Melbourne Conservatorium of Music - Theses

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    Seeking the “dirty-beautiful”: An investigation into a compositional practice informed by shadows, impermanence and ambiguity
    Cheney, Lisa Jessie ( 2022-12)
    This creative-based research comprises a folio of original compositions, totalling two hours of music, and a written exegesis of 25,000 words. The portfolio explores the developing influence of a “dirty-beautiful” aesthetic, reflecting both a poetic worldview and preferences that shape a compositional language and sound world. Parallels are drawn with the Japanese aesthetic of wabi-sabi and seeking beauty in the unusual, perishable, blurred or dimly lit shadow. A preference for creating dualities in order to dissolve them to reach a space in-between is established, particularly through an exploration of themes of lightness and darkness. Choices concerning register, timbre, activity and stasis, harmony and texture are situated on a continuum, building the foundations of this personal compositional style. The folio of compositions includes orchestral works, a flute concerto and four chamber works, plus a staged musical work for young audiences. A framework for reading music for wabi-sabi qualities is established and underpins the conceptually based qualities for writing music that I term “dirty-beautiful”. These qualities are paralleled most clearly in the music of Kaija Saariaho and Toru Takemitsu. Notions on how vulnerability might inform musical ideas and composition are also explored through both textural, sonic forms and personal experience relating to identity, gender and the notion of giving voice through in-depth analysis of many folio works. The accompanying folio of music compositions was composed between late 2014 and early 2019. It presents Arcane for symphony orchestra (2014-15); No Distant Place for piano, clarinet and violin (2015); Everything is Illuminated for violin, viola, cello, double bass, piano, percussion and harp (2016 rev. 2018); When We Speak for solo cello and fixed electroacoustic track (2016 rev. 2017-18); Strange Charisma for solo prepared harp (2019 rev. 2021); Flute Concerto (2017); excerpts from The Owl and the Pussycat, an opera for young audiences (2017–18) and Penumbral Shadow for chamber orchestra (2018–19). I arrive at a point where I am able to question and evaluate what writing music means to me as a composer.
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    The Mutability of Bach: New Arrangements of J.S. Bach’s Accompanied Violin Music for the Saxophone
    Kenealy, Justin Maurice ( 2022-12)
    Since the invention of the saxophone in the 1840s, the practice of arrangement has played a pivotal role in developing and enriching the instrument’s repertoire. This project explores the repertoire of the concert saxophone, with a special focus on the use of new and existing arrangements of works by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 – 1750). Repertoire included in the project follows a tradition of saxophonists of the last century combining original works with arrangements of works for other instruments to add musical variety to their programs and recordings. This performance-based thesis consists of a performance folio of 210 minutes, comprising 75% of the overall project, and a written dissertation of 25,000 words (25%). The folio includes a combination of live and studio recordings presented as three distinct programs: a survey of original saxophone repertoire, existing arrangements of Bach for the saxophone, and the new editions of the five selected works. This practice-led thesis expands the repertory by creating new arrangements of five accompanied violin works by J.S. Bach: Concerto in A minor BWV 1041, Concerto in E major BWV 1042, Sonata in G major BWV 1021, Sonata in E minor BWV 1023, and Fugue in G minor BWV 1026. The process behind the development of these new Bach arrangements for the saxophone is explored in the dissertation, informed by a study of Bach’s own practice as an arranger. Complementary analysis of arrangement techniques utilised by saxophonists and other wind players since the middle of the twentieth century provides further context for the creation of new arrangements. Through this analysis, a set of general arrangement principles are established and employed to resolve areas of significant conflict between the technical capabilities of the violin and the soprano saxophone. Issues of tessitura, multiple stopping, and phrasing and breathing are addressed to ensure the new editions are idiomatic for the saxophone. The complete, notated arrangements are included as appendices to the dissertation.
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    Breath of Metamorphosis: Improvisation and Interdisciplinary Performance in Contemporary Recorder Playing
    Williams, Ryan Christopher ( 2022-12)
    This thesis is an exploration of the recorder in a contemporary music practice. My practice focuses on improvisation, especially free improvisation, interdisciplinary performance, and the performance of notated works. By undertaking both collaborative and solo projects, I have investigated the use of the recorder within my contemporary music practice and traced the different ways in which I employ improvisation. This performance-based thesis consists of a portfolio of recordings (75%) and a written dissertation (25%). The design of my research is primarily based on Robin Nelson’s Practice as Research methodology and the principal aim is to investigate my use of the recorder and improvisation across my practice in contemporary music. The recorded portfolio, consisting of both audio and video recordings, showcases a diverse range of collaborative, creative, and improvisation led performances that explore key elements of my research enquiry. The recorded portfolio is divided into three main categories. Category 1 consists of recorded works that were created with a focus on using sound with other artforms in an interdisciplinary way, while category 2 demonstrates my work within free improvisation on two collaborative recordings and one solo recording. Notated works that were commissioned from Australian composers, and the performance and preparation of these pieces are the focus of category 3. Improvisation plays a critical role in all the music presented via the creative process, select notated scores, and the recorded performances. The recorded portfolio is supported by a written dissertation which provides context and critical reflections on the creative material. The written dissertation provides an introduction to the recorder in improvisation and discusses my free improvised practice with an emphasis on extended techniques. I investigate newly commissioned notated works for the recorder and reveal links between improvisation and composition in the collaborative process. Approaches to interdisciplinary practices are also discussed through case studies focusing on sound, movement, and spoken-word. Appendices of supporting material, which include a discography of free improvised recordings with the recorder and select audio samples that demonstrate my use of key extended techniques, complement the dissertation. Through a combination of recordings, research, and critical reflection, this integrated project offers a unique and broad ranging investigation into a rich and multi-faceted contemporary music practice with the recorder.
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    Rubato in Scriabin’s 24 Preludes Op. 11: The Score and Piano Roll Recordings
    Xi, Joy Huan ( 2022)
    The Twenty-Four Preludes Op. 11 of Alexander Scriabin, written over a period of eight years between 1888 and 1896, are a quintessential representation of the composer’s first period of composition. This collection of pieces presents to modern day pianists the challenge of conceiving an interpretation representative of the freer performing culture of Scriabin’s time. In performing the Twenty-Four Preludes Op. 11, performers of the work should give recognition to the score as a communicator of the composer’s rubato style. Within the current literature, studies have thoroughly documented Scriabin’s performing style, focusing particularly on his unique approach to rubato through the analysis of his recordings; however, research has largely ignored the role of the composer’s score markings and indications as directions for rubato. This study aims to explore Scriabin’s use of score directions to convey rubato through a concurrent investigation of his recordings of Preludes Nos. 1, 2, 13 and 14 and the written music. Findings evidence a correlation between Scriabin’s performance of rubato and the different markings and indications in the score, which, aside from his tempo directions, are not necessarily associated with tempo modification. The results of this study provide a framework that performers may use to inform their interpretation of the Twenty-Four Preludes Op. 11, as well as other Scriabin works. This thesis serves as part of a component worth 25% in compliment to larger performance exam worth 75%.
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    Latvian Classical Violin Music in Transition, 1980-2000
    Kirsanova, Sofija ( 2022)
    This research explores classical music in Latvia during the period of the Baltic Revolution, the collapse of the Soviet Union and the post-Soviet transition. Culture played a major role in this time. As Latvia became independent, it also sought a new, individual voice in music. This research explores the impact of the economic and politic changes on Latvian classical music with a focus on violin through interviews with musicians, newspapers and violin music as a medium reflecting this exciting time in Latvia's history. The thesis comprises 25% of the total submission for the PhD in Music (Performance) and complements the creative portfolio of recordings.
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    Folio of Compositions
    Barry, Danielle Elizabeth ( 2022)
    Drawing inspiration from the constant, internal movement of the human body, to the hum of cityscapes and stillness of the natural world, this portfolio seeks to provide the listener with a range of unique experiences which encourage them to hear everyday sounds in new ways. The resulting portfolio encompasses works for orchestra, chamber ensemble, and electronics. It takes inspiration from the author's experience as a medical doctor, with stethoscope recordings providing a window into the human body, while binaural recordings of the lived environment provide an immersive and meditative listening experience. It seeks to build upon the foundations set by the pioneers of Musique concrete and challenge conventional notions of music and sound.
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    The 24 Monographs of Frederick Septimus Kelly
    Hazelbank, Alexander Carl ( 2022)
    This thesis presents an analysis of Frederick Septimus Kelly’s 24 Monographs for piano in light of the composer’s private writings. Through a comparative analysis between the Monographs and other piano works, connections are drawn between Kelly and the composers who impacted him. These connections are illuminated by Kelly’s diaries, which are held at the National Library of Australia. In the past, these have revealed much about the composer’s life for biographers, but this analysis has sought from them a better understanding of Kelly’s music. Among its findings are clues to the meaning of the title ‘Monograph’, a regimented harmonic ordering of the 24 pieces and a strong connection to the piano writing of Johannes Brahms.
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    Folio of works exploring a genre spectrum that spans contemporary classical music to popular songwriting
    Vincent, Adrian Lachlan ( 2022)
    This thesis is a 99-minute folio of nine original chamber, orchestral and popular contemporary works and an accompanying dissertation. The folio explores a genre-spectrum that spans contemporary classical music to popular songwriting, with a large, genre-hybrid song cycle for orchestra, voice and electronics as the centrepiece. Volume I comprises scores and audio of the works. Volume II is a dissertation of 24,000 words that illuminates the folio works, using score excerpts, sketches, drafts, graphs, screen-shots of notation software and audio examples to provide depth to the analysis. The following research questions are addressed: What is the impact of different software programs (or use of none) on my composition process and resultant outcomes? How can I use and include techniques from both classical and popular music styles to write unique and cohesive new music? What are some recurrent elements of my compositional voice across different genres, and are these elements conscious or unconscious? How can I best repurpose sketched material across genres as a novel means of material generation?
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    The Reception of Dmitri Shostakovich in France, 1934–2000
    Roycroft, Madeline Beth ( 2022)
    In 1989, the French record company Le Chant du Monde sponsored a year-long festival dedicated to the music of the Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich (1906–1975). Coinciding with the bicentennial of the French revolution and the restructuring of the Soviet Union, this ‘Annee Chostakovitch’ included the French premiere of the opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District (1932), French releases of earlier Soviet recordings of Shostakovich’s music, and a revival of the composer’s fifteen symphonies. The festival came more than fifty years after Shostakovich’s music was first heard in France: when his popular song ‘Au-devant de la vie’ became the anthem of the Front populaire movement in 1930s Paris, and his Fifth Symphony was promoted by French Communists in Paris in June 1938. This thesis maps the trajectory of Shostakovich’s music in France from late 1934—the year in which his music first gained notoriety in Paris—to the end of the twentieth century. Using ideas from reception theory, it interrogates a wide cross-section of press and other print sources from Paris and the French provinces containing critical discussions of Shostakovich’s fifteen symphonies, his opera Lady Macbeth, and his song ‘Au-devant de la vie.’ In addition to expanding the literature on musical life in France, this thesis complements existing studies of Shostakovich reception in the United States of America, Britain, and Germany. The thesis is structured chronologically in five chapters, preceded by an Introduction and followed by a short Conclusion. It situates critical responses to Shostakovich’s music within France’s evolving political landscape, and suggests that these responses were shaped largely by France’s shifting relations with the Soviet Union, the rising and falling influence of the French Communist Party, as well as trends and preferences in French musical life. I also conclude that writing about Shostakovich’s music throughout the twentieth century served as a means for French critics to articulate their ideas, opinions, and concerns about the USSR.
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    An Analysis of Gideon Klein’s Music: Renewing Perspectives on a ‘Holocaust Composer’
    Healey, Joshua David ( 2022)
    Gideon Klein (1919-1945) was a Czech-Jewish pianist and composer born in Prerov. He later moved to Prague to pursue his high school and tertiary musical education until the invasion and annexation of Czechoslovakia, and establishment of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia by Nazi Germany. His education was halted, mere months into his tertiary studies, and his performance career was curtailed to private performances, until he was deported to Theresienstadt on 4 December 1941, where he was interned and later moved to Furstengrube and murdered in late-January 1945. Musicologists and students have tended to focus on the final period of Klein’s life, often dismissing the works prior to his internment. Investigations often analyse specific works, interrogating them in isolation. My research takes a broader stance on Klein and his works, investigating his entire corpus demonstrating that his compositional development was continuous throughout his life. Klein’s identity has been reconstructed by scholars within a ‘resistance’ narrative. I seek to renew perspectives on Klein by offering new interpretations of compositional choices. I reveal previously overlooked continuities across Klein’s oeuvre and present him as a composer consistently interested in pursuing modernist techniques across his tragically short life.