Melbourne Conservatorium of Music - Theses

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    An ethnography of two folk clubs in Melbourne
    Booker, Corallina Beatrice ( 2016)
    This dissertation analyses two folk clubs in Melbourne: The Victorian Folk Music Club and the Newport Fiddle Folk Club (hereafter the VFMC and NFFC), with an ethnographic approach. The aim of this study is to shed light on the association between folk music and oral tradition challenged by the use of books at the VFMC, the strategies of inclusion and social interaction and the absence of young people which in turn raises the question of the sustainability of these communities. Australian folk clubs have evolved into a unique type of community far different from the British model. This study concludes by proposing two models of Australian folk clubs the VFMC ‘old’ model and the NFFC ‘different’ model.
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    Crossover musicians in the twenty first century
    Foon, Anthony ( 2016)
    This thesis looks at the promotion and awareness of working as a crossover musician in today's musical environment, as well as its benefits and disadvantages. Three professional crossover musicians were questioned to further explore the topic in relation to individuals, musical environments and instrument used. In summary, there is both distinct advantages and disadvantages to being a crossover musician presented in this thesis.
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    Analysing depictions of carnival in Robert Schumann's papillons, Op. 2
    Nguyen, Ann Anh-Thu ( 2016)
    This dissertation analyses how Robert Schumann’s piano collection, Papillons Op. 2, is influenced by aspects of the Carnival festival, including the masquerade ball. Through the use of descriptive analysis in combination with the utilisation of primary and secondary material, this research examines the various musical elements which conjure themes and ideas of Carnival, as well as programmatic associations with Jean Paul's novel, Flegeljahre. This paper addresses the previous absence of a full, detailed analysis of Papillons in the literature, provides a framework for the analysis of Schumann's other Carnival-related music, and finally, serves to aid performers and audiences in understanding the intentions of Schumann upon composing the work.
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    An investigation into the use of experimental music as a therapeutic tool for adults
    Hibberd, Sophie ( 2016)
    This thesis investigates if and how experimental music is being utilised as a therapeutic tool, in both clinical and non-clinical contexts. It also explores some of the motivations and perceived benefits of facilitators currently working in the field.
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    The avant-garde music of Les XX and La Libre Esthétique: social and aesthetic trends and their relation to Richard Wagner and the Gesamtkunstwerk
    Windleburn, Maurice Anthony ( 2016)
    An examination of the music performed as part of two late nineteenth-century art exhibitions in Brussels, entitled Les XX and La Libre Esthetique. This thesis discusses the relationship of the music performed at these exhibitions to the wider interest in Wagnerism among their organisers, comparisons between the music performed and the visual art presented, and the relationship of the exhibitions' multi-media approach to Wagner's ideas on the Gesamtkunstwerk.
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    Before Bach and Telemann: the style and structure of unaccompanied Austro-German works for violin in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries
    Spracklan-Holl, Hannah Frances Mary ( 2016)
    Johann Sebastian Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin (1720) and Georg Philip Telemann’s Fantasias for solo violin (1734) have long been regarded as primary examples of Austro-German unaccompanied violin literature. Bach’s works, in particular, are often viewed as the culmination of specific developments in Austro-German violin technique in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, as they displayed relatively newly acknowledged virtuosic capabilities of the violin, such as extensive polyphonic writing of unprecedented length. The profound impact of works for solo violin with basso continuo on these developments has been studied extensively, particularly with regard to the emergence of distinctly Austro-German characteristics. However, the significance of their late seventeenth-century unaccompanied counterparts has hitherto been largely underestimated and overlooked. This thesis critically examines several precedents to the works of Bach and Telemann, arguing that these were part of a wider paradigm shift with regard to Austro-German usage of the violin. Through the in depth examination of two works – Suites pour le Violon Seul sans Basse (1696) by Johann Paul von Westhoff (1656-1705) and Artificiosus Concentus pro Camera (1715) by Johann Joseph Vilsmayr (1663-1722) – this thesis demonstrates the ways in which unaccompanied Austro-German works for violin fit into the overarching Austro-German violin paradigm of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. In addition to these works, other Austro-German unaccompanied violin repertoire before Bach and Telemann is investigated. By examining characteristics of Westhoff and Vilsmayr's works and the broader Austro-German repertoire - including variation technique, polyphony, the stylus phantasticus and scordatura – this thesis aims to show that the Austro-German unaccompanied violin repertory is of a wider range than has previously been acknowledged, revealing new implications for our understanding of idiomatic writing for the violin, as well as aspects of performance practice.
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    Playing games with postmodernism: an investigation of Matthew Hindson's Nintendo Music (2005)
    Crowe, Jessica Leah ( 2016)
    Ludomusicology - broadly, the study of video game music - is a relatively young sub-discipline of musicological inquiry. It is yet to resolve fundamental questions of how to explore game music, how to draw from other disciplines, and how to successfully secure a place of its own within scholarly investigation. This thesis examines the extent to which Matthew Hindson accurately represents the aesthetics of 8-bit video game audio within Nintendo Music, his 2005 piece for clarinet and piano. It also investigates how the piece fits within Hindson’s postmodern compositional style: incorporating elements of pluralism, quotation and nostalgia, the breaking down of barriers between so-called high and low art, and ultimately how these “playful postmodernisms” return to the concerns of ludomusicology - revealing a distinct link between all with the concept of play.
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    The role of the music of J. S. Bach in the Australian Music Examinations Board during the tenure of William Laver as Ormond Professor, 1915-1925
    Hanna, Jennifer Lillian ( 2016)
    This thesis examines the Johann Sebastian Bach repertoire included in the Australian Music Examinations Board (AMEB hereafter) examinations from 1916 until 1926, during William Laver’s period as Ormond Professor of Music at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music (MCM) and Head of the AMEB. It analyses William Laver’s personal connection with the music of Bach, and how this influenced the Bach repertoire included in the AMEB examinations. To provide some context the thesis also examines the early history and the establishment of the AMEB, and performances of Bach by University of Melbourne students and staff in the Public Concerts during this period.
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    A question of style: Australian art song for low female voice, 1961–1979
    Nimmo, Vanessa Elizabeth ( 2016)
    This thesis is an investigation into the styles of Western art song for low female voice written in Australia between 1961 and 1979. Australian art song has received only scant discussion in the academic literature. This thesis begins the discussion at a time of experimentation and change in Australian music, when Australian composers first began to receive sustained institutional support for their work, and ends at a turning point in historical style: the establishment of postmodernism. Based on scores and recordings found in the Australian Music Centre database, I have gathered existing analytical data on each of the ninety-three songs from twenty-five composers chosen for the study. Style analysis is then applied to the songs and they are divided into style categories. These categories show a strong thread of Modernism, especially earlier in the period, and a development of tonal languages into Postmodernism by the end of the 1970s. Abundant musical examples are provided to support the category divisions. Many of these identified categories align with developments in art song internationally and with the styles of Australian instrumental music of the 1960s and 1970s. An examination of the relationship between the texts and the music further illuminates the composers’ stylistic choices. This thesis helps to lay the groundwork for further research into this largely unexplored area of Australian music history.
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    Marjorie Lawrence’s Australian and European troop tours, 1944-1946
    Lincoln-Hyde, Ellan A. ( 2016)
    In 1944 While the Australian Army battled Japanese troops in New Guinea and the Allied Nations continued the fight against Axis forces in Europe, a performance of German operatic works sung by Marjorie Lawrence was being cheered on at a remote army base in Australia’s Northern Territory. By 1946 Lawrence was singing the same German repertoire in Berlin to an audience of United States, Russian, French and British Generals accompanied by the Berlin Philharmonic. This dissertation aims to answer why an opera singer was chosen to entertain one of the biggest military audiences of World War II in Australia, why an Australian was chosen to sing at the highly diplomatic Berlin concert in 1946, why Lawrence was singing Wagner, Richard Strauss and other German composers’ works to Allied forces at all and on both occasions, why Lawrence sang the repertoire she did.