This dissertation considers the implications of using recordings of free improvisations on world music instruments and other instruments as source material for fixed media musical compositions. Generating material in this way demanded the formulation of new working methods which inevitably impacted on the character and style of the work produced. A methodology was evolved based on aspects of the performance practice of free-jazz improvisation. The individual style of free-jazz improvisation was a major part of the syntax of the created music. This further enabled novelty in that an improvised based -style replaces the conventional Western reliance on notation and its associated compositional techniques. Rather, sound is generated spontaneously and guided only by aural monitoring of it. A fascination with the sounds of world instruments led to an exploration of the sounds of those instruments in new contexts. Instruments, both world and western classical, became treated as found objects or utilised in ‘studies in ignorance’ in the manner of Sun Ra.1 The improvised material was then manipulated using computer software and structured into fixed-media works. Gesture, texture and timbre dominate these structures rather than preconceived themes or harmonic schemes. Most of the music presented with the thesis is text based or inspired by text; this provides further structural underpinning. I wished to explore the relationship between the Weird Realist aesthetic as posited by Graham Harman in the works of H.P. Lovecraft and an analogous musical response. The separation of quality from object in Lovecraft chimed with experiences of sensory distortion when under shamanic trance and this resulted in Shamanic Incantation No. 5, the only non-text based work. A fascination with fantasy in general led to the composition of an opera in Klingon in which the text and music combine to present a series of tableaux that hint at aspects of sacred violence and the breakdown of shared values in times of war. As if to underline this point, Grodek No.4 presents a collage of disturbing materials drawn from stride jazz piano, free improvisation and expressionist sprechgesang; all of which combine in a new context to illuminate Georg Trakl’s poem on the horrors of violence. As a result of these compositional procedures a cogent sound world using improvisation and electronics was created. The influence of Weird Realism and the use of world instruments stimulated ideas about how musical material can be distorted and re-contextualised. The combination of improvisatory and ‘composed’ elements was fruitful and shows a way of working with two different types of intuition, one in real time, the other not. This suggests possibilities for further exploring the combining of different experiential modes in creative work. 1 A key recording in this respect is Sun Ra, Strange Strings, El Saturn 502, 1966, explored later in the thesis.

During postgraduate research, my compositions have increasingly come to focus on the following elements: • Use of a background narrative to create a structure of continual transformation rather than recurrent themes and development or exact repetition. • Evocation of time and place. • Writing in an eclectic style and embracing musical elements from different styles, genres, traditions, tonalities, and time periods. • Allowing contradictory views to co-exist and leaving interpretation open–ended and the prerogative of the listener. The compositions in my portfolio use collections of sounds, gestures, phrases and chords to build a different language for each piece and sometimes to become part of the symbolism in a piece. For example, I use bell sounds to represent hope, or forgiveness. I often build a collage-style structure that allows for disparate systems and mixed material to encourage the hearing of music in a new context. My music allows tonal sounds to be re-encountered in a contemporary setting. Recent compositions tend to have a narrative style, are based on melodic fragments rather than existing scales, and often employ continual transformation as a structure. I enjoy working with text and extra-musical sources and have allowed the narrative of the text to influence the music and evoke gestures that help to tell the story. This new 'storytelling' style of composition has encouraged me to write longer pieces and helped with structural clarification. The key results of my research can be identified as the following: I have developed an harmonic language based on stacked units of intervals that can employ chromaticism but are not twelve-tone or tonal and I have been working with a three-part form that allows for repetition or transformation of material.

Collected scores, supporting software and audio samples, audio and video documentation.

My objectives in pursuing this course of study were to widen my knowledge of other composers' music, with a view to: developing my techniques of composition, in terms of application of compositional models to the immediate process of writing (and of notating) music; extending that to works which were more ambitious in scope, duration and cohesion; and producing works which recognise performers' skills and limitations and exploit the former. This involved firstly analytical study of existing works in different genres written using a range of compositional techniques, and an assessment of how I might selectively assimilate what I had learnt about the composers' methods into my own work. This study extended beyond the genres in which I was myself composing or are reflected in my portfolio. Secondly, in addition to work with my tutors, I attended group tutorials (during my first year) and, whenever possible, participated in workshops, seminars and discussion groups not only at Royal Holloway, but also in other centres, including The Royal College and the Royal Academy of Music, King's College, London, the University of Cambridge and the Royal Northern College of Music. One of the pieces in this portfolio was composed expressly for and another was first played at a Royal Holloway workshop. Other workshop pieces are listed in Appendix I. Workshops and other discussions, more Of less formal, with players and singers enriched my understanding of instrumental and vocal techniques. Lastly, I sought performances of my music, and engaged in active collaboration and discussion with the performers as regards notation, precision in indicating technique, etc. The chapters which follow document my activities. In Chapter 1 I discuss my analytical processes, and in the following chapters indicate how I applied what I had learnt and identify some of the works in the repertoire which I found most instructive, in relation to each of the pieces submitted for consideration. I suggest that the major works submitted show clear stylistic development.

This thesis consists of a portfolio of musical compositions and a written commentary. The submitted works creatively challenge the form of a conventional concert by exploring methods of bringing to the fore the theatrical side of musical performance: its inherited or implemented conceptual and visual aspects. The portfolio is divided into three main categories. The first comprises a series of pieces that balance between music theatre and conventional concert practices. The second category includes works that reform many aspects of the traditional concert presentation, without breaking away from it. The third category includes works that experiment within the territory determined by the previous categories. The written commentary presents theoretically the compositional approach used throughout the portfolio and provides a brief philosophical background, such as is necessary to explain the underlying concepts, ideas, preoccupations and concerns. It also contains a comprehensive analysis of the submitted works, their aims, contextual links, applied methodologies, associations with other composers’ works and interconnections between them.

No description available.

The first half of this commentary/thesis will explore changing perceptions of the musical work and the creative process. Ultimately, it will seek to identify and expose the myth of what we might call the ‘tyrannical composer’. That is to say, a suspicion of what is implied hierarchically by the figure of the composer and the consequences this has on critical thought, scholarship, performance and the public perception of music, new and old. By drawing upon recent research in, among other things, semiotics and mediation theory, I seek to reimagine the traditional composer-performer-audience relationship as something far more democratic and linear than is often given credit. Discussions typically reserved for overtly challenging and ‘experimental’ genres of music can here be reframed and proposed as a defence of related but contrasting styles of acoustic avant-garde composition. The above argument will be supported in the second chapter by a selection of case studies drawing upon my own portfolio of compositions. Analysis of some of these works will ask questions about composer authority and agency and draw upon my practical experience as composer of the works in question. The composer will ultimately be understood not as a dictator-like figure and privileged arbiter of the ‘musical work’, but as a democratically motivated creative agent, dialectically and collaboratively involved in the mediation and reception of the performed work.

Through a series of creative projects this doctorate set out to research how computer-assisted composition (CAC) of music affects decision-making in my compositional practice. By reporting on the creative research journey, this doctorate is a contribution towards a better understanding of the implications of CAC by offering new insights into the composing process. It is also a contribution to the composition discipline as new techniques were devised, together with new applications of existing techniques. Using OpenMusic as the sole programming environment, the manual/machine interface was explored through different balances between manual and algorithmic composition and through aesthetic reflection guiding the composing process. This helped clarify the purpose, adequacy and nature of each method as decisions were constantly being taken towards completing the artistic projects. The most suitable use of algorithms was as an environment for developing, testing, refining and assessing compositional techniques and the music materials they generate: a kind of musical laboratory. As far as a technique can be described by a set of rules, algorithms can help formulate and refine it. Also capable of incorporating indeterminism, they can act as powerful devices in discovering unforeseen musical implications and results. Algorithms alone were found to be insufficient to simulate human creative thought because aspects such as (but not limited to) imagination, judgement and personal bias could only, and hypothetically, be properly simulated by the most sophisticated forms of artificial intelligence. Furthermore, important aspects of composition such as instrumentation, articulation and orchestration were not subjected to algorithmic treatment because, not being sufficiently integrated in OpenMusic currently, they would involve a great deal of knowledge to be specified and adapted to computer language. These shortcomings of algorithms, therefore, implied varying degrees of manual interventions to be carried out on raw materials coming out of their evaluations. A combination of manual and algorithmic composition was frequently employed so as to properly handle musical aspects such as cadence, discourse, monotony, mechanicalness, surprise, and layering, among others. The following commentary illustrates this varying dialogue between automation and intervention, placing it in the wider context of other explorations at automating aspects of musical composition.

This commentary consists of an attempt to discuss the problems raised by the way I approach composition and sound in general. My argument is based on the definition I give of the key concepts of space, sound image and evocation, mainly through the means of an aesthetic reflection that tries to stay faithful to the basic rules of phenomenological method. In this context, space is not meant in its locative sense, rather it is defined as the process of exploration of the sound image that characterizes the act of listening. The sound image is thence discussed in its spatial aspects. It is described as an object defined by a frame (both conceptual and empirical) and an inside, which is explored by the listener. It is this exploration that allows the listener to reach a moment of resonance with the sound image itself, moment that I defined as evocation. The consideration of the sound image in a spatial sense allows me to introduce the idea of meta-space, a term that aims at describing the way in which the sound images enter into a mutual relationship in the context of a musical composition.

This thesis describes a portfolio of musical compositions and artworks that explore the development of real-time acousmatic music composition, multimedia music and dance performances, interactive sound and video installations, and collaboration between interdisciplinary artists. Two works, Cell and Gong, are analyzed for their role in the development of Max/MSP software and improvisation performance techniques to create live acousmatic music. Musical material created with these methods was used in studio compositions and live performances. Improvised multimedia (Live Cinema) performances were also explored with the development of Max/Jitter software for that purpose. The creative process of interdisciplinary collaboration between a composer and dancers in performances that use multimedia elements, live acousmatic music performance, and computer vision interfaces for motion tracking is detailed with the explanation of three dance performances: Phases, Knowledge Box, and Tu:la. Two computer interactive sound and video installations that explore audience interaction are documented. Polyphonic Passport Photo is a photo booth-like installation that transforms the RGB (Red, Green and Blue) values of a photograph into a melody. The Bather is an interactive installation that allows the audience to trigger bathing sounds and the choreographed bath movements of an individual in a bathtub, using a touch sensor as an interface.