Melbourne Conservatorium of Music - Theses
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ItemFolio of compositions( 2014)A folio of compositions including orchestral, choral and solo instrumental works. The music eschews overtly dramatic structures based on narrative, focusing rather on subtle explorations of colour, harmony and mood, with the concision and detailing of miniature forms as a touchstone.
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ItemComposition Portfolio( 2014)The research focus of this PhD thesis is the composition of two large-scale musical works. Central to this research is the exploration of how eclecticism, in terms of shifting methods of pitch-organisation, might be used as an expressive, aesthetic and philosophical response to the composition of an opera, and more broadly as the principal means of musical expression in the twenty-first century. To achieve concinnity within an eclectic framework, a limited number of styles or methods of pitch organisation have been used in both works. These are modes, pitch clusters, pitch sets and tonality. The major component of this PhD submission is a folio of two large-scale original works (with attached CD recordings). These are an opera in three acts, The Juniper Passion, and a triple concerto, Convergence for violin, cello, piano and orchestra. The purpose of the dissertation is to provide a background to eclecticism within the context of stylistic pluralism and postmodernism, to address the musical responses to the libretto in terms of character, time and place, and to show how philosophical and aesthetic perspectives have been interpreted and presented musically. The dissertation also provides technical analysis of key extracts from both works. Although there is no philosophical underpinning in the concerto per se, the analysis highlights a consistency in composition methods, especially in the use of the use of pitch clusters and modality
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ItemCreative collaboration in and as contemporary performance practice( 2014)Situated within the practice-led research paradigm, this thesis comprises a folio of recordings of four new works for piano and a dissertation, Creative Collaboration in and as Contemporary Performance Practice. Using the specific examples of the collaborative projects involving myself as performer and four Australian composers, this study integrates artistic practice and qualitative analysis to investigate collaborative creativity in composer–performer dyads working within the contemporary Western art music tradition. Three of the four recorded collaborations are used as case studies in the dissertation. Framed by the contemporary theories of collaborative creativity proposed by Vera John-Steiner and the creative cognition theory developed by Thomas Ward, Steven Smith and Ronald Finke, the discussion aims to provide insight into the creative processes of musical work-realisation and the way collaboration between composers and performers impacts on content-generation, notation, interpretation, and transmission of new musical works. Challenging the apparent schism between the ‘constructive’ and the ‘reproductive’ modes of musical practice characteristic of Western art music, a model of musical work co-construction is proposed, in which the ‘musical work’ is seen as a complex and dialectic interplay between the generative, interpretive, and performative processes that the composer and the performer engage with through a bi-directional feedback loop that exists within the collaborative setting. The study draws on a variety of qualitative research approaches and the method of Thematic Analysis specifically, enabling the identification of key themes through which to conceptualise, interpret and report the results of the research. The rigorous investigation of the collaborative case studies suggests that co-creative engagement between contemporary performers and composers in the process of musical work-realisation significantly enhances artistic outcomes and has important implications for contemporary performance and notational practices, the locus of creativity, and the participatory nature of artistic practice.
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ItemSergei Rachmaninoff in Melbourne; a performer's reflection through the twenty-four Preludes Opp, 23 and 32; from Mack Jost to the twenty-first century( 2014)This study concentrates on the performance of the twenty-four Preludes of Sergei Rachmaninoff. It comprises three parts. The first is a combination of a recording of the complete twenty-four Rachmaninoff Preludes. The second is a reflection on some of the performance issues within the Preludes, based upon the interpretative choices taken in this recording. The final part considers the career, writings and philosophies of Melbourne pianist Mack Jost (1918 - 2000) and how Rachmaninoff influenced pianists such as Jost and myself. As an introductory dialogue, the journey and reasons for my own affinity with Rachmaninoff are discussed along with my own unique relationship that has been forged with the Preludes. The reflections on the Preludes are prepared in an analogous style to Jost’s publications and discussions on performance, which are practically and performance based rather than analytical. They primarily reflect the interpretative choices considered in this particular recording, but also contemplate relationships between separate Preludes. Jost was one of the first Australian concert pianists to perform Rachmaninoff regularly in Australia, and was a keen supporter of the composer’s music throughout his life. His use and promotion of Rachmaninoff in both his concert and teaching careers will be examined alongside issues of dissemination of Rachmaninoff in Melbourne since the mid twentieth century. Indeed my recording of both Op.23 and Op.32 is one of the first by an Australian pianist in recent times.
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ItemMusic criticism in mid-century Manhattan: a study of the critical writings of Peggy Glanville-Hicks, 1947-1955( 2014)In 1947 the Australian-born composer Peggy Glanville-Hicks began writing for the New York Herald Tribune, working under the editorship of the brilliant, incisive and provocative Virgil Thomson and as part of a team of composer-critics fighting for the cause of contemporary American music. Fearless and opinionated, Glanville-Hicks developed into a vital and influential critical voice, contributing to a movement in which American composers and American music was increasingly celebrated. This thesis examines Glanville-Hicks’s critical writings with particular focus on the more than 550 reviews she completed for the Tribune between October 1947 and her departure from the paper in May 1955. It also considers her output for other publications during this period. This includes her work for journals and magazines such as Musical America, Musical Quarterly, Music & Letters and Vogue, and the entries she produced on American composers for the fifth edition of Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Through an examination of her writings on both performance and composition this thesis identifies the principles of Glanville-Hicks’s critical method. It also evaluates the objectives of Virgil Thomson and the music department of the Tribune and determines how Glanville-Hicks fulfilled those objectives. In addition, it considers the personal and professional affiliations that Glanville-Hicks maintained and considers how these relationships affected the opinions she presented in her criticism. As this thesis demonstrates, despite her unexceptional beginnings, and the significant challenges she faced throughout her career, Glanville-Hicks became an important and respected figure in the American musical scene.
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ItemBush dance music in Tasmania: a recent social and cultural history of live music played for dancing( 2014)In Tasmania, Bush Dance is a strong tradition of community social dance featuring live music and a dance caller. Although clearly rooted in the musical heritage of the Celtic diaspora, in recent years many of these dances have increasingly incorporated tunes and dances unique to the island. This thesis examines the recent social and cultural history of Bush Dance Music in Tasmania. It describes the catalysts behind the current movement among Tasmanian musicians who perform tunes drawn from collected Tasmanian Heritage repertoire and expand the performance tradition with newly written tunes. This research is based upon ethnomusicological fieldwork conducted in Tasmania between November 2012 and March 2013. Case studies of the Tasmanian Heritage Fiddle Ensemble and the Primary School Dance Program illustrate how this tradition is intrinsically linked to concepts of Tasmanian identity. The makeup of a dance band and the unique nature of the Bush Dance Music community is explored through interviews with musicians, dancers and dance callers. This thesis also explores the research by local musicians and their recent small-scale publications of tunes and dances found in historical sources and rural communities throughout Tasmania that has prompted a new Heritage Music and Dance movement within the Bush Dance scene. This thesis fills a gap in the literature and advances the knowledge of Bush Dance Music in Tasmania.
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ItemMomentum: experiential development in music composition( 2014)Momentum is an experiential, cumulative music composition and blogging project, conducted throughout 2012. For 366 consecutive days I collected and recorded sonic material that comprised musical and non-musical field recordings, intentional and incidental found sounds, snippets of musical works, and improvisations. I then sculpted and layered the recordings utilising a digital audio workstation and an arsenal of audio editing tools. The outcome is a four hour-long sound-art work. I invited contributions to the project, and as a result more than 60 people from all over the world collaborated on Momentum, providing recordings to be included in the project. Momentum was conceived as an exercise in experimental and experiential composition. The project was created sequentially and chronologically, with new musical material being introduced and intermingling always with the existing material at the end of the work. I lived Momentum as I created it; it became a part of my everyday life and the project and my lived experiences influenced one another. The goal in conducting Momentum was to explore cumulative compositional processes via a method of self-imposed disciplined practice. This involved building, over one year, hundreds of micro compositions that were then disassembled and recomposed into one musical work in 12 movements, one for each month of the year. Each completed movement is 15-30 minutes in length. Via a blog and other online platforms my audience were able to engage with both the day-to-day processes and practices involved in the smaller pieces as well as the larger monthly movements as they were completed. Momentum investigates the results of a disciplined and habitual approach to art making; a non traditional and community oriented compositional method which is self-derivative, chronological and directly cumulative. Momentum was created within strict guidelines, via a process whereby each day’s work was partly derived from and informed by the previous day’s work, but where the majority of the creative material was unknown in advance. Momentum examines the role of audience in the creation of a body of work, through transparency of process and by opening this process up to feedback and collaboration. This exegesis is reflective of the process that I used to develop Momentum; the art and research framework grew and developed simultaneously. Momentum has since gone on to encompass a 30 minute album, created cumulatively over one month in Istanbul, a 4 day and night live performance event in the Melbourne Fringe Festival, and an ongoing, online community sound art collective. The work-in-progress was (and remains) accessible via several online sources, and the audio is free to listen to, download and re-purpose within the confines of a Creative Commons License. I continue to invite feedback, comments, audience participation and derivative works via the music site SoundCloud , my blog , email, Facebook , Twitter and other social networking media.
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ItemThe lives of Iranian women singers in diaspora( 2014)This project investigates how several Iranian women singers who migrated to Western countries after the 1979 Islamic Revolution conduct their musical lives in diaspora. After the Revolution, most forms of music were declared sinful, and the use of a woman’s voice for singing solo in public was banned. This thesis constructs biographies for seven Iranian women singers living in diaspora, primarily using interviews conducted by the researcher, and examines the role of Iranian culture and the experience of living in diaspora in shaping these women’s musical lives and works. It also provides background information about the changing status of women in Iranian music through history, as well the history and reasons of migration in Iran.
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ItemBeyond revolution: the journeys of Luigi Nono’s politically engaged music( 2014)The works of Italian composer Luigi Nono (1924-1990) present a special opportunity to examine the interactions between music and history. A committed communist, Nono explored political and social issues in works such as La victoire de Guernica (1954), Il canto sospeso (1955-56) and Intolleranza 1960 (1961). His musical materials were progressive, representing the cutting-edge of the 1950s European avant-garde. This seems to present a contradiction: how could one express political and social issues to a wide audience through such an arcane and elite musical language? After presenting an overview of Nono’s life and work and questioning previous approaches to the production and analysis of ‘engaged’ music, this thesis will present case studies investigating the three works above. La victoire and Il canto sospeso have had diverging political meanings since Nono’s death, and an analysis of the historical and musical aspects of each will be presented in an attempt to explain these trajectories. The musical language will be contrasted with the contemporary and post-premiere reception with close reference to primary sources. The opera Intolleranza 1960 has been revived on numerous occasions since its premiere in 1961, predominantly in German-speaking countries. This thesis argues that the work allows theatrical artists to create a form of ‘coming to terms with the past’ (Vergangenheitsbewältigung) that is sufficiently abstract as not to be overly confronting. The final chapters describe the transformation of the work from a hypertopical, engaged piece of political musical theatre into an abstract and timeless parable. It is argued that this transformation is the reason for the work’s enduring popularity, and is a direct result of its troubled and chaotic genesis.
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ItemYou light up my life: a phenomenological study of interpersonal relationships between music therapists and adults with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities( 2014)This research is an investigation of the lived experiences of music therapists who have established meaningful interpersonal relationships with adult clients with Profound Intellectual and Multiple Disabilities (PIMD). Although music therapists in clinical practice observe the benefits of music therapy for this group of clients, there has only been four research studies conducted since 1990 (Agrotou, 1998; Lee & McFerran, 2012; Oldfield & Adams, 1995; Wigram, 1997). This presents a need to conduct an empirical research study that examines and understands the non-verbal interactions and meaningful interpersonal relationships between music therapists and their adult clients who have PIMD. This qualitative study was informed by phenomenology whereby five pairs of music therapists-clients were invited to participate. Each music therapist was interviewed and asked to describe his/her experience of building the interpersonal relationship with the client. The study also included a video recording of a single music therapy session of each pair. In the last part of the interview, the music therapist watched the video footage with the researcher and identified a meaningful moment. To analyse the interviews, a descriptive phenomenological microanalysis method (McFerran & Grocke, 2007) was used. The results of the interview analysis then informed a subsequent analysis of video footage. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) (Smith, Flowers, & Larkin, 2009) was used for video analysis, which further resulted in the development of a new video microanalysis method, Interpretative Phenomenological Video Analysis (IPVA). The interview analysis resulted in five distilled essences of individual experiences and a final global essence. The process of establishing interpersonal relationships with an adult with PIMD was described as requiring mutual efforts over time with the context impacting on the quality of relationship. The music therapist’s role in improving psychosocial wellbeing of the client was thought to be significant. The video analysis resulted in five thick descriptions of meaningful moments. A further interpretive analysis was conducted to discover the implicit meanings of each moment to the music therapist, the client, and the pair as were seen and perceived by their music therapists. The classification of meaningful moments suggested by Amir (1992) were utilised for this process. The results indicate that three clients experienced moments of joy and ecstasy, and two clients experienced moments of completion and accomplishment. Three music therapists experienced moments of completion and accomplishment, and two music therapists experienced moments of surprise. On the interpersonal levels, three pairs experienced moments of physical closeness, and two pairs experienced moments of musical intimacy. The findings of the current study provide a fresh perspective about the processes of music therapy with adults with PIMD. The types of moments identified also provide insights into the meaningful moments that lead to psychosocial wellbeing in a long term. Moreover, the current study incorporates descriptions of contemporary practice, that challenge some of the assumptions associated with more conventional approaches to practice with adults with PIMD. Based on these findings, the future direction of music therapy with adults with PIMD is discussed. Improving work conditions of music therapists working in community settings is highlighted as important, and Community Music Therapy is proposed as one approach that might actualise the true meaning of social inclusion and meaningful participation in community for adults with PIMD.