Alumna Rachel Becker publishes first monograph

Removed bars in Antonio Pasculli's manuscript of Concerto per oboe sopra motivi dell'opera I Vespri Siciliani (c. 1872)

Dr Rachel Becker (MPhil 2010-12) has had her first monograph, which grew out of research done at Oxford, published by Routledge. 

Valuing Nineteenth-Century Italian Opera Fantasias for Woodwind Instruments: Trash Music is available to pre-order from https://www.routledge.com/Valuing-Nineteenth-Century-Italian-Opera-Fantasias-for-Woodwind-Instruments/Becker/p/book/9781032491769

This book approaches opera fantasias – instrumental works that use themes from a single opera as the body of their virtuosic and flamboyant material – both historically and theoretically, concentrating on compositions for and by woodwind-instrument performers in Italy in the nineteenth century.

Important overlapping strands include the concept of virtuosity and its gradual demonization, the strong gendered overtones of individual woodwind instruments and of virtuosity, the distinct Italian context of these fantasias, the presentation and alteration of opera narratives in opera fantasias, and the technical and social development of woodwind instruments. Like opera itself, the opera fantasia is a popular art form, stylistically predictable yet formally flexible, based heavily on past operatic tradition and prefabricated materials. Through archival research in Italy, theoretical analysis, and exploration of European cultural contexts, this book clarifies a genre that has been consciously stifled and societal resonances that still impact music reception and performance today.

Dr Rachel Becker is Assistant Professor of Musicology and Oboe at Boise State University. She previously taught at the University of Cambridge, where she received her PhD. She holds an MM in Oboe Performance from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, an MPhil from the University of Oxford, and she completed her BA in Music with Highest Distinction at the University of Virginia.