Melbourne Conservatorium of Music - Theses
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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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Item"Speaking in tongues": an investigation into a compositional practice informed by intercultural exploration( 2019)There is an existing context for contemporary composers engaging in intercultural exploration through creative work, both in Australia and internationally. Taking a practice-led research approach, this study by composer Tim Dargaville investigates the ways that ceremonial forms and ritual practices can inform the creation of new music and the development of a personal compositional language. A folio of five compositions for solo instrument, string quartet, chamber ensembles and orchestra, with scores and recordings will be accompanied by a dissertation that aims to contextualise the process of creation, locating the development of the works within a broader understanding of approaches to intercultural exploration undertaken by Australian and international contemporary composers.
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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.
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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.
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ItemMemorialising tragedy: bushfires, floods, 9/11, the Gulf War, and five minimalist influenced musical works( 2017)Tragedy has long been tied to artistic response. Visual, dramatic, and musical artists have memorialised tragic events and the human reaction surrounding them. This is an important part of contributing to aeons of cultural history and creating memorial spaces. This thesis analyses a selection of works which memorialise tragedy: Symphony Da Pacem Domine for Orchestra (1991) by Ross Edwards, On the Transmigration of Souls for Orchestra, Chorus, Children’s Chorus and pre-recorded sounds (2004) by John Adams, WTC 9/11 for String Quartet and pre-recorded Voices and Strings or Three String Quartets and pre-recorded Voices (2011) by Steve Reich, Symphonia Eluvium for Orchestra and Choir (2011) by Elena Kats- Chernin, Fire Music for Orchestra (2011) by Brett Dean. The musical language of these compositions is examined to drive a discussion of how concepts such as vertical listening, Negative Space, and temporal experience facilitate their function as memorial spaces. By applying a framework of interdisciplinary techniques to the musical analysis, the investigation of these works is also considered in relation to sociological significance. This discussion attempts to better understand how composers writing in disparate styles might have recourse to Minimalist aesthetics in commemorating tragedy.
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ItemThe clarinet and its protagonists in the Australian New Music milieu from 1972 to 2007( 2013)This dissertation investigates the nexus between the clarinet (and bass clarinet), its protagonists and the Australian New Music composed between 1972 and 2007. It examines various factors that have shaped the Australian New Music milieu and contributed to the instrument’s prominence, resulting in the creation of a significant body of repertoire held by the Australian Music Centre. Although New Music for clarinet is central to this study, its focus is neither a detailed examination of specific composers and their works, nor an analytical score-based approach to this music. Instead, via a focus on the performers and ensembles active during this period, this research examines aspects of the development of Australian New Music and a range of factors that have contributed to the instrument’s prominence within this milieu. Areas investigated include both the historical and late 20th century catalysts for the creation of repertoire for clarinet and bass clarinet, and changes in the performance of New Music in Australia during the period of this study. Also explored are the trajectories of a number of individuals and prominent Australian New Music ensembles that have contributed to the development of clarinet repertoire in Australia. This dissertation has drawn on the holdings of the Australian Music Centre and has been informed by the material collected from interviews with 23 prominent composers, clarinettists, commentators and music educators based in Australia and overseas. Further information has been gleaned from other sources that document the history of Australian New Music. These include the journal of the Australian Music Centre Sounds Australian and its predecessor AMC News, ephemera including ensemble concert programs held in state and national collections, and administrative and organisational documents that shed light on the activities of the ensembles examined.
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ItemThe contextualization of Peter Sculthorpe's Irkanda I( 2012)This thesis examines the context in which Peter Sculthorpe composed Irkanda I for unaccompanied violin and, more specifically, its place in the Australian unaccompanied violin repertoire. The thesis considers the factors that impacted its composition, including: the difficult environment for composers in 1950s Australia; Sculthorpe’s rejection of European traditions and his focus on the Australian bush and landscape; and the music of two European composers Sculthorpe revered in his youth – Gustav Mahler and Béla Bartók. The thesis examines the work in detail, looking at the structure, techniques and expression Sculthorpe demands of the violin in Irkanda I. Lastly the thesis examines four works of the Australian unaccompanied violin repertoire composed in the four decades after Irkanda I, including: Three Humours by Dulcie Holland, Water Pools by Don Kay, Lament by Leslie Larkum and White Cockatoo Spirit Dance by Ross Edwards.
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ItemThe first and third piano sonatas of Carl Vine: a dialogue of musical contrast and complementation( 2011)The Australian composer Carl Vine has brought his own unique mode of expression to the genre of the sonata, and with each of his own piano sonatas from 1990, 1997 and 2007, this expression has manifested itself in different ways. There is a small amount of existing literature on these sonatas, including several doctoral theses from the last decade, which tended to focus on performance interpretation and on Vine’s original influences, rather than examining the questions that underlie these sonatas’ relationships to each other. While the First Sonata, written for the Sydney Dance Company, became an international success under the hands of Michael Kieran Harvey, the Third Sonata is in a very different idiom and appears superficially to be more traditional in its musical language and its treatment of the sonata genre. Yet an examination of both works, and of and the similarities and differences in their expression and their treatment of the musical elements, will reveal a comparison that is more multi-faceted and far-reaching than this, and will moreover show that many of the superficial stylistic differences between the two sonatas can in fact be identified as polarised, inverted applications of a unifying underlying principle. The purpose of this thesis is to undertake such an examination, which will start off with an introduction to the context of the two sonatas, a comparison of their openings, and an investigation into the various ways in which the composer treats specific elements. The study will then move beyond the elements to compare remarkably similar musical passages in both works, before synthesising the findings to make illuminating conclusions about the compositional frameworks of the two sonatas. Through investigation of the network of dialogues set up by the two sonatas across the various fault-lines between them, this thesis aims to shed light on the sonata as a form, on the underlying principles that unify seemingly diverse modes of musical expression, on the expressive language of Carl Vine, on the constancy and change of a musical language over time, and on the important role that polarities can play in music.