Thesis (M.Mus. Composition)--University of Waikato, 2006. / Also available via the World Wide Web.

published_or_final_version / Music / Master / Master of Philosophy

Something To Be Happy About: Concerto for C Tenor Pan and Orchestra is the first concerto for orchestra and steel drum to be composed in American. Divided into three movements, this 18 minute work is scored to capitalize upon the nuances of the C Tenor Pan and to provide a solid piece for the new wave of pan musicians that are clamoring for music written for the instrument. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Theory and Composition in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Music. / Spring Semester, 2003. / April 15, 2003. / Musical Composition / Includes bibliographical references. / Mark Wingate, Professor Directing Thesis; Peter Spencer,, Committee Member; Evan Jones,, Committee Member.

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 289-292). Also available in print.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Queensland, 2001. / CD's not included. Includes bibliographical references.

The multi-faceted nature of twentieth-century music is anything but familiar to listeners who are accustomed to hearing Western music based on ideas steeped in the classical tradition. The emergence of new tonalities and atonality as well as new temporalities challenged and revolutionized commonly accepted notions of musical sound and musical motion. The surge of new music characterized by the treatment of sound as independent entity, the absence of functional tonality and the dissolution of metric order has created new demands on the perceptual-cognition abilities of the listener. The perception of atonal musical works has been a subject of interest for many scholars in the field of music cognition. The findings of recent studies addressing this issue have pointed to the presence of salient features as an aid to the comprehension of relationships between musical events in an atonal composition. Salient features which effectively serve as structural cues include change/contrast and repetition, with the latter emerging as the most frequently used and easily acknowledged form of salience. An examination of the role of repetition in the music of the post-serial American composer George Crumb sheds light on how repetition, a common ingredient in many conventional models of organization, is able to operate in atonal pieces as structural cue to patterns underpinning the musical form. The investigation further reveals the possible role of repetition, where it is associated with timbre, as clue to structural direction in compositions that subscribe to the contemporary notion of musical motion. / published_or_final_version / Music / Master / Master of Philosophy

Music composition is the most direct form of expression for a composer to reflect wholeheartedly upon his knowledge, upbringing and musical preferences. Being a composer, who bears the most direct role in the making of music, has the responsibility to understand and acknowledge how the music of his own culture has developed from the past, and how it has been impacted by other cultures. Such awareness prevents music from narrowing down into one single type, and instead gives rise to many new musical possibilities. In order to examine the composer’s role and to explore musical possibilities of the modern time, this thesis begins with an introduction that investigates the effects of globalization on four areas of music, namely 1) the music of traditional cultures, 2) the music of popular cultures, 3) music in the technological world, and 4) cross cultural music. Understanding these areas more thoroughly may lead to new ideas in artistic creation, and can help myself to shape my own personal style built upon a firm cultural foundation. Thirteen new works, written in very different styles during my candidature, are presented in 13 chapters respectively. These chapters are arranged chronologically. Each chapter provides a descriptive explanation for my creative motives and reveals the process in writing the works. To show my works chronologically not only demonstrates how I gradually developed as a composer over the past few years, it also serves as a witness to show how a composer who lives in the cultural hub of Hong Kong reflects his feelings and thoughts about the world in a creative way. / published_or_final_version / Music / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Music / Master / Master of Philosophy

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.