The music composition portfolio consists of three major works and one song for female voices. Each is a self-contained work for different ensembles with individual form and extra-musical elements. When determining aspects of the structure and pitch organization, I used the circle and the idea of cycles in each work to unite the main body of compositions. Grab the Brass Ring is a single movement piece for orchestra. The instrumentation is for a standard orchestra comprising woodwind pairs with piccolo doubling, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, two percussionists and strings. The title relates to the practice of early twentieth-century carousel riders attempting to grab a ring out of the mouths of stationary animals in order to claim a free ride. The second work is a song cycle for a capella mixed choir, setting five poems by New Zealander Gary McCormick (b.1951) from his book Lost at Sea. The poems express a range of human experiences and emotions, in particular love, loss, grief, joy, pleasure and excitement. The cycle was composed with a choir of above average capability in mind. There is some division of parts throughout, mainly in the soprano and alto voices, and a short soprano solo passage in the second song Daughter. The third major work, a five-movement piano trio, Dedication to Hildegard, was composed as a musical timeline tracing Western music from the Middle Ages to the present day. It was composed in recognition of Hildegard von Bingen, widely regarded as the first female composer. (In fact, researchers have concluded there were other active composers, but Hildegard was the first woman to break with tradition and declare authorship). German born Hildegard (1098 - 1179) entered religious life at the age of eight. She was named prioress in 1136 and between 1148 and 1150 became abbess of an abbey she founded in Rupertsberg near Bingen on the Rhine, Germany. She composed plainchant using her own poems which were then sung as prayers by the nuns. I sketched a series of pieces, each one containing musical elements associated with a specific era, using Hildegard's name and a number system to devise some of the melodies and motifs in the work. Fede, Speranza, Amore (faith, hope, love) was written especially for Rosemary Turnbull and the Villa Maria College choir Con Brio. The setting is a three stanza poem by Italian writer Niccolò Tommaseo (1802 - 1874). The piece was written to celebrate the choir's planned trip to Rome in October 2006 and their success achieved in the 2006 National Secondary Schools' Choral Festival the Big Sing. I chose the text for its beautifully descriptive meaning of the three theological virtues faith, hope and love.

The purpose of this study is to present certain pedagogical techniques for enhancing flexibility of thinking applied to the task of writing music. The formation of pedagogical strategies was based upon ideas, derived from a review of the literature on creative thinking, which have been successful in enhancing flexibility in problem-solving tasks in a wide variety of applications outside of the field of music. An experimental class was conducted for the purpose of evaluating the effectiveness of such instruction and its possible role in undergraduate music programs.Music-compositional flexibility was measured by evaluating an instructor-designed set of "Exercises in Musical Ideation." Two qualities of compositional products, originality and "musicalness," were evaluated by ranking the compositions with respect to each product quality. A set of "Reaction Scales" checked the affective responses of the students toward the field of composition and toward their ability to compose.The students for the experimental class were enrolled in the last quarter of a two-year basic music theory sequence required of all undergraduate music majors. The class was divided into two sections for differential treatment regarding the degree of nonconventionality of stimulus conditions.Across tasks, flexibility training consisted of presenting, in the form of composition assignments, several diverse strategies for composing music. The content and sequence of the assignments were designed to help the students begin explorations into a continually expanding awareness of possibilities. Within tasks, flexibility training consisted. of participation in workshops, in which students experimented with various ways of producing and manipulating musical ideas.A t-test of the difference-of-means for pre- and posttests of music-compositional flexibility revealed a highly significant improvement in this variable. Correlations between the flexibility measure and product qualities (originality and musicalness) were insignificant. An analysis off covariance revealed that changes in originality were not significantly aligned with the differences in treatment between the two groups. The highly significant improvements found in the students' attitudes toward the field of composition and toward their ability to compose were probably an indication that the instruction was effective in ways which were not separately measured.

The writer advances a new method of musical composition which involves the pseudo-random permutation of components. The three principle components of music are assumed to be pitch, duration, and dynamics, in that order. The pitch, then, becomes the key factor in formulating the rules for the method.A machine is constructed which has a train of six wheels whereupon three elements of composition are written in equally divided sectors. The turning of the "Sun" wheel sets in motion the others so that each time it is turned a specified amount, all new information becomes available to the composer, automatically selecting the three essential elements. As the wheels have irrational diameters, the process is continuously random and open ended. In addition to the wheels, celluloid epicyclic curves are used for transposition by means of occluding regions masking certain tones.A work of approximately six and one-half minutes duration is submitted as a sample of the process.

No description available.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Stockholm : Karol. inst., 2001. / Härtill 5 uppsatser.

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 1993.

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 47-49).

Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Queensland, 2003. / Accompanying CD-ROM contains audio examples of composers studied. Includes bibliography.

Thesis (M.M.)--University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2007. / Title from PDF title page screen. Advisor: Mark Engebretson; submitted to the School of Music. Includes bibliographical references (p. 26).

Diss.--Essen, 1996. / Bibliogr. p. 283-306.