Beyond Nothingness: A Broader Nihilism in Cinema Paradiso by Stephen Goss

Thumbnail image of item number 1 in: 'Beyond Nothingness: A Broader Nihilism in Cinema Paradiso by Stephen Goss'.
Thumbnail image of item number 2 in: 'Beyond Nothingness: A Broader Nihilism in Cinema Paradiso by Stephen Goss'.
Thumbnail image of item number 3 in: 'Beyond Nothingness: A Broader Nihilism in Cinema Paradiso by Stephen Goss'.
Thumbnail image of item number 4 in: 'Beyond Nothingness: A Broader Nihilism in Cinema Paradiso by Stephen Goss'.
Showing 1-4 of 53 pages in this dissertation.

PDF Version Also Available for Download.

Use of this dissertation is restricted to the UNT Community. Off-campus users must log in to read.

Description

Stephen Goss composed Cinema Paradiso, a six-movement suite for solo guitar, as an homage to films and film directors. Goss cites nihilism as a theme in Dogville, the film that inspires the fourth movement, "Mandalay," but I assert that all the films and many musical devices throughout the piece can be read through the lens of nihilism. The first movement, "Paris, Texas," depicts the stark landscape of the opening scene of the 1984 Wim Wenders film of the same name. "Modern Times" chronicles Charlie Chaplin's slapstick-laden descent from the factory to the insane asylum in the opening sequence of his … continued below

Physical Description

v, 47 pages : music

Creation Information

Kyzer, Dan August 2019.

Context

This dissertation is part of the collection entitled: UNT Theses and Dissertations and was provided by the UNT Libraries to the UNT Digital Library, a digital repository hosted by the UNT Libraries. It has been viewed 286 times. More information about this dissertation can be viewed below.

Who

People and organizations associated with either the creation of this dissertation or its content.

Author

Chair

Committee Members

Publisher

Rights Holder

For guidance see Citations, Rights, Re-Use.

  • Kyzer, Dan

Provided By

UNT Libraries

The UNT Libraries serve the university and community by providing access to physical and online collections, fostering information literacy, supporting academic research, and much, much more.

About | Browse this Partner

Contact Us

Corrections Questions

What

Descriptive information to help identify this dissertation. Follow the links below to find similar items on the Digital Library.

Degree Information

Description

Stephen Goss composed Cinema Paradiso, a six-movement suite for solo guitar, as an homage to films and film directors. Goss cites nihilism as a theme in Dogville, the film that inspires the fourth movement, "Mandalay," but I assert that all the films and many musical devices throughout the piece can be read through the lens of nihilism. The first movement, "Paris, Texas," depicts the stark landscape of the opening scene of the 1984 Wim Wenders film of the same name. "Modern Times" chronicles Charlie Chaplin's slapstick-laden descent from the factory to the insane asylum in the opening sequence of his 1936 Modern Times. "Noir" is a tribute to the procedures of film noir: violent storylines that depict the harshness of life, dim lighting, and anti-hero characters, all accompanied by jazz. Lars von Trier's Dogville provides the movement "Mandalay" with its nihilistic meaning, but Goss writes that he invokes the musical style of Kurt Weill's opera The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. Just as the book people of François Truffaut's Fahrenheit 451 had to pass on books orally, Goss has burned the score for his "451," forcing guitarists to learn it by watching a video and listening to a recording. Finally, the chaotic tarantella, "Tarantino" depicts Uma Thurman's heroin overdose scene in Quinten Tarantino's Pulp Fiction. By analyzing Fredrich Nietzsche's writings to form a broader definition of nihilism and applying that definition first to each film and then to corresponding musical elements in each movement, this paper argues that nihilism acts as a connecting theme throughout Cinema Paradiso.

Physical Description

v, 47 pages : music

Language

Item Type

Identifier

Unique identifying numbers for this dissertation in the Digital Library or other systems.

Relationships

Collections

This dissertation is part of the following collection of related materials.

UNT Theses and Dissertations

Theses and dissertations represent a wealth of scholarly and artistic content created by masters and doctoral students in the degree-seeking process. Some ETDs in this collection are restricted to use by the UNT community.

About | Browse this Collection

Related Items

Doctoral Recital: 2012-11-12 - Dan Kyzer, guitar (Sound)

Doctoral Recital: 2012-11-12 - Dan Kyzer, guitar

Recital presented at the UNT College of Music Concert Hall in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) degree.

Relationship to this item: (Has Part)

Recital: November 12, 2012, ark:/67531/metadc171756

Has Part : Recital: April 15, 2013, ark:/67531/metadc <not yet digitized>

Doctoral Recital: 2015-04-27 – Dan Kyzer, guitar (Sound)

Doctoral Recital: 2015-04-27 – Dan Kyzer, guitar

Recital presented at the UNT College of Music Concert Hall in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) degree.

Relationship to this item: (Has Part)

Recital: April 27, 2015, ark:/67531/metadc1075251

Doctoral Lecture: 2019-04-15 – Dan Kyzer, guitar (Video)

Doctoral Lecture: 2019-04-15 – Dan Kyzer, guitar

Lecture presented at the UNT College of Music M321 in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) degree.

Doctoral Lecture: 2019-04-15 – Dan Kyzer, guitar - ark:/67531/metadc2125332

What responsibilities do I have when using this dissertation?

Digital Files

When

Dates and time periods associated with this dissertation.

Creation Date

  • August 2019

Added to The UNT Digital Library

  • Aug. 29, 2019, 10:25 a.m.

Description Last Updated

  • June 29, 2020, 4:54 p.m.

Usage Statistics

When was this dissertation last used?

Yesterday: 0
Past 30 days: 0
Total Uses: 286
More Statistics

Interact With This Dissertation

Here are some suggestions for what to do next.

Start Reading

Thumbnail image of item number 1 in: 'Beyond Nothingness: A Broader Nihilism in Cinema Paradiso by Stephen Goss'.
Thumbnail image of item number 2 in: 'Beyond Nothingness: A Broader Nihilism in Cinema Paradiso by Stephen Goss'.
Thumbnail image of item number 3 in: 'Beyond Nothingness: A Broader Nihilism in Cinema Paradiso by Stephen Goss'.
Thumbnail image of item number 4 in: 'Beyond Nothingness: A Broader Nihilism in Cinema Paradiso by Stephen Goss'.

PDF Version Also Available for Download.

Citations, Rights, Re-Use

International Image Interoperability Framework

IIF Logo

We support the IIIF Presentation API

Links for Robots

Helpful links in machine-readable formats.

Archival Resource Key (ARK)

International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF)

Metadata Formats

Images

URLs

Stats

Kyzer, Dan. Beyond Nothingness: A Broader Nihilism in Cinema Paradiso by Stephen Goss, dissertation, August 2019; Denton, Texas. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1538670/: accessed October 9, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; .

Back to Top of Screen