Melbourne Conservatorium of Music - Theses

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    The Musical Activities of Duchess Sophie Elisabeth of Braunschweig-Lüneburg (1613–1676) as Reflections of Seventeenth-Century Protestant German Court Life
    Spracklan-Holl, Hannah Frances Mary ( 2020)
    This thesis aims to demonstrate how an analysis of the musical activities of Duchess Sophie Elisabeth of Braunschweig-Lueneburg (1613–1676) can provide insight into both the cultural life of the Wolfenbuettel court in the middle decades of the seventeenth century and the music-making of seventeenth-century German-speaking consorts at Protestant courts. As duchess consort to Duke August the Younger of Braunschweig-Lueneburg (1579–1666), Sophie Elisabeth had a number of duties and responsibilities associated with her social role. This thesis focuses on two of these responsibilities and how Sophie Elisabeth fulfilled them through her musical activities. First, she was responsible for the devotional life of her family, her court, and the wider populace through maintaining a strong sense of her own personal piety, encouraging piety in others, and interceding with God on behalf of the principality. Second, she played an important role in the artistic representation of her husband, August, as a ruler, and the broader representation of his dynasty, the House of Guelph. While the responsibilities of consorts and the musical activities of Sophie Elisabeth have both been studied in recent literature, their interaction has been hitherto neglected, particularly in musicological scholarship. This thesis addresses this lacuna by proposing that Sophie Elisabeth’s musical activities and her social and political role were not mutually exclusive, and that they constantly interacted with each other. This contention has implications for our understanding of the role of consorts at early modern German-speaking Protestant courts and provides a framework for analysing how music-making, of different kinds, contributed to this role.
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    Enhancing music performance self-efficacy through psychological skills training
    Gill, Anneliese ( 2019)
    The psychological health of the performer is important to achieving performance success. Determining effective means of enabling performers to manage performance issues and enhance their musical endeavours is therefore of utmost importance. Whilst there has been a strong focus in this area within higher education there is still more to be achieved in the training of younger musicians. Self-efficacy is a strong predictor of achievement and a key factor in well-being. Yet, few interventions have targeted this construct or been designed for adolescent students. Music educators are ideally placed to enhance self-efficacy within music lessons. An intervention model was constructed using the four sources of efficacy information as a conceptual framework. A survey of 236 Australian music educators provided an understanding of how teachers intuitively develop performance self-efficacy. Qualitative analyses, coded to the four sources (mastery experiences, verbal persuasion, vicarious experience, and physiological and affective states), revealed that teachers were most likely to advise more performing and employ verbal persuasion. Pedagogical recommendations for fostering self-efficacy were outlined, further informing the intervention model. A 14-week blended learning, teacher-guided program was designed, embedding skill development into practice and lessons. It encouraged training in standard psychological performance competencies (arousal regulation, imagery, attentional control, cognitive restructuring, pre-performance routines) with an additional focus on performance simulation and self-evaluation. A pilot study (n= 8) supported the utility of this approach on performance self-efficacy, multidimensional anxiety and performance. An amended program incorporating participant feedback was subsequently tested in two main studies within class (intervention n=47; control n=25) and studio (intervention n=24; control n=7) music lessons. Self-efficacy was significantly enhanced in comparison to the controls who completed their normal music curriculum. This was associated with improvements in anxiety, psychological performance skills and self-, teacher- and independently-evaluated music performance. Differential treatment effects were also observed for the two instruction conditions that may be related to sample-specific variables such as teaching environment or age. These results provide preliminary support for the self-efficacy intervention model developed in this study. They also indicate that music educators without specialised psychological training or self-efficacy specific knowledge can influence a range of psychological skills associated with well-being and performance, enabling preventative measures to be implemented at a young age within the adolescent music curriculum. This program provides an accessible and practical method for delivering key skills associated with success and well-being.
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    "Speaking in tongues": an investigation into a compositional practice informed by intercultural exploration
    Dargaville, Timothy ( 2019)
    There is an existing context for contemporary composers engaging in intercultural exploration through creative work, both in Australia and internationally. Taking a practice-led research approach, this study by composer Tim Dargaville investigates the ways that ceremonial forms and ritual practices can inform the creation of new music and the development of a personal compositional language. A folio of five compositions for solo instrument, string quartet, chamber ensembles and orchestra, with scores and recordings will be accompanied by a dissertation that aims to contextualise the process of creation, locating the development of the works within a broader understanding of approaches to intercultural exploration undertaken by Australian and international contemporary composers.