The process of composing 1938: An Opera

Abstract

In this thesis I will illuminate the process of composing music for the original music theatre work 1938: An Opera. This is a multilingual political satire based primarily on Australian historical events.

I will focus on two main aspects of the work. Firstly, I will explicate the various stages of composition for songs in English. These stages include the phenomenology involved in creating musical ideas; the compositional approach; and the musical conceptualisation of dramatic narrative and development.

Secondly, I will investigate the process of composing songs in languages other than English. This section will focus on songs in Cantonese and Yorta Yorta, an Australian Indigenous language. I will discuss my collaboration with translators and cultural and language mentors who helped me to overcome linguistic challenges, and increased my awareness of cultural subtleties arising from inclusion of languages I did not understand.