This text contains a short general description of my experience at the University of Birmingham. This is an attempt to communicate how my perception in composing music has changed and evolved. The focus is to introduce briefly my experience before I arrived at the University of Birmingham, then go through all the compositions I have worked on during my PhD programme. This attempt is to explain the main processes I have used for composing, giving a wider view of the issues that I was interested in developing. Furthermore, I will consider some technical aspects with reference to facilities that the University of Birmingham offers to students. This appears to be the right opportunity for them to explore technology almost without any restrictions. I also give some information about other nonmusical issues, which I was interested in developing in order to look into personal aesthetic directions. My main reason for being at the University of Birmingham was to explore compositional processes different from my previous experiences, in order to enlarge my abilities and perspectives in music composition.

My work during the last few years, parallel to teaching and concert management, has been focused on instrumental composition, composition with electronic media, sound design and performance. Spontaneous and continuous experiments in all these fields have enabled me to explore and develop many compositional techniques and processes, searching in this way for a unique personal language based on my own experience of listening. The following portfolio is a detailed examination of my compositions during this period, clarifying the issues in instrumental and electroacoustic music composition which relate to performance, spatialization and live electronic processing; my intention here is to develop, systematize and automate some of the currently vital processes in this area in a flexible, and adaptable way, thereby contributing to new developments in signal processing and enhancing the integration of live instruments and electronics, with the ultimate aim of delivering to the listener the most satisfying experience possible. In the works submitted, my special interest has been to investigate which current techniques, media, software, and interfaces are most appropriate for each given work. I have balanced these against existing standards which have long been fixed through tradition and technology – thus contributing to a better understanding of works of the past and at the same time seeking to move forward in the field of composition, sound design, live computer music, performance and spatialization.

This composition portfolio contains seven pieces which explore different ways to create strategies for composing and performing with instrumentalists when digital technology is involved. Through these works, I aim to create musical dialogues exploring the following broad relationships: composer-performer, performer-improviser, pre-recorded and live sound, and open and fixed forms. These relationships are regarded as continua, rather than binary opposites – I aim to compose with the musical dialogues that emerge from them. Working with these relationships has led to an approach which is largely a synthesis of processes borrowed from experimental practice found in jazz, improvisation, classical, and electronic music production techniques. The dialogues found in the works rely mainly on a solo instrumentalist providing sound as a source material, either performed live or pre-sampled. Two of the pieces rely on pre-recorded instrumental sound and require no live instrumentalist in their presentation; the rest are for laptop and another instrumentalist. Part of my submission refers to soundfiles, and performance materials. The Max patches submitted are personal improvisation tools. My performances with those tools have been guided by the scores submitted.

Discourses of identity in East Asian new music are often limited to tracing ethnographic materials or conceptual influences from the composers' cultures of origin. Existing analytical approaches tend to look for the musical features that are emblematic of the cultures in question, and to map relationships between the contemporary and traditional musical aspects. Composers who resist employing their native traditions as musical tropes, however, problematise discussions of their identity and are consequently overlooked in studies of identity politics. This thesis therefore examines questions of identity through a focus on three contemporary composers who, in diverse ways, challenge and complicate essentialising expressions of East Asian identity: Chinese composer Chen Yi (1953-), Korean composer Unsuk Chin (1961-) and Japanese composer Karen Tanaka (1961-). All of them came to Europe or the United States to hone their skills in the mid-1980s and have since developed their musical careers in the Western world. They have been selected for examination due to their radically different reactions to the East-meets-West question; namely, Chen Yi's embracing of cultural fusion; Unsuk Chin's reaction against cultural fusion; and Karen Tanaka's lack of interest in cultural fusion. To demonstrate this variation, this thesis analyses the works of these composers, their personal viewpoints and the critical reception of their works. Beyond discussing conventional notions of identity and difference, this dissertation explores the ways in which these composers complicate their perceived dissimilarity by embracing a 'universal music' ideal. Chapter One explores Chen Yi's musical identity as defined by her idea of 'cultural translation' and her musical goal of enhancing intercultural communication; where Chen Yi affirms cultural fusion, her work contributes to the traditional idea of 'East-meets-West'. Chapter Two examines an alternative approach in the case of Unsuk Chin, who consciously avoids the practice of cultural hybridity by locating her work squarely within the Western tradition. Chapters Three examines the works of two Japanese composers - Toru Takemitsu and Karen Tanaka - who focus their attention not on cultural fusion but on natural themes. The first section of Chapter Three presents Toru Takemitsu's Japanese-based philosophy of the co-creative bond between nature and humanity, which serves as a foil for Karen Tanaka's evolving, observational relationship with the natural world. To conclude, I compare the identity choices and the musical representations in the three case studies of Chen Yi, Unsuk Chin and Karen Tanaka. By gaining a better understanding of each composer's music, this thesis aims to provide a more expansive discourse of identity formation in contemporary East Asian art music, and to offer a critical rethinking of what counts as an 'Asian perspective' in this field.

As a Hong Kong-born concert-music composer operating in the historically Western-centric art form of concert music, with only Cantonese popular music qualified to be considered as my true musical tradition, I am awkwardly situated outside of two strong musical traditions, namely European art music and traditional Chinese traditional folk music. This thesis addresses the idea of the composers’ perceived musical traditions and the impact this has on their work, particularly for those who come from a place where there is no conceivably strong musical heritage. The inspiration for this work has been my own personal experience. The concept of musical tradition runs deep in my work and thinking, but before it became a source of inspiration to me, it was a cause of ‘composer's block’. Dealing with this through research and talking to other composers has helped me to overcome this block, and at the same time, given me new insights, transforming the way I think about composing. Most of all, I hope the findings taken from this research will continue to shape my future works. In Part 1, I will give a general overview of my own development as a composer and the genesis of my interest in the notion of musical traditions. Part 2 considers the meaning of ‘tradition’ in the context of this research. Part 3 will look at the processes and approaches some of the more relevant Western classical composers have taken in locating themselves in the increasing complex musical landscape of the twentieth/twenty-first century and their respective findings. As an Asian composer myself, special attention will be paid in Part 4 to composers from Asia who found ways to deal with being ‘outsiders’. Part 5 will consider how memory as an integral part of the construction of one’s musical tradition. In Part 6, I will summarise all the ideas and approaches in dealing with the musical traditions discussed, and consider them selectively as the foundation for my own framework to contextualise (i.e. imagining) my musical traditions. Part 7 is an overview of my works, drawing findings from my research, i.e. the ‘re-invention’ of my heritage. Through these works, I aim to provide an over-arching narrative and some possible solutions for composers faced with the issue of finding their compositional voices when they come from a less prominent musical culture.

This thesis presents a body of eight original musical compositions inspired by the phenomenology of mental imagery, together with a written commentary which describes in depth the compositional process undertaken whilst composing them, defines the concept 'mental imagery' as applied to this process. and sets the concept within a broad theoretical framework which addresses cognitive sciences, the philosophy of meaning and perception, and music historiography. The study codifies a new and original methodology for music composition based on the author's personal account of mental imagery and its influence or permeation into his practice as a composer. The written commentary is structured in two chapters. Chapter One begins with a detailed description of the author's notion of mental imagery, which arose as a natural outcome of his subjective compositional practice. Mental imagery is then compared with ideas, concepts and arguments that address extrinsic elements in music and cross-modal categories in perception. The concept of 'mental imagery' proposed by the author, and therefore the whole compositional process described, is discussed through the lens of the ecological theory of perception and the virtual representation of music, which places mental imagery squarely within contemporary accounts in the field of cognitive sciences and the philosophy of perception. A discussion on the topic of musical meaning follows, addressing arguments that define meaning as a multiform, interdisciplinary concept. Chapter One ends with an insight into music analysis research from the second half of the 20th century, leading to the statement that mental imagery might have been neglected by some music theorists in the recent past. It is argued that this is due to a prevailing epistemological framework that gave priority to formal and technical features of musical material. Chapter Two of this written commentary undertakes a deep and detailed analysis of four of the compositions presented. This analysis gives mental imagery a central role in the descriptive discourse, being sensitive to all the arguments discussed in Chapter One. The analytical style resonates with other accounts such as 'performative analysis' by Nicholas Cook (2002) and 'analog mode of discourse' by John Rahn (1979), and borrows key terms from 'vitality affects' by David Stern (1985). The whole thesis aims to be a valuable example of compositional process inspired by an original, unique and well-described concept: mental imagery. This compositional process codifies new methods or models for compositional practice that may be disseminated to fellow composers. Moreover, the study could also inform performers, theorists and listeners, who may approach their practice in a different light through reflection on the topic of mental imagery and all the associated processes that are here described.

The main objective of this compositional research is to explore and develop different methods to create a clear narrative of the spiritual journey in Buddhism in my music. This portfolio of compositions consists of six works, predominantly for orchestra, written between the years 2005 and 2010, accompanied by a commentary.

In a series of chamber and orchestral compositions I employ approaches to composition in which motivic material is developed in a multi-linear fashion, according to processes of branching and divergence of parameters which are analogous to branching structures in nature. The resultant musical structures coexist within works that may contain multiple branches of motivic development, simultaneously or discretely, rather than following a single temporal line of development.

This portfolio consists of a series of acousmatic compositions presented in stereophonic and multichannel formats. The works in this portfolio reflect a variety of different compositional approaches undertaken during a period of time between 2010-2013. In this compositional research particular emphasis is given to the use of diverse sonic materials and their relationship in the exploration of acousmatic composition, along with discussion of important underlying principles and ideas, such as evocation, topos, mood and emotional states, anamnesis and catharsis. In addition, a secondary part of this compositional research uses text and voice within a musical context while still assimilating the aforementioned notions. Furthermore, this commentary reveals the compositional process in general by detailing its formation. Each piece is then individually discussed in order to outline the compositional objectives in relation to the key subjects of investigation.

This thesis comprises a portfolio of acousmatic compositions which explore the evocation of emotion and the expression of meaning in electroacoustic music. These works, created and developed in the Electroacoustic Music Studios of the University of Birmingham, embrace both stereo and multichannel formats. In the accompanying Commentary, I also discuss compositional procedures and provide some analytical notes on each work, along with an outline of my own personal development as an electroacoustic composer during the period of the PhD programme.