This thesis takes the linguistic concept of metonymy and examines its potential as a creative structural principle both in poetry and in music. I explore the role of metonymy in the work of the poet J.H. Prynne, the improvising guitarist Derek Bailey, and the composer Helmut Lachenmann. I have also deployed some of the ideas arising from this exploration in a modular composition for improvisers entitled Representations, recordings of which accompany this thesis. My argument is that metonymy provides a means by which a work of poetry or of music can be highly sensitive to the world which it inhabits, but can do so by itself being an inextricably linked part of this world, rather than an attempt to reproduce or represent it, or to simply pass judgement from the sidelines. In my introduction I outline the literary theory of metonymy. I discuss the way that metonymy encompasses relationships both of contiguity and causality, and make the case that the many limitations inherent in metonymy (which have often led to its being perceived as inferior to metaphor) can in fact be seen as advantanges, because of the way that they can bind the work of art to the real. I briefly discuss some previous applications of metonymy to music, and outline an understanding of musical metonymy based on linear dissimilarity, historical and social contiguity, the origins and agency behind particular sounds, and an occlusion of the structural middleground. The first chapter discusses the work of J.H. Prynne. I argue that a use of metonymy as a productive constraint is illuminated by a philosophical position according to which the world is known to be real because of the resistances it presents to the actualisation of our desires. I discuss the role of metonymy in the development of Prynne’s poetic oeuvre, before illustrating my argument with a detailed analysis of the 2001 sequence Unanswering Rational Shore. In the second chapter I turn to the work of Derek Bailey. Drawing heavily on unpublished items from the Incus archive, I demonstrate the meticulous way in which Bailey constructed his improvisational vocabulary, and the senses in which that vocabulary and its deployment could be characterised as metonymic. I explore the influence on Bailey of Stockhausen, Beckett and Musil, and show how form and material in his work are inextricably entwined. The third chapter examines the work of Helmut Lachenmann and in particular the 1992 composition „... zwei Gefühle ...“, Musik mit Leonardo. I examine the role of the listener and the productive activity that metonymic structures require of them. I focus on Lachenmann’s deployment both of actual and pseudo-causality in his music, as well as his use of historical reference in an indexical fashion. In my fourth chapter I present my composition for improvisers, Representations. I discuss its mechanics, development, and influences, and I set forth its relationship to the concepts of musical metonymy I have elucidated in the body of this thesis, under the headings of “arbitration”, similarity, referentiality and the relationship between material and the middleground. In a short concluding chapter I take another angle on the links between the themes of this thesis by discussing the role of rubbish in the work of Prynne, Bailey and Lachenmann, and its apparently paradoxical relationship with a certain concept of purity. This allows me to conclude by considering the relationship of metonymic structures to a conception of truth which, I believe, has a certain urgency in the contemporary artistic climate.

This thesis comprises a portfolio of compositions with supporting commentary in addition to a general commentary on past and contemporary models of performance practice. The compositions all use elements of improvisation and are documented in recorded and score formats. Recordings and discussion of the rehearsal process of these works are also included. The thesis is divided into four parts. The first, entitled ‘Context’, examines issues of performance practice through reference to both historical and contemporary models. In this regard, particular attention is given to the work of Miles Davis and Peter Wiegold. Parts 2, 3 and 4 consist of the portfolio of original compositions with sub-headings as follows: ‘Beginnings’, ‘Transition’ and ‘Current Projects’. As a part of the commentary on the portfolio, the role of the performer as creative artist will also be examined.

The Sanford Meisner Technique is among the most mysterious and misunderstood approaches to the craft of acting. Very often, it is taught poorly, incompletely, or even dangerously. Through the exploration of Meisner’s private life, as well as a detailed analysis of his system, this work aims to dispel some of the common misconceptions which plague the Technique and its most fervent supporters. After being made privy to his biography, readers will be taken through Meisner’s foundational exercises, beginning at the first phase of Repetition and ending with the introduction of text. In addition to the descriptions of student responsibilities, the conduct required of a Meisner teacher, both in a studio and in a university setting, will be discussed at length. Finally, to complete this comprehensive view of the Meisner Technique, there will be an analysis of its application to Longform Improvisation.

Detta arbete grundar sig på tanken om att kontrapunktsstudier i renässansstil skulle kunna levandegöras genom historiskt grundade improvisationsövningar. Ett studium av musikhistorisk litteratur tillsammans med analyser och praktisk övning har resulterat i ett pedagogiskt och konstnärligt material, som kan användas för att översiktligt visa de historiska förhållandena kring improviserad musik, men som också kan fungera som ett verktyg för instudering och konstnärligt framförande. / <p>Bilaga: 1 CD.</p>

Abstract This master thesis discloses how studies in the music and methods associated with pianist, composer and educator Lennie Tristano (1919-1978) have led to the creation of new music.  Through transcription of some of Tristano’s most pivotal improvisations and compositions I have highlighted musical concepts e. g. melodic lines, vertical structures, superimposed harmony and meter that I have found idiosyncratic to him. Then I have alsoanalyzed Tristano’s approach to these concepts. Finally, to turn theory into practice I have composed études that treat the aforementioned concepts. Throughout the project, these études have evolved from exercise pieces to pieces of music, ready to be presented to an audience. The work has broadened my musical vocabulary and has given me new tools for music creation. It also has made me question my habitual paths to expression and helped me to a greater trust in my musical intuition. This thesis could be of interest for musicians and composers interested in improvised melodic line, and/or the music of Lennie Tristano and his associates.

Studien beskriver och analyserar tre danslärares perspektiv på improvisation som ett ämne i dansundervisning. Syftet med stud I mitt arbete kommer jag att undersöka, beskriva och reflekteraöver mina egna kreativa processer i mitt eget skapande och iallmänhet. Genom intervjuer, tolkning av några av de låtar jaghar skrivit under året och med hjälp av loggbok så kommer jagatt jämföra och lyfta fram skillnader och likheter i min egen ochandras kreativa process/er.Genom att göra detta så hoppas jag på att få lära mig om hurandra jobbar och kanske hitta nya bättre sätt att locka framkreativiteten oftare och också på beställning.För att förenkla läsningen så vill jag förklara hur jag uppfattarföljande nyckelord.Inspiration; för mig handlar inspiration om var man hämtar sinaidéer och/eller vad som färgar ens idéer, det kan vara andraartister, det kanske kan vara fågelkvitter, en dikt, en film, nästanvad som helst.Kreativitet; är för mig skaparglädjen och självaskapandeprocessen.Co-write är när minst två låtskrivare skriver en låt ihop.Vidare så finns det ett väl använt begrepp; ”Mindfulness” somhandlar om att finna sig i ro och acceptans. Jag föredrarbegreppet mind-emptiness som för mig lite av en omtolkning av 1 2ordet mindfulness, där man fokuserar på att tömma sig själv. Förhur ska man kunna ta in någon inspiration om man redan självär full på tankar? ien är att öka förståelsen för hur lärare beskriver kunskaper i improvisationsämnet och vilka arbetsmetoder de har vid bedömning av dessa kunskaper. Tre danslärare från olika kontexter har intervjuats. Lärarna undervisar på olika typer av utbildningar och är specialister i olika dansgenrer. I studien tillämpas en kombination av ett sociokulturellt och ett kulturpsykologiskt perspektiv för att begreppsliggöra och analysera den information som samlats via semi-strukturerade intervjuer. En teoretisk modell för kulturell inramning används för att tydliggöra lärarnas kunskapssyner och bedömningsmetoder i improvisations undervisning. I studien framkommer dansimprovisation som ett medel för lärande av genrerelaterade kunskaper och som ett eget ämne innehållande kunskapsmål. Studiens resultat visar på att lärares kunskapssyn i improvisation kan relateras till en specifik genre eller till improvisation som ett eget ämne. När kunskaper i improvisation som ett ämne beskrivs kretsar dessa kring kompositorisk förståelse och konstnärliga attityder eller konstnärligt identitetsskapande. Danslärare använder sig, till största del, av formativ bedömning i den improvisatoriska undervisningen. Hur de formulerar feedback och skapar en gemensam förståelse med elever/studenter angående undervisningens mål har visat sig avgörande för att bedömningen ska vara formativ och bidra till lärande.

Thesis advisor: Theresa A. O'Keefe / In this dissertation, I argue that Bible education is best understood as training students to improvise responsibly with Scripture. I explore this pedagogical model by reflecting on my experience as a Bible instructor at Cristo Rey New York High School, an inner city Catholic school. The goal of a Cristo Rey education is the integral liberation of students. In the language of liberation theology, to be "integrally liberated" is to survive and to thrive on all levels - material, cultural, psychosocial, and spiritual. Learning to improvise responsibly with Scripture helps students to grow in integral liberation. It helps them develop the capacity to perceive and to act with greater freedom, discernment, and commitment. It helps them to handle and interpret the Bible in ways that are creative, critical, and true. Here being true means more than being factually accurate; it means being true to the text, being true to the needs of one's interpreting community, and being true to the inner promptings of God's Holy Spirit. Responsible improvisation connects Biblical interpretation with artistry, with problem-solving, and with the construction of counter-cultural spaces. The dissertation supports a pedagogy for improvising responsibly with Scripture in several different ways. In the first chapter, I explain my proposal and the teaching experiences on which it is based. The first half of the chapter introduces the Cristo Rey setting within which I developed the Biblical pedagogy theorized and refined in this project. The second half begins to locate and unpack that pedagogy in terms of academic disciplines and relevant terms. I explain more concretely what I mean by "training students to improvise responsibly with Scripture." I also describe what I mean by "integral liberation," and by "interpretations that are creative, critical, and true." Chapter Two answers the question: "Why consider teaching a program of training?" I use the theory of Situated Learning to outline the religion classroom as a place of training, where students learn to master different interpretive practices in the midst of intersecting communities. I show how my model accurately reflects the teaching and learning dynamics of high school classrooms. A situated learning perspective helps educators identify specific areas where their interventions can help students become better, more responsible Scriptural improvisers. Chapter Three answers the question, "How can you train students for improvisation?" In this chapter, I correlate my educational model with the popular educational technique known as Theatre of the Oppressed (TO). TO brings together critical pedagogy and creative expression to help participants improvise artful and liberating social actions; it has proven both powerful and enduring in a broad range of class and cultural settings. I use TO as a generative metaphor to help teachers imagine more deeply and richly what training students for responsible improvisation might look like. Chapter Four steps back to take in a broader perspective. It answers the question, "Is this pedagogical model coherent? How does it all hang together?" In this chapter, I use the Pragmatist theology of Donald Gelpi, SJ as an overarching framework. I relate the concepts of "interpretation," "creativity," "responsibility," and "norms" with each other, and with a theology of God's Holy Spirit. Using Gelpi's semiotic realism as a conceptual framework shows how my pedagogy is not only conceptually coherent, but also convincingly rooted in the Christian intellectual tradition. Chapter Five presents a detailed example of teaching the Bible for responsible improvisation. It outlines the process of preparing and teaching a chapter from the Gospel of Matthew - specifically, Mt 13, the "Parables Discourse." This chapter argues that a warrant for improvising responsibly with Scripture can be derived from the Gospel itself. In short, I argue that "training students to improvise responsibly with Scripture" is a justice-grounded, empirically accurate, pedagogically compelling, intellectually coherent, and eminently Christian approach to teaching the Bible in Catholic schools. I conclude by discussing the implications of such a model in the context of Catholic educational ministry and ministerial training. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2015. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Religious Education and Pastoral Ministry.

Esta dissertação tem como foco a prática de duelo rimas conhecida como batalha de freestyle. Segundo os participantes, o freestyle é \"rap feito na hora\" e o objetivo das batalhas é \"zoar o outro\". A partir de etnografia realizada ao longo de três anos na batalha da Santa Cruz, em São Paulo, analiso como os aspectos lítero-musicais e performáticos nublam a fronteira entre o insulto e a piada, possibilitando a encenação de conflitos e entabulando uma espécie de \"economia da diferença\". Nestes embates, os improvisadores mobilizam e flexionam categorias como gênero, sexualidade, raça/cor e classe social, operando como marcadores da diferença, sem produzir sentido isoladamente, mas apenas nas articulações efetuadas. / The focus of this thesis is the practice of rhyme duels known as freestyle battles. According to the participants, freestyle is \"rap on real-time\", and the purpose of the battles is to \"mock the other\". Based in ethnography carried out for three years in the Battle of Santa Cruz, in São Paulo, I analyse how the literary-musical and performance aspects blur the border between insult and joke, enabling the staging of conflicts and setting what could be called a \"economy of difference\". In these disputes, improvisators mobilize categories such as gender, sexuality, race/colour and social class, operating as difference setters, without any meaning if viewed isolately, but exclusively in the articulations that are produced.

A roda de capuêra angola, em sua multiplicidade de significados, inaugura, a cada novo grito de Iê, a cada nova ladainha, a cada novo apertar de mãos aos pés do berimbau, um espaço no qual tudo o que já foi, todo legado ancestral da capuêra, se atualiza, com nuances sutis ou transformações surpreendentes, na fricção com o agora, com os corpos, vozes e a energia vital dos capuêras que vivem tal arte. Na prática e cultivo desta arte convivem uma espécie de culto dirigido simultaneamente ao que foi legado por mestres do passado, à tradição, na forma de cantos, toques e movimentos corporais e ao que é criado e recriado nos improvisos que emergem da experiência de cada nova roda. Nesta capuêra angola, com a qual tomei contato a partir de pesquisa de campo realizada ao longo de quase quatro anos junto a Associação Cultural de Capuêra Angola Paraguassu criada por mestre Jaime de Mar Grande, as conotações de acervo e transmissão de conhecimento carregadas pelo termo tradição se equilibram e articulam com processos de ordem mais emergente e improvisacional. No primeiro capítulo analiso o processo de produção corporal e preparo para o improviso que se dá nos treinos cotidianos, sobre como encontrar a sua capuêra. No segundo, seguindo as linhas melódicas e variações dos cantadores, volto minha atenção aos desdobramentos surpreendentes que ocorrem no calor da ação nas rodas. No terceiro e último capítulo, busco pensar a forma como a capuêra torna-se a vida dos capueristas e suas vidas tornam-se e dão feições particulares à capuêra que praticam e insinuam a seus alunos. O conceito de experiência, nas fronteiras do pensamento de Walter Benjamin, Victor Turner e Tim Ingold é uma batida constante que atravessa todo o trabalho. / The Capuêra Angola roda, in its multiplicity of meanings, opens, every time someone exclaims \"Iê\", in every ladainha, in every shake of hands at the foot of the berimbau a space in which all that has already been, all ancestral legacy of capuêra, is updated, with subtle nuances or striking changes in friction with the present, the bodies, the voices and the vital energy of the living capueristas. The practice of this art is marked by a cult oriented simultaneously to the old mestres legacy and the tradition in the form of songs, beats, gestures and body movements and to that which is created and recreated in the improvisations that emerge from the experience of each new roda. In this capuêra Angola, with which I made contact from field research conducted over nearly four years with the Cultural Association Capuêra Angola Paraguassu created by mestre Jaime de Mar Grande, the connotations of collection and transmission of knowledge carried by the term \"tradition\" are balanced and articulated with other processes with more emergent and improvisational features. The first chapter analyses the body\'s production process and the preparation for improvisation that happens in everyday practice, or how to find your own capuêra. In the second, following the melodic lines and variations of the cantadores, the attention is turned to the amazing developments that occur in the heat of action on the rodas. The third and final chapter try to think how capuêra becomes the life of capueristas and their lives, merging with capuêra, becomes and gives special features to the capuêra they practice and teach to their students. The concept of experience, on the borders of the thought of Walter Benjamin, Victor Turner and Tim Ingold, is a constant beat that sounds through out the work.

Improvisation är den vanligaste och mest spridda musikaliska formen. Lärare väljer själva hur mycket av undervisningen som kommer att handla om improvisation och vilket syfte den fyller, och för att lära sig improvisera i ny genre kan man använda plankning och transkribering som metod. I den här studien undersöks vilka improvisationsmetoder countrymusikerna använder sig av i de stycken jag valt att studera samt vilka likheter och olikheter det finns mellan instrumentens improvisationer. Genom att planka, spela och transkribera improvisationer ur tre olika låtar har materialet analyserats. Analysen har utgått från litteratur i improvisationsmetodik och har hjälpt till att svara på den ställda syftesformuleringen. Resultaten visar att tonmaterialet går att härleda till vedertagna improvisationsmetoder och att countrymusiker ser varje ackord för sig, likt hur en jazzmusiker förhåller sig till harmonik. Jag har lärt mig att se samband mellan instrumentspecifika improvisationsmetoder utöver kartläggningen av toner, och för att lära sig spela en ny genre är det effektivt att använda sig av transkribering och plankning som metod för att lära sig countryns idiom.