The last fifteen years of Alun Hoddinott’s life witnessed an unprecedented outpouring of works for solo voice, which seemed to coincide with a notable change of style – towards simpler textures, melodic lyricism and a greater concision of musical thought. This thesis examines the context and nature of this apparent change of style, focusing on text setting, poetic rhetoric, and harmonic and rhythmic vocabulary, with particular reference to the song cycle Five Poems of Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, Op. 152 no. 2 (1994). Chapter 1 contextualizes the vocal music since 1994 within Hoddinott’s oeuvre, considering whether the later songs mark a genuine ‘late style’ or merely a shift of emphasis within an already established compositional approach. Chapter 2 examines in detail the rhetoric and structure of the poetry chosen by Hoddinott and the reflection of these poetic devices in the musical settings. Chapter 3 investigates the combination of modality and serialism in Hoddinott’s harmonic language, concluding with an analysis of the opening Andante of the Trio for violin, cello and piano, Op. 77 (1970). This chapter assesses his acknowledged debt to the modal writing of Bartók and the serial practices of Berg, manifested in Hoddinott’s use of whole-tone and octatonic scales as a basis for hexachordal structure. All these elements are then brought together in Chapter 4, an analysis of the Bécquer settings, which assesses the interaction of text and music. While the underlying structure of Hoddinott’s later music remains serial, its reduced rate of chromatic circulation means that the modal elements long present in his note rows now come clearly to the fore, contributing to the songs’ often striking changes of colour and texture. The appendices contain translations of the texts for the late solo baritone works (with original punctuation restored), along with a full works list, bibliography and discography.

The thesis sets Rousseau's philosophy of music and aesthetic of opera against the wider philosophical backcloth of eighteenth-centuryF rance and in contraposition to the more scopic music-theoredcabl ackdrop,o f which Rameau'sw ritings are takena s a paradigm. The first half of the thesis contends that the philosophy of music is fashioned upon a trinary model which mirrors the philosophy of nature and history. The first sector is an ideal, hypothetical state; the second (the 'fall) is the moment when the ideal state is ruptured, when societal and cultural institutions - and history - commence; the third, is the 'actual state', the culmination of the process of history. It is argued that relativism is at work between the second and third sectorsa nd Rousseaua ssignsa rigorous systemo f value to the processo f history and all points alongi t, the processi tself, taken as a whole, is seena s a degeneratives lide awayf rom nearperfection to imperfection. 7111sce condh alf of the thesis explores the ramifications of the trinary model and the effect the degenerativep rocessh as upon the voice, music and opera. The voice is consideredt he unique phenomenon that connects all sectors of the trinary structure: though objectified and endowed with an ontology, it is not immune to the degenerativep rocess. At the fall-state,t he voice begins to rupture and two entities - melody and language - gradually emerge. Over time, melody and speech are forced further apart until neither bears much resemblance to the other. With the invention of harmony, melody degeneratesh: armony begins to overshadowm elody, until in the eighteenthc entury- consummatedin the music and theoreticalp ostulationso f Rameau- melody is subjugated and subsumed entirely within the harmonic domain of musical production. The impact upon opera is more complex and the concluding chapters explore the radical and largely reform-driven aesthetico f opera. Roussea&sf inal dramaticw ork Py gmalion(1 762)i s considered not simply as an outcome of this aesthetic, but as an embodiment of the philosophy of music itself; the animateds tatuee nunciatesR ousseau'sv ision of the origin of human expression.

The social and political practice of the French Third Republic resonated with a variety of contrasting ideologies which were reflected in cultural products and their reception, including opera. The operas of Jules Massenet, the most successful Parisian opera composer of his time, provide a good example of this kind of cultural mediation. A close examination of Massenet's operas will thus allow a re-evaluation of the complex interaction between art and society in musical culture at the end of the nineteenth century in France. Representative case-studies have been chosen, and the works are read in the contemporary Parisian context of moral and political debate. I examine the operas with respect to the choice of subject matter, the libretto and its genesis (especially transformations made in the process of creating a libretto), the music (both in it srelation to the specific drama and musical convention of the time), the staging and its messages, and the critical reception in the press. The main chapters are dedicated to the following issues: 1. Mary or Marianne? The social, moral and cultural context, particularly regarding women, is explored via a close reading of sources from the second half of the nineteenth century. 2. Le Pretre, la Femme et la Familie. Anticlericalism and Republicanism as reflected in Massenet's opera Herodiade and its reception history are addressed. Also discussed is the icon of the Republican mother, sexual desire and the question of divorce (hotly debated at the time of the opera's premiere). 3. Dreams of Decadence, or the Death of Positivism. Viewing the medium of the dream scene in Massenet's operas Herodiade and then Thai's, this chapter allows an exploration of the significance of the dream world and degeneracy in the'decadent and symbolist aestheticso f the last two decadeso f the nineteenthc entury in France, and their implications for the reigning Third-Republican positivist ideology. 4. La Pornocratie. This reading of the opera Thais addresses the way in which French fin-de-siecle art and society dealt with the `femme nouvelle'. Programmatic orchestral music in opera and its capacity to translate human passions and voice is examined.

The aim of the research was to find out about intonational strategies in the performance situation. The singing voice was chosen as the appropriate subject for experimental work, due to its superior capability to define pitch as compared to other musical instruments. Ensemble singing was also required, as harmonic context may be important in the clarification of the issue, Chapter One, as an introduction to the subject, considers tuning systems and temperaments and briefly reviews the experimental literature on the subject. It also states the aim of the research. Chapter Two focuses on the theoretical aspects of the research, considering sonic relevant phenomena of psychoacoustics to the legacy of tuning systems and temperaments. Some thoughts on intonational strategies, reference frequencies and flexible temperament as desirable components of a sound intonational strategy are elaborated. An analysis of the motet Ave Veruin Corpus, by Mozart, as the chosen music piece for experimental work is carried out. Chapter 11ree deals with the delineation of experimental procedures for the evaluation of the intonational strategies adopted by singers in the performance situation. The recording sessions environment and the technical tools utilised in the experiments are described, as well as the technical procedures to carry out the measurements of the acquired data. As strict criteria had to be met regarding the performance situation, simultaneity of performance and the need to acquire individual data for analytical work, electrodes were attached to the neck of the singers, near the larynx, in order to carry out the recording sessions with the help of I-uyngogr2ph devices. Analytical issues arc also considered in the chapter, namely technical problems, errors and mistakes, as well as the implementation of intonational analyses and reference frequency calculations. Chapter Four presents a discussion on data measurements procedures, including guidelines for the determination of errors and mistakes and their symbology. Four recording sessions were carded out; two of them fulfilled 211th e necessary requirements. The singers' results are presented in chronological order. firstly, a quartet of singers from the Royal Academy of Music, and secondly, sixteen of the BBC Singers. Reference frequency results are also presented and discussed. Chapter Five deals with the intonational strategies as defined by the experimental work. It was discovered that no lbeorr&d modewl as followed throughout the music piece, but instead international procedures were guiding the singers while performing. Also, the two groups adopted different intonational strategies regarding reference frequencies. Alongside with the main issues of the research - intonational strategies regarding pitch behaviour and reference frequencies,p itch equalization within a choir section and text-related issues that amongst the most important topics that have been revealed by the results. Chapter Six comments on the new concepts brought about by the research. It also delineates some possibilities for future research work on the subject and related issues, especially vibrato singing & text articulation and absolute pitch. The Appendices contain images of the experimental work, diagrams of studio disposition for recording sessions, and analytical scores alongside with tuning tables that make it possible to represent graphically analytical values. They also provide means of performing acoustical replications of the results of analysis and singers. The core of the appendices volume is formed by the results of the singers' fundamental frequencies results and their graphical representation.

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This thesis is a reflection upon two instances of practice- as-research, emerging through the performativities of responses to two invitations: to sing and record a note with me in unison, and to spend a Sunday with Me in a place of your choosing, documented through audio-visual recordings. As the thesis progresses, I will describe a movement from performance and recording in experimental voice practices to a conception of voice and the recording as spatial practices. In the last chapters I will describe a movement away from voice as a disciplinary practice, toward a conception of listening described in our movements through place (which redescribes movement as place). Through these progressions, this research examines possible correlations between performance practices and the ethical philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas (1905-1996) and other relevant philosophical disciplines, such as Hans-Georg Gadamer (1900-2002) and Richard Rorty's (1931-2007) hermeneutics. Levinas' ethics were founded upon a distinction between the structure of the face-to-face, or ethical relationship, and the structure of intentional knowledge described in Husserlian phenomenology. This thesis argues that in response to Levinasian ethics, the criticality at work in performance might be rephrased in terms of welcome and hospitality to others. The methods developed here concern an ethos of renewable propositions, through which 'knowledges' become open to question, unstable, provisional, contingent. The research enacts a process of returning and beginning-again, first formalised by writer and philosopher Maurice Blanchot, as a disserninative and exegetical strategy. The first invitation, One Note, used the medium of sound installation, voice and recording, to develop a method of performance documentation based upon context-specific face-to-face encounters. Whilst Levinasian ethics conceives discourse - or more specifically, spoken conversation - as an ephemeral, episternically unstable encounter, One Note developed compositional sensibilities to enact renewals of questioning intended to destabilize fixed outcomes. The second invitation Sunday with Me, de-formalised 'voice' as a disciplinary practice, and examined how guiding and being guided through might constitute a form of (or response to) Levinas' ethical faceto- face encounter, reconsidering performance research as field of infinite encounter with others, conceived in terms of singular articulations of welcome.

In eighteenth-century England, the art-forms of painting, poetry and gardening were often collectively labelled, the ‘sister arts’. The increasing interest taken in the apprehension and appraisal of scenes of English landscape by artists in these fields, alongside an emerging taste for nature ‘tourism’, gave rise to the term, the ‘picturesque movement’. English music was seldom considered as belonging to this ‘sisterhood’ or discussed as a medium for conveying artistic expressions of national scenic beauty. When the picturesque was discussed alongside music it was adopted as an analogy to explain the tactics of novelty and surprise deployed by contemporaneous German composers of instrumental music; these ‘plays’ with regularity and expectation were felt to be similar to the techniques of landscape gardeners who had studied and adopted the elements of surprise and irregularity observed in picturesque ‘beauty spots’. Recent musicological references to the picturesque have also preferred to employ it in this way in order to problematize the subversion of formal characteristics in the fantasias and unconventional symphonies by German composers. This thesis addresses the silent aporia in these discourses – namely the apparent absence of any participation in the picturesque by English composers, natives of the country most associated with the picturesque sensibility. Revealing the connections between the veneration of national landscape and eighteenth-century English vocal music, it is the ‘pictorialisms’ present in their texts, and their musical treatment, which are the focus of this project. In the process, secular song, the glee and national theatre music are positioned as appropriate sites for expressions of a uniquely English, painterly engagement with national landscapes, making possible reclamation of a neglected repertoire through the lens of the picturesque. And at the end of the project, Haydn’s oratorio, The Seasons, is shown to be as much a part of the English picturesque expression as a product of the German Enlightenment.

This thesis is the first major investigation of tuk and documents an important part of Barbados' heritage. It also opens up opportunities for further research to be undertaken in Barbadian music and in related fields elsewhere in the Caribbean region. This thesis explores the history, development and recontextualisation of Barbadian tuk music. The history of Barbados is examined before considering Barbadian culture and how a Barbadian national identity was increasingly sought during the twentieth century, particularly after Independence. Music during the period of slavery, African music and British military music, the major influences on tuk, are explored before a study of the instruments, rhythms and repertoire of tuk. Types of tuk, and tuk-type musics elsewhere are examined and tuk is compared with other musics. Modern tuk musicians, their treatment of tuk, and how tuk has been, and continues to be, recontextualised is explored. The history, organisation and roles of the Barbados Landship, an organisation modelled on the British Royal Navy, but which never goes to sea, are considered together with the Landship's relationship with the tuk band. Finally, an overview of music and festivals in Barbados today places tuk in the country's musical scene. This thesis argues that tuk is predominantly a music that originated from imitating European military fife and drum bands, and that the African elements of it are to be found in rhythmic improvisation and some African retentions that have direct parallels with military fife and drum bands. It also argues that tuk exhibits characteristics similar to musics found elsewhere that can be attributed to the effects of the slave trade, colonialism and migration. In addition, the thesis argues that the Landship's relationship with the tuk band is a continuation of a naval tradition.

It will be demonstrated, in conclusion, that in art as in life, the contingencies Britten imposed upon the Christian element are ultimately displaced by other 'non-Christian' elements related to the Classical paradigm.

The published works that form the basis of this PhD are a selection of hip-hop songs written over a period of six years between 2010 and 2015. The lyrics for these pieces are all written by the author and performed with hip-hop group Stanley Odd. The songs have been recorded and commercially released by a number of independent record labels (Circular Records, Handsome Tramp Records and A Modern Way Recordings) with worldwide digital distributionlicensed to Fine Tunes, and physical sales through Proper Music Distribution. Considering the poetics of Scottish hip-hop, the accompanying critical reflection is an autoethnographic study, focused on rap lyricism, identity and performance. The significance of the writing lies in how the pieces collectively explore notions of identity, ‘outsiderdom', politics and society in a Scottish context. Further to this, the pieces are noteworthy in their interpretation of US hip-hop frameworks and structures, adapted and reworked through Scottish culture, dialect and perspective. Reflecting the multi-disciplinary nature of hip-hop studies, an autoethnographic framework (Monaco, 2010; Munro 2011) is combined with poetic analysis, musicological discussion and social and cultural studies toexamine the pieces that comprise the published works. Through a consideration of poetics, linguistics, sociological issues and cultural considerations, a schematic emerges, describing a construct of lyrical techniques, signifying practices, social interactions and outsider narratives that speak to (re)imagining, (re)creating and (re)constructing local culture by expressing it through hip-hop and vice versa. This study demonstrates new knowledge regarding global and local intersections in Scottish hip-hop, identity construction and negotiation, and creative approaches to rap storytelling.