Musical syncretism: An examination and comparison of the use of folk music in choral compositions of Ralph Vaughan Williams, Alice Parker, and Osvaldo Golijov.

摘要

This thesis discusses different treatments of folk music in choral compositions by Ralph Vaughan Williams, Alice Parker, and Osvaldo Golijov. The goal is to bring awareness to conductors of the variety of ways composers incorporate folk music characteristics into contemporary compositions, thus bringing an informed interpretation to performances and a varied and interesting soundscape to singers and audiences. This paper strives to dismantle hierarchal ranking between folk music and art music, and instead to integrate the two genres in the study, interpretation and performance of choral music.;The argument is made that folk music is an integral part of cultural identity and the term is redefined for the purpose of this paper as music that emerges from any community or culture lending insight into that particular culture. Worthiness is not measured by the complexity of the structure, but by its intrinsic ability to communicate and reflect cultural characteristics.