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The technical limitations ofthe guitar present composers who do not play the instrument themselves but who wish to compose for it with difficulties that can often only be overcome by close collaboration with a performer. It is these difficulties that have discouraged composers from writing for the instrument on their own initiative, and it was not until the early twentieth century that non-guitarist composers were commissioned by performers, most notably the Spaniard Andres Segovia. The Italian Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco was one such composer. He eventually became so intrigued by the guitar that he wrote numerous works for it, often on his own initiative, and dedicated them to various performers. He would also give the instrument a prominent place in various chamber ensembles. It appears that the instrument's technical limitations remained beyond his grasp, and his compositions present performers with numerous problematic passages. However, it was never his intention to write in a way that would conform to what was technically acceptable at the time. Instead he aimed to renew the repertoire, and he provided performers with a text that always needed to be adapted for performance. In order to produce texts that were commercially viable, the published editions of his works for guitar had to be heavily edited. In so doing, the composer's notation was obscured by the many alterations which reflect the editors' views as to what constituted technically acceptable solutions to otherwise demanding passages. This thesis examines Castelnuovo-Tedesco's contributions to the guitar repertoire, and it evaluates how his music was edited for publication. Comparative source studies are presented of three of his compositions that date from the same period yet were published under very different circumstances. In order to classify the differences in the sources, this thesis evaluates the nature of revisions and their underlying intentions. In addition, it categorizes the various editorial changes that are commonly found in music for guitar by non-guitarist composers.- This provides a framework for a methodology according to which new critical editions ofthe three works are presented. This study shows that what would normally be considered to be the most authoritative source (the printed editions, because they would have been approved by the composer) does not necessarily provide the best base for a modem critical edition. What appears to be an authorized text turns out not to reflect most accurately what the composer intended. Although no methodology can be comprehensive and applicable to all works by any composer, this thesis seeks to develop a general set of editorial principles that are potentially applicable to the editing ofother works for guitar by non-guitarist composers.

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This thesis suggests a new model of human-machine interaction in the domain of non-idiomatic musical improvisation. Musical results are viewed as emergent phenomena issuing from complex internal systems behaviour in relation to input from a single human performer. We investigate the prospect of rewarding interaction whereby a system modifies itself in coherent though non-trivial ways as a result of exposure to a human interactor. In addition, we explore whether such interactions can be sustained over extended time spans. These objectives translate into four criteria for evaluation; maximisation of human influence, blending of human and machine influence in the creation of machine responses, the maintenance of independent machine motivations in order to support machine autonomy and finally, a combination of global emergent behaviour and variable behaviour in the long run. Our implementation is heavily inspired by ideas and engineering approaches from the discipline of Artificial Life. However, we also address a collection of representative existing systems from the field of interactive composing, some of which are implemented using techniques of conventional Artificial Intelligence. All systems serve as a contextual background and comparative framework helping the assessment of the work reported here. This thesis advocates a networked model incorporating functionality for listening, playing and the synthesis of machine motivations. The latter incorporate dynamic relationships instructing the machine to either integrate with a musical context suggested by the human performer or, in contrast, perform as an individual musical character irrespective of context. Techniques of evolutionary computing are used to optimise system components over time. Evolution proceeds based on an implicit fitness measure; the melodic distance between consecutive musical statements made by human and machine in relation to the currently prevailing machine motivation. A substantial number of systematic experiments reveal complex emergent behaviour inside and between the various systems modules. Music scores document how global systems behaviour is rendered into actual musical output. The concluding chapter offers evidence of how the research criteria were accomplished and proposes recommendations for future research.

This practice-based research into the quality of presence in performance explores a compositional approach that originates from the question of what might lead a person to seek musical or sounding utterance. It aims at opening the awareness-space towards a listening not only to the musical-acoustic event, but to the performer as a whole. Consequently different forms of notation and processes of rehearsing that address the psycho-physical constitution of a performer are investigated; a strong focus lies on the sensorimotor aspect of playing an instrument. The portfolio comprises fourteen pieces (for soloists, chamber ensembles and orchestra) as well as four collaborative projects with performance artists. Most of the pieces have been performed live: documentation on CD and DVD is included. The written part of the thesis provides a commentary on the process of bringing these pieces into being. In particular, issues of notation and rehearsal are addressed here, which are of special concern as to the transmission of conceptions regarding presence, embodiment and kinaesthetic sensitivities. I explain how the body of compositions deals with various notions of listening: receptive listening and - in the chapter on the orchestral piece spun yam - listening as a sense of touch as well as listening in wonder. Illustrated by several performance projects I outline the concept of the audience as witness rather than as observer. Additionally, I describe how I use imagery to inscribe possible stimuli for musical or sounding utterance into my compositions. To demonstrate how this research contributes to new knowledge in the field of musical composition, I compare it with similar yet different positions exemplified by Mauricio Kagel's "instrumental theatre" as well as Helmut Lachenmann's "musique concrete instrumentale" and place it against more recent trends and developments. These evaluations will show that there is no other approach to the quality of presence within musical composition coinciding exactly with mine.

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