Melbourne Conservatorium of Music - Theses
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ItemPercy Grainger's promotion of early music to Australian audiences in 1934: a critical evaluation( 2003)This thesis examines the argument made by Roger Covell in his 1967 Australia's Music in which he stated that Grainger's promotion of unfamiliar music, including early music to the Australian audiences in his 1934 Australian tour had been ineffective. Covell's argument was that Australia, at that time, was a conservative musical society 'that had barely considered the possibility of merit in any music outside the standard European classics' (p. 99). This thesis argues that Grainger's promotion of early music had not been ineffective but had an impact on the Australian audiences. This conclusion is reached after examining the press reception of Grainger's inclusion of early music in his lecture-recitals and orchestral concerts.
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ItemStudies in the iconography of Franz Liszt( 2001)This iconographical study examines how Franz Liszt (1811-1886) was represented in visual art and proposes an explanatory framework for analysing these representations. The method of iconographical analysis focuses upon the art historian Michael Baxandall's concept of pictorial style. An essential aspect of this approach is an examination of the use of visual cues to read the iconography of Liszt. Nineteenth-century beliefs of pathognomy (bodily gesture and expression) and physiognomy (physical appearance) were found to have pervaded the iconography. These concepts are then applied to the different genres and media of Lisztian iconography, including the "high art" of oil portraiture, and popular prints such as lithography, photography and caricature. Depictions of Liszt at the piano are analysed separately in an attempt to relate the iconographical study to performance practice. The study found that Liszt was represented differently according to the particular media and genre of the representations, and that there was no unified manifestation of his image. No one model of visual representation has been found, explaining why a single canonical image of Liszt has not endured. There are, however, recurring visual motifs in much of his iconography. Two prominent but contradictory themes within Lisztian portraiture are the representation of Liszt as a Romantic genius, separate from society, and the depictions alluding to the artist as hero, esteemed within society. These differing visual themes reflect Liszt's own uncertainty regarding his emerging role and growing status as a musician. Liszt's association with many leading artists of his time facilitated the cultivation of images that suited his ambitions as a leading Romantic figure. A specifically visual theme present in many portraits is that of allusiveness; namely an element of evasiveness in Liszt's gaze as seen by the viewer, relating to the concept of the Romantic artist as an isolated genius. A suitably interpreted iconography of Liszt at the keyboard supports a reassessment of his role in the development of nineteenth-century pianism. A large number of depictions were considered unreliable as indicators of Liszt's piano playing, but each medium has its own strengths and weaknesses in terms of historical veracity as a performance practice document; photography, specifically, offers topographical exactness while not being a reliable indicator of posture and gesture. This contrasts with caricatures of Liszt, which were found to indicate reliably his gestures at the piano. These findings are validated through various written records of Liszt throughout his lifetime. It is argued throughout the study that the most appropriate method of analysis of Lisztian iconography is through a recognition and classification of nineteenth-century visual practice.
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ItemAlice Ellen Charbonnet: a French musician in nineteenth-century Australia( 2006)Alice Ellen Charbonnet (1860-1914) was one of the key French émigré artists of late nineteenth-century Australia. She was highly respected and sought after as a performer, teacher and composer. As little is known about her life and achievements, this thesis firstly provides an extended biographical outline of her life. It also studies the musical, social and cultural context of late nineteenth-century Australia with a focus on the French influence and presence. Charbonnet's role as a virtuoso performer is evaluated through her concert performances and reception. Her wide and varied solo piano and chamber music repertoire provides evidence of her outstanding technique. The programming of her concert series, recitals as well as her contributions at numerous charitable functions provides insight into the musical taste of nineteenth-century Australia. An investigation of her compositions sheds light on her writing style as well as the domestic consumption of music-making prevalent at the time. Charbonnet's contribution to music pedagogy is assessed through a close look at her French-inspired Conservatoire de Musique as well her Australian Musical Association examination board. The appendices include the complete programmes of her Sydney and Melbourne concert series in 1878-1881 and a comprehensive listing of her compositions. Charbonnet is arguably one of the foremost women musicians in late nineteenth-century Australia. Through an assessment of her life and accomplishments, this thesis recognises her important influence on Australian musical life.
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ItemFritz Bennicke Hart: an introduction to his life and music( 1993)This thesis presents a broad study of the life, times and creative output of the English born Australian composer Fritz Bennicke Hart (1874-1949) concentrating on the formative period of Australian cultural history in which he lived and contributed. It examines and evaluates Hart's particular personal achievements, relationships with his contemporaries, and his work for various Melbourne and Hawaiian musical institutions. It argues that the creative output of Hart, particularly that associated with the Celtic revival, reveals much about contemporary perceptions of Australian identity and culture. The thesis includes an introductory contextual examination of Hart's music. A comprehensive cross-referenced catalogue of all known manuscript sources of Hart's music, including a detailed description of the manuscript sources of his operas, is included as an Appendix.
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ItemThe dodo was really a phoenix: the renaissance and revival of the recorder in England 1879-1941( 2005)This study provides a critical analysis of the modern renaissance and popularization of the recorder in England, examining the phenomena and placing them within their broader musical and cultural contexts. It explores the roles of the principal protagonists and institutions, arguing that a confluence of different agendas—musical, educational and social—within an environment of changing conditions, was crucial to the successful revival of an instrument, which in Victorian England had no living tradition at all. There was a clear relationship between the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century scholarship on the recorder and the desire to learn more about England’s ‘golden age’ of music during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Even before the 1870s, scholars represented the recorder as an obsolete instrument. By the 1890s and particularly from 1900, there were a few people playing the instrument in public, most notably Canon Galpin and Arnold Dolmetsch. Unquestionably, Dolmetsch’s work with the recorder between 1900 and the late 1920s was crucial to the subsequent mass revival. Changes in educational ideas and doctrine between the World Wars led to children’s music classes including active instrumental music making, in part to stimulate a sense of cultural identity. From 1926 the bamboo pipe gradually became the melodic instrument most commonly used in English schools, until Edgar Hunt, inspired by Arnold Dolmetsch’s Haslemere concerts, conceived of a popular recorder revival. Hunt began to import inexpensive German recorders, and to research and publish pre-Classical recorder music. From 1935 the recorder began to usurp the place of the bamboo pipe in English elementary schools. Concurrently, musical and educational authorities were encouraging domestic music making, for social and musically nationalistic reasons, often linking it with Elizabethan music making. The idea that a strong musical knowledge across all demographics could enable the nation to become ‘a land with music’ once more was invoked in many of the activities undertaken between the Wars. The work of The Society of Recorder Players, established in 1937, was significant and had long-term consequences for the success of the popular revival, as well as for the relative status of the recorder. At the same time, classes established by Edgar Hunt at Trinity College of Music as well as new compositions for the recorder helped to legitimize the instrument. This thesis addresses a number of gaps in previous research, by exploring thoroughly the history of the recorder in England between 1879 and 1941, utilizing extensive primary source materials—many hitherto overlooked—; by examining linkages between the recorder’s increasing usage and the various strands of the English musical renaissance; and by determining why the recorder was so highly popular when other instruments—notably the bamboo pipe—appeared to have similar attributes.
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ItemMusical composition in Australia in the period 1960-1970: individual triumph or historical inevitability?( 2000)An examination of oral records casts a fresh and first-hand light on the sudden flowering of Australian musical composition in the 1960-70 decade. Accepted accounts concerning the musical activity of this time are few and the composers who were involved in the new music world are cited rarely. Building on the views and perceptions of Roger Covell, James Murdoch, Frank Callaway, David Tunley and Andrew McCredie, the impressions concerning this period from eight composers - those from the pre•-1960 generation and those who came to prominence in the designated decade - are investigated, with a view to determining what caused the abrupt adoption of contemporary compositional practice fro1n 1960 onwards; whether the surge in activity and the adoption of a new vocabulary resulted chiefly from individual efforts, or from the influence of individuals (administrators, bureaucrats, entrepreneurs), or through the pioneering work of certain organisations (International Society for Contemporary Music), or as the result of an inevitable if delayed historical process. The investigation begins with a survey of the relevant available material still extant on this period, which serves the purpose as a support or contrast with the core of the thesis. This is the gleaning from interviews conducted by the writer or tapes made by the Australian Broadcasting Commission and other bodies of what the decade 1960-1970 meant to the composers themselves, the intention being to come to a clearer understanding of the significance of the years in question.
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ItemA critical study of the life and works of E. J. Moeran( 1982)Ernest John Moeran (1894-1950) was the last prominent British folk song collector/composer in the short-lived British ‘Romantic-Nationalist’ tradition. Like his older contemporaries Vaughan Williams and Bax, Moeran was highly susceptible to the influence of his environment. In Moeran’s case, the topography of East Norfolk and County Kerry, as well as the folk songs of both regions, were important influences on his music. Moeran emerges as a warm, unsophisticated personality with the ability to make friends easily. However, he was also prone to periods of deep depression, poor health and impulsive heavy drinking. His lifestyle could be described as wayward and unsettled. Musically, Moeran was a comparatively late developer. His musicfirst came to the attention of the music public during the years 1923-1925. This early reputation was built largely on his songs, piano pieces, chamber works and short orchestral rhapsodies. Later, during the 1930's, he focused his attention on the composition of large scale orchestral works, beginning with the Symphony in G minor. By the time Moeran was 50, he was considered to be amongst the most significant British composers of his period. Rather than being an original innovative composer, it would seem in retrospect that Moeran assimilated many of the idioms of his time into his own personal style. For example, Moeran's stylistic characteristics include modal melodies and harmonies, added-note chords, semitonal voice-leading, complex chromaticism, chords built on superimposed fourths, frequent use of ostinatos, cross relations, parallel harmonic progressions and bitonal chords and passages. His most substantial works, especiallythe Symphony in G minor, the Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, the Sinfonietta and some of his chamber music and songs, are notable for their attractive, expressive themes and rich harmonic language. Compared with his better known contemporaries, Moeran emerges as a composer of secondary but, nevertheless, considerable importance. This thesis attempts to :(a) record Moeran's biography in as much detail as possible;(b) examine all of the composer's extant music, including some unpublished pieces.The appendices include a critical edition of over 300 Moeran letters, a Catalogue raisonne, and a section on manuscript sources.
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ItemComposing biographies of four Australian women: feminism, motherhood and music( 2009)This thesis examines the impact of gender, feminism and motherhood on the careers of four Australian composers: Margaret Sutherland (1897–1984), Ann Carr-Boyd (b. 1938), Elena Kats-Chernin (b. 1957) and Katy Abbott (b. 1971). Aspects of the biographies of each of these women are explored, and I situate their narratives within the cultural and musical contexts of their eras, in order to achieve heightened understanding of the ideologies and external influences that have contributed to their choices and experiences. Methodologies derived from feminist biography and oral history/ethnography underpin this study. Theorists who inform this work include Marcia Citron, Daphne de Marneffe, Sherna Gluck, Carolyn Heilbrun, Anne Manne, Ann Oakley, Alessandro Portelli, Adrienne Rich and Robert Stake, along with many others. The demands traditionally placed on women through motherhood and domesticity have led to a lack of time and creative space being available to develop their careers. Thus they have faced significant challenges in gaining public recognition as serious composers. There is a need for biographical analysis of these women’s lives, in order to consider their experiences and the encumbrances they have faced through attempting to combine their creative and mothering roles. Previous scholarship has concentrated more on their compositions than on the women who created them, and the impact of private lives on public lives has not been considered worthy of consideration. Three broad themes are investigated. First, the ways in which each composer’s family background, upbringing and education have impacted on their decision to enter the traditionally male field of composition are explored. The positive influence from family and other mentors, and opportunities for a sound musical education, are factors particularly necessary for aspiring female composers. I argue that all four women have benefited from upbringings in families where education and artistic endeavour have been valued highly. The second theme concerns the extent to which the feminist movement has influenced the women’s lives as composers and mothers, and the levels of frustration, and/or satisfaction or pleasure each has felt in blending motherhood with composition. I contend that all four composers have led feminist lives in the sense that they have exercised agency and a sense of entitlement in choices regarding their domestic and work lives. The three living composers have reaped the benefits of second-wave feminism, but have eschewed complete engagement with its agenda, especially its repudiation of motherhood. They can more readily be identified with the currently evolving third wave of feminism, which advocates women’s freedom to choose how to balance the equally-valued roles of motherhood and the public world of work. I assert that Sutherland was a third-wave prototype, a position that was atypical of her era. The third and final theme comprises an investigation of the ways in which historical and enduring negative attitudes towards women as musical creators have played out in the musical careers in these composers. It is contested that Sutherland experienced greater challenges than her successors in the areas of dissemination, composition for larger forces, and critical reception, but appears to have been more comfortable in promoting her work. The exploration of their careers demonstrates that all four of these creative mothers are well-respected and recognised composers. They are ‘third-wave’ women who have considerably enriched Australia’s musical landscape.