The social and political practice of the French Third Republic resonated with a variety of contrasting ideologies which were reflected in cultural products and their reception, including opera. The operas of Jules Massenet, the most successful Parisian opera composer of his time, provide a good example of this kind of cultural mediation. A close examination of Massenet's operas will thus allow a re-evaluation of the complex interaction between art and society in musical culture at the end of the nineteenth century in France. Representative case-studies have been chosen, and the works are read in the contemporary Parisian context of moral and political debate. I examine the operas with respect to the choice of subject matter, the libretto and its genesis (especially transformations made in the process of creating a libretto), the music (both in it srelation to the specific drama and musical convention of the time), the staging and its messages, and the critical reception in the press. The main chapters are dedicated to the following issues: 1. Mary or Marianne? The social, moral and cultural context, particularly regarding women, is explored via a close reading of sources from the second half of the nineteenth century. 2. Le Pretre, la Femme et la Familie. Anticlericalism and Republicanism as reflected in Massenet's opera Herodiade and its reception history are addressed. Also discussed is the icon of the Republican mother, sexual desire and the question of divorce (hotly debated at the time of the opera's premiere). 3. Dreams of Decadence, or the Death of Positivism. Viewing the medium of the dream scene in Massenet's operas Herodiade and then Thai's, this chapter allows an exploration of the significance of the dream world and degeneracy in the'decadent and symbolist aestheticso f the last two decadeso f the nineteenthc entury in France, and their implications for the reigning Third-Republican positivist ideology. 4. La Pornocratie. This reading of the opera Thais addresses the way in which French fin-de-siecle art and society dealt with the `femme nouvelle'. Programmatic orchestral music in opera and its capacity to translate human passions and voice is examined.

The aim of the research was to find out about intonational strategies in the performance situation. The singing voice was chosen as the appropriate subject for experimental work, due to its superior capability to define pitch as compared to other musical instruments. Ensemble singing was also required, as harmonic context may be important in the clarification of the issue, Chapter One, as an introduction to the subject, considers tuning systems and temperaments and briefly reviews the experimental literature on the subject. It also states the aim of the research. Chapter Two focuses on the theoretical aspects of the research, considering sonic relevant phenomena of psychoacoustics to the legacy of tuning systems and temperaments. Some thoughts on intonational strategies, reference frequencies and flexible temperament as desirable components of a sound intonational strategy are elaborated. An analysis of the motet Ave Veruin Corpus, by Mozart, as the chosen music piece for experimental work is carried out. Chapter 11ree deals with the delineation of experimental procedures for the evaluation of the intonational strategies adopted by singers in the performance situation. The recording sessions environment and the technical tools utilised in the experiments are described, as well as the technical procedures to carry out the measurements of the acquired data. As strict criteria had to be met regarding the performance situation, simultaneity of performance and the need to acquire individual data for analytical work, electrodes were attached to the neck of the singers, near the larynx, in order to carry out the recording sessions with the help of I-uyngogr2ph devices. Analytical issues arc also considered in the chapter, namely technical problems, errors and mistakes, as well as the implementation of intonational analyses and reference frequency calculations. Chapter Four presents a discussion on data measurements procedures, including guidelines for the determination of errors and mistakes and their symbology. Four recording sessions were carded out; two of them fulfilled 211th e necessary requirements. The singers' results are presented in chronological order. firstly, a quartet of singers from the Royal Academy of Music, and secondly, sixteen of the BBC Singers. Reference frequency results are also presented and discussed. Chapter Five deals with the intonational strategies as defined by the experimental work. It was discovered that no lbeorr&d modewl as followed throughout the music piece, but instead international procedures were guiding the singers while performing. Also, the two groups adopted different intonational strategies regarding reference frequencies. Alongside with the main issues of the research - intonational strategies regarding pitch behaviour and reference frequencies,p itch equalization within a choir section and text-related issues that amongst the most important topics that have been revealed by the results. Chapter Six comments on the new concepts brought about by the research. It also delineates some possibilities for future research work on the subject and related issues, especially vibrato singing & text articulation and absolute pitch. The Appendices contain images of the experimental work, diagrams of studio disposition for recording sessions, and analytical scores alongside with tuning tables that make it possible to represent graphically analytical values. They also provide means of performing acoustical replications of the results of analysis and singers. The core of the appendices volume is formed by the results of the singers' fundamental frequencies results and their graphical representation.

This thesis accompanies the five electroacoustic pieces of the portfolio and aims to discuss compositional strategies. The pieces were designed with the intention of exploring ways of creating relationships between musical materials of differing natures. Structuring methods are outlined using examples from two acousmatic and three mixed works (for solo instrument and electroacoustic sounds). Analyses from a macro- and micro-perspective aid in describing the principal elements of musical discourse and the personal methods of achieving musical coherence. Three stages of the compositional process are defined and discussed, forming a framework within which the computer sound transformations and instrumental sources are described. The first stage consists of the generation of material and the qualifying of the sounds as the basis for initial musical relationships. Then the structuring of the musical discourse is discussed, highlighting links at macro and microstructural levels. Finally, issues of performance are discussed. Feedback from the performer and the design of a common synchronisation method for the three pieces drives the structural design of the works. Musical material and the visual information during performance are investigated, and consideration is given to their implications throughout the compositional process.

This thesis concerns space as an essential element of expression and communication in electroacoustic music. It shows that musical space is a complex term which refers to many different aspects of composition, performance and perception of electroacoustic music. It is argued that space is a compound musical element which can be integrated into the compositional structure to a degree where space becomes the primary canier of meaning in the work, and that the creation and interpretation of this meaning is a result of learned cultural aspects of interpersonal communication in terms of personal space and territoriality. Furthermore, the close relationship between electroacoustic music composition and technology is acknowledged, and the influence of available technology on aesthetic choices and decision making with regard to spatial composition and performance is taken into consideration. The structure for the investigation is based on a model of musical space comprising three basic levels: 1) spatial properties of individual sounds in terms of intrinsic space, extrinsic space and spectral space, 2) the spatial arrangement of individual sounds and events into a composed space which is played in, and becomes affected by, the listening space, and 3) the perceived space, which constitutes the listening experience of the combination of composed space and listening space. A framework for describing and analysing spatial elements in electroacoustic composition is proposed. The discussion and findings are largely based on my experience as a listener, composer and performer of electroacoustic music, and in addition finds support in research on auditory perception, particularly Jens Blauert's work on spatial hearing and Albert Bregman's auditory scene theory, as well as Denis Smalley's spectromorphological theory, James Tenney's writings on perception-based music listening and analysis, and Edward T. Hall's investigations into space as an element of non-verbal communication.

This thesis takes as its initial Premise the idea that the rationales for the forms of pitch organisation employed within tonal music which have been adopted by music theorists have strongly affected those theorists` conceptions of music, and that it is of critical importance to music theory to investigate the potential origination of such rationales within the human sciences. Recent studies of musical pitch perception and cognition are examined, and an attempt is made to assess their capacity to provide sustainable rationales for pitch organisation in tonal music. Theoretical and experimental studies that focus on sensory processes are critically reviewed, and it is suggested that these do not adequately characterise important aspects of musical pitch organisation. Studies that examine more central cognitive constraints are discussed, and a detailed critique is made of recent cognitive-structural approaches to the representation of musical pitch. It is proposed that a significant aspect of tonal pitch organisation, diatonic structure, is neither adequately investigated nor provided with any compelling rationale by these studies. Three series of experiments on the perception and representation of diatonic structure are presented: it is suggested that the sensitivity to properties of diatonic structure shown by listeners in these and in other experiments implies that a representation of diatonicinterval structure constitutes an important component of the cognitive organisation of musical pitch. A possible basis fort his sensitivity is further explored, and a group-theoretic rationale for the musical use of diatonicism is proposed. The nature of the cognitive representation of diatonic interval structure is discussed. and relationships between diatonic structure. other western scale forms. tonality and (briefly) atonality are outlined.

This study takes a qualitative research perspective on the question of how music therapists talk about music therapy and how much a metalanguage relates to music therapy as an evolving discipline and profession. I ask whether there is a discourse of music therapy, and what the implications of this might be. Common to music centered approaches to music therapy is a problem I characterize as music therapists dilemma. This concerns having to use words and verbal logic to represent complex musical processes in music therapy (and the therapeutic processes which are seen to occur within these). I investigate how aspects of the New Musciology are discourse theory might shed light on the nature of music therapists dilemma. The data consists of an analysis of the verbal representations of one approach - Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy. Three analyses examine different occasions where Nordoff-Robbins Music therapists are required to verbalise about music therapy: (i) when making a different commentary on a taped excerpt from a music therapy session, (ii) in a discussion group on general aspects of the work, and (ii) writing texts on practice, theory and research. The overall analytic perspective of critical theory (supplemented by discourse analysis and music semiology) is used to examine the complex interaction between representation, theory and ideology within these various meta linguistic forms. I conclude that any metalanguage of music therapy functions are discourse in the sense that it actively constructs (and does not merely describe) the practices and phenomena it concerns itself with. Music therapists dilemma is seen as an inevitable part of a music-centered music therapy (and as an extension of the problems of talking about music itself). Further, the dilemma is seen as having two aspects: the related challenges of verbally representing and theorizing the complex non-verbal phenomena and processes of music therapy. I suggest that my finding are transferable to music centered approaches to music therapy. A consequence of regarding the discipline and profession of music therapy as constructed by discourse is that the discursive practices of music therapists become of equal importance to their clinical practices - and should therefore be given equal attention on matters of training, theory building and research.

This thesis investigates the use of reference and quotation in English experimental music. Observing that these phenomena are also common in other areas of music, it attempts to make firm distinctions between various manifestations and offer reasons why eclectic compositions emanating from the experimental tradition are the more effective, both in purely musical terms and in the maintaining of a subversive stance. Chapter One explores the extent to which pluralism in the arts is a direct result of postmodernism. The social effects of postmodernism and their influence on the arts are documented, leading to the conclusion that all instances of eclecticism in contemporary art and music could be categorised as postmodernist in some measure. The idea is then introduced that postmodernism is more than an environmental phenomenon and is an artistic aesthetic in its own right. Works which fall into this category are introduced, and ethical criticisms of them discussed. The idea is asserted that music from the experimental tradition is not connected to this problematic aesthetic. Chapter Two seeks to prove the last point by investigating the history of English experimental music and its independence from the modernist and postmodernist mainstream. After demonstrating this detachment it goes on to suggest ways in which its own history may have provided seeds for the later pluralistic tendencies. Chapter Three focuses on attitudes to history which are peculiar to composers of the experimental tradition. The influence of certain romantic composers is demonstrated with regard to the recent prevalence of transcription and arrangement, and eclectic works which stem from the admiration of earlier composers are discussed in detail. Chapter Four deals with ways in which composers from the experimental tradition have referred to source material from popular culture. It demonstrates how Satie and Ives have been important role models and gives details of compositions which utilise idioms from background music and 'muzak'. Chapter Five presents a methodology for the analysis of pluralistic music which rests on the principles of semiotics. It shows how the methodology could be used to reveal the interaction of references within a work, and suggests how conclusions could be interpreted to serve a better critical awareness of pluralistic music.

This thesis investigates the problems of describing and analysing music that is composed for, and presented from, a fixed medium, and diffused over loudspeakers with minimal intervention, especially where such music resembles everyday sounds as much as it does traditional musical material. It is argued that most existing theories of acousmatic music are closely tied to prescriptive rather than descriptive concerns, and concentrate upon intrinsic aspects of acousmatic music to the detriment of its extrinsic potential. In contrast to such approaches a method of description based upon an ecological theory of listening which accounts for the relationship between structured information and the perception of events is proposed. This descriptive approach is used as the basis for analysing acousmatic pieces, revealing a complex interpretative relationship between listener, piece and environment. Such an approach, it is argued, accounts for those aspects of acousmatic music excluded by most current approaches, but more importantly provides a theoretical framework. within which descriptions may be arrived at which avoid the prescriptive bias of exisiting theories. The perspective provided by this analytical approach is reinterpreted through a critical approach to aesthetics, showing how acousmatic music can be seen as both autonomous and mimetic and how the dialectic between these two aspects is potentially critical of our relationship with the world. The relationship between musical techniques, materials and technology is discussed in response to this perspective showing how acousmatic music might be regarded as part of a broader aesthetic context. In conclusion, it is argued that acousmatic music does not merely challenge the view that music is primarily self-referential, but also that it reaffirms the possibility that music may be both intrinsically and extrinsically significant.

This thesis is a cultural study of music in Ladakh ("Indian Tibet"). Drawing upon interdisciplinary theories in symbolic anthropology and musicology, the study stresses the primacy of symbolic action as a means of defining and controlling social reality, and proceeds to examine the relationship between the activation of musical structures and the social construction of power and authority, in terms of the generation of meaning. Ladakhi music is particularly suited to this kind of study because the instrumental genre of lha-rnga (literally "god-drumming") was once closely linked to the structure of Ladakhi society as a feudal monarchy legitimated by Buddhist authority. This music, associated with the personification of deities or the divine aspects of certain mortal beings, constitutes a 'code' which, in the context of public ritual and royal ceremonial, represents and sustains political authority by embodying aspects of the ideal, transcendental order. Building upon Sherry Ortner's concept of cultural schemata, it is shown how music provides the key to 'naturalising' or 'grounding' these more or less predictable programmes of symbolic action in emotional experience, so that through the patronage of performance, those in authority can manipulate the conduct of their subjects or rivals in expected ways. In supporting cultural schemata, public musical performance also constitutes a mechanism for dealing with conflict and change, as historically demonstrated by the way in which the later dynastic kings used music to negotiate the perceived Islamic threat from Kashmir and Turkestan. Supported by the analysis of rhythmic structures, in conjunction with historical, organological and iconographic evidence, it is proposed that forms of military and chivalrous music of West Asian origin have been accommodated by the indigenous Buddhist tradition: to the external Mughal authorities, this represented the incorporation of Ladakh into their political framework, but the Ladakhi monarchs presented this phenomenon as the meaningful incorporation of the symbols of Islamic rule into a theoretically Immutable Buddhist cosmological order. The research is intended, in part, to complement existing work in Indian and Tibetan music, which has hitherto mainly concentrated on liturgical or classical traditions, and which has tended to overlook the role of the 'living', regional traditions in Indo-Tibetan culture. On a theoretical level, the study also aims to further understanding of the dynamics of culture change and continuity, and to develop lines of enquiry aimed at bridging the gap between musicological and anthropological contexts of explanation.

The thesis 'Early Recorded Violinists' investigates 13 violinists, starting from Joseph Joachim as the earliest born violinist to have made gramophone recordings, to Mischa Elman. In the first chapter I examine and analyse the recordings of Joachim. In the next chapter I investigate Hugo Heermann's violin playing and technique. Heermann is a violinist with insufficient information published about him. In chapter 3, the work of Sarasate is illustrated with musical examples from his recordings and compositions, examining the combination of his musical and technical characteristics. Auer is examined as violinist and teacher in chapter 4. In the fifth chapter I intend to examine Eugene Ysaye who is one of the first exponents of the modern violin sound and continuous vibrato along with Kreisler. In chapter 6, we consider the founder of the Hungarian violin school JenO Hubay. His violin playing was influenced by national Hungarian music and my examples intend to give some information on that subject. Another 'national' violinist Maud Powell is investigated in chapter 7. She was influenced by her native American music and gave the first performances of many violin concertos in the United States. Another important teacher of the 20th century, Karl Flesch, is considered as a rival to Auer and is presented in chapter 8. Viennese violinist Fritz ICreisler is examined in chapter 9, his recordings and compositions give us important information on vibrato and portamento. Ysaye also influenced a younger generation of violinists, among them Jacques Thibaud whose recordings are examined in chapter 10. In chapters 11 and 12, two more 'national' violinists are examined with their recordings: Jan Kubelik and Georges Enescu. Auer's first internationally renowned pupil, Mischa Elman, is also examined in chapter 13.