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The current thesis is not intending to examine a specific type of music,genre, form or individual authors, neither to scrutinize the technicalities of spiritual manifestation in different compositional methods and works, but it is rather engaged with the phenomenon of music as an art in general (Church music, classical, secular, folk), with its manifestations and influences; and these seen inthe context of Christian theology preserved in its most complete form in the Orthodox Church. There is a sufficient amount of pre-existing work, which explores one or another aspect of the relevant questions but the motivation for this research was brought up by the need of a summary, of an overview bringing them all together. By collecting, compressing and systemizing some of the material essential to the chosen topic, it is hoped to investigate, though not in detail, how music can contribute to our spiritual growth but at the same time to become aware when and why it cannot. Each of the separate chapters can become an object of separate study. The tendency, however, is not to give a comprehensive answer and to solve the most complex questions of interrelationships between Spirit (God) – man – creativity – art – music, but to raise them and to give a perspective enabling future scholars to answer, extend and deepen them. The scarcity of personal spiritual experience leads inevitably to limitations of the theological material within the range of Systematic Theology. In the parts concerned with subjects of creativity and music, the individual vision and appraisal, based on personal practice, observations and reflections is more evident. Even though the approach adopted in presenting the material is multidisciplinary based on the theoretical viewpoints and of different musicologists, historians and theologians, the angle from which it is presented is rather practico-creative. This means that the subjects ae considered through the conception of the world of the performer of music and not of its composer or theoretician. On the whole only the shaping and structuring of the idea are original; the materials for its development are drawn from sources of greater authority. The originality therefore lies more in the synthesis rather than in a detailed analysis. Thus the plural form, presenting the collective thoughts generated in this way, is preferred.

As with all computer-based technologies, music production is advancing at a rate comparable to ‘Moore’s law’. Developments within the discipline are gathering momentum exponentially; stretching the boundaries of the field, deepening the levels to which mediation can be applied, concatenating previously discrete hardware technologies into the desktop domain, demanding greater insight from practitioners to master these technologies and even defining new genres of music through the increasing potential for sonic creativity to evolve. This DMus project will draw from the implications of the above developments and study the application of technologies currently available in the desktop environment, from emulations of that which was traditionally hardware to the latest spectrally based audio-manipulation tools. It will investigate the interaction of these technologies, and explore creative possibilities that were unattainable only a few years ago – all as exemplified through the production of two contrasting albums of music. In addition, new software will be developed to actively contribute to the evolution of music production as we know it. The focus will be on extended production technique and innovation, through both development and context. The commentary will frame the practical work. It will offer a research context with a number of foci in preference to literal questions, it will qualify the methodology and then form a literature & practice review. It will then present a series of frameworks that analyse music production contexts and technologies in a historical perspective. By setting such a trajectory, the current state-of-the-art can be best placed, and a number of the progressive production techniques associated with the submitted artefacts can then by contextualised. It will terminate with a discussion of the work that moves from the specific to the general.

An extended commentary to accompany a portfolio of nine works presented for the degree of PhD in Musical Composition at the University of Aberdeen.

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This work addresses the demands of framing a theoretical problem and practice-based research and it therefore comprises two parts: a thesis and a composition. The thesis discusses the narrative structure of post-WWII Italian avant-garde opera in conceptual terms and demonstrates how it develops on three principal features: the metaphorical representation of socio-political conditions, the non-linearity of the dramaturgy, and openness to a plurality of interpretations. My composition It makes no difference contributes both as a new musico-theatrical work and an outcome of the discussion presented in the thesis. The main text is composed of three main chapters, each respectively dedicated to the features of socio-political representation, non-linearity and openness. Each chapter is in turn divided into two sub-chapters: the first presents the contextualisation and analysis of post-WWII Italian experimental operas, the second explores It makes no difference in relation to both these operas and the above three features. The discussion examines those works that have most significantly experimented with socio-political representations, non-linearity and openness. These include Luigi Nono’s Intolleranza 1960 (1961), Sylvano Bussotti’s La Passion selon Sade (1966) and Luciano Berio’s Opera (1977). At the same time, it omits both those operas relying on traditional operatic principles and those others that, although being experimental, do not focus on the three features this thesis puts forward. This study considers post-WWII Italian avant-garde opera in cross-disciplinary terms and highlights the necessity of discussing it in relation to disciplines other than those proper to the genre of opera, including prose-theatre, literature, politics and philosophy. The composition, on the other hand, provides a synthesis of the above three features: It makes no difference develops a multi-narrative structure whilst providing a representation of contemporary Italian socio-political life and epitomising the concept of openness. At the same time, it integrates theatrical and literary elements and combines traditional notation and graphic scores.