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Faces (in a park by a cul-de-sac)
Hampton, Chase
Hampton, Chase
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t25011_Hampton.pdf
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2025-05
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Thesis
Musical score
Musical score
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Electronic dissertations
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Abstract
Faces (in a park by a cul-de-sac) is a suite of twelve movements conceived for seven instruments and dance. The instrumentation is based off of Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire, which featured flute, clarinet, violin, cello, and piano. This combination and variations thereof are still popular with new music ensembles; this piece swaps clarinet for alto saxophone and adds horn and a percussion part for vibraphone and auxiliary instruments.
The work is set in and near a common suburban park, and each movement reflects an interaction within it. Beyond this surface-level premise, there is ample room for interpretation. Faces could take place in the afternoon of a people-watcher observing a variety of characters; however, it could also transpire over the course of decades in the same people’s lives. As such, the audience may view themselves as a witness or participant in the portrayed encounters. The choices of instrumentation and programmatic content intend to promote the longevity of the work in hopes that it will receive fresh performances after the premiere.
Within Faces, there are three acts that each comprise four movements. The first is centered around children. In “Idyll,” a family of three moves into the first completed home in a new subdivision. The child doesn’t have much for company but his imagination and the surrounding traces of wilderness. A recurring motivic third invokes both the sound of a nursery rhyme and the summer chorus of insects. “Contradance” follows the same child weaving through the playground of a fuller neighborhood in pursuit of a friend; the title refers to a regency dance style and the whirling merry-go-rounds. “Yonder” depicts two children stargazing; as they become more creative with constellations, they conquer their fear of the immense night sky. As the vibraphone introduces the movement, other instrumentalists strike a piece of tuned pipe freely in order to evoke wind chimes.
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Thesis (M.M.)-- Wichita State University, College of Fine Arts, School of Music
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Wichita State University
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© Copyright 2025 by Chase Hampton
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