A contextual analysis of Dorothy Rudd Moore's song cycle 'Sonnets on Love, Rosebuds, and Death'

The song cycle Sonnets on Love, Rosebuds, and Death was composed by Dorothy Rudd Moore in May, 1976. The text for the song cycle is comprised of eight poems, written by seven authors, all of whom wrote during the period of American history known as the Harlem Renaissance. Much of the power of the text of this song cycle, and an understanding of the compositional techniques of the score, and the reasons for their incorporation, would be lost without an exploration of the historical background of the Harlem Renaissance, which was a period of great artistic strides for Blacks in America after World War I. Thus the treatise discusses the historical underpinnings of the Harlem Renaissance, and uses these insights to analyze both the text and the score of the song cycle. The treatise also contains a brief biography of the composer, gleaned almost entirely from a face-to-face interview. A listing of the composer's works and a discography are contained in the Appendix.