Melbourne Conservatorium of Music - Theses
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ItemThe Brazilian seven-string guitar: traditions, techniques and innovations( 2013)Since the early 1980s a new and unique repertoire has emerged for the seven-string guitar, known in Portuguese as the violão de sete-cordas, a Brazilian instrument typically played in choro ensembles. This thesis demonstrates, through musical analysis, that this new repertoire is a result of two converging musical influences, both the Brazilian six-string guitar repertoire and the traditional accompaniment role of the seven-string guitar in choro ensembles. Choro is a genre of Brazilian instrumental music that developed in Rio de Janeiro during the late nineteenth century and continues to be played throughout Brazil, as well as gaining popularity in other parts of the world. The Brazilian seven-string guitar emerged in Rio de Janeiro at the beginning of the twentieth-century; photographic evidence and recordings confirm that it was included in choro ensembles as early as the 1910s. Traditionally strung with steel strings and played using a metal thumb-pick, the instrument provides a counterpoint accompaniment line that is generally improvised. In the early 1980s a small number of musicians experimented with the use of nylon strings; this resulted in timbral variations and greater expressive qualities similar to the standard classical guitar. Guitarists began to use this new version of the seven-string guitar as a solo instrument, as well as in other musical settings outside of typical choro groups; this significant development is referred to as the duas escolas or two schools of performance practice. In this thesis, a selection of works composed between 1983 and 2012 is analysed, considering elements such as rhythm, harmony, melody and form, along with issues of performance practice and instrumental techniques and discussing the distinguishing musical features that contribute to the new seven-string guitar repertoire.
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ItemRagging the classics: an examination of ragtime in piano compositions by Claude Debussy, Percy Grainger and Igor Stravinsky( 2013)The beginning of the twentieth century, a time marked by constant re-evaluation and invention, saw a new style of music travel from America across the Atlantic into the music halls of Europe. This vernacular music, labelled ragtime and marked by its syncopated rhythms and improvisatory style, was soon highly popular in European societies. This thesis investigates the influence on American ragtime in Europe by exploring engagements with the genre by art music composers. This will be achieved by analysing three ragtime-inspired works, one each by Claude Debussy, Percy Grainger and Igor Stravinsky. It will deal with music composed specifically for the piano as this instrument was pivotal to the development and integration of ragtime in both America and Europe. The thesis is divided into three chapters arranged chronologically, each providing a contextual background followed by an analysis of a particular ragtime-inspired work. Chapter One investigates the emergence of ragtime in America and its emigration to Europe, chiefly through the popularity of the cakewalk dance in France. This will serve as a background to an analysis of Debussy’s first ragtime work, ‘Golliwogg’s Cakewalk’ (1908), and his adoption of the cakewalk property of satire. Chapter Two looks at the emergence of American vernacular music in the music halls of London and analyses how Grainger utilised ragtime for his modernist experimentation with piano technique in In Dahomey: Cakewalk Smasher (1909). Chapter Three investigates the evolution of ragtime in the second decade of the century. Included here is a discussion of Stravinsky’s engagement with ragtime, which culminated with his so-called ‘portrait’ of the genre, Piano-Rag-Music (1917). Finally a conclusion compares these three works and seeks to evaluate how they relate to the modernist tendency to redefine ‘high’ and ‘low’ music categories. This thesis will show that Debussy, Grainger and Stravinsky were among the first ‘highbrow’ composers to interact with American popular music by integrating ragtime into their compositions. It will also demonstrate how each composer borrows and manipulates the properties of ragtime as a point of departure for their own modernist experimentations.
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ItemPebbles, shattered glass, plastic, metal & dried grass: a research project on ritual action, experience & the everyday( 2012)This masters thesis is a reflection on two years of making, playing, walking, talking, looking and reading. I address the question: “How can I develop a project that encompasses daily activities and rituals, recognises minor phenomena, brings me into an encounter with people, objects and animals and that frames lived experience?” In addressing this question I define the artistic process as both a method of framing and as the creation of the new, a force which effects my experience of the everyday. This is influenced by the writings of Elizabeth Grosz. In my project, I employ daily rituals as a means of encountering subjects for my work. Walking is a primary strategy I use in collecting objects, images and events. I describe my methods of framing as a shifting, searching process. I describe activities and works where I have incorporated conversation into my methodology - using formal meetings as a way to create potential accidents and alliances with others. I discuss the text Profanations by Giorgio Agamben and weave it in to many aspects of my argument. In particular I relate his notion of play to my process of sculpture and performance making. I draw links from the works of Alexander Calder, Richard Serra and Gabriel Orozco to the strategies of my own project. In particular, I respond to Calder’s lightness of forms and Orozco’s engagement with transitory moments in urban/suburban environments. This document augments the presentation of my creative work. This work is an installation of materials combined from the broad-ranging activities I engaged in during the project. It includes a configuration of videos of actions and encounters, and sculptures made from steel, glass, wood and generated from material collections. It also combines elements of a more arbitrary nature, like text, photographic works and other residue from the project.