The American composer Marga Richter (1926–2020) has been primarily recognized for her large-scale instrumental works and tragic art songs and cycles. These include her Testament (2001) for alto, English horn, and piano, which sets texts by Anne Morrow Lindbergh reflecting on the kidnapping and murder of her son; Sarah Do Not Mourn Me Dead (1995), the Civil War letter by Major Sullivan Ballou; and Lament for Art O’Leary (1983), the Irish keen by Eileen O’Leary. Richter’s humorous vocal compositions have been much less explored. This paper examines three of these works that highlight the breadth of Richter’s eclectic musical style and her love of wit and playful experimentation: Jabberwocky (1941), a whimsical setting of Lewis Carroll’s famous nonsense poem; Erin Odyssey (2000), a collection of fourteen limericks written by the composer herself; and Goat Songs (2006), which sets six poems from Marcia Slatkin’s A Woman Milking (2006). Through close musical and biographical analysis, this paper expands our understanding of Richter’s artistic identity. The paper also reveals how Richter’s text settings relate to theories of humor such as those by Thomas Schultz, Kendall Walton, and Enrique Arias. Richter’s songs express humor through a strong female perspective, and draw upon a variety of twentieth-century compositional techniques to create humor with melodic expectations, disruptions, and resolutions, in addition to timbral effects and rhythmic complexity. In exploring Richter’s humorous songs, this paper enhances our understanding of the expressive range of American art song in the twentieth century.

Authors:
Sharon Mirchandani, Westminster Choir College of Rider University, United States

About the Presenter(s)
Dr. Sharon Mirchandani is a Professor of Musicology and Chair of the Department of Music Studies at Westminster Choir College of Rider University. Her research focuses on American music and women composers, and she is the author of Marga Richter.

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