The works presented in this portfolio were created to research and explore the interplay between sound, space and perception in the medium of sound installation. The portfolio consists of five audiovisual installations; States of Being, Intrinsic, Structure, Slit and Shape. These site-dependent installations belong to the category of Klangkunst but they work by carefully acknowledging and placing considerations towards the encounter, more specifically spatial encounter; exploring concepts of space and what it means to experience immersive spaces sonically. Three of the five works were installed and presented to the public. The development process included critical feedback from both the public and academic peers.

My portfolio of compositions comprises 13 original composition scores and accompanying CD and DVD media. This work spans a six year period from 2006- 2012 and is written for a variety of instruments from solo piano and vocal works through to large scale orchestral and choral. Nearly all the works have been commissioned and performed professionally and recordings of the performances are included. There are several arcs to the development of my composition that are displayed in this portfolio, and the commentary splits these into four main categories: mechanics of performance, exploring vocal technique, sonority as a structural mechanism and using ‘found material’ for tonal structure. My folio also covers areas of research involving the use of vocal multiphonics (such as traditional Mongolian throat-singing), and conveying poetic meaning through reference and musical discourse. My goal in composing these works is to create a flexible and meaningful compositional technique and, above all, to display a breadth of material and diversity of musical techniques that are equally balanced between experimentation and self-expression.

This portfolio of original compositions focuses on exploring instrumentation and orchestration techniques. The eight pieces, composed between October 2010 and September 2013 represent different genres varying from solo work to full orchestra. These pieces are the results of my exploration of various compositional and orchestration techniques that I have developed over the period of research. Before examining the pieces individually, general comments are provided to explain my orchestration principles and how I put them into practice.

This folio of compositions represents four years of practice-led research into the relationship between musical context and musical content. The outcome is a spectrum of pieces through which the usefulness of terms such as ‘jazz’, ‘classical’, ‘Experimental’, ‘composed’, and ‘improvised’ music is surveyed. The purpose of the research is to find ways in which to express my own individuality as a composer through a very personal exploration of relationships between jazz and classical music contexts – to blur distinctions between them, to invent new musical materials (or, to situate existing musical materials differently), and to explore new relationships between composition, improvisation and indeterminacy. This commentary is in two parts: Part One, ‘Categories’ provides a context for my research and includes an evaluation of relevant musical terms and categories, before situating the folio of compositions accordingly; Part Two, ‘Materials, Methods and Techniques’ explores two distinct approaches to the organisation of pitch materials in the music: the first section is titled ‘Interval Cycles, Integration and ‘Extra-contextuality’’, the second ‘Modes, Form, and Narratives of Difference’. A third section, ‘Composed and Improvised Musical Material’, explores some of the ways in which distinctions between specified and unspecified musical content are blurred in the music. Part Two emphasises the combination of methods and techniques necessary to deal with multiple perspectives in the music, and the search for a common ground through which to explore relationships between musical styles and genres authentically and creatively.

This composition portfolio is an exploration of different collaborative compositional processes, and an examination of their outcomes, which include both the actual music produced, and an account of my personal creative development. It is a journey from collaboration to solo composition. It is also an examination of the close connections between karawitan (the traditional Javanese gamelan repertoire) and new music for gamelan, and how the latter can widen the boundaries of karawitan. The portfolio seeks to develop my own style and musical language through collaborations, in different ways. Gamelan music and gamelan instruments are natural resources in view of the collaborative processes that are intrinsic to karawitan, which I have translated into my compositional processes.

This thesis consists of a unified portfolio of eight compositions focused on and exploring alternative versions of the 3rd channel, which is a personal approach to composition and a way to describe my compositional technique. The instrumentation employs a variety of forces, and it is mainly for solo instruments and small/chamber ensembles – always with the accompaniment of a tape part – plus a summative, large-scale installation for eight speakers. The presented works were composed between December 2009 and August 2013. The commentary presents an individual, in-depth analysis of the eight pieces in order to reveal the methodology of their compositional process(es).

This thesis takes an interdisciplinary approach, combining composition and analysis to explore a series of musical notions associated with time and form in twentieth and twenty-first century music. Four ideas are investigated through analytical case studies of music by Webern, Stravinsky, György Kurtág and George Benjamin, alongside interlinked original compositions. Whilst the selected works share broad underlying concerns, a parallel between the composers’ broader oeuvres is not asserted. Rather, the folio can be seen as addressing two interlinked topics, each with two related halves: brevity, through fragmentation and miniaturisation; and connectedness, through continuity and organicism. An all-encompassing view of the themes is not sought; instead, by demonstrating the idiosyncrasies in approach in both existing and original works, a diversity of information is gathered that provides individual not archetypal examples. It is shown that unity can be achieved in fragmented works by taking into account non-linear associations, whilst in miniature works a synthesis of form and content creates cohesion. Furthermore, continuity can be created despite block-like structures, whilst notions of organicism require new approaches to musical material. Through a synthesis of approaches that combines elements of practice-led and practice-based research, these temporal themes are explored in a manner that provides insight for both composers and listeners: conceptual issues are highlighted, their application in new works is demonstrated, and their precedents in extant pieces are explored. The analytical case studies are principally concerned with manners in which a work might be experienced, and how an awareness of form and the manipulation of time can inform this, whilst the compositions offer an individual approach to each theme, aiming to engage with the listening experience by actively exploring the stated ideas.

This document presents a portfolio of ten composition projects produced between September 2010 and June 2014 created by composer Jon Hughes working in collaboration with a number of artists and researchers. Each individual chapter deals with a separate project, and is accompanied by a Data Drive presented alongside the text as an integral part of the submission. This contains audio, video and other supplementary material. There is also an introductory essay, Chapter 1: Footprints and Philosophy: Sonic Explorations in Divergent Landscapes, designed to set the composition portfolio in context. Although contrasting in terms of content and media, the ten works presented here share a number of common conceptual threads. They all involve the use of sound to reveal, uncover, communicate, and to map hidden aspects of the subject matter explored with each individual project, whether that be mathematical principles (Phase Revival), the shared experience of landscape (Terrarium, Hydrology, Another Place), principles from evolutionary biology (Transmission), or the rich complexity of shared acoustic space (A Dip in the Lake). A further related common thread is the use of large-scale ambisonic speaker arrays (Terrarium, A Dip in the Lake, Phase Revival, Sonic Horizons, Hydrology). This gave production teams the ability to create fully immersive audio/visual environments in which hidden themes and concepts referred to above could be better communicated. Working together with fellow collaborators, it thus became possible to create cultural interventions in the form of portable, immersive public spaces. Other themes explored in the portfolio include the use of found sound, and the exploration of landscape narrative. Found sound is used extensively, in combination with instrumental and vocal material.

The ten original compositions presented in this portfolio are products of practice-led research into the use of language as musical material. The different methods of incorporating aspects of language into musical forms that my research has explored are outlined in the following commentary. My particular areas of interest can be categorized as follows: 1. Communicating my interpretation of text meaning through the medium of composition, using musical devices to control 'oratory elocution' - which comprises speed of delivery, phrase-length, frequency of pauses, loudness and accentual character, posture, physical movement and facial expression etc. 2. Exploiting the potential for musical settings to convey subtextual meanings, which are inferred but not explicitly stated in texts. 3. Taking an integrated approach, in which musical and dramatic variables are compositionally controlled with equal priority and attention to detail. 4. Shaping musical and extra-musical variables in order to create specific atmospheres, or to stimulate atmospheric changes, in performance environments. 5. The deconstruction of language into its phonological components to create a palette of non-semantic, timbral materials - e.g. vowel sounds, whispers, prosodic gestures, hisses, plosive attacks etc. - for use in vocal compositions. 6. Exploring the inherent 'musicality' of grammatical and semantic structures in text and language to identify principles that may be applied to instrumental composition. 7. Analysing spectral characteristics of phonemes and creating orchestral timbres which emulate them, using both intuitive and spectrographic techniques.

This folio presents eight works, composed between 2007 and 2013. The works represent the outcomes of my research which has focussed on the development of compositional approaches that bring together techniques and materials from different areas of musical practice, including electroacoustic music and electronic dance music. All of the pieces use algorithmic compositional techniques to some degree. A visual component is important in four of the pieces. The Bridge is a film soundtrack, 8 Switches, Algorithms for Electronics Fake Woodwind and Strings and Bastard Structures 2 are audio-visual works. In two of the pieces, Some Trees and Untitled (Two Pieces for Surround), 5.1 surround sound is used as a compositional element. The commentary serves to give background information, placing the work in context with other work in the field and to explain the compositional approaches that have been taken.