Document Title: Dominick Argento's Songs about Spring and Miss Manners on Music: A Comparative Analysis of Compositional Styles in Poetry Versus Prose

Author: Rebecca Ann Salter

This document is an examination of Dominick Argento's musical treatment of poetry as opposed to prose in his song cycles Songs about Spring and Miss Manners on Music, respectively. The goal of the document is to highlight Argento's text setting and his stylistic variation in the musical depiction of words in these song cycles. Although other analytical sources examine these works, providing a broad overview, this document serves as an extensive side-by-side analysis of the musical expression of text in both works. Specifically, the study contributes to existing knowledge with a comprehensive study of Argento's compositional style in his first poetic song cycle, Songs about Spring, contrasted with that in his latest prose setting, Miss Manners on Music.

The document is organized into five chapters. Included in Chapter One are the purpose and need for the study, and an overview of related literature. Chapter Two consists of a brief biographical study on Dominick Argento, e.e.cummings, and Judith Martin. Chapters Three and Four are analyses of Songs about Spring and Miss Manners on Music, respectively. Finally, Chapter Five compares and contrasts musical elements of both cycles side-by-side. Following the Bibliography, several appendices include original poetry and newspaper articles; a list of Argento's song cycles written to date; and a transcript of the author's e-mail interview with Dominick Argento.