ELIZABETH VERCOE: Composing Her Story

This document examines the inter-relatedness of a composer's life and her output. Chapter 1 provides a biographical sketch of Elizabeth Vercoe. The chapter concludes exploring Vercoe's attitudes toward feminism, the nature of her music, and exclusionary nature of labels. Chapter 2 presents a performer's study of the four Herstory cycles. This chapter furthers the biographical sketch begun in Chapter 1 by looking at these cycles as autobiographical in nature. Chapter 3 is an annotated catalogue of Vercoe's vocal works including discussion of pertinent biographical facts thereby connecting the three chapters as a unique biography. The most valuable information contained in this thesis actually comes in Appendix C, where candid reflections and conversations between Vercoe and the author are offered therein, indexed to guide the reader to specific topics. The other two appendices include the texts of Vercoe's Herstory cycles and a chronological catalogue of all of Vercoe's compositions.