Introductory remarks: Being a middle-class white South African, I grew up on a diet of predominantly "white" music: rock, pop and Western classical music. I was later introduced to a broader range of musics: blues, jazz, kwaito and traditional Southern African idioms. I found myself particularly attracted to the traditional music of the amaXhosa (especially that of the uhadi bow), possibly due to the fact that this music is hexatonic (that is, based on two major triads whose tonics are one tone apart), a system that bears certain resemblances to the Western tonal idiom. However, much of my musical experience tended to be entrenched in the piano and flute music I played: mostly works by composers who were neatly ensconced in the traditional Western canon. Therefore, despite the broad range of musics with which I was familiarisedduring my tertiary studies, I feel that this early experiential background is the reason I feel most comfortable with Western-influenced music. More recently, I discovered a whole new genre to explore: film music, particularly the work of Elliot Goldenthal, Danny Elfman, John Williams and Philip Glass, whose unique brand of minimalism has extended from the concert hall to thefilm theatre. I am fascinated by the ways in which film scores function. A "main titles" theme usually appears as the film opens, upon which most of the subsequent music is based. This is not a linear process, like a theme and its variations, but a lateral, where the main titles theme is the core that engenders other themes that all share a familial resemblance.

... I understand the word 'Art' as meaning the faculty of presenting a thought in the clearest, simplest form, that is, the most "graspable" form ... That is my view of art. And that is why I have never understood the meaning of 'Classical', 'Romantic1 and the rest, and I have never placed myself in opposition to the masters of the past but have always tried to do just like them: to say what it is given to me to say with the utmost clarity … Anton Webern / Arts, Faculty of / Music, School of / Graduate

Historically, composers have used methods in addition to inspiration in writing music. Regardless of the source materials they used, composers ultimately rely on their musical sensitivity to inform the compositional decision-making. Discuses the rotational aspects of decimals that are created from certain prime-number denominators, and focuses on the prime number 17. Shows how these decimals can be transformed by converting them to different number bases. Looks at the Golden Proportion and its use in creating formal structures. Examines compositional and aesthetic issues arising from using number series to generate the pitches, rhythms, and sections in the Concerto for Organ and Orchestra. This process of composition reveals musical gestures that may not have been discovered using more intuitively based approaches to composition. Shows how musical sensitivity was necessary in shaping the numerically derived material in order to create aesthetically satisfying music.

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Theory as an approach to generative composition and interactive computer music. Inspired by the notion of Performance Indeterminacy, software has been developed that attempts to simulate the interactions of improvising performers using a multi-agent system based on the ‘Iterated Prisoner’s Dilemma’. Composition activities and programming activities have formed a symbiotic relationship throughout the creation of the portfolio as each has constantly informed the other. Stylistically, the works presented fall into the experimental genre, although individually they address a wide range of aesthetic goals. The main contribution of this portfolio is a new approach to generative composition based on behavioural models, creating a sense of form bottom-up through modelling the social dynamics of music performance. Through this approach, the direct modelling of musical structures is avoided; instead larger scale forms emerge through the interactions of an ensemble of ‘improvising’ agents. This method offers a departure from previous complex systems work in the area of music, creating computer models of specific musical situations. Links between the Iterated Prisoner’s Dilemma and music are also established and combined with current music technologies. / Thesis(Ph.D.)- University of Adelaide, Elder Conservatorium of Music, 2008

Theory as an approach to generative composition and interactive computer music. Inspired by the notion of Performance Indeterminacy, software has been developed that attempts to simulate the interactions of improvising performers using a multi-agent system based on the ‘Iterated Prisoner’s Dilemma’. Composition activities and programming activities have formed a symbiotic relationship throughout the creation of the portfolio as each has constantly informed the other. Stylistically, the works presented fall into the experimental genre, although individually they address a wide range of aesthetic goals. The main contribution of this portfolio is a new approach to generative composition based on behavioural models, creating a sense of form bottom-up through modelling the social dynamics of music performance. Through this approach, the direct modelling of musical structures is avoided; instead larger scale forms emerge through the interactions of an ensemble of ‘improvising’ agents. This method offers a departure from previous complex systems work in the area of music, creating computer models of specific musical situations. Links between the Iterated Prisoner’s Dilemma and music are also established and combined with current music technologies. / Thesis(Ph.D.)- University of Adelaide, Elder Conservatorium of Music, 2008

This study is an exploration of the integration in composition of theoretical and psychoacoustic properties of pitch and duration; its aims are essentially practical in showing how cognitive research can inform composition, but it also addresses more broadly the value and role cognition can have in the current musical compositional climate. Various contexts for this exploration are discussed: the mediating role analysis has within theory and composition; constraints imposed by aesthetic positions and music theory/pedagogy templates; the role of cognitive psychology in connecting music templates and listening experiences; and the ultimately mythopoetic (Cook, 1992) rather than scientific nature of any such theory/psychology integration. Using Huovinen’s “pitch constellation” approach and Lerdahl’s theory of tonal pitch space, a hierarchical pitch-space is set up for the string piece ed erra l’armonia, developing from pc set 5-22 a non-standard octatonic scale (pc set 8-27) as the basic pitch collection of the piece. Similarly, using the works of Fraisse, Hasty and London, a hierarchical rhythm-space is set up for the orchestral piece Pneuma developing, from the indifference interval in duration, the temporal and metric envelops and the duple and triple subdivisions of the tactus, a three layered metrical structure as the generative rhythmic template of the piece. This is contextualised against the problematic notion of metre in modern art-music. General characteristic of both spaces are discussed: redundancy according to information theory, hierarchy in relation to cognitive opaqueness, salience and association; and elaborational and permutational processes. It is argued that composition needs to bridge, in practice, the gap between music theory and psychology of music, looking beyond their often absolutist positions; that cognitive constrains in music should be seen as opportunities to work compositionally along the mind’s cognitive grains in order to maximise structural and expressive communication; and that at a time of a ‘deregulated’ musical language it is necessary to re-develop cognitive heuristics to secure the connection between compositional choices and listening experiences. Three principles are given as guidelines for the alignment of theoretical and cognitive issues in composition. It is proposed that cognitive analysis should be developed as an independent discipline as well as a compositional tool, and that the connections style/cognition should be looked at more closely to gain a more unified perspective on diverse (and divisive) stylistic musical camps.

Klaas van Oostveen is best known in South Africa for his Six Miniatures, published by UNISA in the Grade 6 piano album, list D. What is not that well-known is the fact that between 1936 and 1982 he had composed more than 80 pieces, encompassing a multitude of different genres and instrumental combinations. The method of composition Van Oostveen employed can be described as melodically based and to that end he had written an unpublished work entitled The Art of MelodyWriting. As teacher of Harmony, Counterpoint and Composition at the University of the Witwatersrand, Van Oostveen ·left as legacy a number of leading South African music educators that today impart his methods of composition to numerous students in these subjects. This thesis broadly attempts to quantify the extent to which Van Oostveen's compositional theories correlate with his actual compositions, and to that end some of his best known works were analysed from a mainly melodic viewpoint. The compositions included in the study spans a wide array of musical genres demonstrating Van Oostveen's control of all these different musical formats. A CD compilation of recorded works has been included to give the reader a practical insight into the music of Klaas van Oostveen. / Art History, Visual Arts & Musicology / D. Mus.

Thesis (MMus) -- University of Stellenbosch, 2000. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study involves the research and documentation to develop an integrated, outcomesbased curriculum for music education in Grade 8 in South Africa by using guided composition as a teaching method. Directives from the new national curriculum, i.e. Curriculum 2005, the current Western Cape Education Department's syllabus for Music and the British National Music Curriculum are considered and applied. Composition is a medium that assists learners in exploring sound in an approach that emphasizes discovery through processes of creative thinking when organizing sound. Music as an art form cannot be mastered through discussion and performance alone. This study focuses on how composition helps learners to explore and discover through problem-solving activities when learning to think in sound and to manipulate the language of music. General perspectives on music education curricula are researched to determine an acceptable theoretical proficiency level for Grade 8. The praxial music educational approach of David Elliott is used as a philosophical foundation for developing the composition program curriculum. Actively making music, developing musicianship and developing creativity in music education form the backbone of this author's approach and hence an accountable basis for a curriculum. Fundamental issues in developing a curriculum are examined, the crux being how we learn. Cognitive apprenticeship and reflective thinking as praxial techniques focussing on integrated and holistic learning are proposed as a methodology for a music education curriculum, in this case composition. A curriculum for guided composition is designed and set out in four stages according to the four stages of curriculum development as proposed by David Elliott. Orientation, preparation and planning, teaching and learning and evaluation and assessment are addressed. This composition program attempts to situate and activate musical learning by proposing teaching and learning skills through which learners can activate and catalyze their creativity. When learning and experiencing music in a situated, authentic and practical way, as through composition, lifelong involvement, musical skills and continued enjoyment and accountability for the subject can be stimulated and established. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie behels die navorsing en dokumentasie van die ontwikkeling van 'n geïntegreerde, uitkomsgebaseerde kurrikulum vir musiekopvoeding in Graad 8 in Suid- Afrika deur begeleide komposisie as 'n onderrigmetode te gebruik. Riglyne uit die nuwe nasionale kurrikulum, nl. Kurrikulum 2005, die huidige Wes-Kaap Onderwysdepartement se sillabus vir musiek en die Britse Nasionale Musiekkurrikulum word ondersoek en toegepas. Komposisie is 'n medium wat hom by uitstek daartoe verleen om op ontdekkende wyse, deur middel van kreatiewe prossesse, klank te eksploreer wanneer dit georganiseer word. Musiek as kunsvorm kan nie bemeester word deur blote besprekings oor musiek en voordrag alleen nie. Hierdie studie ondersoek hoe komposisie leerders kan help om te eksploreer en te ontdek deur middel van probleemoplossingsaktiwitieite wanneer hulle leer om in klank te dink en die taal van musiek te manipuleer. Breë perspektiewe op musiekopvoedkundige kurrikula word ondersoek om 'n aanvaarde vlak van teoretiese bevoegdheid vir leerders in Graad 8 te bepaal. Die praksiële musiekopvoedkundige benadering van David Elliott is die vertrekpunt om as filosofiese basis vir die ontwikkeling van hierdie komposisieprogram te dien. Aktiewe musisering. die ontwikkeling van musiseerderskap en die stimulering van kreatiwiteit in musiekopvoeding vorm die ruggraat van hierdie outeur se benadering en derhalwe 'n besinde basis vir 'n kurrikulum. Fundamentele aangeleenthede in die ontwikkeling van 'n kurrikulum word ondersoek, waar die kruks lê in hoe ons leer. Kognitiewe vakleerlingskap en reflektiewe denke is praksiële tegnieke wat fokus op geïntegreerde en holistiese leer en word voorgestel as 'n metodologie vir 'n musiekopvoedkundige kurrikulum, in hierdie geval komposisie. 'n Kurrikulum vir begeleide komposisie word ontwerp en word voorgestel in vier fases volgens die vier fases van kurrikulum-ontwikkeling van David Elliott nl. oriëntasie, voorbereiding en beplanning, onderrig en leer en evaluasie en assessering. Die komposisieprogram word geëvalueer en metodes van kurrikulum-evaluering word beskryf. Die komposisieprogram poog om musikale leer te situeer en te aktiveer deur onderrigen leervaardighede voor te stel waardeur leerders hul kreatiwiteit kan aktiveer en kataliseer. Wanneer musiek in 'n gesitueerde en outentiek praktiese wyse geleer en ervaar word, soos deur komposisie, kan lewenslange leer, musikale vaardighede, voortgehoue genot van musiek en regverdiging van die vak gestimuleer en gevestig word.