This thesis focuses on a relatively under-researched immigrant-descended group: the second-generation Irish in post-war England. Taking popular music as a case study, the thesis examines some of the key ways in which the second-generation Irish have been discursively managed in both academic and journalistic discourses. To this end, the thesis develops a critical dialogue with particular aspects of Irish Studies, British Cultural Studies, and the discourse of popular music journalism. Much of this dialogue is, in turn, refracted through the prism of specific themes and issues, especially those pertaining to assimilation, essentialism, and 'white ethnicity'. In addition to these considerations, the thesis also addresses the question of musical 'routes', examining the variegated aesthetic strategies that have been mobilised by second-generation Irish rock musicians such as John Lydon, Kevin Rowland, Shane MacGowan, Noel Gallagher, and The Smiths. Throughout, the thesis is infonned by a desire to challenge the invisibility of the second-generation Irish in academic and journalistic discourses; to highlight the diversity and complexity of second-generation Irish experience and identity-formation processes; and to point to the productive and diverse ways in which second-generation cultural practitioners have reconfigured popular culture in England.

This thesis presents the author's musical compositions through the elucidation of their source impulse. In order to facilitate the unveiling of the works presented in this thesis I have subdivided it into sections thus: Section 1 - Here I introduce the reader to the motivation behind my music composition work and discuss the elements which inform my cosmology through the elucidation of the concepts and methods used in the realisation of the compositions. Section 2 - An introduction, discussion and conclusion to the series heading of Raza. The compositions and chapters are as follows: Chapter 3, Lucero for charango and tape; Chapter 4, Gato's Raid for marimba and tape; Chapter 6, De Luna a Luna ... for two percussionists and tape. In this section I address that particular musical imagery which is directly related to my cultural roots. Section 3 - An introduction, discussion and conclusion to the series heading of Urbis. The compositions and chapters are as follows: Chapter 9, Urbis #2 'passing moments/riffs & raffs' for bass clarinet and tape; Chapter 10, Urbis #3 'Alter ego' for electric guitar, live electronics and tape; Chapter 11, Urbis #4 for tape. In this section I address the use of modern urban culture symbols in order to create a contemporary mythological canon. Section 4 - A conclusion to this thesis.

A fast expanding network of DIY music communities in the UK see digital technologies transforming ways in which part-time amateur musicians are able to collaborate creatively and form alliances, touring and distributing their music to an international audience and expanding the possibilities of a DIY approach to music making beyond its subcultural, micro-cultural past. Creative autonomy and control is sought to be retained and celebrated in shared non- commercial spaces run by the artists themselves. With an interview based approach, this thesis explores the continued importance of gaining a local audience in a digital age, exploring amateur music activities in two very distinct cities. These reveal how local traditions of amateur practice continue to influence musicians and their shared venues, both in their revival and reinvention. How DIY is defined in a digital age is also explored with both observation and interview data revealing the continued legacy of Punk and how this plays a part in DIY’s expanding definition. The approaches and motivations behind amateur musicians seeking out and establishing shared places for their DIY practice reveals a collective striving for creative control and the creative reimagining of disused urban spaces. Whilst there is a commitment to the upkeep of these spaces, there are also essential online activities shared by the amateur musicians that assist their own personal music promotion alongside the networking and expanding of the local DIY communities. This discussion also reveals how the musicians tackle periods of isolation from their peers, as increased opportunities to collaborate remotely with others changes the dynamics of bands and music scenes. In a combining of interview and observational data, the thesis also explores in depth the handcrafting and DIY activities practiced and celebrated in the shared DIY spaces. There is then further discussion as to how the musicians manage their peer networks and how they stay connected to other musicians in their local areas. This reveals more relaxed, open networking tactics widely adopted by amateur musicians in a digital age. There is a continued discussion then as to how the musicians are able to sustain their DIY practices on a part- time basis, with a focus on the co-operative strategies for creating a sense of community, shared values and ambitions amongst the musicians. In conclusion, I draw upon the themes of material, digital, local and global practices, revealing how amateurs seek to protect both a micro-scale, exclusive aspect to their music and opportunities for face-to-face live performance for real engagement with their peers and audiences.

All history of the flute in Scotland begins with William Tytler’s 1792 assertion that the flute was unknown in Scotland prior to 1725. Other generally accepted beliefs about the flute in Scotland are that it was only played by wealthy male amateurs and had no role in traditional music. Upon examination, all of these beliefs are false. This thesis explores the role of the flute in eighteenth-century Scottish musical life, including players, repertoire, manuscripts, and instruments. Evidence for ladies having played flute is also examined, as are possible connections between flute playing and bagpipe playing. What emerges is a more complete picture of the flute’s role in eighteenth-century Scottish musical life.

This thesis is concerned with the thoughts of the Russian writer Ivan Turgenev (1818-83) on the development of the arts in his native country and the specific problems facing the Russian artist. It starts by considering the state of the creative arts in Russia in the early nineteenth century and suggests why even towards the end of his life Turgenev still had some misgivings as to whether painting and music had become a real necessity for Russian society in the same way that literature clearly had. A re-appraisal of "On the Eve" (1860) then follows, indicating how the young sculptor Shubin in this novel acts as the author's alter ego in a number of respects, in particular by reflecting Turgenev's views on heroism and tragedy. The change in Shubin's attitude towards Insarov, whom the sculptor at first tries to belittle before eventually comparing him to the noble Brutus in Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar", can be said to anticipate Turgenev's own feelings about Bazarov in "Fathers and Children" (1862) and the way that this 'nihilist' attained the stature of a true tragic hero. In this chapter, too, the clichéd notion of Turgenev's alleged affinity with Schopenhauer is firmly challenged - an issue that is taken up again later on in the discussion of "Phantoms" (1864) and "Enough!" (1865). Other aspects of Turgenev's portrayal of Shubin are used to introduce the remaining chapters, where the problems of dilettantism, originality, nationalism and Slavophilism - among the most acute problems which Russian artists had to contend with in Turgenev's eyes - are explored through various works of his, especially the novel "Smoke" (1867), as well as by reference to his observations of such contemporaries as Glinka, the painter Ivanov, Tolstoi, and the composers of the 'Mighty Handful'. The springboard for the final chapter on the tragic fate befalling so many Russian artists is once again Shubin, whose voluntary exile in Rome at the end of the novel allows for certain parallels to be drawn with Gogol'. Despite Turgenev's own 'absenteeism' from Russia, for which he was much reproached, it is emphasized in the conclusion that healways remained devoted to the cause of Russia's civic and cultural development, especially in the realm of the arts, whose national, and at the same time universal, value he upheld so compellingly in his Pushkin speech of 1880.

Drawing Sound in Time reflects on how I have attempted, in the music written over the period of my doctoral studies (2004-2010) to use time as a basis for the mapping of sonic activity and how this aesthetical concern has helped me develop a teleological approach to form and structure. The shaping of time in my work often has its origins in the visual, either from my own drawings or from other visual stimuli. As well as considering the visual appearance of my music, I will draw on the correlation of music and art by abstract painters (most notably Paul Klee) alongside composers Iannis Xenakis and John Cage whose philosophy represent for me a way forward, not only aesthetically but also on a technical level. Additionally, the discussion will refer to astronomy as certain aspects of the subject relate to the development of techniques in my compositional language, and furthermore will often draw on the titles of the pieces (stars and constellations) as a basis for generating materials. I will address in particular the use of coding in my music that is an integral part of the way I work. My commentary will examine the main aspects of my musical language using examples from selected works in the accompanying portfolio.

This study examines the learning of ensemble skills by young musicians in progressive ensembles. Data collection took place in three music centres which form part of an LEA music service's ensemble provision. This study uniquely approaches ensembles as'socio-musical' phenomena. It finds description and explanation in the constantly changing and developing socio-musical interactions that form ensembles. Using an ethnographic approach it examines the practice of ensembles that are part of musical learning pyramids, through the eyes and actions of the ensemble members. There is an examination of ensemble membership and the social structures and interactions that form ensembles. This study explores, and for the first time identifies, a set of ensemble specific skills. These are the skills that a musician uses to negotiate, integrate and cooperate with other participants in the production of ensemble performance. It goes on to examine how ensemble specific skills are acquired and suggests that the learning process is one of serial performative responsibility transfer created within stratified centripetal progression. New, or novice, members of an ensemble start by participating at a peripheral level leaving it to others to take performative responsibility for the production of a negotiated collaborative realization of the musical intentions of the composer. This study has been influenced by the work of Lave and Wenger and social theories of learning. However, it departs from these theories by suggesting that the learning process within an ensemble is responsibility led and stratified.

A minha pesquisa debruça-se sobre as produções musicais e as performances de António Variações em Portugal e de José Pérez Ocaña em Espanha. Primeiramente, desenvolverei uma análise crítica sobre a sexualidade, o género e as construções binárias da masculinidade e da feminilidade. Explorarei como os atos sexuais entre pessoas do mesmo sexo começaram a ser legislados e medicalizados pelas sociedades ocidentais e de que maneiras é que a (homos)sexualidade foi sucumbida ao bas-fonds pelos regimes ditatoriais. Neste estudo oferecerei uma leitura atenta das criações culturais de Variações e de Ocaña. Para apoiar a análise textual, musical e visual das representações culturais selecionadas, a teoria queer será adoptada como modelo teórico. Os principais conceitos postulados e estabelecidos por Michel Foucault, Judith Butler, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, entre outros, serão aplicados às produções culturais para permitir uma deconstrução queer dos textos, das performances e das relações com o contexto histórico, social e cultural de Portugal e de Espanha. Para além deste objectivo geral, o principal objectivo desta pesquisa é demonstrar a importância que António Variações e José Perez Ocaña tiveram na construção de uma cultura queer nestes países, uma vez que ambos os países haviam sido “dominados” durante décadas pelos regimes ditatoriais Salazarista e Franquista. Estes regimes defendiam a ideia de que a homossexualidade era uma “perversão” e como tal, esta teria que ser ser exterminada, de maneira a não pôr em causa os bons valores e a moralidade destas nações. Portanto, o objectivo principal desta tese será a análise das performances destes artistas em contraponto às representações dominantes de género estabelecidos por estes dois regimes ditatorias e as razões que levaram a estes artistas a usarem a música e as performances para expressarem género não-normativo e identidades sexuais. Ao analisar estes períodos poderemos observar os motivos pelos os quais a cultura queer era inexistente, ou mais problematicamente, invisível.

This thesis focuses on the genre of libretto, the sung words for music theatre. The “little book” which accompanies every operatic performance is not just an extended program note to the spectacle, but in fact a substantial literary form in its own right. However, despite the immense influence of Wagner, the output from librettists in an operatic collaboration, has been serious ignored; indeed in opera the aesthetic function of language is frequently diminished and foreshortened, because it is often re-directed by and within the music. The result is that librettists are often seen as offering words to be “decomposed” by composers in the process of operatic collaboration. Opera, in the English language, finally achieved its rightful status, alongside its European counterparts, during the second half of the twentieth century. The thesis is intended to encompass something of the vast diversity of this genre and discusses a number of individual works as constituting legitimate literary artefacts in their own right. There will be five chapters featured in the thesis and each chapter is devoting to a specific theme.

Works of art often refer to one another. Perhaps a closer examination of this relationship occurs if they are theoretically displaced from the sequence of events that contextualise them. Placed side-by-side, they may take on a fresh meaning that might identify artistic intention as universal — as a 'redemptive' statement of Being. Both Piero della Francesca and Stanley Spencer painted 'Resurrection' pictures. The five hundred years that separate them notwithstanding, the reasons for their so doing must bear some comparison. Each made a statement of belief in their depiction of a metaphysical world created primarily in the imagination but housed in cultural milieus that would identify them as 'visionary' amongst their peers. Yet, in many ways, one picture is the antithesis to the other, the first deeply religious, the second highly personal. Regardless of their differences, each work might perpetually and simultaneously strive toward 'the spiritual' in an individual and universal sense. As an artist whose work ostensibly denies any lofty 'spiritual' aspiration whatsoever, Frank Zappa's dismissal of authority, whether couched in religious, musical or sociological terms, marks a valid juxtaposition to current acceptance of artistic form. Not only was it legitimate to invite a musician into the affray, for me it was a vital continuation of my earlier exploration. Zappa seriously challenges the notion of 'feeling' as little more than a pre-set conditioned response to music. I hoped to establish that Zappa's own quest for musical perfection flew in the face of his notorious cynicism, proclaiming his output as 'redemptive' — alongside that of Piero della Francesca and Stanley Spencer. It is the main contention here that as the human predicament requires that the artist should attempt to re-present his vision in order to redefine reality for himself and his peers, the role of artist as 'visionary' is worthy of perennial consideration.