An analytical study of Bizet's 'Carmen': melody, text setting, harmony, and form

This dissertation examines aspects of the compositional practice of Georges Bizet in his opera Carmen (1875), focusing in particular on the composer's treatment of melody, text setting, harmony, and form. The dissertation situates the music of Carmen in its historical context by examining the extent to which Bizet follows, or departs from, the diverse musical conventions of nineteenth-century French opera. My analyses draw on both historical treatises and current music-theoretical scholarship in the areas of melody, text setting, rhythm, harmony, and form.;The dissertation begins with a review of the Parisian press reception of the first run of Carmen, focusing on critical discussions of Bizet's compositional practice. I then examine Bizet's melodic and text-setting practices in light of treatises by Rousseau, Scoppa, Castil-Blaze, and Benloew, and operas by Gretry, Auber, Thomas, and Gounod, among others. I argue that like those earlier French composers, Bizet used rhythm and text setting as a way to differentiate between two different kinds of operatic music: non-diegetic music (singing as speech) and diegetic music (singing as song). I examine Bizet's text-setting practices in both lyrical and diegetic numbers from Carmen and suggest that the binary distinction between these melodic styles is occasionally blurred in the opera.;The other main part of the dissertation is an examination of Bizet's use of chromaticism, common-tone tonality (including chromatic third relations), and harmonic dualism in Carmen, focusing on the three duet numbers between Carmen and Don Jose (the Act I Seguedille and Duo, and the Act II and Act IV duets). I argue that Bizet's use of semitonal linear motion creates motivic references across numbers in Carmen . In addition, these semitonal lines are harmonized throughout the opera in ways that feature different levels of common-tone preservation. Based on my analyses, I suggest that common-tone tonality is associated in Carmen with sensuality and the character of Carmen, while abrupt harmonic changes are associated with impetuosity and, ultimately, violence in Don Jose. Throughout the study, I examine the ways in which Bizet used the musical codes of nineteenth-century French opera to illuminate the dramatic psychology of his principal characters.