How does the aesthetic category of the sublime, in its various formulations from the eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries, assist in explaining the significance of Felix Mendelssohn and his compositions to English and German audiences in his lifetime and beyond? Due to the conceptual proximity of a number of formulations of the sublime to primary traits of his compositional output, Mendelssohn’s life and work can be understood through the categories of sublime aesthetics. Despite challenges in his reception and complexities in modern scholarship, Mendelssohn’s biography and musical accomplishments consistently show conceptual and contextual relations to a wide variety of sublime formulations. Mendelssohn’s early life and works display a prodigious musical talent impacted by multiple sublime influences, including the ‘sublime’ music of George Frideric Handel. His most popular early overtures – Midsummer Night’s Dream, Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage, and The Hebrides – demonstrate connections with an even wider range of sublime objects and concepts. Although Mendelssohn’s works from the 1830s and 1840s show an increasing appreciation for historical genres and forms, this does not represent a ‘decline’ from ‘sublime’ standards of originality, but an ‘ascent’ to new heights of ‘genius’, according to early nineteenth-century standards. His late works such as the Lobgesang, the Berlin Psalm Introits, and Elijah confirm his ability to create music modelled on sublime predecessors, communicating ‘Grand Concepts’, and expressing ineffable feeling. Overall, this thesis aims to show that the sublime can serve to evaluate the music of Mendelssohn using contextually-appropriate aesthetic concepts, thus offering a new understanding of his compositional accomplishments.

This dissertation – the first on the life and work of Mike Westbrook – proposes that his unique conception of English modern jazz was inspired by early 1900s New Orleans culture, where live music was contemporary, culturally relevant, and had a social function. Initially intended as art for a new post-World War socialist Britain, his drawing on cultural, social, economic, and political constraints became an artistic credo. The thesis argues (following Fischlin and Heble (2004), Horn (2002), Johnson (2002), and McKay (2005)) that jazz is primarily a cultural activity, not merely a style of music. While Westbrook has claimed that he was simply attempting to combine art and entertainment like Duke Ellington, this dissertation demonstrates how, as a trained painter, his jazz process is informed by Dada and Pop Art as well as by Bertolt Brecht’s Lehrstücke, lending his ensembles a social function as ‘mediating structures’ (Berger 1979). His central ‘brass band’ concept draws on English music-hall, circus and fairground, together with European cabaret, and his tendency towards theatrical performance was reinforced through his creative partnership with Kate Westbrook. The approach taken in this study is twofold: on the one hand field-work and extensive access to archival materials (much of it previously unavailable); and on the other hand cultural and historical interpretation. The thesis argues that Westbrook attempted a cultural revolution in broadening the terms of reference for jazz to construct a peculiarly English, polystylistic multi-media art. Accordingly, this dissertation locates Westbrook’s work in the larger cultural field of English contemporary artistic expression, rather than simply seeking to situate it stylistically within a narrower history of jazz.

The contention of the thesis is that the adoption of a new analytical premise with respect to the role of tonality in Beethoven's music is necessary to the true appraisal of this aspect of the music. The main focus of the material presented is a detailed examination of the initial thematic treatment in relation to four major keys and comprises four tonal-thematic analyses (Part 11. The Supplementary Volume comprises the Thematic Indexes. relevant to the Part II examination and reference to that Volume is integral to the tonal-thematic analyses. ) Fart II thus treats a defined area within the music. Prior to this examination the subject as a whole - tonality and the role of tonality in Beethoven's music - is discussed in the Introduction (Part Iv Section I), and material basic to the entire investigation is presented (Part I. Section II). Part III consists of the Conclusion to the thesis enquiry, The two Appendices treat two topics which although not within the scope of the main thesis investigation, are nonetheless relevant to the subject as a whole; these are the tonal relationship Bý/G in the music and the "Second Group" key in minor mode usage.

The English composer Jonathan Harvey was a distinctive and major presence in contemporary music since the early 1960s up to his death in 2012. His output in the 1970s and 1980s reflects a key transition in the development of his style and through such works as the Inner Light Trilogy, Mortuos Plango, Vivos Voco and Bhakti could be seen to reach a zenith in his 1986 work Madonna of Winter and Spring. A major element of this work and those that precede it was the composer’s interest in techniques and approaches providing the structural depth the composer was endeavouring to realise. The purpose of this thesis has been to understand his use of structural depth within “Conflict”, the first section of Madonna of Winter and Spring¬. Through an analysis of earlier works by Harvey, and those of Messiaen, Stockhausen and other composers, clear influences on his compositional aesthetic are identified. Various other contextual influences, and experiences are shown to have also strongly influenced his approach. Discourse reveals the detailed systematic approach undertaken by the composer in structuring his works, and the importance of the concepts of unity and ambiguity, and the significance of live electronics in that regard. It is shown that Harvey’s use of structural depth in “Conflict” was based on a coherent model, influenced by the philosophies of Steiner and Schenker, which embraced all musical elements (pitch, harmony, timbre and narrative) within a single unity. The model is described in terms of these musical elements functioning on vertical and horizontal planes. Madonna of Winter and Spring is a key work of this increasingly important English composer and reflects a milestone in his developing methodology. An understanding of its purpose and place within his oeuvre is of interest to composers, musicologists and listeners alike.

Strauss was essentially a child of the nineteenth century, and it was unquestionably this era which moulded his outlook and which guided his artistic endeavours. The operas, Friedenstag and Daphne, were written at a time inauspicious in portent and ominous of disaster, when it appeared that under the existing regime in Germany, the ideals and heritage bequeathed by a cultural past represented by Goethe, MOzart and Wagner was at risk in a changing world of horror and brutality. The discovery of a substantial hoard of so far unpublished source material - letters, drafts and sketches - relating to these two operas enables us to deepen our knowledge of their respective backgrounds and to increase our understanding of the personalities who shaped them. It also allows us to trace the course of their development and to assess the importance of the ideas which they contain, to the composer. This at a time when he viaibly attempted to equate his understanding of the tradition to which he belonged with the harsh reality of the world around him. It is patent that, as he beheld the shattered ruinS of the ideals of a lif&-time, he retreated into his own private world of composition, therein sublimating the worst of his fears and yet powerfully expressing his deepest felt artistic beliefs through the creative achievements of these troubled years - a testimony of hope for the future to those who have ears to hear.

This dissertation considers the history of the organs in Westminster Abbey and the music performed on them from the eleventh century to the start of the twentieth. It is primarily based on the documentary evidence in Westminster Abbey Library and Muniment Room and transcriptions of material from here form a large part of the appendices. The thesis considers the organs built especially for the Abbey and temporary instruments used for coronations and other events. The organ builders represented include John Howe, Thomas Dallam, John Burwood, Bernard Smith, Christopher Shrider, Thomas Elliot and William Hill. The organists of Westminster Abbey include the composers Edmund Hooper, Orlando Gibbons, John Blow, Henry Purcell, William Croft, Benjamin Cooke and James Turle. Compositions they wrote while in post are used as sources of information about the organ, and are related to the details of the instrument found in documentary and secondary sources. The compositions are used to evaluate these details when appropriate. A new edition of Benjamin Cooke's organ voluntaries and his Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis in G form part of the dissertation. The voluntaries appear together here for the first time in a modern edition. The choral repertoire is discussed with reference to part books used in the Abbey from the Restoration until the beginning of the twentieth century and to a catalogue of printed music in the choir library compiled around 1905. The role of the organ in the liturgical life of the Abbey is considered, and the political events which affected this are introduced and discussed. Coronation services take place in the Abbey. The music performed at these from Charles II to Victoria is established as far as possible from service books in Lambeth Palace Library and other sources. The musical forces available at coronations are discussed, including organs built in the Abbey especially for these events

This thesis is a study of how the South Korean government has tried to protect folksong traditions by designating them as Chungyo mUhyong munhwajae (Important Intangible Cultural Properties), a category of national treasures, and by regulating the transmission of these through the appointment of poyuja ("holders"). In 1962, the South Korean government promulgated the Munhwajae pohopop (Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties) on the basis of which a system was set up to protect and promote both so-called "tangible" (yuhyong) and "intangible" (muhyong) cultural properties. The law stipulated that in order to regulate the decision-making process, a committee was to be formed out of specialists of different fields of study, the Munhwajae wiwonhoe (Cultural Properties Committee; hereafter CPC). The CPC subsequently sent its members all over the country to survey and write reports on cultural items, and on the basis of these reports, it could decide to appoint cultural items as national treasures. In this thesis, I show how the system was set up, how the protection of these Intangible Cultural Properties is managed, and what factors have affected the decision-making process. Chapter 1 examines the state of folk arts in Korea after the Pacific War, and the social conditions at the time of the enactment of the Law. It also briefly looks into what its impact has been to date. I define the system's theoretical scope and highlight its limiting factors. Chapter 2 discusses the terminology for Korean folksongs and describes the songs' general characteristics. In chapter 3, I give a historical account of the protection of Korean cultural properties by law. I also examine the current law's main stipulations and explain how the system is institutionalised. Chapter 4 studies the government reports on which the appointments of intangible cultural properties are based and discusses their flaws. Besides the legal criteria, and those generally agreed upon by the CPC members, it looks into what other criteria may affect the appointment of folksong genres. Chapter 5 focuses on the appointed folksong genres, and their "holders," from the province surrounding the capital Seoul, the Kyonggi minyo (Folksongs from Kyonggi Province) and Sonsori sant'aryong (Standing Mountain Songs) respectively. Chapter 6 studies the appointed folksong genre from the now North Korean Hwanghae and P'yongan provinces, the Sodo sori (Folksongs from the Northwestern Provinces), as well as the "one-man opera" Paebaengi kut (Ritual for Paebaengi). Chapter 7 briefly considers the remaining four appointed folksong genres from other provinces in South Korea and highlights the main issues regarding their transmission. In the final chapter, I conclude that although the system has been successful in promoting many traditions, it has so far failed to fully preserve the appointed folksong traditions.

Digital music technologies, and instruments in particular, are the result of specific systems of thought that define and enframe the user's creative options. Distinctive divisions between digital and acoustic instruments can be traced, contrasting the conceptually based design of software with the affordances and constraints of physical artefacts. Having lost the world's gift of physical properties, the digital instrument builder becomes more than a mere luthier. The process of designing and building the instrument is transformed into a process of composition, for it typically contains a greater degree of classification and music theory than its acoustic counterpart. Part I of this thesis begins by framing musical systems in the context of the philosophy of technology. Here technological conditions are questioned and theories introduced that will assist the investigation into the relationship between creativity and technology. After this general grounding, the ramifications digital technologies pose to the human body are explored in the context of human expression through tool use. The human-machine relationship is described from phenomenological perspectives and relevant theories of cognitive science. This analysis serves as a foundation for the concept of epistemic tools, defmed as the mechanism whereby techno-cultural models are inscribed into technological artefacts. The cultural element of tool use and tool origins is therefore emphasised, an aspect that is highly relevant in musical technologies. Part I thus frames the material properties of acoustic and digital instruments in relation to human culture, cognition, performance and epistemology. Part II contextualises these theories in practice. The ixiQuarks, the live improvisation musical environment that resulted from the current research, are presented as a system addressing some of the vital problems of musical performance with digital systems (such as the question of embodiment and theoretical inscriptions), proposing an innovative interaction model for screen-based musical instruments. The concept of virtual embodiment is introduced and framed in the context of the ixi interaction model. Two extensive user studies are described that support the report on ixiQuarks. Furthermore, comparative surveys on the relationship between expression and technology are presented: a) the phenomenology of musical instruments, where the divergence between the acoustic and the digital is investigated; b) the question of expressive freedom versus time constraints "in musical environments is explored with practitioners in the field; and c) the key players in the design of audio programming environments explain the rationale and philosophy behind their work. These are the first major surveys of this type conducted to date, and the results interweave smoothly with the observations and findings in the chapters on the nature and the design of digital instruments that make up the majority of Part II. This interdisciplinary research investigates the nature of making creative tools in the digital realm, through an active, phiIosophicaIIy framed and ethnographicaIIy inspired study, of both practical and theoretical engagement. It questions the nature of digital musical instruments, particularly in comparison with acoustic instruments. Through a survey of material epistemologies, the dichotomy between the acoustic and the digital is employed to illustrate the epistemic nature of digital artefacts, necessitating a theory of epistemic tools. Consequently virtual embodiment is presented as a definition of the specific interaction mode constituting human relations with digital technologies. It is demonstrated that such interactions are indeed embodied, contrasting common claims that interaction with software is a disembodied activity. The role of cultural context in such design is emphasised, through an analysis of how system design is always an intricate process of analyses, categorisations, normalisations, abstractions, and constructions; where the design paths taken are often defined by highly personal, culturaIIy conditioned and often arbitrary reasons. The dissertation therefore dissects the digital musical instrument from the perspectives of ontology, phenomenology and epistemology. Respective sections in Part I and Part II deal with these views. The practical outcome of this research - the ixiQuarks - embodies many of the theoretical points made on these pages. The software itself, together with the theoretical elucidation of its context, should therefore be viewed as equal contributions to the field of music technology. The thesis closes by considering what has been achieved through these investigations of the technological context, software development, user studies, surveys, and the phenomenological and epistemological enquiries into the realities of digital musical instruments, emphasising that technology can never be neutral.

This DMA portfolio contains materials and a written critical commentary of over 10,000 words relating to the work I have completed towards a Doctor of Musical Arts in Performance, at the University of Salford. My doctoral programme consists of four performance projects and a public performance in the form of a lecture recital. The study consists of an exploration and contextualisation of compositions, written for the virtuoso trombone player in differing genres and an analysis on how these genres have influenced music, written for the brass band trombone soloist in the 21st Century. The work explores historical repertoire that has not been represented either in live performance or by recording in the last one hundred years along with newly commissioned compositions by leading and new composers. Works were discovered by visiting libraries, band-rooms and archives around the world. The evidence is achieved through several CD releases including Novus Vox (Song of Joy): Music of the Salvation Army, Salute to Sousa and Slide Projections which explore the trombone in solo with wind bands both in an historical and contemporary frame. The large scale premieres of compositions by Peter Graham and Edward Gregson are the stated commissions and finally a public performance lecture recital provides evidence on how the genres influence my performances. In addition the portfolio compilation contains: A) Copies of excerpts of parts and featured pieces. B) Published reviews and critical evaluations of the performances on premieres. C) The public lecture recital programme and live recording. D) Supporting material showing my international standing, significant past and current activity as a performing artist in my field. This submission adds significant new works and forgotten repertoire to the limited number of compositions for the solo trombonist and explores new ground and collaborations. This is represented through the CD projects and the premiere performances. Seen as a whole, the project illustrates my various facets across this submission, which illustrates how I am an ambassador of the trombone through chamber, brass band and wind band genres. I have been involved in the projects on various levels, not just as a solo performer but also as a recording artist, an arranger, executive producer, editor, and in writing programme notes and hand-outs.

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