Nkeiru Okoye’s Harriet Tubman: When I Crossed That Line To Freedom: Performing African American musical idioms in grand opera
Johnson, Cornelius V., III
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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/118046
Description
Title
Nkeiru Okoye’s Harriet Tubman: When I Crossed That Line To Freedom: Performing African American musical idioms in grand opera
Author(s)
Johnson, Cornelius V., III
Issue Date
2023
Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)
Magee, Jeffrey
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Siena, Jerold
Committee Member(s)
Davis, Ollie Watts
Buchanan, Donna
Department of Study
School of Music
Discipline
Music
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
A.Mus.D. (doctoral)
Keyword(s)
Opera
Grand Opera
Nkeiru Okoye
African American Opera Composers
Harriet Tubman Arias
20th and 21st Century Opera
Gospel and Jazz in opera
Work Songs and Blues in Operal
Language
en
Abstract
This thesis examines the contributions of African American composers to grand opera
through their use of African American musical idioms, which serve as an important source of
representation. The principal aim of my research is to illuminate the historical and musical
significance of these operas and the breadth of available repertoire in this genre. While there are
many approaches to opera composition undertaken by African American composers, I focus on
that of Nkeiru Okoye in Harriet Tubman: When I Crossed That Line to Freedom (2014). I center
my investigation on the ways in which Okoye uses multiple African American musical idioms
and merges them with Western operatic conventions. Drawing upon musical analysis, interviews,
personal performances, recordings, and primary source documents, I examine the unique
contributions of Okoye’s work to the broader operatic landscape and, more specifically, to grand
opera that utilizes African American musical idioms.
The larger importance of this project lies in its focus on a largely untapped reservoir of
vocal repertoire that should be explored, researched, and performed because of its musical and
historical significance. This study also aids in the diversification of repertories and curricular
materials and broadens the discourse on the contributions of various ethnic groups, in this case,
African American opera composers.
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