The aim of this study is to discuss developments in the presentation and singing of hymns from the minimal involvement of late eighteenth century congregations to the full participation expected in the late twentieth century. One source of important musical, social and cultural details illustrating developments in hymnody is found in a range of representative novels. This information is corroborated by other written accounts such as diaries, census material and church records. Early on in the research three handwritten part-books were discovered, dating from 1837 to 1911. This primary source material is vital in the discussion concerning changes in hymn and psalm tunes, and provides substantive evidence that such part-books are forerunners of published hymnbooks. Furthermore a direct link is established between local manuscripts and fictional writing as the provenance of the earliest part-book is traced to the family of novelist Flora Thompson. Further developments in hymnody are seen in the examination of children's hymns. A case study is presented of the flourishing tradition of hymn singing at Bicester Methodist Sunday School. One innovation was the formation of a harmonica band, and detailed notebooks and concert plans reveal the range of the band's sacred and secular programme. A fieldwork survey was conducted to investigate the hymn singing preferences of regular worshippers from five Christian denominations in Bicester. Whilst the responses reveal few differences between the groups, there is compelling evidence that the popularity of certain published hymnbooks has led to a common ownership of hymns, enabling them to be enjoyed both in and out of worship. This study therefore reveals the clear line of development from psalmody to hymnody, from handwritten manuscripts to published hymnbooks. The social context in which both texts and tunes are considered provides a clear illustration of the importance of hymns to the singing population.

This thesis is in two parts. Part One, <I>Captain Simon Fraser</I>: <I>his life and </I>Airs, provides an introduction to traditional Scottish Gaelic music and song related to <I>Airs</I> (his major musical publication), and investigates his family's and his own military and farming careers, and their possible relevance to the melodies he published. It also examines how Fraser collected, published, and promoted <I>Airs</I> and similar projects, in part through his unpublished correspondence with Sir Walter Scott, and with the Highland Society of Scotland, with other supporting documentation. Part Two, <I>Gaelic songs from Captain Simon Fraser's</I> Airs, is a collection of the author's editions of songs created from marrying edited melodies from the collection of the Gaelic poems associated with them through their titles, or similar information. This is intended to prove that the music in <I>Airs,</I> although originally set instrumentally, can provide valid musical sources for mainly eighteenth-century Scottish Gaelic songs. The collection is prefaced by two introductions. The first discusses Fraser as a musician and editor, as well as some of the difficulties which may arise when dealing with music of his kind. The second introduction explains how the editorial notes are presented, what elements of the song will be discussed and explains this editor's working methods. These notes, which utilise scholarly apparatus, may be found in Part Two, after the songs, which are interleaved with facsimiles of Fraser original versions, for ease of study. The results of the research found in Part One is a detailed picture of Fraser as a soldier, a farmer, and a collector and publisher of traditional Gaelic melodies, alongside new insights into the workings of patronage at the end of the 'long eighteenth', through Fraser's unpublished correspondence with the Highland Society of Scotland, and with Sir Walter Scott. Part Two provides practical examples of the suitability of Fraser's art music settings as a basis for the production of versions of Scottish Gaelic songs for which there is no comparable historic source.

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Musical life in the North-East of England during the eighteenth century is known almost exclusively for the work of Charles Avison, composer of a large number of concertos and writer of a notable book on music — An Essay on Musical Expression. But Avison was only one of a large number of musicians based in the region during the century; this thesis aims to reconstruct a more comprehensive picture of commercial musical activities — including concert-promotion, teaching, tuning and composition — in the three main centres of Newcastle, Durham and York and in some smaller local towns. It examines the links between musicians both within the region and outside it, and the extent to which those links affected the repertoire composed and performed in the area. Moreover, it looks at the connections between the region and London and seeks to establish the degree to which musical activity in the region was 'provincial'. Was North-Eastern musical life during the eighteenth century merely a pale reflection of musical life in the capital or did it have a character of its own? Using principally contemporary primary sources such as newspapers, diaries, Corporation records, ecclesiastical records, theatre and Assembly Room account books and parish registers, this thesis demonstrates that the North-East region of England was, throughout the century, an area of considerable activity, involving both professional musicians and so-called Gentlemen Amateurs, and was by no means a backwater.

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This portfolio includes four electronic pieces as well as three works especially devised for dance and theatre. The electronic music compositions Plastiches, Clangor, Showtime! and Ciguri investigate different approaches to the use of space and temporal structures. The works Dance studies Nos. 1 &2 were created as collaborations with choreographers and explore aspects of the relationship between music and contemporary dance. The large-scale dance-theatre work To have done with the judgment ofArtaud explores different aspects of experimental music and contemporary dance and is related to the later works of Antonin Artaud.

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