Opening the “Door”: A Multifaceted Approach to the Analysis of Text Setting in the Third Movement of Kate Soper’s “Door” (2007)

Abstract

Abstract: The majority of Kate Soper’s (b. 1981) output as a composer-vocalist focuses intensely on the relationship between words and music. Methods of text and music analysis have primarily focused on relating musical materials to the semantic meaning of texts or have studied the ways composers musicalize sounds and use the materiality of poetry. Building on past scholarship and drawing from Soper’s program note to “Door” (2007), a setting of poems by Martha Collins for soprano, flute, tenor saxophone, accordion, and electric guitar, I develop a model that looks beyond semantics to investigate the roles of acoustic and aesthetic properties of words. My novel approach examines the relationship between music and words through four different but interrelated interpretive lenses: 1. Lexical, 2. Figurative, 3. Acoustic, and 4. Aesthetic. I demonstrate my methodology using the third movement of “Door” as a case study. I use Lexical interpretation to interrogate the piece-specific associations developed by Soper. My Figurative interpretation draws on the meaning of the words and extrapolates meaning from the poem before finding sonic analogues within the music. Acoustic interpretation involves inspecting the phonemes and acoustic envelopes of words and relating them to Soper’s choice of instruments. Finally, I observe which qualities of the poem and text resonate with me. Through Aesthetic interpretation, I attempt to understand what makes these qualities appealing. This multifaceted approach opens the door to consideration of new dimensions of comparison between text and music.