Part I, a graduate recital of twentieth century vocal music ; Part II, Songs, drones and refrains of death : an analysis of Garcia-Lorca's poetry and Crumb's subsequent musical setting

In the process of writing this paper, it has been necessary to make a number of decisions regarding its format. The more crucial or questionable decisions will be shared at this time in order to aid in the reading of this document.Although it is customary in this country to refer to Federico Garcia Lorca as "Lorca," technically his last name is Garcia-Lorca, and that is how this author will refer to him. Garcia was his father's surname and Lorca was his mother's. In Spain, the last name of the child is the combination of the parental surnames; hence, Garcia-Lorca.No diagrams are included in this paper. It is this author's feeling that in order to read any kind of analysis of any piece, it is essential to have a copy of the score in hand. Therefore, diagrams are considered to be wasted space. Crumb's score is much more aesthetically pleasing to the eye, and it is clearer in detail than this author's diagrams could hope to ever be.In Chapter Six of this paper, the terms "pitch class" and "pitch-class set" are used. "Pitch class" refers to a specific pitch of the chromatic scale. Each pitch is assigned a number beginning with zero. Zero corresponds to C-natural, 1 to C-sharp or D-flat, etc. "Pitch Class set" refers to a grouping of pitches. The primary motive of Songs, Drones and Refrains of Death is described as an (11, 5, 3) pitch class set. This means that it is a grouping of the pitches B-natural, F-natural, and D-sharp. The section of the analysis dealing with the "Casida del Herido oar el Agua" uses actual note names for the descriptions of its basic figures. This is due to the fact that there is such an influence by Mahler on this portion of the work, and it seemed anti-Mahler to speak in other terms.This project is written with the performance of Songs, Drones, and Refrains of Death as the primary consideration. Certain theoretical aspects have intentionally not been included, as it is felt by the author that they are outside the confines of this paper.