This thesis accompanies the folio of the acoustic and electroacoustic compositions of the portfolio, which consists of a work for soli, choirs and orchestra, an orchestral piece, a solo for oboe, four ensemble chamber composition and a string quartet with sound projection and live electronics. The works exhibit a variety of cross-disciplinary approaches from theatrical, live electronics, networked performance, and narrative and multichannel/sound projection. The main concerns spanning the portfolio are the connections navigated through a 'synthesis' of multiple disciplines within the language of acoustic and electroacoustic music, and challenging areas of research that question and raise new musical possibilities. In all these works the morphological handling of music matter is always intertwined with issues of formal construction. For each composition I described applied studio techniques, sound sources, transformations and formal elements. As compositional tools, special software have been used, explored and developed in contrasting programming languages. These programs are briefly introduced, showing their links to compositional processes. The commentary presents supplementary information on each work, with a view to providing the reader with insights into the evolution of my compositional vocabulary. A particular attention has been devoted to the pre compositional and perceptual spatial aspects of my work, with reference to theoretical writings and research in the field.

The following commentary describes seven compositions for different ensembles and solo instruments: 1. The familiar narrowing of homecoming (small ensemble) 2. Simultaneously sovereign and invaded (trumpet and string quartet) 3. Dance Triptych (solo piano) 4. Trombone Concerto (trombone and large orchestra) 5. Two inventions (string quartet) 6. Hidden Traces/Ancient Places for Brass Septet 7. Concerto for Chamber Orchestra (large ensemble). In this portfolio I explore the use of cantabile lines in instrumental writing, in particular in my writing for brass. It seems to me that, unlike music for other instruments, much contemporary brass writing has ignored the possibility of developing the lyricism found in the later 19th-and realy 20th-century, instead exploring the use of extended techniques, extreme viruosity, or the lyricism of jazz, for example in the solo trumpet concerto works of Turnage, Birtwistle, Maxwell Davis and Gruber. Three pieces in the portfolio (Simultaneously sovereign and invaded, Trombone Concerto and the Brass Septet) specifically explore the lyrical potential of the 'pure' sound of the instruments of the 'heavy brass' section: trumpet, trombone and tuba. A second research strand is the way in which, as a brass performer-composer, my intuition informs the way in which I write; the extent to which my music is, notated improvisations, in that it is does not, in general, adhere strictly to any pre-planned compositional systems or procedures. Thirdly, two pieces, Simultaneously sovereign and invaded and Trombone Concerto, explore the use of brass instruments as concertante soloist.

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This portfolio of compositions consists of seven works ranging from a solo piece to a work for orchestra, exploring personal ways of creating extended musical textures unified by a small number of motivic cells. The accompanying commentary addresses the compositional process and techniques used in each work as well as issues running through the portfolio. The following compositions are included and discussed: 1. Monologue, for solo oboe, explores the possibility of creating an extended work largely determined by a single interval. 2. The predominantly polyphonic textures of So-Myoung (for violin, cello and piano) are based on two short motivic fragments. 3. Let There Be Light (for chamber ensemble) is based on the expansion of a single motive. 4. The Seven Signs (for large orchestra) explores complex musical textures and is laden with symbolic intentions. 5. String Quartet deals with heterophonic textures and certain aspects of conventional modes of development. 6. Fantasie (for piano) exhibits freely developed musical textures based on three short motives. 7. Shine (for two pianos and percussion) brings together the techniques mentioned above.

The composition of a musical work may be viewed as involving the exploitation, through various combinations, transformations and arrangements, of a finite set of compositional processes and musical materials. As a consequence, combinatorial and transformational processes and musical materials across various musical dimensions tend to be scattered throughout a musical work. Although the processes involved in music composition vary widely between composers, and indeed between works, in general these processes tend to be iterative, with the composer creating and revising musical materials within and between different musical dimensions and concerns. When musical materials are modified, related musical structures must also be updated, in order to maintain musical coherence. However, in general, the relationships that exist between musical materials are not explicitly notated. Although for many composers this process may be unconscious, we hypothesize that tools for identifying, creating, organising, modifying and manipulating such related structures explicitly would have numerous applications for composers, teachers and analysts. The aim of the research described in this thesis is to find ways in which Aspect Oriented Programming (AOP), and cognate techniques, may be used to facilitate the development of computer systems that support musical composition by assisting in the separation, organisation and combination of musical concerns. We investigate the semantics of crosscutting within a musical context and use this to evolve an Aspect Oriented Music Representation (AOMR), and a concrete proof-of-concept implementation of AOMR called AspectMusic. AOMR demonstrates how two different, current approaches to AOP, namely symmetric and asymmetric, can be usefully applied to the separation, composition and conditional modification of musical structures. We also describe an approach, called Composition History, which provides a detailed history of the symmetric composition operations that have been applied to a structure and makes this information available within the asymmetric framework. In this way, details of the provenance of any given musical event may be used as part of the pointcut expression within asymmetric AOMR aspects. Additionally, we demonstrate a logic reification of AOMR events, including composition history, which permits declarative pointcut expressions.

This Doctor of Musical Arts submission comprises of two volumes. Volume 1 is a Critical Commentary entitled The Art of Collaboration (Four Contrasting Compositions). ' Volume 2 contains four contrasting original compositions.

As a result of six years of research in further developing my personal compositional techniques, this portfolio contains eight pieces of music. Each one of them is an attempt to solve certain aesthetic or technical problems concerning composition, by finding a viable balance between coherent construction and intuitive creativity.

This Folio of Compositions is the result of an intense musical search. A search that I do not believe to be finished yet and which probably never will be, as being a composer is a lifelong journey of exploration. There has been a clear development in my personal voice during the last 5 years, a development that is documented in the music of these 11 pieces. The folio includes solo pieces, several chamber works and an orchestral score. Through the composition of these works I have consolidated a style where polyphonic texture, which involves a strong use of polyrhythms and isorhythm, and progressive transformations in pitch and harmony, play an important role. This commentary is divided into two sections. The first part contains some information about all the compositions, outlining facts such as the date of composition, first performance and main features of the piece. In the second part I present details and examples of compositional techniques, focusing on three specific music elements: harmony and pitches, melody and rhythm. By composing this corpus of pieces I had the aim of looking further into the essence of music, into the process of communication and the beauty of art.

This folio is comprised of nine electroacoustic compositions for multichannel presentation. They are linked together by their shared concern with micro- and macro-structural relationships between sonic layers, similar use of space (particularly Simon Emmerson’s ‘soundfield frames’), and exploitation of process departure or interruption. Chronic Pulsatile Tinnitus uses saxophone and percussion recordings to address the above compositional concerns. BCN comprises three works, Barbecued Spanish Builder, Cerveza Beer and Siren, which explore interactions between field recordings and those of bass guitar and drums. Mr President uses vocal recordings of phrases taken from Barack Obama’s election victory speeches to examine sequence verticality, while Nothing But Sky, BCN Metro, Digital Fun Pen and Ahlan Wa Sahlan offer approaches to field recordings within the contexts of the issues common throughout the folio. It is imperative that these pieces are listened to in their specified multichannel formats, as opposed to on a stereo system. This is to ensure the listener’s identification of sonic layers, which is not satisfactorily achievable over a headphone or two-speaker setup.

This portfolio presents seven projects that use improvisation as source material for subsequent electronic music. Fixed media pieces including music for film, contemporary dance as well as two albums are included. Furthermore, recordings of live performance works where improvisation was controlled via compositions, loop- based material, custom-made software tools and hardware devices are presented in the folio. The commentary explains the methods used in the projects and shows them in a wider context of other artists’ work. It describes the creative usage of technology in the pieces presented in the folio. Also, the examination of visual elements as a guide for improvisation is discussed in relation to each project.