Preferred Name
Anne Wick
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
ORCID
http://orchid.org/0000-0001-5561-8789
Date of Graduation
Fall 2016
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA)
Department
School of Music
Advisor(s)
Dorothy Maddison
John Peterson
Don Rierson
Abstract
The aim of this document is to create a better comprehension of the French Baroque cantata’s design through an examination of Nicolas Bernier’s Le Caffé, with particular attention paid to rhetorical influences, which will enhance the understanding of its value and performance style of the French Baroque cantata for both performers and audiences. To help modern teachers, performers and audiences to appreciate this genre and provide a practical means of approach to performance, this document will: 1) explain the purpose of the Late French Baroque Cantata as a vehicle to display the wit of both poet and composer; 2) reveal the essential qualities of the genre both poetically and musically; 3) discuss examples of both poetic and musical rhetoric in Le Caffé, a Late French Baroque Cantata by Nicolas Bernier; and 4) examine the impact of these rhetorical elements on Historically Informed Performance (HIP). Understanding the French Cantata as a vehicle for wit rather than a serious work of high art may lead to a greater appreciation of its charms, allowing early twenty-first century performers and audiences a glimpse of the whimsical nature and the clever rhetorical elements found in French Baroque cantata as demonstrated in Le Caffé.
Recommended Citation
Wick, Anne C., "Rhetoric and wit in Nicolas Bernier's Le Caffé" (2016). Dissertations, 2014-2019. 128.
https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/diss201019/128
