Functions of Quotations in Steven Stucky's Oratorio August 4, 1964 and Their Placements within the Context of a Quotation Continuum: Cultural, Commentary, Remembrance, and Unity Page: XI
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half-step motive, as a quotation from "O Vos Omnes" in terms of two cultural areas: 1. time
(past, present and future) and 2. religion/lament. I also introduce the concept of the "quotation
continuum" in detail in order to facilitate the understanding that the different quotations
discussed in the course of this thesis exist at various levels of audibility and examine the main
motive from the oratorio, a motivic half-step quotation from "O Vos Omnes," demonstrating
four specific ways this motive appears throughout the oratorio, ranging from surface level
audibility (to the left of the quotation continuum) to deeply embedded motivic occurrences that
are more "elusive" (to the middle or right side of the continuum). Although not the only motive
present in August 4, 1964, (thirds are prevalent as well, both melodically and harmonically), the
pervasiveness of the half-step motive and its use in the aforementioned ways certainly
contributes to a sense of motivic unity in the overall oratorio. The half-step motive remains
present despite the contrasting musical tableaux of the Deep South scenes and the White House.ix
I relate the appearance of the half-step motive at different levels of audibility and prominence in
the music to Stucky's quotation technique (incorporating quotations, also at varying levels of
audibility and prominence, from "We Shall Overcome"). These quotations contribute to the
structural unification of the oratorio not only as a result of their many reoccurrences and
variations in the oratorio, but also through various musical means, such as specific recurring
pitches (fl-c2) from quotation to quotation (as discussed in chapter 5), shared pitch centricities,
ascending melodic contour, and functional tonal idioms.
In chapter 2 I show a traditional version of the famous protest song, Example 8a, and
discuss how the most "obvious/literal" quotation from "We Shall Overcome" functions primarily
as a cultural gesture using David Metzer's book Quotation and Cultural Meaning in Twentieth-
ix For example, the half-step motive appears in a variety of guises as discussed in chapter 1, heard
melodically in the opening scenario from the Deep South but becoming part of the harmonic voice leading when
Secretary McNamara enters later in movement 1.xi
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Davenport, Jennifer Tish. Functions of Quotations in Steven Stucky's Oratorio August 4, 1964 and Their Placements within the Context of a Quotation Continuum: Cultural, Commentary, Remembrance, and Unity, thesis, May 2011; Denton, Texas. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc67973/m1/12/: accessed April 30, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; .