Melbourne Conservatorium of Music - Theses

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    The influence of neoclassicism in selected guitar works by Joaquín Rodrigo: implications for performance
    Velasco-Svoboda, Alexandra ( 2017)
    This thesis argues that the context within which prominent Spanish composer Joaquín Rodrigo (1901-1999) composed for the guitar was largely affected by the role of neoclassicism between the late-nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries. This will be traced through an examination of the events and figures that contributed to the development of Spanish neoclassicism during the period. While a substantial body of literature exists regarding the engagement of French and Spanish musical nationalism with Stravinsky’s neoclassicism, little has been written about how these events came to affect composers of the classical guitar after the Spanish Silver Age in the 1920s. A key composer in linking the neoclassicism of Stravinsky and the French with the development of Spain’s musical landscape was Manuel de Falla (1876-1976). His works, now studied in the sphere of prominent neoclassical composers of the time, inspired a generation of composers prior to and following the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) to utilize the classical guitar in their neoclassical compositions removed of Andalusian cliché. The instrument itself came to represent the neoclassical movement with its combining of modernist elements and ties to Spain’s rich musical past. In the Spanish Silver Age, the affect of Falla’s music was substantial. His explorations of using the guitar and other historical instruments from La Vida Breve (1904), El Corregidor y la Molinera (1919), through to El Retablo de Maese Pedro (1923) and The Harpsichord Concerto (1926) affected how audiences internationally and locally received the new identity of Spanish music. Rodrigo’s compositions were greatly affected by Falla’s output. Combined with the recognition and popularity of the classical guitar through the concerts of Andrés Segovia, Rodrigo’s guitar works launched the neoclassical aesthetic on the classical guitar to an international scale. He remains the composer of hugely important works of the classical guitar repertoire.
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    Western Influence on Japanese art song (Kakyoku) in the Meiji era Japan
    COLE, JOANNE ( 2013)
    The focus of this dissertation is the investigation of the earliest Western influences on Kōjō no Tsuki (Moon over the Castle) the composition of Japanese composer Rentaro Taki. Kōjō no Tsuki is an example of an early Japanese Art Song known as Kakyoku composed during Meiji Era Japan (1868 - 1912). The dissertation is divided into four chapters with an introduction. Chapter One explores the historical background of the Meiji Era Japan, highlighting the major impact of the signing of the treaty between the United States of America and Japan in 1853. This treaty effectively opened Japan to the West, not only for trade, but for exchange of social, political and cultural ideas. The resulting evolution that occurred in Japan from feudal society to one of early twentieth century is illustrated by reference to articles and writings of the Meiji Era. The second chapter examines the Japanese Art Song form Kakyoku using the example of Rentarō Taki’s song, Kōjō no Tsuki. This chapter presents an argument to illustrate, from an anthropological viewpoint, why this new form of Japanese Art Song could have its own identity based on Western ideas and not be categorised as a Japanese Folk Song known as Minʹyō or Shin Minyō. Chapter Three outlines the impact of the personal history of the composers, Rentarō Taki and Yamada Kōsaku on the Song Kōjō no Tsuki. Included in this investigation is an examination of similarities in the two Japanese composers’ upbringing and their studies of Western music, highlighting Western influences that may have affected their composing styles. On the basis of this research it can be concluded that two of the three main Western influences of the Meiji Era Japan: School and Military, were present to a degree in the early lives of both composers. These influences, coupled with their study in Europe, consequently influenced this early Art Song composition Kōjō no Tsuki. Chapter Four assesses the song from an analytical perspective. A detailed analysis of Rentarō Taki’s song is compared with the arrangement of the same song by Yamada Kōsaku, a prolific composer of Japanese Art Song during and following Meiji Era Japan. The specific study and analysis of this chapter demonstrates how Rentarō Taki’s Song Kōjō no Tsuki set a precedent for future Western style Japanese Art Song compositions in post Meiji Era Japan.
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    A complex of tendencies: the evolution of the use of the tritone in the music of Wagner, Debussy, and Bartók
    Honeybun, Katherine Anne ( 2014)
    This thesis examines the use of the tritone in Richard Wagner’s Prelude to 'Tristan und Isolde', Claude Debussy’s 'Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune', and Béla Bartók’s 'Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta'. The discussion demonstrates how the use of the tritone has changed over the period of the selected repertoire, from 1857 to 1936 and it is argued that the way the tritone is used is significant, displaying a unique ‘complex of tendencies’. The tritone is examined in the chosen works in relation to harmony, melody, orchestration, tonality, and overall structure as well as extra-musical elements. The aim is to demonstrate specific contexts of tritone use, such as the way in which Wagner used the tritone melodically and harmonically at the climax of the Prelude to Tristan und Isolde, or Debussy’s use of the tritone in the opening theme of Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune, where it can be found in conjunction with whole tone scales and harmonic elements that predate common jazz progressions. In relation to Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, Bartók’s tonal organization and use of the tritone is discussed in relation to issues of symmetry and through an analysis of tonal areas and the fugue subject of the first movement. This detailed discussion of the tritone offers a new perspective for examining the set works as well as an understanding of the changing use of dissonance over time and the unique characteristics of the tritone itself. Focussing on the set works, specific examples are used to demonstrate the ways in which the interval of the tritone has been used in increasingly prominent positions in the period under study.