This thesis re-evaluates the traditionally held view that Lyon in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries was a city without a sacred polyphonic tradition. Chapter 1 explores the dichotomy between the powerful conservative archbishopric, staunchly against the use of sacred polyphony in the church, and the vibrant cultural life of the city. Lyon had a flourishing music publishing industry, frequently hosted the courts of the French kings, and was home to a large Italian community whose churches employed some prominent musicians. Chapters 2 and 3 present case studies of two manuscripts with links to Lyon: Copenhagen, Royal Library, Ny Kgl. Samling 1848 2°, and Lyon, Bibliotheque Municipale, MS 6632. The first case study focuses on segments of the sacred repertoire in the large composite manuscript Cop 1848. The possibility of a local sacred polyphonic practice in Lyon is traced through an examination of settings of Stabat mater, 0 salutaris, and Marian votive texts. Problematic terms such as 'provincial' and 'parochial' are reconsidered in an attempt to identify more accurate ways of categorizing and describing this music. The second case study looks at a set of little-known fragments removed from the binding of a book published in Lyon in 1542. Lyon 6632 was previously believed to contain Continental music from c. 1500, but one of these compositions is here identified as a three-voice English mass, composed in the mid-fifteenth century, with known concordances in four other manuscripts. The version in Lyon 6632 is unique, however, in that it includes a fourth voice below the original three-voice texture that appears to be the work of a later composer. Chapter 4 looks at the adaptation of existing works through the addition of a new voice. While this practice was widespread in secular repertoire in the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, it was unusual for large-scale sacred works to be adapted in this way. The mass from Lyon 6632 and a comparable example from Cop 1848 are considered as possible evidence of a Lyonnais practice of adaptation arising in response to the city's unusual approach to sacred polyphony.

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This project focuses on Sergei Rachmaninoff's Piano Sonata no. 2 and the revisions it underwent over a period of some 70 years. Rachmaninoff's works are central to the piano literature; the second sonata is particularly popular because of its dramatic musical content. There is, however, another reason for interest in the piece: Rachmaninoff composed it in. 1913 but, 18 years later, dissatisfied with his early compositional style, he overhauled it extensively. It was not the only work for piano revised by the composer (some early, shorter pieces were also re-worked), and, needless to say, many other composers are well known for revising their music, but what makes the second sonata distinctive is the role in its evolution played by the composer's closest friend, the famous pianist Vladimir Horowitz. He frequently performed Rachmaninoff's works, including the second sonata. Nevertheless, he disagreed sJfongly with the 1931 revision, so much so that he appealed directly to the composer, requesting permission to combine the two versions to make a third. Rachmaninoff apparently gave his consent shortly before he died. Subsequently, Horowitz performed the sonata regularly in his own version, but its identity did not become any more fixed, for Horowitz's spontaneous performance style resulted in constant changes to the musical text. The core of this project is an examination of this constant change as demonstrated in the materials Horowitz used in the ongoing preparation of his version (preserved in the Irving S. Gilmore Music Library of Yale University) and in the various recordings he made. By approaching the revision of the second sonata (a familiar subject in Rachmaninoff studies) from the perspective of a uniquely privileged interpreter, the aim is to shed light on how the sonata changed in live musical situations, and thus on the relationship between its performance and (re-) composition.

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This thesis is based on eight of the author's published works that challenge some of the disciplinary biases, methodological approaches, and deficiencies in first generation film musicology. Creating a balance between theoretical and practicebased approaches, these works are: Writing l. Mera, M. M)'chael Danna's The Ice Storm. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2007. 2. Mera, M. and Bumand, D. European Film Music. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006. 3. Mera, M. 'Takemitsu's Composed Space in Kurosawa's Ran', in Robynn Stilwell and Peter Franklin, eds., Cambridge Companion to Film Music. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, [in press, forthcoming]. 4. Mera, M. 'Reap Just What You Sow: Trainspotting's Perfect Day', in Steve Lannin and Matthew Caley, eds., Pop Fiction- the Song in Cinema. Bristol: Intellect, 2005, 86-97. Film Compositions 5. Mera, M. Broken, dir. Vicki Psarias, Ten Thousand Films, 2007 6. Mera, M. What Does Your Daddy Do? dir. Martin Stitt, Sprig Productions, 2006. 7. Mera, M. Moth, dir. Simon Corris, Amulet Films, 2005. 8. Mera, M. The Goodbye Plane, dir. David Bartlett, Kewhaven Pictures, 2003. The term 'second-generation' in relation to film musicology was first coined by Robynn Stilwell to identify a productive shift away from the ideas of scholars such as Kathryn Kalinak and Claudia Gorbman. Gorbman's seminal text, Unheard Alelodies, for example, contained recurrent arguments about film music as a subservient element in a narrative system, an invisible discourse that 'functions to lull the spectator into being an untroublesome (less critical, less wary) viewing subject.' (1987, 15). More broadly first-generation film musicology was focused on mainstream Hollywood scoring, narrative causality, and the non-diegetic score, often at the expense of other elements of the soundtrack. The Critical Appraisal demonstrates how the author's published work positions itself in relation to and against this first-generation work, seeking to expand the field by employing new methodologies and exploring hitherto undervalued areas of study. The specific areas of examination are: (a) Film music beyond the mainstream Hollywood studio system ('Indiewood', Europe, Japan, Britain); (b) The use of silence, space and ambiguity as a scoring approach and the means by which this empowers the audience, demanding their active engagement with the filmic text, and; (c) Methods of collaboration and communication and their effect on compositional process and product, with a particular focus on the temp-track. As a practising film composer, the author has a unique perspective from which to explore this subject area. In particular, political context, industrial and collaborative practice, and technological methods are interrogated in a manner that is borne out of personal experience. The relationship between the published written and composed texts, therefore, challenges idealistic and mythologized notions of film music that fail to reflect how political structures and creativity interact. The Critical Appraisal also suggests some future directions for study in a rapidly progressing and vibrant field of study.