This thesis investigates performance as an embodied practice. It draws on theories of embodiment, which act as a catalyst for thinking about performance, and thus provide an interdisciplinary framework for conceptualising the body in performance. I explore a discourse that situates performance itself within the liminal, as an in-between condition, as something that does not fit in. I reflect on performances, ranging from music to cosmetic surgery, and I highlight the in-between conditions and the marginalised space that in my view posits performance as multivalent, multifaceted and full of potential. This line of enquiry is informed by my view of the body as a site of change, discord and ambiguity; what one can refer to as the threshold condition, or what Victor Turner calls the “state of betwixt and between” (Turner, 1982, p.17). I take the body as a starting point for this discussion, as I consider the body as a vanguard to providing a different view to the majority of current music and performance writings. I subscribe to the view that the multi-faceted and, at times, highly controversial debate that has been applied to the body, has not been equivalently explored in the discussion of performance. My background as a music performer who works extensively with new technologies leads me to examine predominantly performance environments that use such technologies. I thus draw on examples from laptop performances and from my work as designer and musician of various performative environments. Other ideas in this thesis are informed by the ways in which I engage with an instrument, prepare for, and think about a performance, as well as from being a listener to somebody else’s performance. A body of writings from various other disciplines forms the backbone to my investigation. I believe that these writings draw attention to essential facets of performance activities and provide different ways of conceptualising performance that I argue are currently under-explored in current music and performance texts.

No description available.

In der vorliegenden Dissertation wurde untersucht, wie das Lernen in Gruppen die individuelle Leistungsbereitschaft von erwachsenen Instrumentalschülern beeinflusst. Den Rahmen bildete eine universitäre Lehrveranstaltung, in der schulpraktische Klavierkenntnisse in Lerngruppen von sechs bis acht Teilnehmern vermittelt wurden. Bei den Teilnehmern handelte es sich um Lehramtsstudierende für Grund-, Haupt- und Sonderschule (N = 52, Alter: 19-44 Jahre). Für die Datenerhebung wurde ein Mixed Methods Design verwendet, das qualitative und quantitative Methoden miteinander verknüpfte, was eine umfassende und vielschichtige Analyse des Instrumentalen Gruppenunterrrichte (IGU) erlaubte. Ausgangspunkt der Untersuchung war eine Analyse der musikbiographischen, soziodemographischen und motivationalen Voraussetzungen der Studierenden, welche die heterogenen Ausgangsbedingungen innerhalb der Lerngruppen verdeutlichte. Anhand einer biographisch orientierten Beschreibung, die verschiedene Prototypen studentischer Lerner herausstellte, konnten unterschiedliche Reaktionsweisen auf das Unterichtsangebot und typische Lernschwierigkeiten erklärt werden. Die anschließende Evaluation gab ein detailliertes Bild über die Vor- und Nachteile des IGU aus der Sicht erwachsener Lerner. Als Schlüsselvariablen für die Wahrnehmung des Lernumfelds und die Zufriedenheit konnten die Leistungsstreuung innerhalb der Gruppen und die Leistungsposition des Einzelnen identifiziert werden. Die Heterogenität der Lerngruppen wurde sowohl anhand einer subjektiven Einschätzung durch die Studierenden als auch über die Messung musikbezogener Fertigkeiten (z.B. Psychomotorik, Notenkenntnisse, AMMA) bestimmt, letztere wurden auch hinsichtlich ihrer Entwicklung im Kursverlauf (Pre-/Posttest) überprüft. Als Indikator für das Leistungsverhalten diente die investierte Übezeit, gemessen in Übedauer und Übehäufigkeit. Auf dieser Grundlage konnte der Einfluss verschiedener Faktoren auf das Übeverhalten abgeprüft und in einem Modell zusammenfasst werden, welches das komplexe Zusammenspiel von gruppenspezifischen, personenbezogenen, institutionellen und organisatorischen Einflussfaktoren veranschaulichte. Die Daten deuten darauf hin, dass gruppenspezifische Faktoren den Lernerfolg im IGU weniger stark beeinflussen als bislang vermutet. Vielmehr bestimmten personenbezogene – und damit gruppenunabhängige – Faktoren die Nutzung des Unterrichtsangebots und die Übeinvestition. Der Lernhabitus des Einzelnen war die wichtigste Determinante für das Leistungsverhalten, was am Beispiel der Spätstudierenden demonstriert werden konnte, die resistenter gegenüber negativen gruppenabhängigen Faktoren (z.B. Über-, Unterforderung) waren als ihre jüngeren Kommilitonen, die häufiger zur Prokrastination tendierten. Die soziale Motivation durch die Gruppe, gegenseitige Hilfestellung und Übepartnerschaften begünstigten den Fertigkeitserwerb, so dass die Mehrzahl der Probanden mit der Unterrichtssituation und dem eigenen Lernerfolg zufrieden war. Wichtig war allerdings, dass Leistungsunterschiede durch eigene Anstrengung (z.B. verstärktes Üben) überwunden werden konnten. War dies aufgrund der Gruppenzusammenstellung nicht möglich, da die Unterschiede zu groß waren, führte dies zu Motivationsverlusten. Insgesamt sprechen die Ergebnisse für eine Integration des IGU in die hochschulische Lehrerbildung, allerdings wäre für eine ausreichende und nachhaltige berufliche Vorbereitung eine Ausweitung des Unterrichtsangebots auf mehrere Semester anzuraten. / This doctoral thesis investigates group piano instruction and its effects on the achievement behavior of adult students in German tertiary education. Subjects were seven groups of prospective music teachers (N = 52, age: 19-44) who acquired functional piano skills. The study combined qualitative and quantitative data in a mixed methods design, allowing a comprehensive and multi-layered analysis of group piano instruction. Initially, the different motivational, socio-demographic and music biographical backgrounds of the participants were used to categorize different kinds of adult learners and explain their typical reactions to the group setting and learning difficulties. Then an evaluation of group instruction revealed advantages and disadvantages from an adult leaner’s point of view. In this context, heterogeneity of the learning group and the position within the group could be identified as the key factors for the perception of and satisfaction with the group environment. Class heterogeneity was examined from two perspectives: the subjective evaluation from the students’ point of view and the objective heterogeneity as measured by tests (e.g. AMMA, psychomotor skills, note reading skills). As an indicator for achievement, data about practice times, duration and frequency of practice sessions were employed. Finally, the effects of different factors on the instrumental practice were tested and summarized in a model, which displayed the complex interplay between group-related, personal, institutional, and organizational factors. Data suggest that achievement behavior can be attributed to a large extent on non group-related factors, with work ethic being the strongest predictor for practice behavior and utilization of the topics offered in class. Participants who had commenced their studies in their 30s were more resistant towards the composition of the group and associated negative group effects such as demands that were too high or too low. They were also more consistent in their practice schedule. On the other hand, younger students were more prone to procrastination and more easily derailed from their practice routines, especially if they had not yet developed clear career goals. Student overall satisfaction with group instruction was high due to social motivation, mutual help, and the joy of playing with others. However, it was important that skill differences within the group could be overcome through the student’s own effort (e.g. through increased practice), otherwise group composition was considered unfair, negatively affecting motivation.

This thesis addresses various functions of genre in metal/hardcore music as a lens through which to study popular music in the twenty-first century. The thesis proposes that issues of genre are fundamental to understandings of popular music for all participants. Predominant in metal/hardcore discourse, genre serves as an organising principle in historiographies that exert significant influence upon contemporary perceptions of metal and hardcore. I propose generic symbiosis as a new way to conceptualise the relationship between metal and hardcore, addressing issues of consequentiality arising from extant frameworks. Exploring intra- and intergeneric connections, I observe the relationship between small- and largescale phenomena that allows a relatively specific group of performance techniques and compositional devices to connote numerous metal/hardcore genres (and vice versa). Within this interconnected model of genre, subgenres provide a middle ground of generic adaptation by providing a focus on specific small-scale phenomena. Genre may be understood as a general, amorphous concept in flux, while style affords specificity, and their relationship is analogous to that between type and token (where style tokens the genre type). Structured rhizomatically, scenes provide the literal and metaphorical space for such tokening, connecting physical instantiations to abstract notions. The internal rhetorical tensions of mainstream versus underground, and progression versus tradition, are demonstrated to function as a creative apparatus for participants. A manifestation of generic symbiosis, this apparatus provides the mechanism for generic adaptation as participants negotiate these tensions. Through a case study of twenty-first century metalcore, I observe the process of generic codification, outlining how a combination of specific elements of style, emerging from particular scenes, came to demarcate a genre. I show how adaptations within a single genre engender change in numerous other areas of metal/hardcore music culture, underscoring the interconnectivity of genre in popular music.

This thesis explores the phenomenon of the piano accompanist in Western art duo chamber ensembles, specifically the solo–accompaniment medium. Following a critical examination of relevant literature by practitioners and researchers where changing socio-cultural attitudes towards accompanists are discussed along with related issues about accompaniment and ensemble playing more broadly, two empirical studies are reported. These enquiries aim to investigate the expectations of contemporary professional soloists and pianists about accompanists as well as to explore the skills and roles exhibited by pianists working in the solo–accompaniment duo context, which have yet to be systematically evaluated. Both studies adopt qualitative methodology with interpretative phenomenological analysis, the first comprising interviews with twenty professional musicians, the second involving case study observation of rehearsals and performances using video recalls with three accompanists and three soloists working in different combinations. The data provided insight into the range of musical and other expectations articulated by professional musicians about piano accompanists as well as the nature of the skills and roles involved in achieving ensemble, interpreting soloists’ intentions, dealing with unexpected incidents, achieving balance and communicating with soloists. A novel conceptual framework about accompaniment practice is constructed based upon the data from the two studies as well as the relevant literature which articulates musico-functional and socio-emotional aspects of accompaniment practice.

This portfolio consists of five original compositions with supporting commentary, as well as audio recordings of some of the pieces. They explore the influence of my contact with particular Brazilian and jazz musics, together with certain twentieth century and contemporary western concert musics. These musical influences are explored freely in response to the conception and evolution of each piece, and in my commentary I discuss aspects of MPB (Música Popular Brasileira, or Brazilian popular music), traditional and popular music from Brazil’s northeast, and jazz that have informed my work. At times, extra-musical factors provided motivation, supplying metaphors that I found helpful while making compositional decisions. The portfolio includes a solo piece for piano, two pieces of chamber music, a piece for voice and instrumental ensemble with 11 players, and an orchestral piece, and my commentary takes a twofold approach: I first present my pieces within the context of the main influences, and then discuss each piece individually.

No description available.

This study reassesses the relationship between the monumental collection of Henricus Isaac's mass-proper cycles published as the Choralis Constantinus and the composer's original massproper projects. The first section charts changing views of Isaac as a historical figure, from his time to ours. Following this, the second section pursues the implications of recent redatings of major Choralis sources with a detailed investigation of the transmission of the Choralis' s music from composer to print. This analysis suggests new views for the make-up of each of the projects known to have been compiled together in the print: the earlier theory of a Constance Common of Saints is dismissed, whilst a mass-ordinary that may have belonged to the Constance project is identified; it is suggested that Isaac's mass-propers for the Imperial court cannot easily be seen as a single project, and that some anonymous propercycles not found in the Choralis may be Isaac's and may have belonged to Imperial repertory. To shed further light on the original scopes of Isaac's mass-proper projects, the third section of this thesis investigates Isaac's non-Choralis mass-propers. Particular attention is given to the large collection of such items found in two related manuscripts from latersixteenth- century Augsburg. Examination of the context and function of these manuscripts suggests that the unica they preserve attributed to Isaac are spurious. On the other hand, consideration of the Choralis's transmission and the shape of Isaac's secure Imperial repertory suggests that some anonymous cycles in the manuscript WeimB A are Isaac's. The final part of this study re-examines the attributions and de-attributions made in the first two sections at a music-stylistic level. No conflicting evidence is found. On the contrary, all earlier suggestions are reinforced.

This thesis uses the study of Henry Purcell"s vocal music to establish the vocal characteristics of the singers and voice types for whom the composer wrote in London in the seventeenth century. This process is begun in the first chapter by discussing 'The Counter-Tenor Debate' in order to establish the method(s) of vocal production used by Purcell's counter-tenors. This in turn addresses the issue of whether the counter-tenor was a completely different voice type from the tenor, or if they were simply high and low subdivisions of the same voice type. Chapter Two discusses the bass voice, in particular the influence of individual singers in creating voice-type subdivisions, and the dramatic and musical stereotyping of this voice type in Purcell's works. The third chapter takes as its subject Purcell's sopranos and trebles, focussing in detail on the individual singers in his works for the London stage, their vocal characteristics, dramatic stereotyping, and musical influence on the composer. Chapter Four uses the characteristics of each voice type identified in previous chapters to reassign the 'lost" voice types of Purcell's chamber songs and, in conjunction with research into actresses, literature and theatrical convention of the period, provides a first performance voice-type cast list for the opera Dido and Aeneas, as well as offering insight into the possible individuals for whom the work may have been intended. Finally, all the above information gathered is combined with knowledge of seventeenth-century singing techniques gleaned from contemporary sources and the work of modem day scholars to offer advice on the modem performance of Purcell's vocal works in a 'historically- informed' manner.

No description available.