This thesis addresses, amongst other issues, the phenomenon of protest music with particular reference to Brazil within its pre- and post-dictatorship period. The time-frame being understood as that which finds its roots many decades prior to the 1964 so-called revolution – a de facto¬ military putsch – and comes to flower in the democratic moment of the 1980s and since. The focus will be, eventually, directed to one of the most celebrated Brazilian rock phenomena, the band Legião Urbana, the impact of which still resonates across the artistic, cultural and political scene in Brazil and beyond. In order to establish the context in which such a claim can be viable, the thesis explores the ideological and historical background to the emergence, on a national, and international, stage of something beyond the artistic and cultural ‘dependence’ seing before that period within Brazilian music.

The argument in my thesis regarding cultural policy points out a fundamental contradiction about the nature of democracy. The impulse that should motivate public cultural policies is primarily democratic: it is to give universal access to what are deemed unique cultural practices. However, these practices are often socially and culturally inaccessible. For instance, in the case of the high arts and the world of classical music, works are often prized precisely because of their high degree of sophistication within a particular tradition, something that tends to prevent such works from being immediately understood or enjoyed by the general public. Therefore, it seems, an effective cultural policy is crucial to offer universal access to unique cultural practices, like classical music. Based on the theoretical work of Jim McGuigan (drawing upon Habermas's notion of the public sphere) and of Tony Bennett (drawing upon Foucault's notion of governmentality), my research starts at a local city level in a British context, and then focuses on the relationship between classical music and cultural policy. I also pose the question of how the value implicit in a ‘culture in common’ and the plural forms of cultural expression help the development of self-respect and esteem and thus contribute to democratic values in a British context. My thesis is designed to contribute to a critical understanding of how classical music policy has been exercised at a local level. This has been achieved by adopting a qualitative research approach. Thus, my research findings show that power differentials exist in the field of cultural policy. The research focus in this thesis suggests that music policy might focus too much on the imposition of a top-down model that is unable to deal adequately with the dispersion of power. Further, the current debate does not take into account the importance of tradition and the critical role of multiculturalism. The theory points to ways these features can be incorporated into future debates on cultural policy.

The present research study grew out of my professional practice as a music therapist, and seeks to put forward a new approach to the relationship between theory, research and clinical practice - while still relating in meaningful ways to a broad range of existing work. Music therapy in the UK is a broad and expanding profession, encompassing a notably diverse range of theoretical approaches and practical applications. Such approaches and applications may use, for example, free improvisation, songwriting, or listening- and response-based techniques. And there is a range of specialised literature dealing with each of these areas, as well as a number of broader, overarching studies dealing with the overall field. Within the tradition of a model based largely on musical improvisation, which has been my own practice, the use of pre-composed songs might be regarded as unusual, perhaps even as anomalous. But I hope to show that it is in fact a useful and profoundly revealing process which is firmly rooted in an ethos of active musical participation. This thesis examines the use of songs in forensic pyschiatric music therapy for women, and offers this use of song as an alternative model of musical creativity within such a context. My research project as a whole is approached from the philosophical framework of behaviourism; and the thesis is written from a 'social constructionist' perspective of the creation and enactment of self-identity, grounded in a belief that life and music become inextricably associated during the constructive process. As its major source of evidence, the study presents a longitudinal case study of one woman over the entire three-year course of her therapy. Her song choices are examined according to an adaptation of therapeutic narrative analysis, framed within a chronological view of events. Music remains a central focus and presence within the study, both as a vehicle for song texts and as a therapeutic medium in its own right; and the archetype of sonata form is invoked as a structural framework for analysis and the production of meaning. Images and bi-polar constructs are abstracted from the songs and their metaphoric content interpreted in the context of known life experiences and the progress of the therapy sessions themselves. Results reveal a strong use of generative metaphoric imagery which is humanized yet also, crucially, emotionally decentred or depersonalized. This then leads to assertions of a process of 'Music Therapy by Proxy'. There are also clear indications of the relevance of the passing of time as a dimension of the therapeutic process, resulting in a pattern which I term 'Reverse Chronology'. The songs which were used during the course of therapy provide words, imagery and, in addition, a musical substrate or continuum which 'carries' the textual-and-visual components but also has its own expressive and therapeutic importance. All these elements have their place and function within the therapy as described. Song as a concept is further defined as a transformative or metamorphic process enabling the expression of deeply personal, often unheard or 'suppressed' voices. Emerging from this process, seven core themes are indentified. These then provide the focus for a wider discussion concerning the significance of song and imagery for women in forensic therapy, and the issues which arise from them. Finally, suggestions are made for music therapy practice and for possible new directions in future research.

The life of the composer and organist Samuel Wesley (1766-1837) encompassed momentous changes in British society. Born in the early years of the reign of George III, Wesley died in the first months of the reign of Victoria. He saw equally momentous changes in music. As a child he was taught by musicians who remembered and in some cases had played for Handel; in adult life, he witnessed the introduction of the music of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven into England, and late in his career saw the visits to London of Liszt, Weber, and Mendelssohn. Wesley's life on both a personal and professional level was highly unconventional. Born into the first family of Methodism - his father was the hymn-writer Charles Wesley (1708-88), his uncle was John Wesley (1703-91) - he converted in his teens to Roman Catholicism and spent most of his life alienated from his family and from his Methodist upbringing. His marriage to Charlotte Louisa Martin in 1793 followed years of family opposition and a period when the couple lived together unmarried. In 1810 he left her for his teenage housekeeper, with whom he lived until his death. His professional career was brilliant but uneven, bedevilled by periods of mental illness which left him incapacitated for long periods. Wesley was a prolific correspondent: over 600 letters out of a far larger number of letters that he is known to have written are extant. The letters fall into two fairly distinct categories: those to members of his family, and those to correspondents outside the family. This division is paralleled to a large degree in the subject matter of the letters. In general, Wesley kept his family and his professional and social life well apart. He only rarely discusses family matters rarely in his social and professional letters; conversely, although there are many mentions of his social and professional life in the family correspondence, they do not form a very large proportion of it as a whole. The two sequences of letters are thus largely self-contained. The bulk of Wesley's discussions of music are contained in the social and professional letters, and these form the largest and most important collection of letters by an English musician of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. This edition brings together all such letters from 1797 until Wesley's death in 1837. It also includes a few family letters where the subject matter is wholly or largely music: further details are given in the Textual Introduction. It can therefore be seen as the first part of a complete edition of Wesley's letters. The second part, containing the family letters, will, I hope, follow in due course.

Although a great deal of documentation on the patronage of Alfonso I d'Este has already been published, music historians and cultural historians have given little attention to Alfonso's style and importance as a patron of the arts. This study aims to marshal the already-available information to examine Alfonso as a patron of music, placing his interest in music firmly within the context of both his other artistic interests and his role in the turbulent political circumstances of his reign. In so doing it adopts analytical tools developed within the fields of cultural and critical theory and current within literary and art history, although thus far only rarely brought to bear on the history of music in what was once called the High Renaissance. In particular, this study looks at Alfonso's patronage through the thematic of identity, seeking to understand the tasks achieved in the construction of the ruler as a princely persona by both large chapel choirs and private music-making. These concerns will be aligned with the demands placed upon Alfonso by the dynastic, political, military and physical context of his reign. In addressing private music-making at Alfonso's court, this study will seek to make unusually extensive use of the decorations of private courtly spaces - which will be found to offer a frame designed quite self-consciously to give meaning to the musical recreations undertaken therein. The resulting picture will substantially revise our current, somewhat haphazard and uncritical view of Alfonso's music patronage, whilst at the same time proposing new ways to read music's meaning at court. Chapters I and II were presented in abridged form at the Medieval and Renaissance Music Conference 2009 in Utrecht. Parts of Chapters III, IV and VI were presented at the Medieval and Renaissance Music Conference 2008 in Bangor, the Royal Music Association's Research Students' Conference 2009 at King's College, London, and the bodies/music conference, Cork, April 2010. Chapter V, in different versions, was presented at the RMA Annual Conference 2006 in Nottingham and the Association of Art Historians' Annual Conference 2008 in London.

This thesis discusses the film scores of Edmund Meisel (1894–1930), composed in Berlin and London during the period 1926–1930. In the main, these scores were written for feature-length films, some for live performance with silent films and some recorded for post-synchronized sound films. The genesis and contemporaneous reception of each score is discussed within a broadly chronological framework. Meisel’s scores are evaluated largely outside their normal left-wing proletarian and avant-garde backgrounds, drawing comparisons instead with narrative scoring techniques found in mainstream commercial practices in Hollywood during the early sound era. The narrative scoring techniques in Meisel’s scores are demonstrated through analyses of his extant scores and soundtracks, in conjunction with a review of surviving documentation and modern reconstructions where available.

Chinoiserie remains relatively unexplored in the context of music and is usually isolated as a mid-eighteenth-century phenomenon characterized by the use of decorative Chinese motifs and concepts in Western art, porcelain, furniture, and architecture. This thesis enriches possible readings of musical chinoiserie by exploring its relationship to the intense fashion for Chinese commodities, its correlation to particular social and political climates, and its connection to the eternal themes of the feminine and utopian pastoral. As a recurring and evolving phenomenon, chinoiserie has been manifested across the past three centuries in various genres and works central to Western music. The following chapters provide case studies which draw attention to particularly rich constellations of ideas about chinoiserie, and analyse the various ways that 'the West' has confronted, represented, and appropriated Chinese difference in music. Chapter two examines the emergence of eighteenth-century European music theatre/ drama inspired by China and its interrelation with royalty and nobility, consumer goods, fashion, and aesthetic sensibility. Chapter three explores early twentieth-century French musical works by Debussy, De Falla, and Roussel, which are inspired by nostalgic and utopian Chinese landscapes. In chapter four, the music of Mahler, Puccini, and Stravinsky reveal alternative fin de siècle approaches to chinoiserie. Common themes include an increased interest in authenticity; overt and subsumed Chinese elements; and the integration of chinoiserie into existing programmes. As a counterpoint to this, chapter five turns to popular music genres which directly responded to the social and political reality of Chinese immigration to America. The straightforward, formulaic, and market driven style of Tin Pan Alley songs provides the most explicit examples of musical chinoiserie, which upon examination reveal a variety of hidden beliefs, prejudices, aspirations and idealized visions of China. By no means are these chapters intended to offer a comprehensive survey of musical chinoiserie, but they provide case studies which demonstrate the ways in which a musical work can interact with a multiplicity of intellectual and emotional responses to the West's encounter with China during important social, political, and historical events.

'Musical borrowing in hip-hop' begins with a crucial premise: the hip-hop world, as an imagined community, regards unconcealed intertextuality as integral to the production and reception of its artistic culture. In other words, borrowing, in its multidimensional forms and manifestations, is central to the aesthetics of hip-hop. This study of borrowing in hip-hop music, which transcends narrow discourses on 'sampling' (digital sampling), illustrates the variety of ways that one can borrow from a source text or trope, and ways that audiences identify and respond to these practices. Another function of this thesis is to initiate a more nuanced discourse in hip-hop studies, to allow for the number of intertextual avenues travelled within hip-hop recordings, and to present academic frameworks with which to study them. The following five chapters provide case studies that prove that musical borrowing, part and parcel of hip-hop aesthetics, occurs on multiple planes and within myriad dimensions. These case studies include borrowing from the internal past of the genre (Ch. 1), the use of jazz and its reception as an 'art music' within hip-hop (Ch. 2), borrowing and mixing intended for listening spaces such as the automobile (Ch. 3), sampling the voice of rap artists posthumously (Ch. 4), and sampling and borrowing as lineage within the gangsta rap subgenre (Ch. 5). By no means are the case studies intended to be exhaustive, but they provide examples which demonstrate that a thorough study of musical borrowing in hip-hop requires attention to the texts (hip-hop recordings), their reception, and wider cultural contexts.

‘Valuing Jazz: Cross-cultural Comparisons of the Classical Influence in Jazz’ re-examines the interaction of Western classical music and jazz, focussing particularly on developments in North America and Britain in the twentieth century. This dissertation acknowledges and builds on the existing connections that have been drawn between classical music and jazz—both those that underscore the musical differences between the two idioms in order to discredit the latter, and those that acknowledge similarities in order to claim cultural legitimacy for jazz. These existing studies almost universally use outdated evaluative criteria, and I seek to redress this by using contemporary classical-music practices and discourses as my point of reference. By adopting a range of methodologies to investigate both intra- and extra-musical trends, this dissertation offers a thorough and balanced exploration of the topic. Each chosen avenue for exploration is explained with reference to parallel developments in North America, in order to provide a context within accepted jazz history and to highlight the different ways in which jazz developed in Britain. The phenomena under consideration include the emergence of a school of jazz criticism and scholarship that adopted systems of analysis and evaluation from established studies of classical music (Ch. 1); physical characteristics of jazz performance venues and the changing styles of audience reception within (Ch. 2); the adoption by jazz composers of ideologies and musical features from classical repertoire (Ch. 3); and the development of educational establishments and pedagogical systems that mirrored those already present in the classical-music world (Ch. 4). Although by no means exhaustive, these chapter topics provide a range of jazz narratives that provide a clear picture of the degree to which the development of jazz in America and Britain has been conditioned by the practices and characteristics of classical music.

Popular music, as it is generally defined in its commercial existence, originated in the West and has been widely discussed in Anglophone academia. One of the key means of approaching it is in terms of political economy, by viewing the culture industry essentially as a model of capitalism, with the purpose of maximizing profit [Bumett, 1996; Frith, Straw and Street, 2001]. The debates between political economists and other popular music scholars have predominantly taken as their subject Western popular music. Yet it is important to point out that whilst studies focused upon cultural industries outside of Western contexts have been few and far between, many have proved extremely fruitful and enlightening, exploring issues not considered in Western-centered accounts. This dissertation will attempt to examine and describe the causes and effects of corporate control over the major labels, which have been influential in the Thai popular music industry since 1982, when the first major label was established. Furthermore, this dissertation will argue that the popular music industry in Thailand presents something of a variation on Adorno's theme of mass culture, replicating certain aspects of his description while also diverging in important ways. The study of the development of Thai popular music in this dissertation can be divided into five important periods: the Pre-pop Era (from the emergence of The Impossible to 1982) and the Pop Era (1982-1994), the Indie Phenomenon (1994-1997), the Major Retum (1997-2002) and the present day (2002 to today). These terms were used to emphasis the most prominent event happened in each period.