This thesis is in two parts. Volume 1 is a discourse on notation and the musical event; Volume 2 contains a body of original works (scores, recordings and performance documentations). The relationship between the two is symbiotic; the works might be seen as exemplification of the ideas propounded in the written discourse, or the written discourse may be seen as providing an analytical context for the works as a consistent body of creative research activity. All the works in volume two were either created, or realised to performance, during the research period in which the discourse was written (November 1999 - September 2006). However, not everything created or performed during that time has been included; the choice of works to be included has been a judicious one of those which seem most pertinent to the topic of the thesis overall. The research process which this thesis summarizes might be described as a series of excursions, both theoretical and practical, into the space opened up by the incommensurability between the score as prescribing artefact and the musical event as historical and sensual fact. The intention has been to gain, or present, an overview of this space as a whole in order to make it available to myself as a site of independent creative activity. The primary field of research for the written discourse has been the body of works created within the concert tradition of the late twentieth century known collectively as 'graphic scores'. Seen as a collective body, they provide variety of 'takes' on the discursive space which arises between score and musical event. I have taken my critical methodology from a number of sources within twentieth century phenomenological thought and critical enquiry: most notably Heidegger's observations about temporality, Derrida's grammatology, Gadamer's hermeneutics and some of Peirce's observations about the nature of a sign. Surprisingly, the thesis has a conclusion: that the works of the Viennese composer Anestis Logothetis can be seent o representa radical re-assessment of the practice of realising musical events from written scores, one which retains the faithful reading whilst encouraging both an expanded sonic vocabulary and a greater stress upon the autonomy and independent musical practice of the interpreting performer.

Drawing on interviews with 60 audience members and two seasons’ participant observation, this thesis provides an ethnographic account of ’still and silent listening’ at the BBC Proms. In doing so, it locates concert going within the everyday lives of listeners and argues that, for some, attending concerts is a resource for what Tia DeNora has called "aesthetic agency". These concert goers appropriate both the norm of still and silent audience behaviour, and the particular institutional conditions of the Proms, in order to cultivate versions of themselves. Perhaps surprisingly, listeners use the concert hall for purposes comparable to the ways in which DeNora and Michael Bull have each shown more malleable and mobile music technologies being employed by music users: to organize experience, and as ’technologies of self. And yet at the same time as individual and potentially individuating practices are taking place, concert listening, and attending the Proms in particular, is a collective activity. The thesis documents and explores the ways in which concert goers experience both enjoyment and discomfort in listening together. Here I show the Proms to be a site of ambivalent pleasures, but also argue that Richard Sennett’s influential characterization of still and silent listening as a symptom of ’t he fall of public man’ is inadequate to the varied modes of collective experience found amongst audiences. Running through the thesis is the argument that many concert goers use the norm of still and silent listening and the institutional provisions of the Proms as a ’holding environment’: a predictable and enduring set of conditions which allows for unpredictable and rich experiences to take place. In this way, the thesis has implications for understanding both the ambivalent enjoyments of concert going, and the purposes to which cultural institutions can be put by their users.

Performance has emerged as an important concept in the field of art, culture, media, communication and socio-anthropological studies. This thesis examines the ' Indian folk performance' from a performance studies perspective, examining performance as that which arises out of the labouring bodies and lived experiences in Indian society. Such performances are embedded in 'everyday lives, struggles, and labour of different classes, castes, and gender' (Rege 2002). These performances can be considered as performances of cultural labour. Performances of cultural labour are recognized by the centrality of performance, the materiality of labouring bodies, and the integration of various al1 forms. Drawing on an understanding derived from the cultural performances of the Indian labouring lower-caste communities, the thesis attempts to provide a conceptual framework for understanding Indian folk culture and performances. For theoretical approaches, I have drawn from Dwight Conquergood's idea of performance studies as a radical intervention (2002) and Ngugi wa Thiong'o's concept of performance (2007) as well as interdisciplinary and integrated approaches to art and culture with a critical ethnography. Performance studies approach with a critical ethnography shows a great potential in such research because if performance stands for identity, then it also stands for the embodiment of oppressed identities, genres and struggles. While performance here functions as an cpistemic as well as an analytical tool, critical ethnography provides an 'ethical responsibility' to address processes of hidden injustices (Madison 2005)

This thesis presents practical work and theoretical research spanning topics in music composition, performance and new media. It proposes a particular creative approach to performance practices mediated by computer networks, which addresses issues of presence and liveness through the application of game-derived systems to performance settings. The thesis includes a portfolio of eight compositions; these pieces were designed and performed with the goal of implementing strategies proposed during theoretical reflection, while also suggesting new ideas for further study. The theoretical component of this work investigates the notion that performance is affected in its attributes of presence and liveness whenever reproduction and mediation technologies come into play. Building on the views of media theorists and research in psychology, it identifies the roles played by agency and social cues in the perception of presence. After reviewing contemporary artistic practices in which participation is enabled by open and playful performance situations, the thesis proposes the use of game systems as a strategy for negotiating musical play in networked settings. The notion of secrecy provides a key conceptual reference that guides both theoretical enquiry and creative exploration. This investigation argues that every act of mediation entails an opportunity for selective concealment of ideas and actions, and therefore comprehends a wide creative potential. While music performance over computer networks may entail the loss of cues that are often taken as granted in ensemble play - such as shared pulse, breath and bodily communication - it may also suggest innovative modes of engagement, based on the regulation of information rather than its unimpeded disclosure. This premise is explored throughout the portfolio, which borrows ideas from contemporary social practices of secrecy and performativity.

No description available.

Live electroacoustic performance juxtaposes and superimposes two main elements: the real, present and physical, against the simulated and disembodied. In this sense, it is a liminal form which negotiates two different worlds on stage. In this dissertation I will address some central aspects of performance that have been reshaped and problematised by the use of the electroacoustic medium in a live context. I will investigate in particular three main dualities: the performer's body/electroacoustic sound; physical space/electroacoustic space; and performance/audience. I will also discuss a generalised duality common to all three: presence/absence. Rather than regarding these dualities as indicators of discontinuity, I will suggest that they can help develop a continuum of connections and relationships between performance elements. These connections can be designed as part of the composition process. By investigating these dualities, this research addresses the main elements of the live event. The central guiding principle here is that the live electroacoustic mode is a performance discipline, and therefore requires a dramaturgical approach that takes into consideration the elements of the live event: performer, audience and use of space. I will suggest that such an approach should guide the creative process, starting at the initial composition stages, through rehearsal and the actual performance.

As a case study in cultural production and consumption and of the commodification of culture in late seventeenth- and eighteenth-century England, this study examines how musicians in London began to emerge from their dependence on the patronage of court, aristocracy and church into a more public sphere, moving from positions as salaried employees to a more freelance existence where they contributed to their income by putting on public commercial concerts. Taking as its starting point the almost 50,000 references to music recorded in the Register of Music in London Newspapers 1660–1750, a database has been built to record detailed information extracted from over 12,000 advertisements, puffs and news items related to commercial concert giving in London between 1660 and 1750. Concert advertisements and other material may thus be studied longitudinally in relation to each other, providing a valuable source of data for the growth of concert giving in London over a long and important period of its development. Public commercial concerts emerged in London in the period following the restoration of Charles II in 1660, developing from private music meetings dominated by amateur performers and informal public performances by professionals in taverns via John Banister's first advertised concerts in 1672. By 1750, public commercial concerts in London may not have achieved their final form or the heights of popularity that accompanied the ‘rage for music' of the 1790s, but they were promoted regularly and with a clear sense of programme planning, laying the foundations for later expansion. The possibility for musicians to make a living as freelance professionals without having to rely solely on patronage, their development of commercial skills, their emerging links with music publishers, all this is witness to the birth of music as a business in London in the period between 1660 and 1750.