Melbourne Conservatorium of Music - Theses
Permanent URI for this collection
Search Results
1 - 9 of 9
-
ItemFolio of compositions: Chimera_52: the genealogy of a contemporary composition practice( 2018)This folio of work explores the composer’s compositional aesthetic through a method of creating one new piece of music per week for fifty-two weeks. This thesis expands upon the impressive literature in this field by providing a significant amount of music composed regularly over an extended time scale. It comprises one new musical work in fifty-two parts of recorded acoustic, electroacoustic and electronic works in varied styles experienced interactively through QR codes. A shorter curation of the entire composition is supplied, along with a written introduction followed by fifty-two blog posts that supplement the research. The resulting work demonstrates a synthesis of styles and techniques using multiple crafts and technologies.
-
ItemFolio of compositions( 2018)Folio of 6 compositions including orchestral, choral and chamber music. The works traverse a stylistic spectrum, moving freely between the simple and the complex, synthesising liturgical choral traditions with instrumental modernism, resulting in a unique approach to harmonic and rhythmic materials.
-
Item‘Darling Kath’: Benjamin Britten’s music for Kathleen Ferrier( 2018)This thesis examines the career of contralto Kathleen Ferrier (1912–1953), and her collaborations with composer Benjamin Britten (1913–1976). In the late 1940s, Kathleen Ferrier was among the most famous classical singers of her day. Britten was the pre-eminent composer in Britain, composing solos for Ferrier in three major works: the title role in The Rape of Lucretia (1946), the contralto solos in Spring Symphony (1949), and the part of Isaac in Canticle II: Abraham and Isaac (1952). Although their collaboration ceased with Ferrier’s untimely death, Britten’s work with Ferrier was musically and personally significant, and proved influential for the course of Britten’s career and for shaping Ferrier’s legacy. Drawing on diaries, correspondence, and recordings, this thesis examines Britten’s intricate understanding of Ferrier’s voice and ability, the unusual way in which he exploited them, and how Ferrier in turn interpreted and created the premiere performances. In addition, with reference to the writings of J.P.E. Harper-Scott and Carolyn Abbate, this thesis evaluates the nature of the relationship between an influential male composer and the woman who gives voice to a work or role, to address the vexed question whether it is the composer or interpreter who creates that role.
-
ItemBorder crossing: tracing the influences of Brazilian guitarist Yamandu Costa( 2018)Born in 1980 in Rio Grande do Sul, Yamandu Costa is one of Brazil’s most celebrated guitarists. Yamandu Costa began his musical journey at the age of seven, taking informal guitar lessons from his father, Algacir Costa. Raised in a musical family, his childhood was marked by extensive touring alongside the family band, who made their living from entertaining at vibrant dance parties across Brazil. His father was the leader of the band Os Fronteiriços, whose music was rooted in the regional music of southern Brazil, known there as música gaúcha (gaúcho music). Amidst this inherently regional upbringing, Yamandu Costa’s music was shaped and influenced by the gaúcho culture and music of southern Brazil and Argentina. In addition, the migration of Argentinian guitarist Lucio Yanel to Rio Grande do Sul in 1982 had a major impact on the life and music of Yamandu Costa. Finding lodging at the Costa family home in Passo Fundo during the initial period of his migration, Yanel brought with him to Brazil his guitar music, rooted heavily in the folkloric regional styles of Argentina. The young Yamandu Costa found a musical mentor in Yanel, resulting in a musical career that would come to be heavily influenced by Yanel’s pioneering approach to gaúcho music as a guitar soloist. A composer and virtuoso guitarist, the presence of Yamandu Costa’s gaúcho identity is unmistakable. Yamandu Costa frequently draws upon idiomatic instrumental and compositional techniques indicative of his gaúcho music influences. His music is eclectic, as he pieces together a mosaic of diverse Brazilian music styles like choro with Argentinian chamamé, chacarera and zamba. Through an analysis of five original works, this thesis illuminates the influences of Yamandu Costa and demonstrates the presence of gaúcho musical idioms in his music. The analysis is contextualised amidst biographical details, and investigates his formative years spent in Rio Grande do Sul and his relationship with Lucio Yanel, which are critical to his musical formation. The legacy of Yanel’s presence in Rio Grande do Sul is measured by an analysis of parallels in guitar technique between Yanel and Yamandu Costa, and demonstrates the musical cues the protégé has taken from his mentor. This thesis shows that Yamandu Costa’s roots in gaúcho music distinguish him amongst the Brazilian guitar landscape.
-
ItemThe essence of performance on the acoustic drum kit: a study of feel( 2018)This practice-led research investigates and discusses the terms and applications of ‘feel’ and ‘time’ in acoustic drumming, and through various performance settings I break down and examine how these phenomena exist within my performance. Topics of this research include feel, time, groove, improvisation, pulse, liveness, and motif, all of which are looked at through the various effects they can have on performance. This dissertation includes both written and recorded documentation of my own performances, as well as drawing on sources of information such as music notation (transcriptions), sound waves, various publications, liner notes and experiential descriptions of each performance setting. The creative works presented in this research are made up of various recorded performances, which can be identified in the ‘List of Embedded Audio’. As sections of this dissertation are based on specific recordings, the relevant audio is also listed within the text. This should allow the reader to listen to each recorded performance before or after the relevant section is read. Each recorded work for this research is presented in an mp3 format.
-
ItemFolio of compositions( 2018)A folio of original musical compositions by Luke Speedy-Hutton, including choral, orchestral, solo and chamber works.
-
ItemThe campaign for French music: The Société des Concerts Français and the critical reception of French music in Britain 1907-1915( 2018)Between 1907 and 1915, more than 80 concerts dedicated to the promotion of French music in Britain were staged across the United Kingdom. The majority of these were organised by Tony Guéritte, who had come to Britain for a very different purpose, to oversee the application of reinforced concrete in construction. My thesis examines Guéritte's efforts to bring a range of French music to Britain and focuses in particular on a series of 28 concerts organised by him in London. Much of the music performed in these concerts had never been heard in Britain before, and the introduction of the chamber music of Ravel and other composers to British critics and audiences had a marked impact. In my thesis, I aim, first, to piece together the concert programmes, which have been largely overlooked by scholars, and second to explore their critical reception by examining reviews in a range of different periodicals and national newspapers published over eight years from 1907 until 1915, when the outbreak of the First World War halted the concerts.
-
ItemFolio of compositions( 2018)The works within this portfolio represent the culmination of my Master of Music candidature at the University of Melbourne. Commencing in February 2016, my two years of study have allowed for a meticulous examination of my compositional practice, resulting in a widening of how I approach writing and a greater focus upon my chosen musical language.
-
ItemOpera, publicity, disability: a case study of the public persona of Marjorie Lawrence( 2018)This thesis is an investigation of the public life of the Australian dramatic soprano Marjorie Florence Lawrence (b. Deans Marsh, Victoria 1907 – d. Little Rock, Arkansas 1979). Lawrence, who begun her professional stage career in Monte Carlo in 1932, was permanently paralysed from the waist down in 1941 after contracting poliomyelitis (at the time better known as infantile paralysis, now commonly referred to as polio). Despite the considerable challenges facing performers with disability in the pre-disability right era, Lawrence continued to perform in staged operas, concerts, and troop tours around the world. Lawrence published her autobiography in 1949, several decades before the end of her performing career and several years before the beginning of her first teaching position. Given that the basic biography of the singer is still relatively unknown the thesis starts with a brief outline of Lawrence’s biography, focusing on the years leading up to her paralysis. Chapter 1 examines her position as a role model and ambassador for people with a disability in the United States in the wake of several polio epidemics and an influx of returned servicemen with war injuries. Her affiliation with President Franklin Delano Roosevelt is also explored in conjunction with an analysis the solutions Lawrence used to enable her return to the stage. Chapter 2 focuses on the complexity of her public persona and behaviours in the context of the ‘prima donna’ and ‘diva’ categorisations often used in literature concerning the biography of female opera singers. To investigate this, a case study of Lawrence’s interactions with high ranking military and civilian officials during her 1944 troop is used. Chapter 3 is a documentation and reflection on the previously under-researched topic of Lawrence’s role as a university professor at Southern Illinois University, particularly regarding the production of Joplin’s Treemonisha. Research in this thesis is based on archival documents, historical news sources and on new interviews with colleagues and students of Lawrence and family members. This research, conducted in situ across Australia and the United States, allows a more-rounded perspective on perceptions of Lawrence’s career, teaching and personal interactions and introduces Lawrence’s own voice through her letters.