The Secular Cantata in the United States

r n .HE SECULAR GANTATA was a favorite medium of American composers during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. However, by the first decade of the twentieth century, interest in this form was superseded by a growing attention to opera and symphonic works. The seventy years from 1850 through 1919 were marked by the publication of many secular cantatas for both adults' and children's voices. Those for adults are the subject of this study. Collectively, they reflect their era both musically and sociologically. The large number of these cantatas made some limitations necessary. Consequently, the study was confined to the works of composers of significance during the years under consideration, or those seen as significant in historical perspective. The most important of these composers were Horatio Parker, John K. Paine, Frederick S. Converse George W. Chadwick, Charles W. Cadman, Henry Hadley, Deems TaylorS Dudley Buck, and Victor Herbert. Ninety-four works comprised the published cantata production. The majority of these cantatas were found at the Library of Congress in Washington, O.C., and normally only the piano-vocal edition was available. Forty-three of the cantatas were concerned with either American historical figures or American nationalistic manifestations. The 51 remaining cantatas, the librettos of which ranged in geographical location from Japan westward to Peru (with the British Isles favored), were concerned with love, the supernatural, or the exotic. Such interest was also found in some of the American cantatas as, for example, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Frederick Burton (1900). Of the 94 cantatasS 62 were scored for mixed chorus, 19 for male chorus, and 13 for female chorus.l All composers employed accompaniment, normally piano or orchestra. Solo and small vocal ensemble material varied from a few measures to separate selections, and was found in all but tIoratio Parkerls The Norsemen's Ratd (1911). Theperformance duration of the cantatas varied from 10 minutes to ll/2 hours

Secular variation · Sociology · Demography · Diverse Musicological Studies · Musicology and Musical Analysis · Theater, Performance, and Music History

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