely expects to perform the best of this set in the future.