UC Davis

Kate Soper is one of the foremost composers of the 21st century, especially lauded for her vocal music which pushes the boundaries of voice writing conventions. Her six-movement masterwork IPSA DIXIT, scored for soprano, flute, violin, and percussion, is one of her most celebrated works, but is often mislabeled. While IPSA DIXIT is most frequently compared to opera, it is more accurate to describe it as a work of metatheatre. It does not function as a straightforward text-setting, and instead uses music and theatricality in ways that highlight, challenge, or even obscure aspects of its texts to communicate Soper’s own meaning over that of the texts themselves. IPSA DIXIT is entirely concerned with communication, and Soper carefully chose texts which are either themselves themed on communication or could be recontextualized as being about communication. The texts set in IPSA DIXIT are drawn from a variety of authors; three of the movements set sections from Aristotle’s treatises Poetics, Rhetoric, and Metaphysics, while the other three movements set texts from authors as varied as Sarah Teasdale and Sigmund Freud. My analysis investigates how IPSA DIXIT communicates, as well as what conclusions it itself draws about whether true communication is or isn’t possible. Conducting this analysis required a careful look at the score, guided by Soper’s own writings and interviews about the piece, as well as an awareness of how words, music, and theatricality communicate individually and in combination with each other.