abstract: Electro-acoustic compositions throughout the twentieth-century have flourished due to the modern advancements and improvements in technology, including image based interactive software. This project aims to reveal how three composers of different backgrounds utilize the use of euphonium in combination with live interactive electronics. To this date no known works have been composed for this instrumentation. Advancements in the development of audio software and hardware have helped to improve and rapidly evolve the inclusion of live electronics including the use of performer-triggered events, audio processing, and live electronic decision-making. These technologies can be utilized and explored in various ways. Three composers have been commissioned to each compose a new work focusing on using the timbre of the euphonium in combination with explored electronic sounds, unplanned sounds of nature and the use of the human voice. Each work is performed and examined by the author in order to further explore the electro-acoustic properties of this genre, how they communicate and interact with one another, and how the electronics interact and meld with the sound of the euphonium. Compositional elements in this project include but are not limited to the use of pre-recorded natural and “un-natural” sounds, and the manipulations of both pre-recorded and live sounds through the use of performer triggered events using visual programming languages such as Max/MSP and looping pedals. / Dissertation/Thesis / Zero Circle-Justin Rito (Live Recording) / Warrior-Brett Copeland (Live Recording) / Petrichor-Grant Jahn (Live Recording) / Doctoral Dissertation Music 2017

As the bassoon has evolved over time, the music written for the instrument has evolved around it, and was many times the catalyst for its evolution. Bassoon music of the seventeenth through early twentieth centuries has defined much of the curricula for bassoon studies, and has established how we consider and experience the bassoon. We experience, write, and consume music in vastly different ways than just a generation ago. Humans use technology for the most basic of tasks. Composers are using the technology of our generation to compose music that is a reflection of our time. This is a significant aspect of art music today, and bassoonists are barely participating in the creation of this new repertoire. Performance practice often considers only the musical score; interactive electronic music regularly goes beyond that. The combination of technological challenges and inexperience can make approaching electroacoustic music a daunting and inaccessible type of music for bassoonists. These issues require a different language to the performance practice: one that addresses music, amplification, computer software, hardware, the collaboration between performer and technology, and often the performer and composer. The author discusses problems that performers face when rehearsing and performing interactive electroacoustic works for bassoon, and offers some solutions.

British composer Brian Lock merges the composition styles of Alexander Goehr, Henryk Górecki and Witold Lutoslawski in his innovative works for instrumental sounds and electronics. His most recent work for flute, Sonic Archaeologies No.1, was premiered at the University of North Texas by Mary Karen Clardy, flute; Brian Lock, piano/electric keyboard; and Daniel Pardo, laptop/live mixing. The purpose of this dissertation is to provide flutists with artistic and technical guidance in preparing this work for flute, prerecorded orchestra, interactive electronics and improvisatory accompaniment. Sonic Archaeologies No. 1, a piece in five movements (Black Rain, Psychomania, Kodo, Susperia, and Deep in the Machine), incorporates contemporary techniques to create sounds other than the Western concert flute, with the use of live reinforcement devices such as microphones and time-based audio effects within a D.A.W. (Digital Audio Workstation.) Reggae, Hip-Hop and cinematic styles are juxtaposed within the work, fusing current genres with traditional rhythmic forms like the ones found in a bourrée. As the solo instrument, flute provides more textural than melodic elements, and the performer is required to interact with an unpredictable sonic soundscape as a result of the improvisatory element of the keyboards and computer. The notation of Sonic Archaeologies No.1 invites interpretation blending and altering traditional sounds through microphones and a processed signal flow. The performance guide will address acoustical considerations when the flute sound is being manipulated by dynamic and time-based processors in live performance; the interaction between the flute, electronics and acoustic spaces; the elements of sound production that provide interpretation of contemporary popular styles; and the opportunities for the performer to find, explore and develop artistry beyond the limitations of music notation.