Schoenberg's notion of the Grundgestalt is one which has fascinated and intrigued analysts, theorists, and aestheticians alike. However, until the very end of his life, Schoenberg was reluctant to provide an absolute definition for Grundgestalt, and subsequent commentators have attempted multifarious deployments of the term, with various degrees of success. This thesis attempts a new examination and definition of the Grundgestalt, based upon a reconciliation of Schoenberg's writings with modern music theory. This locates the Grundgestalt as a median point between specific motivic structure of a given piece and the more generalised attributes of voice leading: providing a new and powerful method of interrogating generative structure. The thesis begins with an exploration of Schoenberg's own writings on the Grundgestalt, as well as an attempt to place Grundgestalt in his hierarchy of musical units. It will proceed to explore previous appropriations of the Grundgestalt, particularly the writings of Schoenberg's pupils. The main body of the thesis is provided by the development and implementation of a new methodology for Grundgestalt analysis in Brahms's Opp. 117, 118, and 119. The final two chapters expand the scope of the thesis from the exploration of the way in which a single construct may be of great generative importance to the structure of a single musical artifact, to the unifying links between larger musical communities: the Multi-Piece considers groups of compositions to be a single musical utterance, endowed with coherence and structural integrity. The thesis sets forward Brahms's Klavierstücke Op. 118 as a new example of the type. The final chapter explores the utility of the idea of Intertextuality, a structuralist coinage, in the broader exploration of musical identity and semantics.

Considerable interest has been shown in the field of music aesthetics in recent years, not only by aestheticians but also by writers from diverse fields such as musicology, psychology and linguistics. What we have witnessed in these discussions have been not only painstaking analyses of music in terms of its aesthetic value, but also explorations of music in relation to a varied range of research areas from examining the relations between music and mind using psychological methods, through evaluating music in terms of our post-modem notion of art, to exploring the relations between language and music in terms of their semantic and semiotic characteristics. Such accounts typically seek to show that music is more than mere sound, and, in particular, several accounts focus on its expressiveness and its possibility of conveying a certain significance.

The folio of musical works supported by this document, explores the relationship between text and music. Using a variety of textual sources, from a single line of text to an epic poem to political speeches, has produced six pieces in which the relationship of the text to the music is figured in different ways; these range from the literal setting of a text to music to the abstracting of a text into a musical piece. In each case the form of the original text has been an important factor in influencing the form of the musical works. Gender considerations impact on this folio in two ways: firstly, gender is a key issue in some of the texts used as inspiration for the pieces, particularly Guinevere (2007) and Hilary &Maggie (2009).' Secondly, the folio explores how the position as a female composer affects engagement with both music and text. Finally, the folio works are related to the importance of Italian nationality to the composer. This supporting contextual document sets out the framework within which the folio was composed. It draws out the three main research threads that are explored in the folio: music and text, gender, and the Italian cultural perspective. Each thread of research is discussed with some contextual information given first, followed by an analysis of how this category impacts on the folio works.

William Sterndale Bennett (1816 –75), made a significant contribution to music education in Britain during the Victorian age. His special interest in pedagogy, particularly teaching the pianoforte led him to compose a set of Preludes & Lessons for the female pupils at Queen’s College, London. The set was well received until the end of the nineteenth century, but has since fallen out of the public eye – like so many of Bennett’s works. The aim of this project is to clarify the use of Op. 33 by showing how the pieces treat important aspects of performance practice. Another aim is to bring back the set of Op. 33 to the present after a period of neglect by providing a critical edition of the pieces. A historical background is provided in order to demonstrate Bennett’s place in the field of pianoforte teaching at the time. This section deals with his career as an educator and his experience at Queen’s College, and includes a preface on teaching pianoforte in the Victorian age. The historical background is followed by a close study of Op. 33 to demonstrate their treatment of the major aspects of performance practice. All these elements are placed in chapter I, which is in the first volume of this project. Chapter II concentrates on the publication of the work in prepare for creating the edition. The publication history of Op. 33, its publishers and the textual problems in the set, are considered. Moreover, the problematic cases of Mendelssohn’s manuscripts and Chopin’s first editions are discussed and adopted as models for the preparation of the edition which forms the outcome of this project. This chapter also lies in the first volume. The second volume includes Chapter III, which considers a critical edition of Op. 33. It starts with a short introduction which provides major principles to be followed in the edition, then deals with the edition sources and their evaluation. This is followed by the musical text and the critical commentary.

This thesis discusses the music and thought of one of Germany’s leading practitioners of contemporary music, composer Mathias Spahlinger. His work will be examined within the framework of studies of modernism in music, and aesthetics more widely, revealing a compositional approach that displays significant continuities with the practice of previous modernists, while also constituting a compellingly critical reinvention of many of their ideas. Through engaging with positions critical of previous modernist music, crucial debates in the composer’s music and thought will be identified, including the modes of listening assumed by modernist composers, implicit hierarchies in the thought and practice of modernist music, and issues of musical autonomy and political effect. In particular, Spahlinger’s unique exploration of the issue of musical autonomy will be considered from two differing perspectives in analyses of his breakthrough orchestral piece, passage/paysage (1990), and the choral work, in dem ganzen ocean von empfindungen eine welle absondern, sie anhalten (1985). It will be shown that these pieces rely on a form of expression in which abstract musical argument and political intention are merged to the point of indivisibility – and that this constitutes a crucial element of Spahlinger’s modernist project. Alongside these two vital examples of the composer’s practice, this thesis will also seek to contextualise the composer within a specifically West German historical situation, and within a wider aesthetic discourse than his own favoured Frankfurt-School-influenced paradigm. To this end, the practice of the poet Hans Magnus Enzensberger, and the painter Anselm Kiefer, will be discussed to argue that the composer is part of a wider, particularly German, strand of modernist thinking; while the work of Jacques Rancière will also be employed as a framework to examine the composer’s intense interest in the politics of musical perception. In considering these broader cultural and aesthetic conditions, this project is wider ranging than previous scholarly contributions in German, and is the most substantial contribution to English-speaking Spahlinger scholarship to date.

Currently there is very little academic literature dealing with the topic of record collecting, and when the topic is broached it appears to be done so with some level of suspicion towards the record collector. Thus, the only depictions of record collectors in the public domain tend to be very stereotypical and demeaning. This work aims to serve as a new starting point in how the record collector and the practices involved are viewed and understood by considering the roots of these stereotypes, which mainly stem from the work of the Frankfurt School theorists who lived during a time of great insecurity both in regards to new methods of production for cultural artefacts and art, but also their physical lives. Once this has been achieved, a consideration of more realistic record collecting practices will take place through discussions with collectors themselves, an examination of a collectible record label (Vertigo Records) and a diachronic analysis of the theories that have contributed to a fallacious view of the record collector. The record collector consumes his/her records on an individual basis – both in terms of person to person, but also – and, crucially – even record to record. Ultimately, it will be argued that one cannot define consumption through (the artefact’s) production, which mistakenly most considerations of the record collector have done.

This thesis concerns Wales as the ‘land of song’. In particular, it looks at choral singing in Wales which has long been considered a male tradition. From definitions of Welsh musical traditions featured in encyclopaedias to the continued use of male voice choirs at cultural events (such as rugby matches), men are continually promoted as the only bearers of the Welsh choral tradition. By contrast, this thesis questions such an assertion by arguing that women were also key players in its development in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In this matter, I interrogate two gendered stereotypes: Wales as ‘the land of my mothers’ (with reference to the suffrage movement) and Wales as ‘the land of my fathers’ (with reference to music, sport and nationhood). Conceived as a historical ethnography, this thesis draws upon extensive primary and secondary sources to provide the first in-depth study of gender and identity in Welsh choirs. The core of the thesis is comprised of historical narratives of four case study choirs from the period under study, namely the South Wales Choral Union (led by ‘Caradog’), the Rhondda Glee Society (led by Tom Stephens) and the two Royal Welsh Ladies’ Choirs (led by Clara Novello Davies and Hannah Hughes-Thomas respectively). In each case, I provide a discussion of the choir’s origin and the social context in which it developed, details about performance practice, membership, social class, repertoire and each choir’s relationship to notions of gender and identity in Wales. Moreover, I present a new understanding of the choirs’ conductors through biographical accounts; information regarding Clara Novello Davies and Hannah Hughes-Thomas especially has not been featured in previous scholarly studies. Informed by my perspective as a Welsh woman, I present a nuanced reading of Wales as ‘the land of song’ by considering both historical narratives and personal ethnographic experiences today. In this manner, this thesis contributes to ethnomusicological literature on gendered discourse and concepts of nationhood.

The British free improvisation scene originated in London and Sheffield during the mid 1960s. In groups such as AMM, the Spontaneous Music Ensemble and Joseph Holbrooke, a distinctive and ambitious musicality developed that still occupies most of its protagonists forty years later. Marked stylistic contrasts developed within the genre, notably the `atomistic' and `laminar' methods of interaction. Nonetheless, a consistency of principle and practice was also apparent that defined British free improvisation as unique. In some respects the genre resembled its German, Dutch and American counterparts, and also the jazz and classical avant-gardes that had inspired them. Both conceptually and practically, however, clear differences remained. The British free improvisers refined a method and an aesthetic of musical creativity, which suggested an intimate perspective and a detailed analysis of that which we accept as `music'. Its techniques and results were unconventional, but remained consistent with music's defining concepts and experiences. As such, British free improvisation suggested a more inclusive model of musicality than is common, and implied a broad critique of the cultural values that define `music' at all. Though the free improvisers themselves did not explicitly state the connection, their work may be viewed in the context of Deconstruction: the post-structuralist analytical strategy associated with philosopher Jacques Derrida. British free improvisation culminated from innovations within the twentieth century avant-garde. Referencing styles such as atonality and free jazz, it challenged the aesthetic, technical and hierarchical standards of Western tradition in a form that was striking and extreme, but also of logical development and focus. Free improvisation owed explicit debt to a variety of other musics; its most singular achievement however, was the redefinition of `rhythm' by which it disguised this fact. The music of the first generation British free improvisers is reliant upon precise conceptual and practical execution. But though this has enabled the genre to be musically innovative, in the long term it has also become a logical problem. With British free improvisation as its subject, the scrutiny of Deconstruction reveals significant discrepancies between what `free improvisation' implies and what it actually represents.

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