The main focus of this commentary is the examination of the Vox Circuit Trilogy (2007) consisting of The Suicided Voice (2003/2007), Hand-to-Mouth (2007) and Etch (2007). The innovative use of interactive technologies and the architecture of the Bodycoder System in terms of its software, hardware and human-computer interface will be examined. Kinaesonics will be discussed in relation to the coding of real-time one-to-one mapping of sound to gesture and its expression in terms of hardware and software design. The compositional processes will be discussed, in particular: the use of performance simulations, workshop collaboration with the performer and the negotiation of creation, composition and performance in the final work. Rehearsal processes will be examined with particular reference to The Suicided Voice. The notion of expressivity will be interrogated and how four principle forms of expressivity are interconnected, modelled and realized to generate a totally integrated performance modality.

Digital musical instruments pose a number of unique challenges for designers and performers. These issues stem primarily from the lack of innate physical connection between the performance interface and means of sound generation, for the latter is usually dematerialised. Thus, this relationship must instead be explicitly determined by the designer, and can be essentially any desired. However, many design issues and constraints remain poorly understood, from the nature of control to the provision of performer-instrument feedback. This practice-based research contends that while the digital and acoustic domains are so different as to be fundamentally incompatible, useful antecedents for digital musical instruments can be found in the histories of electronic music. Specifically, it argues that the live electronics of David Tudor are of particular prescience. His home-made circuits offer an electronic music paradigm quite antithetical to both the familiar keyboard interface and the electronic music studios that grew up in the years after World War II, and are seen to embody a number of aspirational qualities. These include performer-instrument interaction more akin to steering rather than fine control, the potential for musical outcomes that are unknown and unknowable in advance, and distinct instrumental character. This leads to the central contribution of this research; the development of a Tudor-inspired conceptual framework that can inform how digital musical instruments are designed, played, and evaluated. To enable more detailed and nuanced discussion, the framework is broken down into a series of sub-themes. These include both design issues such as nuance, plasticity and emergence, and human issues such as experience, expressiveness, skill, learning, and mastery. The notion of sketching in hardware and software is also developed in relation to the rapid iteration of multiple designs. Informed by this framework, seven new digital musical instruments are presented. These instruments are tested from two different perspectives, with the personal experiences of the author supplemented with data from a series of smallscale user studies. Particular emphasis is placed on how the instruments are played, the music they can produce, and their capacity to convey the musical intentions of the performer (i.e. their expressiveness). After the evaluation of the instruments, the Tudorian framework is revisited to form the basis of the conclusions. A number of modifications to the original framework are proposed, from the addition of a dialogical model of performerinstrument interaction, to the situation of digital musical instruments within a wider musical ecology. The thesis then closes with a suggestion of possibilities for future research.

In Chapters 1 and 2 there are definitions and a review of electroacoustic music, and then visualization generally and as applied to music. Chapter 3 is a review of specific and relevant literature as regards to the visualization of electroacoustic music. Chapter 4 introduces the concepts of imagining as opposed to discovering new sound, and what is important to this research about these terms; in addition what is meant and indicated by them. Chapter 5 deals with the responses that composers currently working have made to the enquiry concerning visualization. In this chapter these responses are dealt with as case studies. In a similar way, Chapter 6 looks at some examples of historical work in electroacoustic music, again as case studies. In Chapter 7 a taxonomical structure for the use of visualization in electroacoustic composition is established and derived from the case study results. Chapter 8 looks at relevant examples of software and how they offer visualization case studies. Chapter 9 looks at the place of the archive in various stages of the compositional process. Chapter 10 investigates the problems of visualizing musical timbre as possible evidence for future strategies. Chapter 11 offers some conclusions and implications as to the main research questions, as well as more specific outlines of potential strategies for the visualization of electroacoustic music.

Research regarding liveness and embodiment in electronic music has tended to explore the relationship of bodies and instruments, audience perception, interfaces, and shifting definitions, less theoretical and empirical study has considered network situations, perhaps given their relative cultural novelty. Network music has seen many advances since the time of the Telharmonium, including the invention of the personal computer and the widespread proliferation of internet connectivity. These advances have fostered a unique approach to live electronic music that facilitates collaboration in a field where solo performance is perhaps more common. This thesis explores the design of network music interfaces, and how those interfaces mediate collaborations. Three new network music system interfaces, each using different a different paradigm for interface design are presented in this study. One an instrument for creating modular feedback lattices. Another is a three dimensional virtual pattern sequencer. And the last is a web based collaborative live coding language. Accompanying each system is an evaluation using quantitative and qualitative analysis to frame these instruments in a larger context regarding network music. The results highlight important themes concerning the design of networked interfaces, and the attitudes of musicians regarding networked collaborations.

The emphasis of this PhD is in the field of original/contemporary musical composition and I have submitted a portfolio of original compositions (volume 1/2, comprising of music scores of both acoustic and electroacoustic music compositions [totalling c. 114:30 minutes of music] as well as written material relating to notation and artistic motivation), along with an academic commentary (volume 2/2 [totalling c. 19,500 words], which places the original compositional work in the portfolio in its academic context). The composition works in first volume are varied and broad ranging in scope. In terms of pitch organisation, the majority of works adopt some form of modality or polymodality, whilst certain works also incorporate post-tonal chromaticism and serialism into their syntax. Certain key works also explore extended timbre and colouration (in particular for bowed strings, voices, flute and electronics) and adopt the use of timbral modifications, harmonics, microtones, multiphonics, sprechgesang (i.e. ‘speech-song’), phonetics and the incorporation of electroacoustic sampling, sound synthesis and processing. The academic commentary in the second volume sets out several initial theoretical pitch organisation models (namely relating to modes, polymodes, rows, serial techniques and intervallic cells), with a particular emphasis placed on the formation of a melodic/harmonic language which is fundamentally polymodal, polychordal and polyharmonic. The commentary then takes a closer look at various works within the portfolio which adopt modal, polymodal and chromatic forms of pitch-organisation (whilst intermittently discussing wider musical parameters, such as rhythm, counterpoint, timbre, structure etc.). Separate chapters also discuss a work for flute and electronics and a lengthy work for string quartet (inspired by urban dystopian film) in greater depth. The commentary also discusses my style of writing, placing individual works within the portfolio in their academic context alongside key influences as well as contextualising non-musical aesthetics and sources of artistic inspiration relating to my work.

This submission explores the development of collaborative computer music creation and the role of the Musical Assistant, or Computer Music Designer, or Live Electronics Designer, or RIM (Réalisateur en informatique musicale) and does so primarily through the consideration of a series of collaborations with composers over the last 18 years. The submission documents and evaluates a number of projects which exemplify my practice within collaborative computer music creation, whether in the form of live electronics, tape-based or fixed media work, as a live electronics performer, or working with composers and others to create original tools and music for artistic creations. A selection of works is presented to exemplify archetypes found within the relational structures of collaborative work. The relatively recent development of this activity as an independent metier is located within its historical context, a context in which my work has played a significant role. The submission evidences the innovative aspects of that work and, more generally, of the role of the Computer Music Designer through consideration of a number of Max patches and program examples especially created for the works under discussion. Finally, the validation of the role of the Computer Music Designer as a new entity within the world of music creation is explored in a range of contexts, demonstrating the ways in which Computer Music Designers not only collaborate in the creation of new work but also generate new resources for computer-based music and new creative paradigms.

Electroacoustic music has a unique ability to connect the listener to places, space and stories both real and imaginary. Each work within the portfolio explores specific objects, spaces and places. The intrinsic sonic qualities are explored and a musical narrative takes the listener through a newly composed imaginary space. Six original compositions are presented in this portfolio. The titles of these works are as follows: Lamenting, 192, All Along the Bell Tower, Oz, The Thing About Listening is…. and A Bit Closer to Home. Narrative structures that simulate a journey are used as a guide for the listener through immersive, virtual soundworlds. These spoken word and musical narratives also serve as a structural tool for the composer. Imagined and real sonic layers within stories and soundscapes are analysed, deconstructed and manipulated. These works convey a message, story or sense of place to the listener, while revealing sonic qualities that are not normally the focus of listening. My aim as a composer is to enhance the daily listening experiences of the listener, as they become more aware and appreciative of the sounds around them, through the sounds and spaces they experience in my music.

The research contained within this PhD project forms part of the Pedagogical ElectroAcoustic Resource Site project of the Music, Technology and Innovation Research Centre of De Montfort University Leicester. This thesis contributes to current research in music education and musicology related to electroacoustic music. The purpose of this research was to investigate the influence of teaching on the change in inexperienced listeners’ appreciation of electroacoustic music. A curriculum was developed to introduce electroacoustic music to 11 to 14 year old students (Key Stage 3). The curriculum was based on concepts distinguishing between electroacoustic music using (mainly) real-world sounds and generated sounds. The curriculum is presented in an online learning environment with an accompanying teacher’s handbook. The learning environment represents the prototype for the pedagogical ElectroAcoustic Resource Site offering online learning, blended learning and classroom-based learning. The website was developed following user-centred design; the curriculum was tested in a large-scale study including four Key Stage 3 classes within three schools in Leicester. In five lessons music using real-world sounds (soundscape and musique concrète) was introduced, which included the delivery of a listening training, independent research and creative tasks (composition or devising a role-play). The teaching design followed the methods of active, collaborative and self-regulated learning. Data was collected by using questionnaires, direct responses to listening experiences before and after the teaching, and summaries of the teaching written by the participants. Following a Qualitative Content Analysis, the results of the study show that the participants’ appreciation of electroacoustic music changed during the course of these lessons. Learning success could be established as well as a declining alienation towards electroacoustic music. The principal conclusion is that the appreciation of electroacoustic music can be enhanced through the acquiring of conceptual knowledge, especially through the enhancing of listening skills following the structured listening training as well as the broadening of vocabulary to describe the listening experience.

This is a study of the way in which digital audio and a number of key associated technologies that rely on it as a framework have changed the creation, production and dissemination of music, as witnessed by my own creative practice. The study is built on my own work as an electronic musician and composer and draws from numerous collaborations with not only other musicians but also researchers and artists, as documented through commissions, performances, academic papers and commercial releases over an 9 year period from 2007 to 2016. I begin by contextualising my own musical practice and outlining some prominent themes associated with the democratisation of computing that the work of this thesis interrogates as a critical framework for the production of musical works. I go on to assess how works using various techniques afforded by digital audio may be interpreted as progressively instantiating a digital ontology of music. In the context of this digital ontology of music I propose a method of analysis and criticism of works explicitly concerned with audio analysis and algorithmic processes based on my interpretation of the concept of `hypertext', wherein the ability for computers to analyse, index and create multi-dimensional, non-linear links between segments of digital audio is best described as hypertextual. In light of this, I contextualise the merits of this reading of music created using these affordances of digital audio through a reading of several key works of 20th century music from a hypertextual perspective, emphasising the role information theory and semiotics have to play in analyses of these works. I proffer this as the beginnings of a useful model for musical composition in the domain of digital audio which I seek to explore through my own practice. I then describe and analyse, both individually and in parallel numerous works I have undertaken that seek to interrogate the intricacies of what it means to work in the domain of digital audio with audio analysis, machine listening, algorithmic and generative computational processes and consider the ways in which aspects of this work might be seen as contributing useful and novel insights into music creation by harnessing properties intrinsic to digital audio as a medium. Finally, I emphasise, based on the music and research presented in the thesis, the extent to which digital audio and the harnessing of increasingly complex computational systems for the production and dissemination of music has changed the ontology of music production, a situation which I interpret as creating both substantial challenges, but also great possibilities for the future of music.

This thesis examines creativity as manifested in an online and transnational network of musicians who compose chipmusic, a kind of electronic music characteristic of 1980s early home computers and videogame sounds. The primary argument is that creativity in chipmusic worlds is networked, meaning that it is dispersed across various activities that are labelled as creative: chipmusic-making, technology-hacking practices that underpin the music, digital cultural practices such as use of social media, online releases, crowdsourcing, staged and screened performances, and any other activity related to chipmusic. The thesis examines the ways in which networked creativity is mediated in the chipscene from an interdisciplinary methodological viewpoint informed by ethnomusicology, anthropology, and sociology. Although the chipscene is geographically dispersed across more than thirty countries worldwide, the chipscene network is well-connected. Communication and music circulation practices of chipmusicians are enabled by the internet. This thesis primarily discusses chipmusic culture that suggests a rich context where creativity discourse is as intensely diverse as the chipscene itself, in which it is embedded. In looking at the creative process and performance practices, I employ a mixed methods approach based on ethnographic research methods and social network analysis, to examine how intrinsic and extrinsic aspects of chipmusic-making, such as ideology, cultural values, network infrastructure, chiptune poetics and aesthetics, distribution of creative roles, authenticity, differentiation, genre dynamics, and intellectual property issues, shape creativity.