Alexis Contant's Cain: A Conductor's Guide to the Work and its Performance

• Author / Creator

  Sladden, Stuart

• The full thesis for this degree consists of two public juried performances, a performance edition of Alexis Contant’s Caïn, and a major paper. The first performance took place on June 4, 2016 at Robertson-Wesley United Church, Edmonton, Alberta, and featured works by William Byrd, Orlando di Lasso, Edward Elgar, Gustav Holst, Benjamin Britten, Stephen Chatman, Keith Bissell, Lili Boulanger, Johannes Brahms, Samuel Barber, and included the premiere of Love Letters to the Streets, by Canadian composer Trent Worthington. The second performance, held on October 28, 2017 at Convocation Hall, Edmonton, Alberta, featured a full performance of the oratorio Caïn using the newly formatted edition.
  One of Canada’s earliest but little known composers is Alexis Contant (1858-1918). He was a driven and dedicated composer, gifted organist, and influential music educator. Since much of his music has never been published, Contant along with his compositional activities have fallen into relative obscurity.
  Contant completed the first of his two oratorios and the focus of this project, Caïn, in 1905. The major paper, which serves as a companion to the new edition, provides an overview of the composer, the libretto, the oratorio and its inception, performance insights, and editorial considerations in developing the new edition.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Contant
  • Alexis
  • Oratorio
  • Canadian Oratorio
  • Cain
  • Alexis Contant

• Graduation date

  Spring 2020

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Doctor of Music

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-0x50-6822

• License

  Permission is hereby granted to the University of Alberta Libraries to reproduce single copies of this thesis and to lend or sell such copies for private, scholarly or scientific research purposes only. Where the thesis is converted to, or otherwise made available in digital form, the University of Alberta will advise potential users of the thesis of these terms. The author reserves all other publication and other rights in association with the copyright in the thesis and, except as herein before provided, neither the thesis nor any substantial portion thereof may be printed or otherwise reproduced in any material form whatsoever without the author's prior written permission.