Melbourne Conservatorium of Music - Theses
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ItemSuper Flat, Composition for Screen, and the Aesthetics of Electronic Dance Music( 2021)This creative work thesis investigates the application of electronic dance music approaches in interactive compositional contexts. The body of creative work consists of an album, Super Flat Music, reacting to Takashi Murakami’s “Theory of Super Flat Japanese Art” (2001), and two documentary film scores. Super Flat Music investigates the connection between Super Flat and Shibuya-kei, focusing on the application of electronic dance music practice in this context. The two documentary works, Cryptopia: Bitcoin, Blockchains and the Future of the Internet and Malaysia’s Last Tigers, investigate how electronic dance music can both react to and enhance location, energy, and narrative in a moving image collaborative context. The resulting creative work thesis demonstrates ways in which electronic dance music can interact with external media elements.
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ItemCreative Collaboration in Music: An Exploration of the Oboe in Australian Contemporary Repertoire( 2021)Collaboration in music is not a new concept in the modern artistic world. However, it is rapidly becoming an area of interest that is worthy of further research, especially in regards to performer-composer collaboration. There are limited resources in existence that examine the creative process involved in writing new works for the oboe from the point of commission to performance. This research project aims to explore collaboration by delving into the interrelationship between commissioner, performer and composer and highlights the creative process necessary to bring new Australian works for the oboe into existence. Three contrasting Australian contemporary oboe works composed since 1980 were selected as the central focus for this research project. The performers and composers of each work were interviewed over a period of three months in order to gain a deeper understanding of the creative process involved. The three collaborations are compared and contrasted throughout this thesis. Further, performances of these works feature in the concert recital which forms the performance-as-research component of my Masters project. This thesis demonstrates the link between meaningful collaboration during the creative process, and how this positively impacts the compositional writing and therefore the outcome of the work. Specifically, the project exposes the role that collaboration plays in the creation of new Australian works for oboe. The findings of this research contribute to the body of academic literature on performer-composer collaboration, and paves the way for further research in this area into the future.
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ItemArtur Schnabel’s Interpretation of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata in C Major, Opus 53, ‘Waldstein’: An Analysis of Selected Writings, Editions, and Recordings( 2021)The Austrian-born pianist Artur Schnabel (1882 - 1951) is celebrated as an interpreter of Beethoven, having not only performed and recorded all thirty-two piano sonatas, but also publishing his own detailed edition. Claude Frank (1925 - 2014) was the only pupil of Schnabel to also record the entire cycle. Furthermore, Ian Hobson (1952 -) became the only former student of Frank to also complete this project. This thesis examines Schnabel’s edition of Sonata Opus 53 in C Major ‘Waldstein’ and compares and contrasts details of three pianists’ interpretive ideas to one another. Particular focus is given to pedal and tempo choices. The analysis displays a wide range of difference in these areas. Schnabel himself discouraged the use of his own edition and the results of the thesis show that he made many alterations to his own written advice when actually recording this work. Frank and Hobson’s recordings reveal additional parting of interpretation in multiple examples. In addition to the analysis of the edition and recordings, a literature review of other pertinent related sources will be provided. Some interpretive elements related to articulations, fingerings, and performance practice proved impossible to reach conclusions without video footage which would have displayed the pianists’ hands. Those examples are also detailed. This analysis can be a resource and guide for those wanting greater understanding into the interpretation of ‘Waldstein’, as well as the pianistic traditions of Beethoven playing.
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Item“Biographical Milestones”: Interpreting Sixty Years of Larry Sitsky’s Stylistic Evolution in Australia (1959–2019) Through a Comparative Analysis of His Solo Flute Works( 2021)This thesis interprets the stylistic evolution of Australian composer, Larry Sitsky, by categorising his compositions (1959–2019) into five distinctive ‘periods’. An analysis of Sitsky’s six solo flute works composed between 1959 and 2019 provides a framework for this examination. The near-equidistant placement of the solo flute works within Sitsky’s compositional timeline renders them useful milestones from which to analyse his creative evolution. The underpinning research question asks what identifies the stylistic characteristics of Larry Sitsky’s works across his compositional evolution, as seen through the prism of his six works for solo flute? This research draws upon historical and descriptive musicological methodologies and uses case studies and analysis as the main tools. The stylistic periods are identified through an analysis of the distinguishing compositional influences, devices, and styles used in Sitsky’s compositions at various stages in his career and explores how these characteristics were influenced by extramusical stimuli and contemporaneous compositional developments. Sitsky’s compositional evolution reveals a process of constant and conscious transformation across five periods. First, Sitsky’s “Early Mature Period”, dating from 1959 to 1962, is characterised by his efforts to embrace a more modern idiom in his earliest mature compositions. Second, the “Modernist Period” from 1963–1969 exhibits his exploration of Modernist compositional techniques such as serialism, aleatoricism, and musique concrete. The composer’s adoption of Expressionism and engagement with Asian and mystic stimuli is observable in the “Mystic Expressionism Period” which dates from 1970–1982. Sitsky’s fourth period, the “Armenian Period” traverses the years 1983–1986 and includes a series of works for solo instruments inspired by Armenian folk-music. Fifth, the “Late Mature Period” reveals a neo-romantic though eclectic synthesis of earlier compositional experiments from the years 1987–2019. By exhibiting the characteristics of the five chronological periods, Sitsky’s flute works embody a microcosm of his compositional oeuvre. This thesis also identifies distinctive stylistic qualities that contribute to a ‘Sitskian’ aesthetic, such as: an Expressionistic character, chant topics and portamento; chromatic or bitonal ‘smudging’; irregular rhythms and polymetre; mosaic and episodic forms or improvisatory structures; small recurring chromatic cells; decorative fioritura; the portrayal of a musical progression from one ‘state’ to another; and, the use of non-programmatic extramusical springboards inspired by mystical or mythological sources. By drawing upon an historical examination of Sitsky’s compositional trajectory and artistic context in Australia from the late 1950s until 2019, this thesis situates Sitsky’s compositional periods in relation to several sociocultural developments. While existing scholarship on this composer has explored aspects of his compositional language, none provide a detailed explanation or contextual overview of the compositional shifts. This thesis addresses a scholarly lacuna by clearly identifying the characteristics and context of Sitsky’s stylistic evolution. It also addresses a gap in scholarly engagement with Australian flute music. By connecting the musical analysis to related historical and social aspects, this thesis offers a many-dimensioned illumination of an aspect of this era of art music composition in Australia.