No Abstract available / Thesis (DMus)--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Music / unrestricted

The Full Armor of God is a musical composition based on the apostle Paul's comparison in Ephesians 6:10-20 between armor for physical combat and armor for spiritual warfare. The instrumentation consists of the following: oboe/English horn, bassoon, two violins, viola, cello, and bass. Texts on Roman armor as well as commentaries and sermons on the scriptures were consulted for the basis of the musical materials. The piece combines imagery and historical associations with abstract renderings of both the physical and the spiritual.

Rhapsody for Piano and Small Orchestra is a one-movement composition in a concerto fashion for seventeen players, and is about nine minutes in duration. The overall form of this work is A B C D E D1 C1 B1 A1. This work contains various hidden compositional devices such as the golden section principle and a palindrome structure. These devices are applied not only to the structure of the work, but also to the pitch related and rhythm-related matters. Also, certain melodic and rhythmic cells are employed for each section in the developmental procedure of that section almost exclusively. Since this work is a concerto-like piece, there are two cadenza-like passages for the piano with an accompanying solo instrument, which plays the obbligato passage. The following essay addresses the form, pitch materials, harmony, rhythm and technical difficulties, orchestration, and variant elements between the corresponding sections used in this work.

Concentrate for Chamber Orchestra -- Music

No description available.

Watership Down is a work for chamber orchestra in four movements, approximately sixteen minutes in duration. The piece is a programmatic work based on the novel Watership Down by Richard Adams; however, the musical action is not intended to be an aural narrative of the story but, rather, is meant to capture the general mood of the four sections of the novel. The work exhibits the influence of several styles of late nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century music with the symphonic poem being the genre it most closely resembles.

No description available.

This work is a setting of two poems by E.E. Cummings for chamber orchestra and mezzo-soprano soloist. The approximate durations of the first and second movements are respectively seven and one half, and six minutes. The music was inspired by the poetry and attempts to highlight the cyclic syntax which hallmarks Cummings' style. The first poem ("pity this busy monster, manunkind,") presents a sarcastic analysis of the progress of society. The compositional techniques used in the first movement involve elements of ostinato and fragmented motivic development to punctuate the penetrating message of the poem. The second movement ("these children singing in stone a") offers a marked contrast in texture and is a peaceful resolution to the agitated frustration of the first poem. Chromaticism is an essential element in defining the melodic and harmonic style. The vocal writing is largely declamatory and presents the vocalist with challenges of tessitura, intervallic complexity and extended technique.

Inside is the Sky is a musical composition for mezzo soprano and chamber orchestra. It is a collection of four songs using poems by renowned Canadian poet Lorna Crozier: A Summer's Singing, In Moonlight, Tautologies of Summer, and Inner Space. The composer wishes to connect music and poetry on a fundamental level. The approach is to write music that responds not to the mere surface of the poems, but rather to their central poetic themes, by means of parameters intrinsic to music: harmony, rhythm, melody, and registral expanse.

The Light is a twenty-four minute composition for two narrators and chamber orchestra. The two narrators perform the roles of the Apostle John and Moses. After an overview of the piece and a brief history of pieces incorporating narrators, the essay focuses on my compositional process, describing how orchestration, drama, motive, and structure work together in the piece. The Light is organized as a series of five related scenes. In the first scene, God creates light. In the second scene, God places Adam and Eve into the Garden of Eden to tend it, allowing them to eat from any tree except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The serpent appears, Adam and Eve succumb to his evil influence, and God banishes them from the Garden of Eden. Many generations have passed when Scene Three begins. Moses relates a story from Israel's journey in the wilderness after leaving Egypt. The people had become frustrated with Moses and with God. When God sent serpents among them as punishment, they appealed to Moses to pray for them. God's answer was for Moses to make a bronze serpent and place it on a pole. Whoever looked at the serpent would live. In Scene Four, John relates his vision of final redemption. New Jerusalem descends from heaven, with the River of Life and the Tree of Life ready to bring healing to the nations. Sadly, some people are not welcomed into the city, and the drama pauses to give respectful consideration to their fate. Finally, the fifth scene celebrates the eternal victory over sin, death, and the serpent of Eden. As I composed The Light, I had in mind the dramatic profile, the general motivic progression and the fundamental structural progression. However, most of the intricate interrelationships among orchestration, drama, motive, and structure were the result of informed intuition. Throughout the piece, each of these four elements interacts with the others, sometimes influencing and sometimes responding to them. My hope is that these subtle tensions propel the composition forward toward its ultimate resolution.