Contents
Chapter 1: Defining the Lament
1.23 Mourning death as a profession
1.3 Lamentation as a part of ritual leave-taking
1.41 Marriage as a social contract
1.5 Musical Laments of western Europe
1.51 List of 17th-century works used in this study
Chapter 2: Expressions of grief
2.5 Summarizing the 17th-century relationship with grief, as demonstrated through art
3.11 Lamenting the results of another's actions
3.12 Lamenting the results of one's own actions
3.13 Lamenting an unknown event
Chapter 4: Meet the librettists
4.1 Librettists in the 17th century
4.11 The woman librettist (or lack there-of)
4.2 Meet our modern librettists
4.24 Tanisha Nuttall (b. 1994)
4.3 A new composer-librettist relationship
Chapter 5: Building emotion through music
5.1 A hormonal harmonic experience
5.2 The bass as a guide for grieving
6.1 The emotional voice: society and biology
6.13 The haute-contre, the tenor, and the baritone
6.14 The question of the castrato
6.2 Casting Arianna: ‘La Romanina’ and ‘La Florinda’
6.3 Casting Laments for a Modern World
Chapter 7: Painting the picture
7.1 Dramatic structure and textual composition
7.2 Greek choruses, echoes, and ritornellos
7.4 Word painting as an expression of affect
7.41 Repetition and fragmentation
7.5 Chromaticism and dissonance
7.7 A personal reflection on embodying emotions while singing
7.8 A stirring of affections during the compositional process
Chapter 8: Now presenting: Laments for a Modern World
8.1 Laments for a Modern World, No. 1: “Carry Me”
8.2 Laments for a Modern World, No. 2: “Sharks”
8.3 Laments for a Modern World, No. 3: “Autumn Oud”
8.4 Laments for a Modern World, No. 4: “something pulls me up”
Appendix A: English translations of 17th-century Lament texts