This thesis looks at three previously unstudied manuscript sources of French Classical organ music, and analyses the music within the two of them in the context of the published repertoire. After an introduction to <i>altermatim </i>performance and the ecclesiastical prescriptions governing this music, the author considers the extant repertoire of French Classical organ music in manuscript form, and the work which has so far been done on it. Volume 1 of the thesis consists of two parts. Part 1 contains three manuscript studies: D-MbsMus.Ms.1503k (c1660); B-BrMs.lll1508 (early 18^th century);and F-PcMS4689 (early 18^th century). The first manuscript contains figured bass and incomplete sketches of liturgical pieces, including a <i>Messe double</i>, as well as a number of written out <i>fantaisies</i>. The other two manuscripts contain fully-written out pieces. B-BrMs.lll1508 begins with a <i>Messe du Huitiesme Ton, </i>and contains a number of suites, as well as a few harpsichord and vocal pieces. Although the pieces in F-PcMS4689 may appear to be unlinked and do not bear liturgical attributions, the author shows that this manuscript in fact contains three organ masses, as well as a number of harpsichord pieces. The second part of volume 1 is devoted to an analysis of the music within the later two manuscripts – B-BrMs.lll1508 and F-PcMS4689 – in comparison with that in the published repertoire. Only a small number of such studies have been undertaken, the most significant being Morche (1979); Gallat-Morin (1988); and Ponsford (1999); and amongst these, only Gallat-Morin has considered any of the manuscript sources available. Volume 2 presents a modern transcription of F-PcMS4689.

Many organists believe that one of the main advantages of mechanical actions, i.e. those in which there is a direct and uninterrupted mechanical link from the key which the player moves to the pallet valve that admits air to the pipes, is that they allow the player to control the pallet and thus influence the initial sound of the pipe. This project looks at how the key and pallet actually move compared with what the player believes is happening. Measurements of the movement of the keys and, where possible, the pallets were made using LED and laser distance sensors, with the organists being asked to play in a variety of styles that they believed resulted in the keys moving at significantly different speeds. Sound recordings were made in order to compare the transients. The results showed that the key movement could be broken down into two distinct parts. The first part is the movement before pluck and thus before the pallet starts opening in which the flexibility of the action was taken up. The relative length of this movement varied very considerably even on short and rigid actions showing elongations when players believed that they were moving the key slowly. The movement after pluck, and thus during which the pallet was opening and admitting air to the pipes, did not vary greatly and in some cases, despite the player very deliberately trying to vary the speed, remained nearly constant. It could be clearly shown that attempts to vary the speed of key movement were, in fact, resulting in distinct rhythmic changes. The conclusion is that although players vary the time of the complete key movement, any difference occurs mostly in the part of the key movement before the pallet starts opening and thus cannot have any influence on the initial transient.

Most traditional musical harmony teaching methods in use in undergraduate courses are centred on pedagogical principles that require students to manipulate musical elements, beyond those directly relevant to the subject matter. Beginning harmony students often encounter extra difficulty in the learning process as they usually lack experience in manipulating individual musical elements. In addition, the emphasis on exemplars of the common practice of eighteenth and nineteenth century composers imposes some limitation on the student’s harmonic vocabulary and, in consequence, on the student’s creativity. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Arnold Schoenberg proposed a method of teaching harmony which presented a different set of pedagogical principles: the method required no background knowledge of other musical elements; it encouraged the exploration of the search space of solutions which, in conjunction with a self assessment of them, helps students to develop their own harmonic sense, without the influence of exemplars of the harmonic practice of existing composers. However, although Schoenberg’s method addresses the problems presented above, it has not been widely used, mostly because its fundamental pedagogy and curriculum are buried in lengthy philosophical discussions of polemical arguments and criticism of traditional methods. This thesis investigates the possibility of designing and constructing a computer-based learning environment presenting the pedagogy and curriculum of Schoenberg’s harmonic teaching method while remaining true to its spirit. We present a formalisation of part of the method’s curriculum and associated pedagogical principles, which have been embodied in a prototype learning environment. The results from studies involving the prototype are also presented: a formative evaluation was carried out with music experts aiming to assess its interactive music notation human computer interface and to inform changes and improvements to be made to the prototype; and a summative evaluation was conducted with music lecturers to assess not only the degree of faithfulness of the environment to the method, but also the educational benefits that such an environment can potentially bring to harmony teaching.

Entre 1957 et 1962 Pierre Boulez a composé<i>Pli selon pli</i>, une oeuvre 'a laquelle il donna le sous-titre <i>Portrait de Mallarmé/</i> et qui s'inspire d'un cycle de po'emes choisis parmi l'oeuvre du po'ete symboliste mort en 1898. Le but de cette th'ese est d'éudier le rapport entre musicien et po'ete tel qu'il se ré'ele 'a travers cette oeuvre musicale. En musique l'éroulement du language tonal fut suivi d'une péiode de déordre en mati'ere de composition. Dan les annés cinquante, le jeune Pierre Boulez - persuadéque le déordre tenait d'un manque essentiel de cohéion entre le langage musical et la sensibilitécontemporaine - se sentait contraint 'a rechercher et 'a éablir un nouveau langage 'a la hauteur de cette sensibilité Dans les annés soixante du dernier si'ecle Stéhane Mallarméa véu une expéience analogue en mati'ere d'ériture poéique. Motivépar l'idé que le devoir du po'ete éait d'expliquer orphiquement la terre, il se sentait poussé'a rechercher un langage capable d'accomplir ce but. A partir de 1885 Mallarméa pris un certain inté^et 'a la musique mais son attitude envers cet art est toujours resté ambivalente et tr'es complexe. Il le mérisait mais en m^eme temps croyait 'a la possibilitéd'intérer 'a la poéie certaines de ses qualité. A contre courant de la pensé dominant son éoque, Mallarméopposait 'a la conception wagnéienne du <i>Gesamtkunstwerk</i> un art total purement littéaire. La pensé du Mallarmésur la musique a éésouvent méonnue, surtout par les critiques déireux d'expliquer son influence sur Boulez. Ce dernier signale spéifiquement la préccupation du po'ete avec le langage et avec la technique du langage comme source de cette influence. C'est une préccupation qui entra^ine une conception double de la crétivitéqui réond, selon le compositeur, aux besoins de l'éoque moderne. La conception bouléienne de la mise en musique d'un po'eme fait ého 'a cette dualité Boulez vise 'a faire du po'eme dans tous ses aspects la source d'une proliféation musicale. Au moyen d'une analyse déaillé du texte, il vise 'a éablir entre celui-ci et la musique un rapport indestructible qui laisse intouché l'autonomie originale du poe'me et permet en m^eme temps une grande libertéen ce qui concerne la composition musicale. Le rapport envisagépar Boulez entre le po'eme et la musique se ré'ele en fin de compte comme une méaphore du rapport envisagépar Mallarméentre le monde et l'érit.

The Convito Musicale, perhaps more than any other of Orazio Vecchi's works, expresses the fullness of his many-sided musical personality. In historical perspective, it is a summation of cinquecento polyphonic vocal secular forms, and an example of music for entertainment at its best. Until recently, Vecchi's importance in the history of music has depended almost entirely upon his one work available in transcription from the original part-books, the brilliant madrigal-comedy, L'Amfiparnaso. The transcription and detailed analysis of the Convito which comprise this thesis should serve to fill at least part of this void, and further emphasize Vecchi's importance in the culmination of cinquecento secular music. Orazio Vecchi was born in Modena in 1550, and received his early ecclesiastical and musical training there. By 1579, he had taken the holy orders, developed into an accomplished courtier, and had been accepted into the Venetian circle of A. Gabrieli, and Merulo among others. He left his position in Salo as Maestro di Cappella to accept a similar position in Modena at the Cathedral in 1584. By 1585 he had already established himself with Gardano in Venice, and published three books of canzonette and one of madrigals. Meager finances, and family responsibilities made a more remunerative position in Correggio attractive to him, and so he accepted their offer in 1586. During the next five years he published two books of canzonette, a book of Lamentations, one of motets, another of madrigals, and his Selva di varia ricreatione of 1590, the first of his large secular words. His dedications seem to indicate that he was again searching for a new position. He joined G. Gabrieli and Balbo in 1591 in revising the Graduale Romano, and was raised to the status of Archdeacon in the same year, evidence of his rise in fame and esteem.

As the title suggests, the theme of this thesis is one of exploration and journey. The journey in question is essentially one of a spiritual nature. The process of conveying this motion in musical terms presented me with many challenges. The musical scores draw their inspiration from cultures as diverse as the rhythms of West Africa the overtone chanting of Tibet and Native American spiritual chants. It is predominantly these sources, that sit outside the European classical tradition, which enable me to write meaningful music that echoes both the philosophical and spiritual ideas I need to communicate. Some of the music presented here, however, gains its impetus from political issues of particular importance to myself. Meditation- double bass; dur. 8 mins. Memories - clarinet and viola ; dur. 2 mins. Invocation - flute, clarinet, violin, cello and guitar; dur. 10 mins. Hidden Song - string quartet; dur 11 mins. Prayer - Eb clarinet, voice, viola, flute and percussion; dur. 10 mins. Why? - flute, clarinet, violin, cello and tape; dur 10 mins. Tribute to Mr, King - organ; dur 20 mins. What has happened to all that Beauty? - string quartet, voice and live electronics; dur. 15 mins. Movements - symphony orchestra; dur. 20 mins. Journey Across the Horizon - voice, mixed voices, chamber orchestra; dur. 45 mins.

The purpose of this study is to examine the historical development of the Great Highland Bagpipe in Southern Ontario prior to 1987. In 1987, the 78^th Fraser Highlanders of Toronto won the World Pipe Championships; they were the first band from Canada to achieve such distinction in global competition. Who were these pipers? Where did they come from? What were the historical circumstances that gave rise to such fruitful competitive piping conditions in the latter 20^th century? This thesis attempts to shed light on these issues as well as to examine within a wider framework the cultural transmission of emigrant traditions in Canada. The development of piping traditions in Ontario, though similar to the Scottish experience, differs because it takes place in a different geographical, social and cultural context. Several themes emerge in this history: Scottish immigration to Ontario plays a significant (and obvious) role in the artistic development of piping. Large scale Scottish immigration served to construct conditions whereby Celtic symbols (kilts and bagpipes) would be embraced not only by the transplanted Scots themselves but also by the largely British resident culture. Other historical avenues explored in the study are the roles the British and Canadian armies played in the evaluation of the pipe band; the increasing participation of the most respected solo pipers in post-World War Two highland games (in Ontario and Scotland) and how their performance practises set ever increasing performance standards for Ontario pipers; and finally, the story of the Scottish World Festival 1982-1981, and its impact on the Ontario band scene. This thesis is approached from various interpretive perspectives. Its data gathering methodology comprises a compilation of archival, oral, published and unpublished material in order to provide the broadest and most balanced account of the story of southern Ontario piping traditions. This study also takes a biographical approach. Individual personalities and their lives are explored in detail throughout the text without whom it would have been impossible to write such a treatise on the piping traditions of central Canada.

In this research, we present our computational model which performs four part harmonisation in the style of J.S. Bach. Harmonising Bach chorales is a hard AI problem, comparable to natural language understanding. In our approach, we explore the issue of gaining control in an explicit way for the chorale harmonisation tasks. Generally, the control over the search space may be from both domain dependent and domain independent control knowledge. Our explicit control emphasises domain dependent control knowledge. The control gained from domain dependent control enables us to map a clearer relationship between the control applied and its effects. Two examples of domain dependent control are a plan of tasks to be done and heuristics stating properties of the domain. Examples of domain independent control are notions such as temperature values in an annealing method; mutation rates in Genetic Algorithms; and weights in Artificial Neural Networks. The appeal of the knowledge based approach lies in the accessibility to the control if required. Our system exploits this concept extensively. Control is explicitly expressed by weaving different atomic definitions (i.e. the rules, tests and measures) together with appropriate control primitives. Each expression constructed is called a control definition, which is hierarchical by nature. One drawback of the knowledge based approach is that, as the system grows bigger, the exploitation of the new added knowledge grows exponentially. This leads to an intractable search space. To reduce this intractability problem, we partially search the search space at the meta-level. This meta-level architecture reduces the complexity in the search space by exploiting search at the meta-level which has a smaller search space. The experiment shows that an explicitly structured control offers a greater flexibility in controlling the search space as it allows the control definitions to be manipulated and modified with great flexibility. This is a crucial element in performing partial search over a big search space. As the control is allowed to be examined, the system also potentially supports elaborate explanations of the system activities and reflections at the meta-level.

This thesis examines the revival and subsequent development of traditional music in the Isle of Man from the 1970s until the present day. Together with dance and the Gaelic language, the revival of Manx traditional music has contributed to the reevaluation of a Manx identity based upon traditional values and symbolism. Drawing on individual interviews, a comprehensive survey and primary source material, this thesis investigates the motivations, influences and ideology behind the revival. Issues of nationalism, individual and communal identities, Celticism, authenticity and the formation of cultural boundaries are all addressed in an analysis of the revivalist ideology, which has consequently dictated the standard repertoire and musical style of today. The structure of the study is based upon a theoretical model of musical revivalism designed by Tamara E. Livingston (1999:69): 1. an individual or small group of “core revivalists”; 2. revival informants and/or original sources (e.g. historical sound recordings); 3. a revivalist ideology and discourse; 4. a group of followers which form the basis of a revivalist community; 5. revivalist activities (organizations, festivals, competitions); 6. non-profit and/or commercial enterprises catering to the revivalist market. Livingston’s model has been employed to ascertain whether the Manx music movement corresponds with the modern conception of the term ‘revival’ and therefore with the typical characteristics as documented in other cases. This thesis aims to render new concepts that can be added to contemporary theory on musical revivalism.

This work deals with simulation of brass and reed woodwind instruments. The principal objective is to develop discrete-time models that are suitable for application in a musical sound synthesis environment. The main bulk of the thesis describes methods for linear modelling of the instrument air column. Using a travelling-wave based approach, the air column is modelled as a series of modules, each representing a part of the bore. New methods for digital modelling of brass and woodwind mouthpieces, woodwind toneholes, and brass bells are presented. The study also includes new methods for discrete-time modelling of conical bore sections. In addition, the mechanical behaviour of a clarinet reed is studied by means of a distributed model that is formulated numerically using the finite-difference approach. Precise measurements of the reed shape and the mouthpiece lay geometry have been carried out in order to accurately simulate the bending of the reed against the lay during oscillation. An equivalent lumped oscillator model is formulated, and its properties are analysed to a reed-driven pipe simulation. In general, the discrete-time models described in this work are validated via comparison with either measurements or established acoustic theories. The modular approach taken in the derivation of these models allow for dynamic and intuitive control of the musically important simulation parameters.