Melbourne Conservatorium of Music - Theses

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Start date: 1957 × Type: PhD thesis × Author: Ball, Eugene Clinton ×

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    Prepared Strings and Interwoven Scales: Exploring New Materials for Timbre and Pitch in Music Composition
    Ball, Eugene Clinton ( 2023-05)
    In musical contexts the term ‘prepared’ refers to the addition of non-musical objects to musical instruments to alter their timbral characteristics. This practice was famously employed by composer John Cage, most notably in his works for prepared piano. In my work as an improvising trumpeter, I have explored techniques by which the trumpet can, in the Cagian sense, be prepared. In doing so, I observed that the sounds that resulted from preparing the trumpet seemed to ‘lead’ the improvisation, suggesting novel pathways and tangents. More recently, I began to wonder how preparations might be employed in orchestral contexts and how the new timbres available to prepared orchestral instruments could influence my composition process. This practice-centred research is born of this wondering: it explores the development of a set of techniques of preparation for orchestral string instruments and considers their implementation and influence in the compositional process. Additionally, this project involved the unexpected discovery and refinement of a pattern of pitch organization that emerged through the compositional activity on which this research is based. As such, the output of this research consists of two new sets of materials for music composition: a collection of techniques by which instruments of the orchestral string family can be prepared; and a catalogue of what I term, ‘interwoven bi-scales of expanding interval’. These materials form the basis of a sixty-minute folio of compositions for string ensembles that demonstrates the creative possibilities of the materials. This dissertation provides a critical commentary on the development of these sets of materials and the compositions that comprise the folio. A contextual framework for the research is established, founded on the principles of emergence, divergence, reflexivity, and chaos. The practice of preparing instruments for composition is then explored from an historic point of view and an artistic audit presents an overview of extant compositions for ensembles of prepared strings. Following this, the origins and development of each set of materials (the techniques of preparation, and the interwoven bi-scales of expanding interval) are outlined, and analyses of a representative sample of pieces from the folio are presented. The dissertation concludes with a discussion of the successes and challenges of the project, and recommendations for further research.