This project has emerged in response to a community need to create further platforms for interfaith dialogue in Bendigo, a regional city in Victoria, Australia. Community tensions about a new mosque highlighted a need to build stronger relationships amongst the interfaith and wider community. These tensions were at odds with my experiences of creating musical spaces for the expression and exploration of diverse spiritual and religious identity as a music therapist at the local hospital. In these spaces, listening and respect mattered. My close proximity to people with diverse religious perspectives helped me to be more aware of diverse others in the community and of the current tensions. I wanted to see how music could help. An ethnographic approach captured the journey from the institutional context out into the community to engage in a community-based research project, a collaboration with the interfaith community in Bendigo. A cyclic, emergent action research process evolved into a series of focus groups where individual lived experiences of religion and religious rituals were shared, using music as a focus and a support for communication. Eleven collaborators from six different religious traditions in Bendigo came together to take part in a dialogic group music therapy process – musical presentation (Amir, 2012). This process offers a model for listening and engaging in a group. From this process, music playlists, drawings, focus group dialogue and phone interview feedback were generated. This material revealed the strong sense of connection that collaborators felt with others in the group and their enjoyment of coming together to share diverse faith identities in this creative space. The process also highlighted that the vulnerability and challenges that come from engaging in creative processes were valuable and brought new perspectives and growth. The vitality of music as a mode of communication, through which identity, feelings, memory and culture can be explored was highlighted. Collaborators commented on the depth of the experience and the connection to others within a short space of time. Despite the different associations collaborators each had with music, they saw it as helpful in communicating religious identity. Music supported the group to remove some of the usual barriers that existed between them in this new creative space. One of the key statements developed through collaborator feedback was that “This process has the potential to increase understanding, knowledge, and connection in our community”. The project highlights the importance of creating spaces for the exploration and sharing of diverse religious identity. Possibilities for music therapists as advocates, negotiators and community-builders in these kinds of processes are also raised. Engaging in a dialogic group music process highlighted a form of ‘attunement’ between collaborators that related to musical concepts and processes. Music’s capacity to re-conceptualise broader processes and relationships was also highlighted through connecting this project to the concept of ‘community as a harmonic landscape’, as a way of sharing the project with the wider community. Collaborators felt that the process they experienced could act as a ‘stepping stone’ into further creative community action.

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.

This dissertation is a musical analysis of Elisabeth Lutyens’s The Valley of Hatsu-Se (1965), a setting of ancient Japanese poems for soprano and chamber ensemble. The first part of the dissertation examines the serial language of the work. This includes the intervallic structure and segmentation of the row, textural use of rows, links between rows and serial ‘anomalies.’ The serial analysis concludes with a brief comparison to the mature serial languages of Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern, as well as to Luigi Dallapiccola, who has a similarly lyrical approach to serialism. The next part of the dissertation addresses non-serial elements, especially exploring the variety of contrasting textures. It focusses on textural devices, such as counterpoint and ostinato, as well as the transformation of motifs and voice-leading. There is also a brief discussion of potential Japanese influences on the work. This dissertation aims to facilitate a greater understanding of the serial language and the array of distinctive textures to enhance an appreciation of The Valley of Hatsu-Se, and bring increased awareness to the music of Elisabeth Lutyens.

Canto Ostinato for keyboard instruments (1973-79) is the best-known piece of Dutch composer Simeon ten Holt (1923-2012). The first work of his final compositional period, it advocates indeterminacy in performance, leaving performers to decide on dynamics, articulation, pedalling, instrumentation, and the number of repetitions of most of its 106 sections. Canto Ostinato’s aleatoric nature is investigated in relation to the traditional connotations of a “work,” as highlighted by Lydia Goehr. Georgina Born’s notion of a “provisional” type of work and Peter Elsdon’s classification of a work as the total of its realisations are posited as alternative definitions. An examination of Canto as a “work” would be incomplete without an analysis of the piece’s relationships to its composer, period of conception, performers, realisations, and audiences, and the relationships and contradictions between these aspects. This thesis investigates Canto in relation to several of its precedents in experimental music, such as improvisational music, minimalism, and indeterminacy. Several of ten Holt’s stated beliefs are investigated in relation to the score of Canto, such as the spiritual importance he accorded to the concept of tonality; the special interaction between the performers; the idea of each work developing on its own; and the notion of an “ideal performance” of an indeterminate piece. This thesis also examines the seven duo recordings from 1996 to 2013 of husband-and-wife piano duo Sandra and Jeroen van Veen, two of ten Holt’s most prolific advocates. The analyses indicate that ten Holt’s apparent praise for their February 2008 recording was an impetus for the duo in using similar approaches in subsequent recordings. In these recordings, a number of sections of Canto are highly structured via part omissions, specific amounts of repetition, additional repeats, and the employment of the additive process. A wide range of topics are discussed, such as notion of authorial control versus performer preferences, a more collaborative composer-performer relationship, and the issues surrounding the van Veens’ semi-determinate realisations of Canto, such as audience perception and practical considerations in live performances. This thesis uncovers the complex associations between composers, performers, and other aspects in this consideration of Canto Ostinato as a “work.”

This thesis explores traces of the Gothic in music and related artforms concerning Spain in the early twentieth century, drawing together a number of case studies with varied proximity to Manuel de Falla and his artistic milieu. A range of Gothic perspectives are applied to a series of musical works, repertories, constructions of race, modes of performance and stage personae, and this examination is preceded by an overview of Gothic elements in their nineteenth-century precursors. The connection between Granada’s Alhambra and the Gothic is based not only on architectural style, but also nocturnal and supernatural themes that can be traced back to the writings of Washington Irving. The idea of Alhambrism and Romantic impressions of the Spanish Gypsy, both of which are associated with the magical, primitive, mystic and nocturnal elements of the Gothic, are also related to constructions of flamenco and cante jondo. The Romantic idea of the Spanish gypsy evolved into primitivism, and attitudes that considered their culture archaic can be placed in a Gothic frame. Flamenco and the notion of duende can also be placed in this frame, and this idea is explored through the poetry and writings of Federico Garcia Lorca and in his interaction with Falla in conceiving the Cante jondo competition of 1922. The rediscovery of Spanish painters Francisco de Goya and El Greco around 1900 was also in part linked with Gothic attributes. The performer Raquel Meller adopted a Goyesque visual style in her singing career, but was characterised as a ‘vamp’ when she became a movie star, notably in the 1926 silent film Carmen, in which she develops the idea of the Romantic gypsy; both phases are interpreted through the Gothic lens. Post-World War I ballets such as The Three-Cornered Hat and El Greco ballet were inspired by these artists respectively, and their Gothic elements were heightened in their modernist recasting and evocation by Pablo Picasso, Falla and other musicians, choreographers and artists. The thesis returns to the idea of Granada and concludes with a consideration of two compositions rich in Gothic allusions, from the arabesque and the nocturnal in Claude Debussy’s ‘La soiree dans Grenade’ to medieval architecture and religious practices in Falla’s Concerto for Harpsichord, Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Violin and Cello.

This thesis presents a theoretical argument and practical possibilities for engaging with chaos as a resource in short-term music therapy groups with young people, based on my work with young South Africans who have committed offences. Chaotic experiences of confusion, destructiveness and disintegration I experienced with groups of young people were regularly accentuated through musicking and left me feeling despondent. Many therapists anecdotally report that the chaotic nature of groups with adolescents is challenging, yet this has rarely been explored in the music therapy literature. Authors who have described chaotic experiences with groups predominantly considered that these experiences required minimisation, modification or resolution. In my work I experienced moments where the chaos in groups was a necessary expression of young people’s lives, reflecting the chaos of a country struggling with racism, inequality and violence. It did not feel appropriate to attempt to resolve or minimise this chaos. In the first part of my research, I explored how a music therapist could understand chaos as a resource in short-term music therapy groups with young South Africans attending a diversion programme for committing sexual offences. I utilised crystallisation, drawing from different research methods to make meaning of my field notes documenting my work in this context over time. My analysis suggested that chaotic experiences sometimes preceded group transformation and were interconnected with moments of order required for group formation. This aligned with a paradoxical approach to group work explicated primarily in literature published within the fields of drama therapy, psychoanalysis and organisational studies. I integrated this literature with my research to propose that chaotic experiences could be welcomed into music therapy groups and harnessed to support young people’s engagement with the paradoxes of creativity and destructiveness. In this way, chaos could support young people to recreate their lives within complex contexts. In the second part of my research, I expanded on the practical applications of a paradoxical approach to music therapy practice. I explored how a music therapist and group members could engage with chaos as a resource, together with members of two short-term music therapy groups with young South Africans referred to diversion programmes for committing drug-related or general offences. I drew upon methods from constructivist grounded theory to analyse video material, group member feedback and my session notes. I presented my findings in the form of a group matrix. The matrix illustrated how engaging with chaos as a resource both freed and pressured each group member to explore group activities, musicking and relationships through a unique variety of active and observational, integrative and disintegrative styles. Those focused on participating in and opposing group activities tried on roles that might influence their engagement in their communities beyond the group. Group members focused on musicking embodied personal and social expressions through dissonant and resonant, tentative and versatile music creations. The communicative nature of musical expressions supported some group members to connect and conflict as they recreated their identity in relationship to others. Group members who remained static in their group interactions appeared to struggle to access the transformative potential of chaotic experiences. My role as the music therapist was to accompany the movement of group members across the landscape of possibilities I observed in the matrix. I provided a holding environment (offering a safe space and waiting before intervening); resourced group members (offering support and challenge); intervened (taking a directive lead or initiating chaos); or co-explored through partnering or witnessing the group. The theory developed through this research illuminates and legitimises a paradoxical approach to group music therapy theory and practice with young people. The matrix serves as a tool that may support music therapists to maximise possibilities for engaging with chaos as a resource.

The piano music of Felix Mikhailovich Blumenfeld (1863–1931), a key figure of the St Petersburg music scene during the latter half of the nineteenth century, is mostly unfamiliar to performers today. Despite his multi-faceted artistic ingenuity as a pianist, composer, teacher and conductor, Blumenfeld’s legacy has been neglected over the course of time. While many scholarly and non-scholarly sources have acknowledged a connection between Chopin’s music and Blumenfeld’s etudes, there are limited studies substantiating this notion. Furthermore, there is a significant amount of research surrounding the piano etude genre and Chopin’s music, but no existing studies on Blumenfeld’s piano etudes. This thesis therefore aims to contribute to the available range of scholarly literature, by analysing intertextuality between the piano writing of Blumenfeld and Chopin, using three of Blumenfeld’s etudes and a selection of miniatures by Chopin as case studies. In doing so, it aims to promote awareness of Blumenfeld’s piano etudes as valid contributions to modern concert repertory and the technical development of pianists.

My PhD project sought to explore the possible ways in which dance movement therapy (DMT) might be used by women in the criminal justice system for health and wellbeing purposes. My thesis presents findings from a participatory, feminist-informed research study that was based in the regional city of Geelong, Australia. As part of this research, I invited two professional women from the Department of Justice - Susan and Alyce - to become “co-researchers” in the study. As co-researchers, Susan and Alyce helped to develop access pathways for criminalised women to participate in the project. Women serving time on community correctional orders were invited to participate in a series of community based, drop-in DMT workshops as part of an emergent research design. The intention was to centre women’s experiences of using DMT to learn more about how individuals might choose to engage in this service in a criminal justice context, and why. The centring of women’s direct experiences in this study aligns with calls for more participatory, women-centred studies that are guided by the lived realities of those directly experiencing criminalisation processes (Carlton & Segrave, 2013). From an activist perspective, this includes acknowledging the social and political contexts in which criminalisation and therapy take place, and challenging dominant norms and assumptions in both criminal justice and DMT (also referred to as dance movement psychotherapy, or DMP). The theoretical influences informing this work draw on a mix of feminisms, including intersectional theory, feminist new materialism, corporeal feminism, and Barad’s (2008) “material-discursive” framework. Also instrumental to my process were theoretical concepts from my previous academic training in cultural anthropology, such as Geertz’s (1973) ethnographic method of “thick description” which I expand on in this thesis from a more ‘embodied’ and ‘embedded’ perspective. The importance of bodily-led approaches to research is therefore central to my thesis, and my doctorial study combines somatic modes of inquiry with more traditional modes of qualitative analysis. Methodologically, my project followed a participatory research design and employed ethnographic methods to document, analyse and communicate my fieldwork experience and the data arising through these interactions. Principles of action research and feminist-informed participatory research are articulated in my thesis, and processes of collaboration are reflexively presented in the form of poems, movement videos and photographs. Challenges and barriers to authentic collaboration are discussed and the ethical, political and moral dimensions of fieldwork are critically examined in this study. Structural and systemic imbalances are critiqued and issues to do with power, privilege and oppression are reflexively worked through as part of the overall knowledge production process. The research findings are based on what I learned from each of the women participating in this study. I explored the following themes as they emerged from the data: fun, fitness and relaxation. These findings are used to voice a rationale for a renewed focus on dancing in DMT/P. A theoretical model, which I refer to as an exercisePLUS+ approach, was developed out of the findings and discussed in my final chapter. This model emphasises the concept of physical fitness/exercise in DMT/P and describes how fitness goals, combined with a phrase-based dance teaching, can provide an alternative framework to that of the dominant psychoanalytical application of DMT/P. Practitioners wishing to work outside of the biomedical mental health treatment model may find this theoretical model useful. My model challenges dualistic notions of healthy/unhealthy and locates the notion of ‘health’ within a broader framework of social equity and inclusion. As such, the theoretical developments presented in my thesis focus more generally on social participation, fitness and wellbeing, yet also include more internal, psychological approaches to DMT. The model includes reference to neurophysiological understandings of trauma, yet problematises the over-reliance on medical discourse in trauma treatment, DMT/P and mental health. An alternative approach is therefore presented with a renewed focus on social equity and inclusivity, community participation, and access to health promoting activities, such as non-institutionalised forms of dance therapy. As well as critiquing the dominance of psychoanalytical frameworks and arguing for a more interdisciplinary focus, I also position my study as a further development of social justice DMT (Cantrick et al., 2018). I argue that DMT/P is a flexible modality which has the capacity to dance across the full spectrum of healthcare: from preventative health, through to acute illness, within rehabilitation contexts, and in alignment with social justice principles. My contribution to knowledge is a critique of dominant models, as well an example of what DMT might achieve outside of the shadows of the biomedical model. My thesis can therefore be read as call to diversify DMT/P theory and practice, including the further development of critical and feminist approaches to therapy. Recommendations for practice and further research include the following: a) the need for continued discourse regarding power and oppression in therapy, specifically in relation to “body politics” in DMT/P (Allegranti, 2011; 2013); b) ongoing critical engagement with Eurocentrism and the legacy of colonialism and imperialism in healthcare, including DMT/P; c) the further development of critical trauma discourse/s in DMT/P which challenge and expand on the existing theories of trauma and the body, and d) a renewed focus on dancing in DMT/P which combines exercise and fitness with a psychosocial approach as per the exercisePLUS+ theories presented in this thesis.

This thesis aims to demonstrate how an analysis of the musical activities of Duchess Sophie Elisabeth of Braunschweig-Lueneburg (1613–1676) can provide insight into both the cultural life of the Wolfenbuettel court in the middle decades of the seventeenth century and the music-making of seventeenth-century German-speaking consorts at Protestant courts. As duchess consort to Duke August the Younger of Braunschweig-Lueneburg (1579–1666), Sophie Elisabeth had a number of duties and responsibilities associated with her social role. This thesis focuses on two of these responsibilities and how Sophie Elisabeth fulfilled them through her musical activities. First, she was responsible for the devotional life of her family, her court, and the wider populace through maintaining a strong sense of her own personal piety, encouraging piety in others, and interceding with God on behalf of the principality. Second, she played an important role in the artistic representation of her husband, August, as a ruler, and the broader representation of his dynasty, the House of Guelph. While the responsibilities of consorts and the musical activities of Sophie Elisabeth have both been studied in recent literature, their interaction has been hitherto neglected, particularly in musicological scholarship. This thesis addresses this lacuna by proposing that Sophie Elisabeth’s musical activities and her social and political role were not mutually exclusive, and that they constantly interacted with each other. This contention has implications for our understanding of the role of consorts at early modern German-speaking Protestant courts and provides a framework for analysing how music-making, of different kinds, contributed to this role.

This thesis examines the ‘file card’ works of contemporary American composer John Zorn (b. 1953). Zorn’s unique creative method for these works involves the transcribing of quotes, ideas, impressions, or instructions relevant to a chosen dedicatee (or multiple dedicatees) onto file cards (i.e. index cards). Zorn has produced 22 compositions using this process, though this thesis concentrates on a select group that includes the first two file card compositions, Godard (1986) and Spillane (1987), as well as three later, similarly executed and sounding works, Interzone (2010), Dictee (2010), and Liber Novus (2010). These five pieces I have dubbed Ur file card works, given that they include the original file card works plus those that maintain the majority of intrinsic compositional qualities that were established by the originals. In examining the Ur file card works, my thesis concentrates on two key questions. The first asks, ‘what are the relationships between Zorn’s file card works and the figures to whom they are dedicated?’. The second considers the ‘cinematic’ nature of file card compositions – as often declared by Zorn and previous scholars – asking, ‘how can Zorn’s file card works be apprehended in audio-visual, cinematic terms?’ Ur file card works are also exemplars of Zorn’s signature ‘sound block’ style. Consequently, significant consideration is given to an auxiliary question, ‘what aesthetic effects does the sound block style used in certain file card compositions have?’ The six chapters of this thesis each provide a different methodological viewpoint in order to answer these questions. The first chapter gives an overview of the file card compositional process and a history of its development, highlighting some of the distinct features of Ur file card works. This is followed by a hypertextual linking of these five compositions to the life and work of their dedicatees, as well as discourse around them. In the third and fourth chapters an idealised ‘implied’ listener is theorised who hears file card works in a hypertextual and ‘cinematic’ fashion. Zorn’s dedicatees are then used as hermeneutic windows to provide interpretations of Ur file card works. Finally, Zorn’s aesthetics, as discussed throughout the thesis, are compared to the similar aesthetic intentions of his dedicatees.

This thesis details a constructivist grounded theory study that explored relationships and interpersonal learning using group dramatherapy with adolescents in special education. The adolescent participants engaged in both group dramatherapy and a creative interviewing process to reflect upon their experiences and ways of being with, and learning from others. Their reflections give insight into the unique ways that adolescents with intellectual/developmental disabilities seek to establish relational connection and learn from other people, both within the dramatherapy space and wider social contexts. In constructing and reflecting on the research specific attention was given to exploring the use of dramatherapy techniques as accessible research tools, which enabled participants to be more actively engaged as co-contributors in both the research process and the subsequent framing of outcomes. Embedding dramatic techniques into reflective interview practice, and art making into different stages of the data analysis served as inclusive research practices. Incorporation of creative methods aimed to position the adolescent participants as experts of their own therapeutic needs, and consider further dramatherapy’s potential contribution to research conducted alongside people for whom thinking and talking are not key strengths. Within the data collected through semi-structured interviews participants reflected on a common phenomenon; that being their tendency to “copy”. They described consciously copying others as a way to “learn from”, “play with”, “join in with” and feel connected to others. This human tendency to imitate others is linked to dramatherapy’s foundation in “dramatic imitation” and viewed as a potential pathway to support personal growth through imitative learning. Participants reflected on ways to use dramatic practice to extend themselves beyond “straight copying” or high fidelity imitation, to a capacity for imitative flexibility, where “you start by copying and then find a way to make it your own.” The research findings presented within this thesis focus on presenting the words and insights of the participants themselves as the experts of their own relational and learning experiences. Recommendations for future practice and research are discussed in recognition and support of the participants’ own capacity to demonstrate insight into what represents for them meaningful therapeutic goals and encounters.

Fifteenth-century music theory seems remote from fifteenth-century composition. Florid polyphony in three or more voices stands in contrast to the rhythmless, note-against-note consonant progressions in two voices found in counterpoint treatises, making it difficult to analyse composed music in terms of the contrapuntal theory of the period. This dissertation proposes a new analytical framework for one form of fifteenth-century composition, the four-voice cantus firmus mass of the 1460s and 1470s. Research of the last twenty years has substantially reshaped our understanding of medieval musical training and practice and by combining this new awareness with tools for digitally-assisted musicology, it becomes possible to test the relationship between the surviving compositions and counterpoint teaching. The opening chapters summarise this research and describe these tools. This summary leads to a method of analysis that allows a prestigious, coherent body of repertoire—the early masses on the L’homme arme cantus firmus—to be measured against the most comprehensive statement of fifteenth-century counterpoint, Johannes Tinctoris’s De arte contrapuncti. Analysis reveals that Tinctoris provides an accurate description of elements of fifteenth-century compositional practice but that his teaching considers only one of several contrapuntal techniques at work within the L’homme arme masses. A comparison of passages with and without cantus firmus permits a description of these other forms of counterpoint, while an awareness of this contrapuntal variety enables an understanding of mass composition as the interaction of distinct contrapuntal techniques based on changing voice-pair relationships. Further analysis based on cadential voice pairs confirms the relationship between counterpoint and composition through the effective elimination of divergences from Tinctoris’s teaching The conclusion presents a general theory of four-voice polyphonic texture as a compound contrapuntal entity. Through its two-level structure, this theory provides an opportunity for the empirical analysis of compositional style and has further potential applications to the problems of source criticism, attribution and reconstruction.