Melbourne Conservatorium of Music - Theses
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ItemThe genetic basis of singing ability: a twin study( 2016)Music is a human universal, an integral part of all known human culture. While most people possess the capacity for music perception and production, individual differences in various forms of music abilities are evident in the general population. The diversity in abilities has sparked intense debates regarding the relative importance of nature and nurture in shaping music ability. While in recent years, researchers have begun to explore the genetic basis of music perception abilities, the interrogation of the genetic basis of music production abilities has been relatively scarce. Singing is an ideal paradigm for investigating the genetic basis of music ability; it is a universal, multifaceted music ability that is spontaneously emergent and shaped by formal and informal music learning environments. The present study therefore employed a twin study design to investigate the genetic basis of singing ability and estimate the relative contribution of genetic and environmental factors influencing singing ability using a comprehensive set of singing tasks and measures. The study also aimed to identify environmental factors associated with singing ability and examine whether these factors have a genetic component, and whether shared genetic influences might explain the association between singing ability and these factors. The twin study was conducted online using a purpose-built online program Let’s Hear Twins Sing, which enabled twins to participate regardless of their geographical location. The 30 minutes online twin study comprised three singing tasks (vocal pitch-matching, singing a familiar song, and melody imitation), two music perception tasks and a questionnaire on music and singing background. The study took approximately 30 minutes to complete and the study data were captured online in real-time and saved on a server for subsequent analyses. The final sample consisted of 70 monozygotic (55 female; 15 male) and 38 dizygotic (24 female; 7 male; 7 male-female) twin pairs (mean age = 32.4 years), the majority were recruited through the Australian Twin Registry. Univariate genetic modelling revealed that both the objectively-assessed singing ability across all tasks and self-rated singing ability had similarly significant and substantial genetic components (A = 69-72%). Additive genetic influences also contributed significantly to the variation observed in various singing task measures, with moderate to large heritabilities (A = 44-71%), negligible to moderate common environmental (C = 0-37%) and moderate unique environmental (E = 19-40%) influences. Significant moderate to large genetic components were also estimated for environmental variables associated with singing ability: instrumental expertise (A = 68%), years of music training (A = 46%), and public singing engagement (A = 66%). Bivariate genetic analyses revealed that the associations between singing ability and both instrumental expertise and years of music training were mediated significantly by shared additive genetic influences. The novel findings therefore provided preliminary evidence for the role of genes in influencing singing ability and formal music training, as well as a partially shared genetic basis for singing ability and music training. The promising results establish a valuable background that encourages further behavioural and molecular genetic interrogations into the genetic bases of various types of music abilities.
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ItemMusical recovery: the role of group singing in regaining healthy relationships with music to promote mental health recovery( 2016)This thesis describes an emergent project which investigates the role of group singing in inpatient and community mental health settings. Music therapy has previously been identified as a way to foster processes of mental health recovery (Hense, McFerran & McGorry, 2014; McCaffrey, Edwards, & Fannon, 2011; Solli, Rolvsjord, & Borg, 2013). However, little is known about the specific factors apparent in group singing which promote recovery. This project aimed to address this gap by exploring the role of group singing in promoting recovery through a small mixed methods study and a larger grounded theory study. Adults aged between 18 and 72 years who were in mental health recovery participated in this research and were recruited from a number of different inpatient and community contexts around Melbourne. Key principles of recovery-oriented philosophy (Slade, 2009) and resource-oriented music therapy (Rolvsjord, 2010) were adopted. An initial mixed methods study was conducted which aimed to both explore experiences of group singing and measure outcomes of belonging before, during and after a 10 week community group singing program (Bibb, Baker, Tamplin & McFerran, under review). The qualitative analysis revealed that being with others, being heard, having a sense of purpose, achieving something and group size and setting contributed to participants experiences of the group. However, little could be concluded from the quantitative data, since for individual reasons, each of the four participants reported difficulty completing the measures. This led to a change in focus of the study to include an additional interview question asking participants to specifically reflect on their experience of completing the self-report outcome measures (Bibb & McFerran, under review). In addition, a need to critically examine the measures used in mental health research and the assumptions surrounding their ‘reliability’ was identified. A method of Critical Interpretive Synthesis was used to interrogate the most commonly used self-report outcome measures in mental health research in the last ten years (Bibb, Baker & McFerran, 2016). The results of the critical synthesis indicated that many of the measures most commonly used in mental health research do not align with the contemporary recovery-oriented philosophy of mental health care. The second study of this thesis adopted a grounded theory approach to explore the conditional and contextual factors involved in group singing. Collaborative interviews allowed for the participant and the interviewer to be active in making meaning of the participant’s experience (Holstein & Gubrium, 1995). The findings of this study, after 29 interviews, impelled the development of a new term, ‘musical recovery’ which depicts a process of regaining healthy relationships with music to promote mental health recovery. A number of factors are identified as promoting and interfering with musical recovery within a group singing context. The musical recovery framework illustrates how music therapy practice can be a process of recovery in itself.
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Item'A universal art, an art for all'?: The reception of Richard Wagner in the Parisian Press, 1933–1944( 2016)From the time that Wagner began to feature as a subject of interest in the French press, writers, critics, and journalists used their discussions of the composer, his music and his writings to articulate ideas about France and Germany. Debate about Wagner became a means to examine national identity, musical and cultural identity, and the Franco-German relationship. This thesis examines the reception of Richard Wagner through the lens of the Parisian press between 1933 and 1944. It follows a body of literature that investigates the reception of Wagner in the French press, particularly in relation to how it reflects upon French identity and the Franco-German relationship. It considers the ways in which the French continued to use Wagner to discuss nation, identity and culture during the period of the Third Reich, and the extent to which Wagner reception from the 1930s and the Occupation interacted with earlier French reception of Wagner. The thesis also considers the question of continuity and rupture, both between the period 1933–44 and previous periods, and between 1933–39 and the Occupation. It examines the extent to which the dramatic change in the French political landscape—which took place when France was invaded by German troops in the summer of 1940—affected the press reception of Wagner, and what this can tell us about how the French nation thought about itself and its relationship with Germany. The thesis includes an Introduction, followed by five chapters and a short Conclusion. The chapters are organised both chronologically and thematically, covering two main time periods during the Third Reich: 1933–39, and 1940–44. The thesis draws predominantly on sources from the Parisian press, including daily newspapers and weekly or monthly periodicals, supplemented by a limited number of other sources, including musicological and music literature, and concert programme archives. Although the study does not rely heavily on any particular theoretical model, it is situated within the domain of reception theory. This study argues, through an examination of themes emerging from the Parisian press, that Parisians used Wagner to confront Nazism, grapple with the idea of rapprochement, situate France within a potential New Europe, understand past Franco-German conflict, manage life under the Occupation, and come to terms with the policy of Collaboration.
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ItemEffectiveness of SAMONAS Sound Therapy (SST) in improving social engagement of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder( 2016)Atypical sensory reactivity has been included in the latest diagnostic criteria for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Compared to typically developing children, children with ASD are more likely to demonstrate atypical sensory responses, such as adverse reactions or indifference to sensations. An increasing body of literature has explored the connections between auditory processing and social engagement. Difficulty orienting towards a parent’s voice has been suggested to have a detrimental impact on a child’s ability to engage with the social world. Severe auditory processing difficulties can be disabling for a child and his or her family. A child with poor auditory filtering might not respond when being called, have difficulty following verbal instructions, and struggle with social engagement and interaction. Treatment options for auditory-based difficulties for children with ASD are, however, limited. For this reason, parents seek other therapies such as sound therapy to help their children. SAMONAS Sound Therapy (SST) is a sound therapy method that involves listening to electronically modified music through headphones over a period of time with the aim of improving listening skills. Evidence of the effectiveness of sound therapies with children with ASD is scarce and limited to studies examining language and behavior. There have not been any studies published on the impact of SST on children with ASD. This Singapore-based study aimed to investigate whether SST impacts social orienting, joint attention, and social interaction of children with ASD. Eleven Asian children between ages four and six years were recruited for the study. All children had severe ASD, difficulty focusing on the voices of their parents, and low cognitive, verbal, and adaptive functioning. Double-blinded randomised controlled trial with repeated measures was employed. The children, randomly allocated into SST and music listening groups, received a combination of clinic- and home-based treatments. Measurements were taken before and after a two-week clinic-based intervention, after an eight-week home program, and at three-month follow-up. Clinician-administered tests were supplemented with parent and teacher questionnaires, parent interviews, and observations of parent–child free play. Statistical analysis of standardized and non-standardised measures indicated a significant effect in favour of SST in some, but not all, clinician-administered measures. SST was more effective than music listening in improving joint attention and reciprocal social interaction in children with ASD. Treatment gains were maintained at three-month follow-up. There were, however, no differences between groups on social orienting. An important finding of this study was that the positive results achieved in the context of therapist–child interaction did not simultaneously generalise to parent–child interaction. Incorporation of parent training is recommended for SST treatment and future trials. These outcomes offer the first indication that SST may be a useful tool for children with severe ASD in particular areas of social engagement.
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ItemMusical intimacy and the negotiation of boundary challenges in contemporary music therapy practice( 2016)This thesis details a grounded theory study that examined the new concept of musical intimacy. This research began with an initial interest in therapeutic boundaries, exploring how they interact with music in music therapy practice. Through a critical interpretive synthesis, examining the prevalence and presentation of traditional boundary ideas, musical intimacy emerged as a new boundary theme. Musical intimacy was an interesting concept that seemed to capture the complexities of musical experiences, and their unique interaction with therapeutic boundaries. It was the discovery of this concept that led me to explore it in more detail. A grounded theory study was conducted, interviewing 20 music therapists from locations in Australia, the USA, Canada, the UK, Denmark and Norway. I used intensive interviewing to explore the music therapists’ experiences and understandings of what musical intimacy could be. Through this, I was also keen to examine how the music therapists were managing musical intimacy, and if they had experienced any boundary challenges within that context. The interviews were conducted in person across a three month period. A grounded theory analysis, influenced by both Charmaz’s constructivist grounded theory (2014) and analytic strategies from Corbin and Strauss (2008), was applied to the interview transcriptions. The analysis process included: 1) data collection and initial analysis, 2) initial coding, 3) focussed coding, and 4) synthesizing to form the theoretical framework. Throughout the analysis process, the grounded theory technique of ‘memoing’ was used, as well as many reflexive strategies to reveal my influence on the emerging findings. This analysis allowed me to move back and forth between data and analysis, involving many streams of analysis, where I returned to the data to expand, confirm or challenge my initial ideas and themes. Through this process, a theoretical framework of musical intimacy and boundaries has emerged. The grounded essence of the musically intimate experience emerged as the core defining feature of musical intimacy. The grounded essence is: the therapist experiences a powerful moment of connection in and around the music that triggers an acute sense of vulnerability and reveals the need for boundaries to keep things safe. There were two main themes that emerged, which contributed to the musically intimate experience for these participants. These were: the ‘interpersonal experiences’ and the ‘intrinsic components of music’. The music therapists described a spectrum of experiences, which were a complex web of powerful moments of connection and challenging experiences. They also described their ‘ways of being and responding’ to the musically intimate experiences, which detailed how they managed boundaries in these moments. The most interesting aspect of this research is the emergence and definition of musical intimacy. Musical intimacy captures a complex aspect of music therapy that was experienced by all 20 of the music therapists involved in this study. Musical intimacy provides a way for music therapists to conceptualise boundaries in their practice. It alludes to powerful moments of connection we can experience, and how there can be challenging moments in and around the music in music therapy. The ‘ways of being and responding’ are the beginnings of developing a new understanding of boundaries in music therapy practice. It is my belief that through this theoretical framework of musical intimacy and boundaries, we can begin to understand the complex nature of music and boundaries in a contemporary approach to music therapy practice.
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ItemAble performers, defective audiences : disability and music performance( 2016)Able Performers, Defective Audiences examines discriminatory social practices in music conservatoria, orchestras, music festivals and music competitions, as experienced by people with disabilities. Of particular interest is the environment that people with an intellectual, physical, sensory, or neurological disability (or an acquired brain injury) encounter in the world of classical music. Interviews were conducted with disabled music performance students at current Mexican conservatoria. This thesis also analyses the representation of, and audio-visual recordings by, key musical figures with disabilities. It explores the voice, concerns and suggestions expressed by disabled musicians and examines their perceptions of both inclusive and discriminatory practices. The findings of this project aim to contribute to the wellbeing of musicians with impairments by challenging disabling social practices that see them as inferior. Unlike traditional therapeutic approaches that see music as a source of cure or normalisation for disabled people, this thesis focuses on their career aspirations and advocates for their inclusion in the world of music performance.
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ItemFootprints: the assimilation of extra-Classical elements in a compositional language( 2015)Footprints: The Assimilation Of Extra-Classical Elements In A Compositional Language consists of a folio of compositions in two volumes, and a dissertation. Both the folio and the dissertation explore a range of extra-Classical elements that are assimilated into my artistic output. The dissertation also investigates the musical genesis of each element, and how their assimilation creates my own compositional language. A preliminary discussion defines applicable terms, and the differences between borrowing and stylistic allusion, before moving into a broad literature review. An array of extra-Classical influences are investigated, along with their role in my compositional process. The focus then moves to a progressive analysis of my orchestral work Ithaka. The integration of extra-Classical elements within the work is examined, followed by a similar investigation into my chamber works Organica and Concertino. An analysis of the presence of extra-Classical influences in my other folio works concludes the investigation. An overall conclusion revises the diverse elements present in my creative output, how they interact to form my unique compositional language, and what directions the assimilation of these elements might take in the future.
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ItemSpanish music and its representations in London (1878-1930): from the exotic to the modern( 2013)This thesis argues that the landscape of Spanish music in London evolved between 1878 and 1930 from Romantic exotic constructions to a recognition and appreciation of Spanish musical nationalism, which reflected some of the concerns of post-war musical modernism in a newly cosmopolitan context. This transformation will be traced through the study of specific protagonists and events that contributed to the English reception of Spanish music during this period. While the development of Spanish nationalist music and its important intersections with French music have been studied in numerous texts, little has been written on the English engagement with Spanish music. A key event in defining musical and theatrical Spain in the latter part of the nineteenth century came from France in the guise of George Bizet's Carmen (1875, London 1878). The opera, and its many parodies and theatrical re-workings in London, provides a foundation for discussions of Spanishness in late nineteenth-century England, and influenced the reception of Pablo Sarasate and Isaac Albéniz. In the Edwardian era, closer ties between England and Spain, increased travel possibilities and specialist writers rekindled enthusiasm for Spanish music. The anti- German currents of the pre-war years and the influence of French writers and musicians set the scene for the further English appreciation of Spanish music in the aftermath of the death of Enrique Granados in 1916. The English success of the Ballets Russes production of The Three-Cornered Hat (1919), with music by Manuel de Falla, marked the broader acceptance of Spanish musical nationalism. With the critical recognition of Falla's neoclassical works of the 1920s Spanish music achieved further acknowledgement in England from cosmopolitan critics. At the same time the Spanish guitar was seen to embody many aspects of post-war Spanish music, and through the concerts of Andrés Segovia established itself in a new guise in London. By 1930, the recognition and popularity of Spanish music indicated the extent to which it had integrated and evolved beyond the Romantic stereotypes prevalent half a century earlier.
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ItemVerdi's exceptional women: Giuseppina Strepponi and Teresa Stolz( 2015-05-15)This thesis investigates several of the persistent myths that surround Verdi’s life and career and those of the women with whom he had intimate relationships. Verdi’s self-image as a poor peasant whose success owed nothing to anyone else except his father-in-law, and the unwillingness in the scholarly literature to acknowledge any permanent threat to the unassailable solidarity of his marriage to a saintly wife whose past left no scars, reveal conflicts between public myth and private reality. In addition, the stereotype of the imperiously demanding ‘diva’, when applied to the two women under discussion, is not sustainable on close investigation. This thesis explores Verdi’s professional and personal relationship with exceptional women, focussing on two of the most important women in his life, the singers Giuseppina Strepponi and Teresa Stolz. It demonstrates his shifting power-balance with Giuseppina Strepponi as she sought to retain intellectual self-respect while his success and control increased. It presents a fresh appraisal of Teresa Stolz through examination of her letters from 1871 to 1895 and claims that, far from showing her to be an unintelligent and sometimes malicious gossip as is often stated in the scholarly literature, the letters demonstrate her astute evaluations of operatic performances and her buoyant affection for Verdi. The thesis argues that the two women fulfilled different functions as ‘handmaidens’, the one supporting and enhancing Verdi’s creativity at the beginning of his professional life, the other sustaining his sense of self-worth, at the end of his professional life; that each woman was an essential benefactor without whom Verdi’s career would not have been the same.
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ItemComposition Portfolio( 2014)The research focus of this PhD thesis is the composition of two large-scale musical works. Central to this research is the exploration of how eclecticism, in terms of shifting methods of pitch-organisation, might be used as an expressive, aesthetic and philosophical response to the composition of an opera, and more broadly as the principal means of musical expression in the twenty-first century. To achieve concinnity within an eclectic framework, a limited number of styles or methods of pitch organisation have been used in both works. These are modes, pitch clusters, pitch sets and tonality. The major component of this PhD submission is a folio of two large-scale original works (with attached CD recordings). These are an opera in three acts, The Juniper Passion, and a triple concerto, Convergence for violin, cello, piano and orchestra. The purpose of the dissertation is to provide a background to eclecticism within the context of stylistic pluralism and postmodernism, to address the musical responses to the libretto in terms of character, time and place, and to show how philosophical and aesthetic perspectives have been interpreted and presented musically. The dissertation also provides technical analysis of key extracts from both works. Although there is no philosophical underpinning in the concerto per se, the analysis highlights a consistency in composition methods, especially in the use of the use of pitch clusters and modality