Melbourne Conservatorium of Music - Theses
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ItemKeeping Score: Understanding the Complexities of Metadata in Australian Music Collections( 2023)There is an ongoing global conversation focused on improving access to music held in collections. This conversation centres on adequate metadata description, discoverability of material, and interoperability among collections. It also includes a focus on Universal Bibliographic Control, a process in which a sole record for a resource is used by all institutions around the world that hold that resource in their collections. Additionally, there is debate around the feasibility of a universal standard that could be used to record all necessary metadata of a piece of music material. Such an approach is taken to make collections more accessible and interoperable. This dissertation considers the unique combinations of standards and practices that Australian institutions employ to manage the metadata of their music collections, a topic which has, to date, been largely neglected. For this study, staff from five collecting institutions were interviewed. Staff were asked which standards they use to manage the metadata of their music collections, their experience working with those standards, and the communities their collections serve. They were also asked questions around their collections’ discoverability and interoperability. The findings show that each institution drew from a unique variety of standards, thesauri and other resources to describe the music material held in their collection. They show that each institution’s choice of standards is informed by their operational priorities, encompassing the interests and needs of their collections’ users. Standards and practices are also informed by the music material their collections hold, including material that is distinctive to Australia, such as that pertaining to First Nations Australians. These findings hold significance for future consideration of how to improve access to music held in collections. Specifically, consideration of standards and practices used in Australia, and how these have been developed in response to particular user communities and material, is significant in any efforts towards universal bibliographic control or future standards.
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ItemMusic composition: the expression of potential musical experience through notation and performer collaboration( 2023-03)folio of original compositions for solo instruments and ensembles. The accompanying dissertation explores notational innovation, process versus intuition, and close composer-performer collaboration. The project offers new insights on the embedding, both overt and covert, of traumatic personal experience and difficult subject matter in musical composition.
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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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ItemPractices in contemporary flamenco guitar: a creative journey( 2023-05)This PhD investigates creative practices in contemporary flamenco guitar performance. The PhD comprises two parts: a performance portfolio (70%) and a dissertation (30%). The performance portfolio includes 190 minutes of live and studio recordings, comprised of original works, and arrangements of solo and group pieces. The dissertation draws on my own journey into the artistic field of flamenco, and it reflects on creative practices involved in the formation of my contemporary flamenco guitar style. This PhD argues that creativity and forming one’s own style are the key aspirations of gaining access to the artistic field of flamenco, an art form that is widely considered as both traditional and forward learning. This study outlines my process of style formation on the flamenco guitar - one that is steeped in the aural tradition - by focusing on practices of emulation, and the distillation of various structures within flamenco. Engagement with the aesthetic codes and practices of flamenco voice and dance are integral to this process, as is the transcription of recordings. These processes underscore my generation of new flamenco music on the guitar.
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ItemNo Preview AvailablePrepared Strings and Interwoven Scales: Exploring New Materials for Timbre and Pitch in Music Composition( 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.
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ItemNo Preview AvailableLiminaire: Performance Contexts and Cultural Dynamics of the Saxophone in Australia, 1853–1938( 2023-06)This project explores the largely untold first eighty-five years of the saxophone in Australia. For a unique Australian context it examines, and ultimately challenges, the long- and widely-held view that the instrument was solely a product and expression of popular or ‘lowbrow’ musical culture; instead, it argues that the saxophone’s character in Australia between 1853 and 1938 was enduringly cosmopolitan, stylistically diverse across the cultural strata, and a mirror to evolving notions of Australian identity. A five-chapter dissertation, weighted at 80%, details the saxophone’s Australian efflorescence in a variety of performance contexts from the goldrush to the cusp of the Second World War. A number of landmark performers and performances are established, including the headline discovery that the instrument debuted in Australia before being first heard in the United States. Drawing on categories established by John Whiteoak, this study incorporates ‘approved’ musical settings that were seen to reinforce social cohesion, such as the concert stage and the bandstand, and ‘anonymous’ settings, including the commercially-oriented domains of minstrelsy, vaudeville, and jazz. Notions of liminality are employed to explain and contextualise the saxophone’s marginal, and yet still remarkably potent, place in musical and wider cultural and social life over this time. This argument is built on research into a wide range of primary sources, including historical newspaper and journal articles, sheet music, sound recordings, silent and sound film, and interviews with notable Australian musicians. An accompanying audio-visual folio, weighted at 20%, features 33 minutes of new recordings for saxophone ensemble, saxophone and piano, and concert band in march and art music transcription forms.
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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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ItemAn exploration of people with dementia and their family care partners’ experiences of shared home-based music( 2023-06)This dissertation describes an emergent project exploring how people living with dementia and their family care partners experience shared musical activities. With an increasing number of people with dementia residing in the community, family members play a key role in providing support for daily living as family care partners. There is, therefore, a recognised need to support the wellbeing of both people living with dementia and their family care partners. Music interventions uniquely support mood, memory and communication for people with dementia. However, little is known about how sharing music might support people with dementia and their family care partners as dyads. This thesis sought to address this gap through two qualitative studies: a thematic synthesis of the literature and a hermeneutic phenomenological study. This research was situated within a larger study examining a 12-week home-based music intervention (HOMESIDE), where I played dual roles as a researcher and music therapist. The thematic synthesis was conducted first to inform later stages of the research. My thematic synthesis explored how dyads experience shared musical activities across a range of contexts, including community settings, residential aged care, and the home. An analysis of 13 qualitative studies found that shared musical activities supported the individual and collective wellbeing of dyads through fostering connection. The findings informed the development of the Contextual Connection Model of Health Musicking for People Living with Dementia and Their Family Care Partners. This model captured the relationship between dyads’ contexts, their experiences of sharing music, and their wellbeing. In my second study, I conducted a hermeneutic phenomenological exploration of the shared musical experiences of six dyads participating in HOMESIDE. I recruited dyads I had worked with as a music therapist to utilise the rapport we had developed. Data was collected through music-based interviews to capture dyads’ musical and non-verbal experiences in the moment. Additional data was collected from the HOMESIDE study including dyads’ intervention diaries and semi-structured interviews. To explore and build on the Contextual Connection Model, this data was analysed using an abductive and relational-centred approach to hermeneutic phenomenological analysis. Through this analysis, I developed fifteen themes to capture dyads’ experiences of shared home-based musicking. These fifteen themes were organised into three global themes: 1) Experiences were shaped by complex influences; 2) A connected musical ecosystem; and 3) Music was a resource for wellbeing. These findings added depth, nuance and novelty to the Contextual Connection Model, leading to the development of the Revised Contextual Connection Model of Musicking for People Living with Dementia and Their Family Care Partners. This revised model conceptualises dyads’ experiences of musicking as cyclical and ecological, with nuanced outcomes including supported wellbeing, changed relationships to music, and challenging experiences. This study also provided insights into dyads’ process of learning to use music as a resource. This thesis provides theoretical and practical insights into dyads’ experiences of sharing music in the home and broader contexts. My research highlights the complexity of dyads’ shared musical experiences, and the central role of connection through musicking in supporting their wellbeing. It also locates the unique role of music therapy within the evolving landscape of music in dementia care. These understandings may support future development and refinement of therapeutic music interventions for dyads.
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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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ItemNotes on Speculative Ethnography in Sound: two case studies( 2023)Speculation has long been part of humankind’s creative repertoire. This dissertation examines sonic speculation, focussing on two case studies whose content sits in dialogue with critical ideas from anthropology. In the 1980s, writer Ursula K. Le Guin and composer Todd Barton collaborated on an album of Music and Poetry of the Kesh to accompany Le Guin’s quasi-ethnographic ‘novel’ Always Coming Home (1985). This collection of thirteen tracks was presented to the audience as literal field-recordings of performances by a hypothetical future society. More recently, Berlin-based sound artist Andrew Pekler released Tristes Tropiques (2016), after the classic fieldwork-memoir of Claude Lévi-Strauss. It responds to the anthropologist’s meditations on cultural loss in Amazonia whilst also critically reflecting on the artist’s own listening tastes. The records diverge in form, function, and (unsurprisingly) technical sophistication. But, as this paper will show, they have key similarities, placing them both within the category of ‘speculative ethnography in sound’. Materially, speculative ethnography in sound is an approach that manipulates and combines synthesised and real-world sounds in often-uncanny ways. Conceptually, it applies a critical attitude towards social and economic relations in the contemporary world to destabilise static, dichotomies like Humanity and Nature, or Self and Other. In the absence of literature dedicated to this topic, the discussion draws on a wide swathe of relevant literature: anti-colonial criticism (including Marxist and indigenous perspectives), ecocriticism, and the ‘reflexive turn’ anthropological theory of the 1970s and 1980s. The dissertation considers the political role of speculative creativity, and proposes areas for further research.