Thesis (MMus) - University of Glasgow, 2007. / MMus. thesis submitted to the Faculty of Arts, Department of Music, University of Glasgow, 2007. Includes bibliographical references. Print version also available.

No description available.

No description available.

Thesis (M.M.)--The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2009. / Directed by Mark Engebretson; submitted to the School of Music. Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Jun. 4, 2010). Includes bibliographical references (p. 28).

The PhD investigates the creation of closeness and immediacy through composition, exploring the processes of capturing, processing and composing sound materials, their spatialisation both during production and performance, and the sound materials' contexts. It is suggested that closeness can be understood spatially, temporally and in addition as being familiar with sounds and musical languages; whereas immediacy adds the meaning of being involved at some level in the shaping or decoding of the meaning of sounds of a composition. In that sense closeness and immediacy together form entry-points for the listener to make him/her become engaged in the compositional narrative. Seven original acousmatic and mixed media works are presented in the portfolio. These are stone and metal, empty rooms, weave/unravel, skalna, pulses, beeps and triptych. The pieces rely on found sounds and their referential qualities, with both informing the compositional methodologies. They also borrow elements from soundscape composition, electronic music and film music. Over the development of the portfolio the inclusion of elements of other genres of music became a valuable source of inspiration and shaped the compositional methodology which lead to the development of a unique, personal style of composition. Three of the PhD’s compositions – pulses, beeps and triptych – investigate the musical opportunities of an acousmatic take on stems to improve the flexibility and perceived depth of spatialisation. The spatial layers of the compositions are split into parts of a soundfile. These parts can be mapped according to specific rules to the number of loudspeakers available. The portfolio pieces demonstrate that composing in spatial stems enhances spatial depth as close and distant sounds can be reproduced independently of each other on dedicated loudspeakers at the same time. The sounds of the distant loudspeakers merge with the acoustic properties of the performance space and therefore assist in making the composed spaces credible. In addition to the compositions, one original software tools are presented in the portfolio (PLib), as well as a substantial contribution to an existing tool (MANTIS Diffusion System). They aim to facilitate the production and performance of electroacoustic music. Their application and potential is briefly discussed in the commentary.

My dissertation is an investigation of the rhythm and fills presets on the Mellotron MKII (1964) through a series of compositions. All the sounds used in these compositions are Mellotron sounds from the MKII, which were edited and arranged using a digital audio workstation (DAW). In this study I dissect the instrument, and outline every aspect of the rhythms and fills presets. In the process, I develop an expanded model of performance practice on the instrument, presenting new playing and compositional possibilities. These are made possible through comprehensively documented analysis of the instrument’s sample set and the tempo, key and pitch permutations achievable through its on-board modulation controls. The Mellotron is significant because it was among the first samplers in history, and quickly became an iconic sound, woven into the cultural fabric of 1960s British pop. The Mellotron was used on The Beatles’ ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’, Led Zeppelin’s ‘Kashmir’, David Bowie’s ‘Space Oddity’, and The Rolling Stones’ ‘2000 Light Years From Home’, to name a few. While the Mellotron is featured on these famous songs, it has never been used as a solo instrument for a long form composition, nor have its samples ever been transcribed. The study takes a reflexive approach, using journals compiled through the composition process to support the development of new Mellotron techniques and compositions. The compositions presented in this study establish and demonstrate the Mellotron’s capability for extended solo work. The new techniques presented here make the Mellotron more practical for improvisation, composition and performance in new musical contexts. Additionally, the research expands scholarly/educational literature on electromechanical keyboards, providing in-depth technical, historical and musical data on the Mellotron. / Art History, Visual Arts and Musicology / M. Mus. (Music)

This paper explores various technologies available to the modern composer and utilized in recent modern opera, providing creative approaches to producing aural, visual, and theatrical performance environments. It also explores my own use of digital technology in Transient Delete. Transient Delete is a digital miniature-opera that explores different aspects of a community of post-human cyborgs. The story follows Iméra, a newly converted cyborg as she acclimates herself to this new cybernetic existence. During this process she meets several other cybernetic entities that are there to help guide her through her metamorphosis.

Virtual Stage is a project to use Virtual Reality (VR) technology as an audiovisual performance interface. The depth of control, modularity of design, and user immersion aim to solve some of the representational problems in interactive audiovisual art and the control problems in digital musical instruments. Creating feedback between interaction and perception, the VR environment references the viewer's behavioral intuition developed in the real world, facilitating clarity in the understanding of artistic representation. The critical essay discusses of interactive behavior, game mechanics, interface implementations, and technical developments to express the structures and performance possibilities. This discussion uses Virtual Stage as an example with specific aesthetic and technical solutions, but addresses archetypal concerns in interactive audiovisual art. The creative documentation lists the interactive functions present in Virtual Stage as well as code reproductions of selected technical solutions. The included code excerpts document novel approaches to virtual reality implementation and acoustic physical modeling of musical instruments.

This paper presents the history and the theoretical study of mixed music and focuses on two piano solo works and two mixed electroacoustic compositions for piano and electronics. By discussing the working process and giving the analysis of the original composition Alchemy for piano and electronics, this paper investigates the relationship between cause, source and spectromorphology, reflecting how the concept of energy-motion trajectory are embodied in this mixed electroacoustic work. Alchemy is a mixed composition for piano solo and 8-channel fixed electronics focusing on the gestural play and sonic expression. The live piano part explores the gestural sound played with a slide (cup), paper clip, and objects placed inside the piano. The 8-channel electronics part is mainly derived from the recorded acoustic piano. It extends the sonic potential of source materials and presents the diverse vectorial movements of spatialization.

In the first half of the twentieth century, sporadic attempts of avant-garde composers to include sounds other than pitch in musical composition paved the way for the composers in the second half to embrace the sound of all types in their creative works. The development of technology since the mid-past century has facilitated composers' inclusive use of sound. The recent achievements in electronics and computers have led to cost-effective tools for today's composers to explore new possibilities in sound design and manipulation. Gradual for tenor saxophone and fixed electronics is primarily concerned with noise. Among the infinite possibilities of noise types, metallic sounds significantly contribute to the composition. The title of the piece refers to the compositional process in which the music progressively unfolds itself from the beginning to the end. The methods and strategies used to present the content give rise to a form I call accretion, described as an organic process by which the musical materials grow. Within the process, while established materials are interacting, combining, and forming layers, new materials may be incorporated and take part in the process. Throughout the composition, the interaction between sounds with common properties guides the music toward interactive unity, while the interplay between sounds with different characteristics forms a dialectical communication. The constant push-and-pull between the two states creates a restless tension throughout the composition. In the current version of Gradual, the audio signals from both saxophone and fixed electronics are transmitted to the same speakers, which helps coalesce acoustic and electronic sounds. The future prospect of the piece can involve real-time audio signal processing to manipulate the sound of saxophone. Adding the above feature to the current version will promote the unification of the two media into a single whole.