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This research project set out to investigate the landscape of the River Severn, in particular the sounds created by the interaction between the river and its environs, and to create a series of original compositions that chart the relationship between geographical site and composed sound. The questions that were posed were: what creative strategies and methodologies have composers used to engage with and represent landscape in their work? What is the relationship between site, composer, and new work? How are the impressions of the phenomena like the river, formed in the composer’s mind, then recreated as music or sound? It should be borne in mind that this has been a personal project. It has involved field recordings of the sound of the river, both under and above the water, and the recording of sounds activated by interaction with the landscape; studying aspects of the river itself, its history, underlying geology, and the complex social, economic, political and emotional interaction it has had with the people who live by it. It has also involved assembling resources on instruments not generally associated with orchestral music, to extend the palette of sounds, and examining ways of transference of behaviours such as river flow and cloud formations from the physical to the sonic. I endeavour to explain how I developed my methodologies, derived from my own observations. The major part of the thesis comprises a critical commentary on the pieces of music I have produced, showing how these methodologies were employed. The pieces and their recordings are grouped into a suite, Severn Journey; representative trial pieces; a collage piece Severn Words of Wisdom, representing a journey down the Severn and Sounding Severn, a piece in five sections which shows many of my key methodologies at work.

The importance of the work by the British composer, performer, inventor of new musical instruments, and musicologist Hugh Davies (1943-2005) has yet to be fully acknowledged. Despite being a central figure in British music outside the conventions of the concert hall, no comprehensive study of his oeuvre has been carried out before. The idiosyncratic nature and radicalism of his work undoubtedly cast him as an ‘outsider’, but can a broader conceptual framework with which to assess his output be identified? What was the aesthetic philosophy on which Davies’s musical project rested? How did his work mediate its context? This research represents an attempt at answering these questions. First of all it gathers, categorises, and evaluates information on Davies’s larger body of work and activities. Indeed Davies engaged in many different forms of music making: he composed serial works and wrote music theatre pieces; he invented new musical instruments and improvised on them; he devised gallery installations and environmental projects. At the same time Davies pursued a number of significant activities such as the publishing of a world catalogue of experimental and electronic music and the setting up of the first permanent electronic music studio at a British university. He was also an assistant to the German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928-2007), an experience that had a profound effect on his development. Davies’s musical output as well as his related research and pioneering work will be given due attention here in order to build a comprehensive and critical account of Davies’s achievements and the context in which they took place. This thesis suggests that all the diverse pursuits in which Davies was engaged have been part of the same artistic discourse, and therefore can be logically connected in their genesis and development. The chosen framework to make sense of Davies’s heterogeneous practice is that of ‘experimental electronic music’, and its defining principles are applied even when the pieces examined feature no electronic technology at all. The experimental ethos and the impact of electronic technology are thus construed as the foundation of Davies’s production. This research casts light on Davies’s work and on his fundamental role in the context of experimental and electronic music in Britain, and calls not only for a more informed appraisal of Davies’s oeuvre but also for a more accurate account of twentieth century British music history.

This portfolio of compositions, prose and critical contextualisation is a practice-led PhD that incorporates site-specific field recording practice and electroacoustics into post-techno music production. Combining psychogeographical strategies and phonographic practices to investigate the production of a poetry of place within a rapidly gentrifying city, it also includes poetry and fiction written within the urban and architectural context of Newcastle upon Tyne from 2008 to 2012. An interactive city-wide art installation called Surrogate City brought these elements together during 2012 and is documented here. Straddling the cleft between rhythm, literature and place, this thesis draws on the writings of 20th century Irish writer James Joyce and contemporary African-American poet Nathaniel Mackey among others to quarry and sound out a particular relationship between music and writing centered around ideas of rhythm, meter and beats, specifically with regards to concepts of slippage and swing. An album of electronic music called Glyphic Bloom constructed from field recordings and experiments in beat programming is the fulcrum on which this practice-led research rests.

The eight compositions in this portfolio explore matters of form and sound-constructions as well as their points of intersection, gradually shifting from the ‘teleological forms’ of the earlier works to ‘fragmented’ ones consisting of a succession of ‘musical aphorisms’, and from ‘melodic contours’ to ‘single articulations’. I aim to find those elements that are essential and what Lachenmann refers to as ‘magical’ for a musical piece, by striving progressively to strip out all decorative elements or layers. Largely teleological in its conception, Relieves (for ensemble) is driven by the directionality of its pitch configurations and the rhythms of particular phrases while the harmonic content of each section is distinct. Diáfano (for bass clarinet) exhibits a concern with matters related to ‘tradition’ and ‘identity’ motivated by the use of borrowed materials: an Argentine zamba. In Contornos. Transparencias. Gradaciones (for flute, violin, viola and piano) clearly defined points of departure and arrival are combined with static harmonies and long pedal notes framing shorter events, whose function is to enrich its various layers by virtue of their timbral qualities. Preoccupations with ‘context’ and ‘depth’ were central to the composition of Deshielo/Laissez vibrer (for ensemble). In these pieces an enhanced sense of depth (in both a spatial and an emotional sense) arises from the juxtaposition of music with contrasting degrees of distinctiveness. The main concern in w/brennt (for ensemble) was to juxtapose sections without any development or transitional process in between. w/brennt is a sequel to Deshielo/Laissez vibrer inasmuch as the former, though fragmented into different sections, similarly moves from vitality to repose. Silber/Strom (for two violins, viola and cello) explores high degrees of differentiation within the short utterances of the four string instruments. The piece is organised in terms of the polarity between simultaneity and non-simultaneity. The idea of composing with ‘musical aphorisms’ that bear ambivalent relationship with each other in the sense that they while coexisting in the same piece are not related in a causal fashion appears for the first time in su – atS (a trio for bass clarinet, percussion and cello). While in su - atS ‘punctuation’ plays a part, In tueri I (for alto flute) deliberately avoids it. Depending on the perceptual focus, the latter may be experienced as either a contemplative or a dramatic piece, the fragility of its sound-world constantly endangering the unfolding of the music.

The eight compositions in this portfolio explore how dissimilar or contrasting musical materials can coexist. Rather than creating block forms my intention in general is to mediate between materials, maintaining a sense of musical narrative. At a local level this mediation takes the form of various kinds of transition or juxtaposition, while on a larger scale musical materials return transformed or in altered contexts, often giving rise to flexible ritornello forms. In LINES (for mixed quintet) opposing instrumental pairings rely on gesture and mode to set out contrasting territories, eventually leading to an uneasy truce in the closing processional. In AXIAL (for ensemble) delicate murmurings are interleaved with excursions into more vigorous territory; a kind of synthesis is achieved towards the end through layering. BLACK ASTRIDE AND BLINDING (for ensemble) is characterised by a vigorous and often densely thematic language, in which the use of ritornello is central. Transformed versions of the opening paragraph return obsessively, sometimes interrupted by interludes but often leading organically into new territory. A related process informs lunatic silver (for bassoon and piano), in which a recurrent harmonic field acts as a balancing force to periods of increased harmonic or rhythmic activity, while the field itself undergoes agitation and development. Sumwhyle wyth wodwos (for orchestra) involves binary oppositions, although as ever continuity is as important as rupture. The opposition set out at the beginning between thematic ambiguity and clear statement unfolds alongside a working out of the relationship between the prevailing 6/8 dance topics and more strident material. In DOTS (for recorder consort) the extremely homogenous sound of the ensemble provides a backdrop for an exploration of the relationship between the individual and the collective. A slightly different approach is in evidence in Ryokan Songs (for bass and piano), which sets aphoristic poetic gems by the Zen hermit. While each individual song does not feature strong contrasts, together they provide a multifaceted display of Zen practice – at once unified and diverse. The text by the Brazilian modernist Haroldo de Campos which is set in o lótus estala (for baritone and orchestra) is as direct as Ryokan’s poems but far more overtly dramatic. My setting follows the text as it explores the extremes of light and dark, reappearances of the opening’s luminous harmonies being interspersed with forays into thicker textures or darker sonorities.

This portfolio and accompanying commentary document my compositional research through the length of my course, 2007-2013. The portfolio is made up of five compositions taken from my total output of sixteen pieces. The portfolio pieces demonstrate writing for a wide range of forces and lengths: Mortality, a song cycle for tenor and piano Five Organ Miniatures Up the Spiral Staircase, for string quartet Sanctuary, a chamber opera Tenchikaibyaku, for symphony orchestra with expanded percussion The five chosen pieces that contribute to this portfolio are representative of my writing at the time of the course. They chart my trajectory towards a greater understanding of compositional technique,and a more true representation of my compositional self, through the research and exploration of various compositional challenges. These challenges include: Tackling musical characterisation, and how to allow an extramusical narrative to effect various aspects of music, including melody, harmony, and structure. The extramusical sources adopted in the portfolio are broad, ranging from an opera libretto to a faintly recalled recurring nightmare I had as a child. Prescribing myself a more rigorous approach to melodic development, which allows me to get more compositional'value' out of a raw melodic idea, and permits me to expend less original creative ideas in a single composition. A more rigorous approach to harmony, and permitting various processes/influences, including extra musical narrative, to inform harmonic decisions. Naturally, these challenges overlap and intertwine in both my writing and in the commentary, as one can easily influence the others. This commentary serves as a guide to my various approaches to these and other challenges, with reference to important and influential works and events that have shaped my writing and development as a composer.

In the six submitted works I explore the possibilities of using folk-music material as an inspiration to create new music as well as a tool on the rather technical aspects of modal writing and asymmetric rhythms. My compositions include polyrhythms and modes that one meets in traditional musics of the Eastern MeditelTanean and Balkan areas, particularly Greece and Turkey. The structure of the works often adopts elements from folk music, including improvisatory moments and melody-led sections. The material used does not intend to imitate the original folk-songs, but to discover ways in which 21st century concert music can create dialogues with them. Moreover, a programmatic character is often prominent, using specific mythological and historical elements as inspiration and as a means of structuring the works. The golden ratio has been extensively used as a structuring tool in particular sections and in whole movements. It provided me with the ability to plan the structure of particular passages using a ratio that is often met in several occasions in nature, as well as used, among others, in architecture and photography. In most of my pieces I have used multiple cuts of their linear plan in order to place significant moments of climaxes as well as impOliant changes on rhythm and harmony. Finally, the majority of the works explore new timbral possibilities and techniques applied to both the western and non-western instruments used, with the latest performed piece, Paliachora, introducing a new aspect in my compositional technique, using a vast variety of soundscapes and focusing on the programmatic concept of the piece and its structure rather than the harmonic context, creating this way an intended contrast to my previously composed works.

The theme of the works in this portfolio is the creation of an original and distinctive personal language through the use of traditional methods of composition and means of performance. The works have therefore had to rely on their musical argument alone. There is a common strand running through the three works, which is the use of the organ as an essential part of the ensemble. This instrument is used in a variety of guises across the works, including as a largely accompanimental force, as part of an ensemble, and as a 'sound source'. The works show a variety of approaches to structure, including pure musical structure along traditional lines, dramatic structure in accordance with textural considerations, and a more rhapsodic approach to structure in which the piece must achieve its argument through use of the material and the strength of each musical moment. The works are as follows: Trio for Clarinet, Bassoon and Organ - a large-scale suite in three movements; Welcome All Wonders - A Christmas Cantata - a 78-minute work scored for Choir, Trumpet, and Organ; The Phoenix - a rhapsodic work for violin and organ, which features a much freer approach to ensemble, necessitated by considerations of instrumental placing. Within the parameters of conventional instrumental use, I have explored issues of harmony, rhythm, form, and layering, and worked on aspects of drama and musical narrative. Contents: v.1. Composition portfolio (Trio for bassoon, clarinet and organ, Welcome all wonders : a Christmas cantata, The pheonix) -- v.2. composition commentary.

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