Virtual bands have been present in popular culture for decades, and they have become the topic of increased scholarly interest over the past few years. Despite this new work, however, there remains a need for more indepth critical studies into gender and ethnicity in virtual phenomena, as this approach promises to open up new areas of enquiry. Focussing on questions of gender and ethnicity, my thesis will investigate the mechanics through which identity is constructed in animated, puppet, and hologram virtual band characters. My thesis will draw on a range of empirical, theoretical, and ethnographic approaches in order to analyse how and to what extent virtual band characters are created and disseminated by those in the industry, on the one hand, and by fans, on the other. In particular, I consider this question through the concepts of agency (perceived and attributed), authorship, and authenticity, and in relation to the notion of suspension of disbelief, examining ways in which animation affords greater potential for forms of ‘layered awareness.’ Following a historical overview of virtual bands, and a critical appraisal of relevant theoretical perspectives on this topic, the thesis moves to a close reading of two case studies that reinforce and subvert gender and ethnic stereotypes commonly found in popular culture: Gorillaz and Vocaloid. These examples present different aspects of identity construction in virtual media, the former apparently led by the band’s creators, the other by its fans. Within Gorillaz, my discussion centres around the female guitarist Noodle, who, I will argue, is a modern-day Orientalist construction. By contrast, the chapters on Vocaloid draw on fan studies techniques to show that Vocaloid’s fan base contains a large, unexpected demographic, and that part of the fans’ dedication stems from their confirmed expectations of gender and ethnic identity in the Vocaloid characters.

Live music promoters have hitherto been academically neglected (and often publicly maligned) individuals and organisations. This thesis, then, shifts the academic focus from the recording industries towards live music and towards the figures behind-the-scenes who connect artist, audience and venue in the live music environment. To do so, this work explores the practices and experiences of promoters in the UK; it focuses on Glasgow, Sheffield, and Bristol, and is based on ethnographic research at case study venues. The thesis offers a phenomenological perspective on what promoters do and why, and their role as mediator with key figures such as artists and agents, as well as their relationships with the state. It argues that promoters are cultural investors (and exploiters), importers and innovators who both shape and are shaped by the live music ecology within which they operate. Finally, the thesis examines the three stages of the promotional process – planning, publicity, production – to argue that promoters are key figures not only in the construction of the musical lives of contemporary British citizens, but also in the rich cultural (and economic) ecology of cities, towns and villages in the UK.

This dissertation comprises two volumes. Volume 1 presents a critique and exploration of the way extended techniques with particular sound properties are used and notated in the contemporary repertoire for the classical six-string guitar. In Volume 2, a set of practical exercises provide both instrumentalists and composers with a way to perceive, think through, and use a repertory of sounds based on developed and newly invented extended techniques. Volume 1 is divided into three sections. The first section constitutes an extensive survey of the literature, where extended guitar techniques are investigated in relation to performance and pedagogy by centring on significant research and key repertoire. The examined techniques are characterized by being alternative to the conventional pitch-based attack/decay paradigm. This is followed by an examination of composers’ notational practices, where certain anomalies in the repertoire are addressed. For example, how spectral relationships may be put into a morphological context by employing tablaturebased systems. A concluding section summarises the current use of extended techniques and how compositional methodologies from key composers can be further developed. Volume 2 presents two sets of studies. The first twenty-eight studies centre on individual techniques, after which techniques are combined in the remaining six studies. A new morphologically based notation model is employed, derived by developing the surveyed composers creativity further through enhancing the perception and execution of music comprising only extended techniques. The archetypal attack/resonance morphology of guitar sound is discussed, and this forms the basis for classifying certain extended techniques as archetypes or variants of the archetype. The pedagogical, compositional, and improvisational potential of the chosen extended techniques are exploited in the studies, both through the juxtaposing and the merging of morphologies. After an overview that reflects upon musical relationships between the theoretical and practical aspects of the dissertation, the final section is concerned with the use of amplification in performance, and further ideas are proposed for expanding morphological combinations.

Although Farinelli has received a great deal of attention in scholarship, the early music performance scene and in popular culture, little has been written about his singing. The current perception of Farinelli’s musical profile is based almost entirely on the research of Franz Haböck from the beginning of the 20th century and the writings of Charles Burney. As a result of the emphasis of both writers on Farinelli’s bravura singing, the singer’s name has become synonymous with castrato virtuosity. This study takes a more diffentiated approach. It reconstructs the artistic persona of Farinelli from libretti, scores and documentary evidence, evaluates the veracity of anecdotal information pertaining to his singing that has so far been accepted largely at face value and considers the aesthetic implications of Farinelli’s singing. Part I of this study seeks to reconstruct Farinelli’s vocal profile. In chapter 1, contemporary descriptions by earwitnesses are examined and evaluated with regard to important aspects of his singing, i.e., the sound quality, volume and range of his voice, technical elements such as his trill, agility and breath control, ornamentation and improvisation and, finally, his acting. Chapter 2 summarises the main stages of the singer’s operatic career. The purpose of this chapter is not to reiterate biographical information, but to provide an outline that can serve as a framework for the discussion of the development of Farinelli’s vocal technique, personal style and reception. The chapter also identifies important points of professional interaction between Farinelli and other famous singers. Chapter 3 falls into two parts. Firstly, the main elements of vocal technique, as described in the vastly influential vocal treatises of Tosi and Mancini, are outlined in relation to notational practice of 18th-century manuscript scores and their relevance to the music sung by Farinelli. Secondly, the development of Farinelli’s voice in terms of the singer’s vocal technique, range, volume and details of style is discussed on the basis of the analysis of Farinelli’s operatic roles. Chapter 4 focuses on the analysis and contextualisation of important stylistic changes that occured during Farinelli’s career. Throughout, Farinelli’s stylistic choices are discussed in relation to the aesthetic preferences of the different audiences he encountered. Part 2 explores aspects of Farinelli’s artistic profile from the vantage points of aesthetics and rhetoric. Based on analyses of Farinelli’s arias on nightingale metaphors, chapter 5 discusses the conceptual frameworks and aesthetic issues that have often resulted in a critical reception of his virtuosity, both during his lifetime and in the 20th century. Chapter 6 examines the manner in which the principles of rhetoric have been applied to 18th-century music in recent scholarship. It argues for a different, more integrated approach that reflects the performance-centred period understanding of rhetoric, which, unlike the modern understanding, was not yet inflected by the author and work concepts. Chapter 7 analyses rhetorical strategies in Farinelli’s Venetian bravura arias and their implications with regard to the issues of authorship and the relationship between performer and audience. In chapter 8, the text-music relationship and communicative strategies in Farinelli’s slow expressive arias are scrutinised. The conclusion briefly assesses the impact of Farinelli on Italian opera, theatrical performance practice and musical aesthetics.

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During her time as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1979-1990) Margaret Thatcher oversaw a great deal of political and social change, some of which proved controversial to her left-wing opponents. Her ascent to power coincided with the establishment of punk, whose music influenced a sizeable proportion of the country’s cultural and social underground, leading to great influence on popular musical producers and the growth of a recognised subculture. Thatcher’s electoral success and the widespread identification with punk were both predicated upon the rhetoric of ‘crisis’ which permeated popular discourse in the mid- to late-1970s. As such, punk came to be viewed as a cultural form with which to not only oppose this rhetoric and mainstream society in general, but also with which to restate ideas of rock ‘authenticity’ as a means to protest political situations. With reference to specific performers and protest movements, this thesis demonstrates how these performers and popular movements stated their opposition to cultural and societal norms, as well as assessing the ‘political’ success of their actions. Consequently it also questions the historical narratives which have been written on this period – particularly that of the Rock Against Racism movement and its involvement of British Asians. It also uses contemporary source material to offer fresh analyses of Live Aid and the Labour Party-supporting Red Wedge group, as well as challenging the performances and presentation of musicians who made direct challenges to Thatcherite policy in their songwriting.

Joseph Mayseder (1789-1863) was one of the most significant musical figures in Vienna in the first half of the nineteenth century as a violinist and composer. His participation in musical life in Vienna was of central importance, as a ‘Soloist’ at the Hofkapelle, as the Director of the Orchestra at the Kärntnertortheater and as a friend of Beethoven. The dissertation offers an in-depth survey of Mayseder’s achievements in Vienna in his lifetime. A biographical overview of Mayseder’s life in Vienna is given, evaluating the role of his persona as a musician. Chapter 1 focuses on Mayseder as a violinist, drawing attention to his performances with new, detailed information taken from contemporary sources on his musical activities. The second chapter explores Mayseder’s compositions and highlights his key compositional elements in more detail, such as his relationship to the violin, his playing technique and his performance practice as a soloist and with an ensemble. Chapter 3 analyses Mayseder’s role in context, illustrating his importance for the development of solo violin music and its performance in this period in history. The appendices consist of the Thematic catalogue that presents a detailed listing of the complete works of this composer. The concluding catalogue provides an overview of public solo violin performances in Vienna between 1800 and 1828.

The sonata for violin and basso continuo was one of the most popular instrumental genres in early eighteenth-century Europe, as is clearly evident from the numerous works by Italian, German and French composers of the period, whose contributions are widely known and documented. Violin sonatas by British-born composers of the period, on the other hand, have largely been neglected by scholars and performers and no systematic examination of this repertoire has thus far been conducted. The present thesis attempts to contextualise this rich and fascinating repertoire and view it holistically. It aims to contribute substantially to knowledge about the British violin sonata during the period and enhance our understanding of its function, content, dissemination and performance. Fifteen collections of sonatas for violin and continuo written by British-born composers in the first half of the eighteenth century have been selected for detailed analysis. These works have been examined from two different perspectives: as social phenomena and as aesthetic objects. Following relevant introductory materials contextualising the research, the first part of this thesis presents biographical accounts of the selected composers, their careers and musical environment, and the circumstances surrounding the publication and distribution of their sonatas. In Part II the sonatas under scrutiny are analysed in terms of their external designs and internal forms, tonal scope, and harmonic and melodic vocabulary, as well as their technical demands. Technical discussion focuses on issues such as range requirements, position-work and shifting, fingering, bowing, articulation, embellishment, dynamics, and chordal playing.

This work addresses the demands of framing a theoretical problem and practice-based research and it therefore comprises two parts: a thesis and a composition. The thesis discusses the narrative structure of post-WWII Italian avant-garde opera in conceptual terms and demonstrates how it develops on three principal features: the metaphorical representation of socio-political conditions, the non-linearity of the dramaturgy, and openness to a plurality of interpretations. My composition It makes no difference contributes both as a new musico-theatrical work and an outcome of the discussion presented in the thesis. The main text is composed of three main chapters, each respectively dedicated to the features of socio-political representation, non-linearity and openness. Each chapter is in turn divided into two sub-chapters: the first presents the contextualisation and analysis of post-WWII Italian experimental operas, the second explores It makes no difference in relation to both these operas and the above three features. The discussion examines those works that have most significantly experimented with socio-political representations, non-linearity and openness. These include Luigi Nono’s Intolleranza 1960 (1961), Sylvano Bussotti’s La Passion selon Sade (1966) and Luciano Berio’s Opera (1977). At the same time, it omits both those operas relying on traditional operatic principles and those others that, although being experimental, do not focus on the three features this thesis puts forward. This study considers post-WWII Italian avant-garde opera in cross-disciplinary terms and highlights the necessity of discussing it in relation to disciplines other than those proper to the genre of opera, including prose-theatre, literature, politics and philosophy. The composition, on the other hand, provides a synthesis of the above three features: It makes no difference develops a multi-narrative structure whilst providing a representation of contemporary Italian socio-political life and epitomising the concept of openness. At the same time, it integrates theatrical and literary elements and combines traditional notation and graphic scores.

This study examines the historical development of the piano quintet from the eighteenth to the twenty-first century. This development is coloured by the fact that the ensemble combines two discrete constituents, solo piano and string quartet, each with its own separate heritage. The assessment of the genre thus involves consideration of the manner in which its composers, while applying their own compositional aesthetics, have, over these centuries, treated ensemble interaction and texture. In the twentieth century, in particular, the rise of concern with timbre affected attitudes towards integration of the ensemble. The introduction to this dissertation argues for the identification of the piano quintet as a genre in its own right, based on its fixed scoring (of piano and string quartet) and the substantial body of works written for the ensemble since the 1770s. Chapters 1-5 consider aspects of ‘ensemble conversation’ within the quintet up to the present, for which a broadly chronological approach is adopted. Early examples by Soler, Giordani and Boccherini are all considered; thereafter, the canonical works of Robert Schumann, Brahms, Franck and Dvořák are viewed in the context of contemporaneous works by, among others, Saint-Saëns, Bruch and Coleridge-Taylor. The study then draws on significant twentieth-century examples by Shostakovich, Schnittke, Ginastera, Xenakis and Feldman, as well as more recent works, by Messiaen, Carter, Goehr and Adès. As will be shown, a surprisingly limited number of models for new works have been utilised, earlier exemplars inspiring later compositions. Chapter 6 applies some of the observations made to three specific case studies by women composers, two Piano Quintets by Grażyna Bacewicz and one by Sofia Gubaidulina, which are examined in detail and evaluated for their significance both to their own time and ours. The conclusion offers an evaluation of the differing forms of textural and timbral interaction and concludes that the piano quintet, for all its professed links with the Romantic Period, has emerged as an ensemble valued by contemporary composers for its capacity for timbral conversation.