Melbourne Conservatorium of Music - Theses
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ItemNo Preview AvailableFolio of Compositions( 2023-04)Master of Music Composition - Folio of Compositions Four original compositions composed between 2021 and 2022 comprising of: - [looped square symbol], for orchestra. Recording duration 11 minutes and 28 seconds - You Can Call Me CV01, for contrabassoon. Recording duration 8 minutes and 50 seconds - 8 Preludes to the Deepsea Metro, for piano. Recording durations of each movement: 1 minute and 4 seconds, 1 minute and 35 seconds, 2 minutes and 28 seconds, 1 minute and 13 seconds, 1 minute and 8 seconds, 1 minute and 28 seconds, 2 minutes and 33 seconds, 1 minute and 17 seconds - The Second Sound of the Future (Overture and Act 1), for triple chamber ocarina in C, double bell bass trombone, Hatsune Miku and electronics. Recording duration 29 minutes and 17 seconds.
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ItemBrass and the Subversion of Cultural and Gender Normativity in Shoujo Anime Openings( 2023-06)This thesis explores how the treatment of brass in anime openings reflects gender bias across various areas of Japanese Popular Culture including in the history of shoujo manga, Japanese Idols and the kawaii movement. By highlighting the ways in which the shoujo genre is often discriminated against in favour of its male-dominated counterparts, the use of brass in shoujo anime openings is being utilised as a tool to represent how anime is being marketed to audiences through a binary societal view of what is feminine and what is masculine.
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ItemComposition Folio( 2023-06)This thesis explores the noumenal aspect in music, emphasising its practical application in music creation and performance. It examines the role of the noumenal, how it can be accessed, and preserved from composition through to performance. The noumenal is defined philosophically as things as they are in themselves, as opposed to things as they are for us, knowable through the senses. Accessible through practices like meditation, the noumenal is also evident in various musical traditions. The thesis describes the composer's journey in utilising practices to access the noumenal during composition, highlighting specific techniques tailored for the included scores. Steps to retain a sense of the noumenal during rehearsal and performance, such as guided meditation, are discussed. The concept of a 'mindfulness score' is introduced, a novel method incorporating meditative elements into music notation to foster mindful listening and intuitive performance. This approach, compared to traditional scoring, better maintains the noumenal essence throughout the composition and performance process. However, using techniques to access the noumenal can also support sensitivity and depth in traditionally scored music.
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ItemFolio of Compositions( 2023-04)Folio of compositions with short written introduction. Included works: Hope (album) for piano/string quartet and optional live ambient effects Where We Were for piano/classical guitar A Group of Kalutara Peasants (from 'The Glasshouse') for piano and mixed quintet J.F.W. Herschel (from 'The Glasshouse') arranged for Symphony Orchestra These works explore individual and collective experiences during the 2020 Covid pandemic and Black Summer bushfires in Victoria. The included works explore neoclassical ostinati, improvisation within classical composition, jazz harmony, suspensions, neo-impressionistic acoustic and electro-acoustic ambience.
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ItemSomewhere Nice: A creative work investigation of how modes of collaborative and solo music production practice impact making and realising self-composed work( 2023-07)This thesis of creative work only, investigates how various modes of collaborative and solo music production practice impact the making and realisation of self-composed work. The composer explores the multi-faceted meaning of music production in the process of creating a 45-minute album, an audio-visual EP and selected ‘home studio’ production works. These new works illuminate the impact of different production and collaboration methods on creative outcomes and artistic identity and offer evidence that music production is an extension of individual compositional voice.
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ItemOrganisational and Behavioural Norms that Promote or Diminish Wellbeing in Orchestral Musicians( 2023-07)Abstract An experienced orchestral musician employed Self-Determination Theory as a framework to investigate why musicians seek orchestral occupation and asked what it is that motivates and sustains them throughout the work life cycle. The orchestral workplace is well- established in the literature as hierarchical and controlling and the task driven nature of orchestral performance is technically demanding with few opportunities for individual artistic exploration. Quantitative and qualitative data created twelve self-report profiles from players across a variety of job designations in the wind, brass and string sections of an orchestra. This orchestra, the OSO, worked within a cooperative business model for 20 years from its inception and now operates within a corporate organisational structure. These twelve musicians believed themselves fortunate, and had embraced orchestral life willingly, not as a second best to solo or chamber music, but for the depth of emotional expression, and the beauty and shared experience of the orchestral canon. The study supports previous research that found an orchestral occupation aligns with well-integrated and highly valued life goals. However, high demand and low control co-exist in the workplace and an organisational culture of negative feedback and ineffective policies and procedures stimulated unresolved conflict and compliance reactance in interpersonal relationships. Working within the corporate business model, many of the musicians found themselves excluded from the decision-making with siloed communication across levels of the company. This effectively blocked and exacerbated unhealthy situations out of the control of the musicians and created situational triggers in the social-contextual environment that negatively impacted the social gradient and psychological and physical health of the musicians.
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ItemToward a Practical Rediscovery of the Art of 19th-Century Preluding: A Horn Playing Perspective( 2023-04)This thesis explores and recreates the nineteenth-century art of preluding, with a focus on the horn virtuoso, Jacques-Francois Gallay (1795-1864) and his works. When attending a concert of western classical music today, certain formalities are taken for granted – that the music one expects to hear are those pieces listed in the program or that the performers know exactly what notes they are about to play. Musical conventions of the nineteenth century called for a diametrically opposed approach from performers: concerts began with an improvised (or semi-improvised) prelude, and programs of pre-composed repertoire were often woven together by improvised transition passages. In this way, performers asserted their status as creative individuals – most performers in the nineteenth century were also, to some extent, composers. Horn players today rarely incorporate preluding into their performances. This project puts forward arguments for exploring improvisation in a historically informed context. The research is informed by a practice-led framework. This comprises an exploration of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century treatises on preluding, as well as contemporary literature on improvisation; a practical investigation of Gallay’s unaccompanied works; and the presentation of a 60-minute recital including composed repertoire linked by improvised preludes. This research highlights that incorporating improvisatory elements into horn players’ private practice and public performance offers the performer benefits: a deepened understanding of the score; a more thorough understanding of harmony; and an increased engagement with one’s audience. This project encourages the discovery of new perspectives in the area of historically informed performance on the horn.
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Item‘RESILIENCE’ AND EVERYDAY LIFE AS ‘TRAUMA’: LEARNING LESSONS FOR GROWTH THROUGH USING MUSIC( 2023-02)In the subfield of sociomusicology, traditional approaches to understanding music use in everyday life have focused on use in specific and isolated cases. For instance, in Tia DeNora’s foundational text, Music in Everyday Life (2000), theoretical explanation of the interplay of these cases is lacking. This thesis proposes a new theoretical framework and model that expands on this approach to include a more holistic explanation of music use that builds on interdisciplinary and specific perspectives of resilience and everyday life as trauma. I argue that these new perspectives, utilising the theory of posttraumatic growth, can fill this gap and explain music use in everyday life as a process of ‘learning lessons for growth’, thus contributing new analytical approaches to sociomusicology. Besides DeNora’s text, the interdisciplinary works specific to this thesis are from David Chandler and Mark Epstein from the fields of global politics and psychology respectively. The particular music that is analysed to demonstrate the framework are pop songs from a recent Billboard ‘Global 200’ chart and a classical song cycle, ‘Narrow Sea’, recently composed by Caroline Shaw. Also considered in these analyses are music videos and social media.
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ItemAn Exploration of Duo Singing in Virtual Reality and Videoconferencing( 2023)This thesis explored the key considerations of duo singing in virtual reality (VR) and videoconferencing (VC). The ability for musicians to interact in person has been highly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, forcing performers online in search of suitable collaboration platforms. While VR has re-emerged an alternative visual choice for musical collaboration, limited research exists that examines its affordances alongside VC for communication in networked music performance contexts. The purpose of this study was to explore the participant experience of singing with a partner in a VR and VC setting. A mixed-methods study was designed involving ten participants from Australia and the United States with access to the internet and a VR headset. Following a singing session in both settings, a semi-structured interview was conducted alongside an online questionnaire, used to supplement the interview. Thematic analysis of interview data identified five key themes across both mediums: presence, performance, affect, usability, and usefulness. Interviews revealed the influence of the physical and virtual environmental setting on participants’ emotional states, linked to their sense of self-awareness and singing confidence. Participants reported feeling more copresent and less inhibited in the VR environment, helping contribute to a sense of fun and creativity. However, a lack of accurate facial expressions in the VR avatar made timing and synchronisation more difficult for musical performance, alongside challenges related to physical comfort and body ownership. In the VC setting, greater accuracy of visual cues assisted with performance, although on-screen visibility provoked feelings of self-consciousness for less experienced singers. Ultimately, survey results indicated a stronger sense of connection and natural discussion in the VR setting, as well as an overwhelming preference among all participants for singing in the VR setting. Interviews indicating this result as the combination of factors such as being in a virtual environment with another performer, reduced inhibition from being an avatar and the overall novelty of the VR experience. Together, the findings suggest that the current suitability of platforms for online singing is contextuality dependent. VR may be suited for casual musical collaboration less confident singers, while VC may be ideal when the accuracy of facial cues is more important. Findings support prior research on the importance of visual cues in networked music performance while expanding knowledge into the use of VR platforms. These results help broaden our understanding of the influence of self-awareness on inhibition, while contributing to knowledge on visual communication in online music collaborations.