Melbourne Conservatorium of Music - Theses
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ItemMusic and the ordinary listener: music appreciation and the media in England, 1918-1939( 2000)This study examines the nature and impact of the music appreciation movement in England between 1918 and 1939. Protagonists of this movement, notably Percy Scholes and Sir Walford Davies, sought to foster a love of "good" music amongst the listening public, through written and verbal expositions of composers, works and music history. This thesis draws on hitherto untapped archival resources of the British Broadcasting Corporation, Oxford University Press and Percy Scholes' own papers (held in the National Library of Canada). It contextualises the movement both musically and socially, examining diverse efforts to inculcate musical taste. Inexpensive music appreciation books such as Dent's Master Musicians series and Kegan Paul's The Music-Lover’s Library were immensely popular. A case study of the contribution to music appreciation of Oxford University Press, with its Musical Pilgrim series, is followed by an exploration of Percy Scholes' contribution to the popular literature on music. Scholes' Oxford Companion to Music crowned his association with the Press. The public-service policies and programming of the British Broadcasting Company (established in 1923) were of profound importance in the development of music education for the mass public. Programming of the long-running Foundations of Music series is assessed to determine the content of the music appreciation "canon" of works, and BBC publications which supported such programmes are also examined. Percy Scholes and Walford Davies were prominent BBC figures who broadcast to the "ordinary listener" on a regular basis throughout the inter-war period. The nature and impact of educational gramophone records and, perhaps the most striking medium of music appreciation, annotated player piano rolls produced by the Aeolian Company, are similarly explored in detail. Throughout this study, documentary evidence - particularly that of letters from individual listeners - of the reception of these various music appreciation endeavours is incorporated. This facilitates a comprehensive understanding of the place of serious music in the lives of English people during the 1920s and 1930s, restoring the balance in a field of scholarship hitherto focussed narrowly on the achievements of composers during the English Musical Renaissance.
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ItemLineages of Garcia-Marchesi and other traditional Italian vocal pedagogy in Australia, 1850-1950( 2002-09)Operatic and vocal history in Australia has received, since the 1960s, increasing attention from a body of researchers who have documented Australian performance traditions. Pedagogical traditions in Australia have been largely neglected however, and it is hoped that this thesis will contribute to ongoing studies in this area of Australian musical scholarship. Vocal pedagogy in Australia is largely derived from European models, yet many vocal teachers in Australia of the present day have little or no idea of the origins of their technique. After mapping pedagogical lineages of vocal teachers throughout Australia from 1850 to 1950, an attempt has been made to document and analyse the history of vocal pedagogy in Australia, particularly the influence of the vocal technique originating from the teaching of Manuel Garcia and his pupil Mathilde Marchesi, and other teachers trained in traditional Italian vocal technique. The thesis demonstrates that pedagogical lineages have special meaning and relevance in the historical study of vocal pedagogy and performance practice. Although the research maintains as its primary focus, the dissemination and influence of the traditional Italian and Garcia-Marchesi technique in vocal pedagogy in Australia, considerable effort has been undertaken to allow as complex as possible an understanding of the broader vocal pedagogical climate in musical centres of Australia.
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ItemWhere heaven and earth meet : the buklog of the Subanen in Zamboanga Peninsula, Western Mindanao, the Philippines( 2004-02)This thesis examines the music of the Subanen people of the Zamboanga Peninsula in western Mindanao, the Philippines through an investigation of their most important ceremony, the Buklog. Esteemed as the most elaborate and expensive socio-religious festival of the Subanen, the Buklog derives its name from a wooden structure holding the dancing platform called buklog. The Buklog is generally celebrated to propitiate the gods in some specific event in which the entire Subanen community participates. The occasion may be a thanksgiving for a bountiful harvest, for healing, or for prestige for a new leader or a home comer. A Buklog may also be held as a memorial for the recent dead to reinstate their souls to heaven or as a fulfilment of a ritual vow or debt to restore order and salvation to creation after natural disasters, calamities and epidemics. The thesis is based on a detailed analysis of a Buklog celebration held in Dampalan, Pagadian City in May 2002. It describes the social life and cosmological ordering principles of Subanen society in general, identifies the common principles underlying the Buklog ritual and the myth expressly associated with it, and relates the sound and social structures and organisation found in the special performative and musical processes in the whole Buklog complex. This study of the Buklog begins by presenting the context of Subanen society. Contained in Chapters 1, 2 and 3, this background bears upon understanding of the Buklog as the aural embodiment of Subanen social and cosmological organisation. Chapter 1 describes the specific concepts that are central to Subanen cosmological system and worldview. Chapter 2 charts the organising principles related to the domains that are considered more practical, real and concrete in Subanen social life and organisation. Chapter 3 explores the relationship between the natural, social and mythical worlds of the Subanen through the general coherence of the symbols and meanings depicted in the Buklog myths and rituals. The analysis that occupies Chapters 4, 5 and 6 elucidates the connections between the structural features of Subanen social and cosmological systems and the contextual-performative framework of the Buklog in which meaningful and material processes are ordered. Chapter 4 focuses on the preparation of the Buklog's sacred implements and ritual space. Chapter 5 illustrates the customary characteristics and the practical sequences of the attendant rituals, and the intentions, effects or transformations for performing them. Chapter 6 analyses the three special performative processes of the Buklog: the Giloy (vocal genre), Gbat (dance), and Guni Gusharan (instrumental genre) and shows the common underlying principles between these genres and Subanen cosmological and social life. Together, the three chapters describe the total performance contexts of an actual Buklog that I witnessed in Dampalan in 2002 by examining the different symbolism and meanings of the various ritual paraphernalia, actions, sounds, visions and use of music in the preparation and performance of these rituals. The final chapter provides the summary and conclusion.
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ItemUnveiling the melodic interval: a phenomenology of the musical element in human consciousness( 2005)This phenomenology begins with an observation of a musical instrument, the piano. The piano is surrounded by an aura of lifelessness, for its sound world is dominated by tone-decay and a calcified intonation system. Therefore, a physically seamless legato rendering of melody is impossible for pianists, and the inflexible symmetry of given intervallic relations enforces a loss of tonal centre when a composer ventures into the intrinsically asymmetrical domain of chromaticism. However, the melodic interval - the element lying between the acoustically sounding pitches - is in essence always inaudible, whatever the instrument. Through the development of listening capacities directed specifically toward unveiling the non-positive musical element in its origin, namely, within human consciousness, it is possible to overcome external instrumental limitations. Human being’s intrinsic musicality is revealed through phenomenological observation of consciousness in its qualitatively differentiated, ordinarily related, temporally unfolding nature. External limitations can have no hold over living melodic expression when the essence of the melodic interval is discovered self-sufficiently within the non-positive dimension of human onticity, that is, within a consciousness in which the potential for clear spiritual cognition lies dormant. ‘Tonicness’ is discovered ultimately to be an inner awareness of self-voicefulness, independent from instrumental and linguistic contingencies; and the piano reveals an historical mission to awaken - from ‘death’ - new cognitive listening faculties. This research employs the spiritual-scientific method of Rudolf Steiner’s anthroposophy, or wisdom of the human being, which involves meditation and the cultivation of sense-independent logic as well as of lucid feeling (as distinct from blinding emotion).
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ItemPercy Grainger's promotion of early music to Australian audiences in 1934: a critical evaluation( 2003)This thesis examines the argument made by Roger Covell in his 1967 Australia's Music in which he stated that Grainger's promotion of unfamiliar music, including early music to the Australian audiences in his 1934 Australian tour had been ineffective. Covell's argument was that Australia, at that time, was a conservative musical society 'that had barely considered the possibility of merit in any music outside the standard European classics' (p. 99). This thesis argues that Grainger's promotion of early music had not been ineffective but had an impact on the Australian audiences. This conclusion is reached after examining the press reception of Grainger's inclusion of early music in his lecture-recitals and orchestral concerts.
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ItemIdeals and realities: a study of the life of Franklin Peterson( 2009)The purpose of this thesis is to examine the career of the second Ormond Professor of Music in the University of Melbourne, Franklin Peterson (1861-1914, Professor 1901-1914), to reassess his achievements in light of a fuller knowledge of his career, and to assert his place in the development of music as a professionally-oriented discipline at the University. Peterson is a relatively unknown figure in the history of the University of Melbourne, and perceptions of him have been filtered through the prism of the scandal that accompanied the ejection of his predecessor, George W.L. Marshall-Hall, from the Ormond Chair in 1900. Peterson has been characterised as a conservative and reactionary figure, yet his principal achievement was the introduction of performance studies into the music degree, which was taught through the Conservatorium structure established by the University in 1895. Peterson's career prior to the Ormond Chair has never been adequately investigated, and this thesis clarifies his work at the University of Melbourne in light of a fuller knowledge of his writings, associations and activities during the 1880s and 1890s. Peterson's work at the University of Melbourne has implications for the wider history of the professionalization of musicians because he implemented reforms that made the University one of the first such institutions in the British Empire, if not the world, to offer music degrees that included a test of performance ability in the graduation requirements. This investigation follows a methodology based on Magali Sarfatti Larson's sociological analysis of profession. The key concept in this analysis is ‘cognitive exclusiveness,’ which for the purposes of this thesis consists of four interdependent factors: the definition and organization of a body of specialized knowledge, implementation of structures for transmitting and testing the acquisition of this body of specialized knowledge, participation in professional activities and discourse, and the use of knowledge as a tool of market control. Peterson's formation was cosmopolitan, with studies undertaken in his native Scotland, in Germany, and at the University of Oxford. Peterson's earliest activities show an interest in educational work, commencing with his role as organist at Palmerston Place Church, Edinburgh, and as a founder of the Edinburgh Bach Society. Prior to his appointment in Melbourne, Peterson's writings included a large number of articles for the Monthly Musical Record and publication of textbooks. Peterson's reforms to the structure and content of the music courses at the University of Melbourne reflected his writings and activities during the 1890s. This thesis advances a new interpretation of Peterson's establishment of the Conservatorium Examinations Board, showing how it resulted in the erosion of influence of other bodies of professional authority, including the Musical Society of Victoria and the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music. Peterson's work at the University of Melbourne established a model for music degrees that remains normative in Australia, and was copied by McGill University in Canada in 1910. His achievement in establishing a performance-based music degree, which was adopted throughout Australia, makes him one of the most influential music pedagogues this country has known.
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ItemCan copyright cope with music?( 2001)The purpose of this dissertation is to consider whether the copyright regime that presently exists in Australia adequately protects different kinds of music. It reviews the history of music and copyright law with particular emphasis on English law as this forms the basis of Australian law. It examines how the courts have handled music under the copyright regime and considers the problems that the history of copyright law present for the protection of improvised and indigenous music. The dissertation concludes that although copyright has problems coping with some kinds of music such as jazz, aleatory music and indigenous music, these problems do not warrant wholesale changes in copyright law. Copyright, while trying to protect all forms of creative works is also trying to protect two mutually exclusive objects, the creator and the public. Nineteenth century developments in copyright gave much greater protection to the creator, but began to lose sight of the other important rationale for copyright, dissemination of information and creation of the public domain. Present day developments are going even further. The balance is changing and the public, and ultimately the creator, is the loser. The question that confronts today's legislators is, should the copyright regime, with its inherent philosophies based on eighteenth and nineteenth century ideas of property and creativity, be retained and simply amended as required, or should it be abandoned altogether. This thesis posits the view that wholesale alteration of copyright law to include improvised music and music which is orally transmitted and collectively composed will not benefit the public. It is not in the best interests of creators who have a right to reasonably freely available information. Nor would it be of benefit to indigenous societies since it would be imposing ideas that might conflict with the creative ideals of those societies.
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ItemThe dodo was really a phoenix: the renaissance and revival of the recorder in England 1879-1941( 2005)This study provides a critical analysis of the modern renaissance and popularization of the recorder in England, examining the phenomena and placing them within their broader musical and cultural contexts. It explores the roles of the principal protagonists and institutions, arguing that a confluence of different agendas—musical, educational and social—within an environment of changing conditions, was crucial to the successful revival of an instrument, which in Victorian England had no living tradition at all. There was a clear relationship between the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century scholarship on the recorder and the desire to learn more about England’s ‘golden age’ of music during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Even before the 1870s, scholars represented the recorder as an obsolete instrument. By the 1890s and particularly from 1900, there were a few people playing the instrument in public, most notably Canon Galpin and Arnold Dolmetsch. Unquestionably, Dolmetsch’s work with the recorder between 1900 and the late 1920s was crucial to the subsequent mass revival. Changes in educational ideas and doctrine between the World Wars led to children’s music classes including active instrumental music making, in part to stimulate a sense of cultural identity. From 1926 the bamboo pipe gradually became the melodic instrument most commonly used in English schools, until Edgar Hunt, inspired by Arnold Dolmetsch’s Haslemere concerts, conceived of a popular recorder revival. Hunt began to import inexpensive German recorders, and to research and publish pre-Classical recorder music. From 1935 the recorder began to usurp the place of the bamboo pipe in English elementary schools. Concurrently, musical and educational authorities were encouraging domestic music making, for social and musically nationalistic reasons, often linking it with Elizabethan music making. The idea that a strong musical knowledge across all demographics could enable the nation to become ‘a land with music’ once more was invoked in many of the activities undertaken between the Wars. The work of The Society of Recorder Players, established in 1937, was significant and had long-term consequences for the success of the popular revival, as well as for the relative status of the recorder. At the same time, classes established by Edgar Hunt at Trinity College of Music as well as new compositions for the recorder helped to legitimize the instrument. This thesis addresses a number of gaps in previous research, by exploring thoroughly the history of the recorder in England between 1879 and 1941, utilizing extensive primary source materials—many hitherto overlooked—; by examining linkages between the recorder’s increasing usage and the various strands of the English musical renaissance; and by determining why the recorder was so highly popular when other instruments—notably the bamboo pipe—appeared to have similar attributes.
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ItemMaidservants to the muse: professional female musicians in Roman Italy, 200 BC - 400 AD: a consideration of the contexts in which female musicians were employed in Roman Italy, the demographics of this group and the socioeconomic implications of their profession( 2002)The thesis is presented in four chapters. Chapters One to Three discuss three key areas in which professional female musicians found employment; in the home, in the community, and in association with the public stage. Chapter Four considers professional female musicians collectively, and seeks to provide a preliminary overview of this group’s demographic composition and socio-economic position. The areas covered in this chapter have relatively limited direct evidence from primary sources, yet much can be surmised by considering the broader Roman context. Ultimately, this thesis seeks not only to question the role of professional female musicians in Roman Italy, but challenge our understanding of Roman musical culture.
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ItemMusical composition in Australia in the period 1960-1970: individual triumph or historical inevitability?( 2000)An examination of oral records casts a fresh and first-hand light on the sudden flowering of Australian musical composition in the 1960-70 decade. Accepted accounts concerning the musical activity of this time are few and the composers who were involved in the new music world are cited rarely. Building on the views and perceptions of Roger Covell, James Murdoch, Frank Callaway, David Tunley and Andrew McCredie, the impressions concerning this period from eight composers - those from the pre•-1960 generation and those who came to prominence in the designated decade - are investigated, with a view to determining what caused the abrupt adoption of contemporary compositional practice fro1n 1960 onwards; whether the surge in activity and the adoption of a new vocabulary resulted chiefly from individual efforts, or from the influence of individuals (administrators, bureaucrats, entrepreneurs), or through the pioneering work of certain organisations (International Society for Contemporary Music), or as the result of an inevitable if delayed historical process. The investigation begins with a survey of the relevant available material still extant on this period, which serves the purpose as a support or contrast with the core of the thesis. This is the gleaning from interviews conducted by the writer or tapes made by the Australian Broadcasting Commission and other bodies of what the decade 1960-1970 meant to the composers themselves, the intention being to come to a clearer understanding of the significance of the years in question.