Melbourne Conservatorium of Music - Theses
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ItemAn uncharted island: searching for experimentation in Olivier Messiaen’s Île de feu 1( 2013)This thesis offers a detailed examination of Olivier Messiaen’s (1908-1992) short piano work Île de feu 1 from the Quatre Études de rythme (1949-1950). Though these pieces are recognised for their radical and innovative features, their representation in the existing literature is uneven, and Île de feu 1 has been relatively neglected. Since this work is usually lumped with analytical discussions of its companion pieces, it is normally assumed to be experimental by default. This study therefore proposes to examine Île de feu 1 as a work worthy of its own analytical attention. It considers the contextual position of this piece within Messiaen’s experimental period (1949-1952) and attempts to establish a connection with the innovative quasi-serialist processes that he developed during this time. The analysis adopts the theoretical framework of Messiaen’s self-described compositional procedures, endeavouring to identify in this piece such techniques as: Greek and Indian rhythmic patterns, non-retrogradable rhythms, canonic devices, and the modes of limited transposition, in addition to the influences of theology and birdsong. The results of this technical analysis suggest that Île de feu 1 is less concerned with explicit experimentation, since it only displays an abstract association with such processes and is mainly constructed with the most fundamental features of Messiaen’s musical language. The thesis concludes that Île de feu 1 is a significant point in the evolution of Messiaen’s style, exhibiting as it does those traits that were developed in his earlier pieces, and anticipating a return to these features in the works that follow the experimental period.
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ItemIdeokinesis as a practice strategy in musical performance( 2013)In her book Human Movement Potential: It’s Ideokinetic Facilitation, Lulu Sweigarde proposes the term ‘ideokinesis’ to describe a technique to improve postural alignment and movement efficiency. As musical performance requires the execution of countless refined movement goals, it seems likely that ideokinesis is an effective method of developing instrumental technique. There are a number of studies that demonstrate the effectiveness of ‘mental practice’ in a way that is almost synonymous with ideokinesis. Furthermore, there is an emergent theme in many phenomenological descriptions of musical experience (musical listening), that refer to this experience as being contingent on the perception of motion and an awareness of one’s physicality. For example, Jack Sorenon’s Ph.D thesis Modalities of Musical Attention and Perception describes musical experience as a kind of ‘kinesthetic image’. As musical experience is often described as being intrinsically physical, this thesis proposes that ideokinesis may be an effective practice method in music, not only in the enhancement of motor skills required for performance, but as means of integrating the ideation of these motor skills with a desired ‘kinesthetic’ musical experience.
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ItemGuglielmi's Lo spirito di contradizione: the fortunes of a mid-eighteenth-century opera( 2013)Pietro Alessandro Guglielmi’s opera buffa or bernesca, titled Lo spirito di contradizione, premièred in Venice in 1766. It was based on another work that had successfully premièred in 1763 as a Neapolitan opera: Lo sposo di tre, e marito di nessuna. The libretto for Lo sposo di tre, e marito di nessuna was written by Antonio Palomba, and concerns a man who attempts to marry three women and escape with their dowries. In setting this opera, Guglielmi collaborated with Neapolitan composer Pasquale Anfossi, with the former contributing the Opening Ensemble, the three finali and the Baroness’s aria in the third act. After moving to Venice in the mid 1760s, Guglielmi requested Gaetano Martinelli to re-fashion the libretto, keeping the story essentially the same for his new opera Lo spirito di contradizione. Guglielmi wrote all the music for his new production, retaining some of his former ideas. I argue that Pietro Alessandro Guglielmi was a prominent composer and significant eighteenth-century industry figure whose output should be re-incorporated into the repertory of modern performance. To this end, a critical scholarly edition to the first act of Lo spirito di contradizione is provided with this thesis. The edition is produced according to the view that the historical filiation of the source should accompany an edition as well as critical and editorial methods, historical notes, sources and synopses. In addition the thesis also explores the plot of Palomba’s libretto, how it was repeatedly appropriated between the years of 1763 and 1793, and the ways in which the thread of Guglielmi’s material continued throughout subsequent works well after the Neapolitan première.
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ItemWestern Influence on Japanese art song (Kakyoku) in the Meiji era Japan( 2013)The focus of this dissertation is the investigation of the earliest Western influences on Kōjō no Tsuki (Moon over the Castle) the composition of Japanese composer Rentaro Taki. Kōjō no Tsuki is an example of an early Japanese Art Song known as Kakyoku composed during Meiji Era Japan (1868 - 1912). The dissertation is divided into four chapters with an introduction. Chapter One explores the historical background of the Meiji Era Japan, highlighting the major impact of the signing of the treaty between the United States of America and Japan in 1853. This treaty effectively opened Japan to the West, not only for trade, but for exchange of social, political and cultural ideas. The resulting evolution that occurred in Japan from feudal society to one of early twentieth century is illustrated by reference to articles and writings of the Meiji Era. The second chapter examines the Japanese Art Song form Kakyoku using the example of Rentarō Taki’s song, Kōjō no Tsuki. This chapter presents an argument to illustrate, from an anthropological viewpoint, why this new form of Japanese Art Song could have its own identity based on Western ideas and not be categorised as a Japanese Folk Song known as Minʹyō or Shin Minyō. Chapter Three outlines the impact of the personal history of the composers, Rentarō Taki and Yamada Kōsaku on the Song Kōjō no Tsuki. Included in this investigation is an examination of similarities in the two Japanese composers’ upbringing and their studies of Western music, highlighting Western influences that may have affected their composing styles. On the basis of this research it can be concluded that two of the three main Western influences of the Meiji Era Japan: School and Military, were present to a degree in the early lives of both composers. These influences, coupled with their study in Europe, consequently influenced this early Art Song composition Kōjō no Tsuki. Chapter Four assesses the song from an analytical perspective. A detailed analysis of Rentarō Taki’s song is compared with the arrangement of the same song by Yamada Kōsaku, a prolific composer of Japanese Art Song during and following Meiji Era Japan. The specific study and analysis of this chapter demonstrates how Rentarō Taki’s Song Kōjō no Tsuki set a precedent for future Western style Japanese Art Song compositions in post Meiji Era Japan.
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ItemBeyond incantation: paths to the interpretation of André Jolivet's Sonata for flute and piano( 2013)French composer André Jolivet (1905-1974) contributed several important works to the flute repertoire, constantly pushing the limits of the instrument’s technical and expressive capabilities yet maintaining a musical language distinct from that of French compositional trends in the mid-twentieth century. His two concertos and sonata written between 1949 and 1965 are seldom performed, with flautists preferring to engage with the programmatic pre-1945 works Cinq incantations pour flûte seule and Chant de Linos. This thesis adopts the methodology of practice-based research, and seeks to facilitate an informed and engaging performance of Jolivet’s 1958 work, the Sonata for flute and piano through contextual study and analysis.
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ItemRepresentation of the 'Temporal Real'( 2013)Representation of the Temporal Real is an exploration of temporal representations, variable syntheses between artist, environment and technology, in the fabrication of the multi-dimensional. This research is an attempt to dissolve the roles of art and science to reconcile a disconnected relationship to reality effected by technology by exploratory making that lies between experimental verification and poetic speculation. The works investigate the boundaries of sight and scientific visualisation as a way of de-centering the human in networks of artistic production. The enquiry builds on previous visualisations, Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘Deluge series’, Etienne-Jules Marey’s ‘Birds in flight’ and Jean Clair’s ‘Cosmos’ exhibition, and recent cosmological theory into the depiction and description of what I have termed the ‘Temporal Real’. Art in this research is the interrogation of this Temporal Real.
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ItemComposition folio( 2013)Folio of compositions submitted for completion of the Masters of Music (Composition) (by Research). This folio includes five notated works: 1. Harpy; for solo violin 2. Trio; for flute, viola and harp 3. Astral Figures; for orchestra 4. Admitting the Passage of Light; for string quartet 5. Weird; for solo soprano and small chamber ensemble
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ItemThe afflicted image: contemporary art and reification( 2013)In the form of a dissertation paired with an installation comprising paintings, photographs, sculptural and text-based elements, this research channels an investigation into aesthetics through the filter of a specific photograph. This image, circulated within the media and pointing to political injustice, serves as the focal point for discourse surrounding the motivation to a politically driven praxis. Documenting the torture and humiliation of a detainee known as ‘Gilligan’ at the hands of U.S. Army personnel stationed at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, this iconic photograph grew into a personal obsession. Its aesthetic influenced the development of a symbolic lexicon based on hoods and facial concealment. The Afflicted Image scrutinises this fascination, its psychological and philosophical implications, away from the relentless coherence of mass media. The dissertation relates the creation of the image, inserting it into a historical framework of the hood as garment and metaphor, and positioning it as the locus for a “constellation of concepts”. The impact of the image is analysed via trauma, W.J.T. Mitchell’s writings on the lives and desire of pictures and Derrida’s ‘hauntology’, locating facial concealment as a tipping point between control and power versus their lack. Responding to the objectification of the detainee, the research traces a line from Hegel’s concept of Entäusserung (‘alienation’), to Lukács and Adorno’s totalisation of reification, into contemporary writings on ethics and aesthetics by Jacques Rancière, Simon Critchley and Boris Groys. It explores disappointment as an inevitable outcome of the current political landscape, raising questions around the position of art within this “disenchantment tale”. Commenting on the work of painter Michäel Borremans and ‘relational’ artist Thomas Hirschhorn, the thesis examines opposing aesthetics that acknowledge this melancholic state. Expanding the theoretical framework led to new strategies for praxis. Processes of deliberate reification, an awareness of failure’s inevitability, and interaction with a vocabulary of objects and materials occasioned a shift from an emphasis on painting to an installation-based approach. This facilitated irrational juxtapositions of text, image and object, aiming for poetic reflection from within a reified construct. Insertion of the artist’s body into the work and its progressive transformation via photography, collage and painting, initiated a visual dialogue with the image, as the image-body became both subject and object. Informing this new trajectory and facilitating a reconsideration of the crossover between art, politics and ethics, were the practices of Medical Hermeneutics and Lygia Clark, and Jane Bennett’s concept of enchantment. The research argues for the value of aesthetic experience in the service of possibility.
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ItemOh the humanity! Humour and performance in a contemporary art practice( 2013)This Masters project discusses humour and performance through the use and presentation of a number of video and photographic artworks. Humour can be derived from the ability to imaginatively juxtapose imagery and ideas to create unexpected relationships and outcomes. Art and creativity can function in a similar manner. This MFA seeks to examine and develop a contemporary art practice, through contrasting imagery and ideas in a performative and humourous way. The project draws parallels between the strategies and functions of humour and art, exploring the possible relationships between the two. The thesis explores questions arising from the artworks produced resulting from an investigation of specific historical and contemporary artworks and a discourse around performance. Through consideration of art historical examples, some linages and links to ways of conceiving, thinking and discussing performance and humour are made. The research acknowledges the problems of taste and subjectivity as it applies to humour, in concert with art. The project reflects upon the role of the artist, his motivations and takes excursions into formal and material concerns of photography and performance to clarify their relevance and significance to contemporary art practice and this project. Themes and ideas brought to the surface are used as foils, something to defend or push against and experiment with. They sometimes act as shadowy motivations that assist in the production of artwork. These themes include mans’ relationship to the landscape, personal histories, digital and analogue photography in the age of technological convergence, the image, self and representation, notions of personhood, contemporary performance and art. Through discussion and uncovering the toil of artwork and ideas engaged with, the humanity of the project is revealed.
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ItemPercy Grainger and new worlds of concert pianism: a study of repertoire and programming (1901-1926)( 2013)This thesis presents an overview of Percy Grainger’s piano repertoire and programming on his tours in the United States and elsewhere in the period 1914-1926. In the United States, Percy Grainger encountered a new and wider audience, which gave him the recognition he desired to become well established as a concert pianist, and allowed him the freedom to explore a wider range of piano repertoire, as well as perform his own piano works. He developed an individual approach to programming his piano recitals and committed himself to a role as ambassador for the piano works of selected modern composers throughout America, Scandinavia and Australia. This thesis briefly explores Grainger’s performing career in London from 1901 to 1914, to provide background on Grainger’s roles as a pianist, the diversity of the piano repertoire he performed, and the restrictive circumstances surrounding his early career whilst under the management of his mother Rose. Through new research conducted on concert programmes and other relevant archival material available at the Grainger Museum, this thesis examines Grainger’s transformation as a pianist, the evolution of his selection of piano repertoire and his innovative and maturing approach to recital programming in the United States from 1914 to 1926. In addition, this study explores Grainger’s developing professional role as an educator and promoter of his preferred piano repertoire in the United States.