The chance discovery of a composer of whom the present writer had previously been unaware; who was allegedly a pupil of J.S. Bach; whose list of compositions occupied no small space in modern lexicographical entries, let alone in Eitner's now largely obsolete catalogue; who, according to Feder in his article entitled Decline and Restoration in Protestant Church Music - a History, though highly regarded in his day, had not received detailed consideration: such were the factors which gave impetus to the present day. No sooner was that study underway than it transpired that others, too, had been struck by the deficiency noted by Feder. Already in 1970, the American scholar Robert Ellis Snyder had prepared a doctoral thesis on the choral music of Gottfried August Homilius. More significantly, the East German scholar Hans Hohn had published a comprehensive survey of the composer's life and work which was subsequently published in a revised and shortened form in 1980. Far from undermining the work undertaken by the present writer, the above-mentioned studies helped to give it sharper focus. Snyder's contribution, valuable both for the attention drawn anew, through his editorial work in Volume 2, to the composer's music, and still more for his English translation of the Generalbass, nonetheless left room for deeper analysis and evaluation of Homilius' works. John's signal achievement, his painstaking collation of documentary evidence of the composer's life, remains largely inaccessible to the English reader who has no command of German. Further, his evaluation of the man and his compositions, based on an albeit rigorous survey, is vitiated by a tendency to play down the importance of theology in the formation of the composer's character and to portray him, in a one-sided way, as a torch-bearer for an emergent and emancipated bourgeoisie. Thirdly, John failed to distinguish correctly between the Passion Cantata So gehst du nun mein Jesu hin on the one hand and on the other the Markuspassion which bears the same subtitle and which turned out to be one of Homilius' lengthiest and most substantial works. These factors, then, helped to give shape to the present study which, as far as its author has been able to establish, is the first of substantial length to be undertaken in Britain. The first chapter of Volume I is devoted to a summary of Homilius' life. Relying, though by no means exclusively, on John, details are given of the composer's background, of his earlier life and education, of his first frustrated attempts to secure employment and his eventual success in being appointed organist of the Frauenkirche in Dresden in 1742, of his subsequent preferment in 1755 to the post of Cantor of the Kreuzkirche in the same city, of his varied life and success as cantor, teacher and organist over against a background of social upheaval, and finally of the circumstances of his death in 1785. Chapter 2 is deovoted to a general survey of the music. While account is taken of John's findings, the content is larely an independent survey of Homilius' music based on the main on manuscripts held in the Music Department of the Staatsbibliothek der Stiftung PreussischerKulturbesitz in West Berlin. The chapter contains details of the extant works, both published and in manuscript, new information about the dating of works established in the course of research, and, following a brief description of the main genres of music encountered (Oratorios, cantatas, motets and settings of the Magnificat), a discussion of the texts which underpin the works. Attention is then directed to the music: to the characteristics of the composer's musical language and to the techniques of composition and orchestration which he employs. From this study there emerges the picture of a composer who had full command of the musical dialects of his day, but whose obedience to a task which was essentially musico-theological kept him from producing music of lasting appeal. Chapters 3 and 4 constitute the main burden of the present study. The first of these is devoted to a study of the St Mark Passion both as a structure and as a theological statement. Through detailed analysis and comparison with similar works it is suggested that Homilius' work has its own particular theological stamp, in particular that he is more concerned with the life which faces his listeners in the here and now and with present moral choices than with affording to the listener a spiritual experience of the road to Golgothe. Unlike J.S. Bach who is content to let the gospel speak for itself, Homilius incorporates in the work a particular theological view of the work of Christ. Both factors conspire with others of a more musical nature to deprive this work of that timeless quality which characterises Bach's great Passions. In Chapter 4 the music is subjected to systematic analysis. If the arias emerge as the least satisfactory component, the recitatives are remarkably fluent, and the work as an entity proves to have been carefully and indeed ingeniously planned. Conclusions are drawn in Chapter 5, though a review of the most important literature, about the man, the composer and the St Mark Passion in particular. While there is some evidence to support the view, championed by John, that Homilius had certain progressive reflexes, Rudolf Steglich's 1915 analysis of him as an essentially conservative being seems the more perceptive and compelling, however dubious his comparison of Homilius with C.P.E. Bach. As a composer Homilius had great facility, but his musical language, shot through with gracious vocabulary and popular idiom, lacked innate strength. It is a language limited, too, by the composer's intellectual horizons and by his very pre-occupation with theology and his ecclesiastically based méier. As an oratorio Passion the St Mark Passion, a monumental work, is unique among the pieces which Homilius composed for performance during Holy Week. Of his entire oeuvre this work above all is both an expression of his debt to the Baroque past and at the same time an acknowledgement that he has left that past far behind. Volume I is furnished with three appendices. The first is devoted to a Choralbuch which sheds light both on the dating of works and on Homilius' treatment of the chorale. The second contains details of larger works and cantatas in manuscript. Musical incipits are given, where they were available, in order to facilitate more reliable identification of works. Appendix 3 contains diagrams and musical examples relevant to Chapters 2 and 4. Volume II contains a performance edition of Homilius' St Mark Passion furnished with a 3-part Critical Apparatus, containing 1) Text and Translation, 2) Notes on the Edition - including details of the manuscript, its provenance, an attempt to date the work, and an evaluation of its dedication to Princess Anna Amalia of Prussia - and 3) Notes on Performance.

This is a folio of compositions that interferes with composition and improvisation in practice and in theory. A resistance to theme and content is countered by proposing a very broad conception of form that brings into play anthropological and philosophical examples as well as a questioning of traditional musical forms. The pieces in general propose ways of composing and playing otherwise. The scores are interspersed with texts which engender relationships and patterns of thought pertinent to the workings of the pieces such that a critical position is articulated without resorting to longwinded argument. Audio recordings of the pieces are included at the rear of the document.

The essence of seventeenth-century musical fantasy lies in the contemporary notion of freedom. Contemporary fantasy genres and verbal descriptions of fantasy highlight freedom from given tonal, harmonic, and temporal frameworks. This freedom assumes the composer's ingenuity (freedom to command the rules of counterpoint) and spontaneity (freedom to breach the rules and conventional expectations), both important sources to understand the distinctiveness of seventeenth-century musical fantasy. Given that a manifestation of freedom could be perceived as either fantastic or 'irrational', I survey the cultural and intellectual background concerning an assumed norm and the contemporary notion of 'rationality' through differing views on reason and the senses. In order to clarify the environment in which musical fantasy was sensed and defined, I turn to the analogy between music and its sister arts: imitation (philosophical mimesis and rhetorical imitatio as key concepts of artistic representation) and empirical thought (the growing interest in the role of the senses and imagination in aesthetic experience) are taken as bases for contemporary artists' understanding of nature and art. To discern the freedom that seventeenth-century musicians exercised in their representation of nature, I trace the varied properties and fantastic aspects of expressive resources in dramatic and improvisatory genres by exploring three metaphorical subjects: lament, melancholy, and humour. In all, this study focuses on how fantasy was musically represented and perceived in the era, and elucidates the distinctive and universal aspects of fantasy in the seventeenth-century context through an interdisciplinary approach that combines the historical, the philosophical, and the musical.

This thesis explores the musical dimension of Scottish song-collecting between the years c.1760 and 1888. The collections under investigation reflect the general cultural influences that bear on their compilers, starting with those associated with what we now call the Scottish Enlightenment, and continuing with those we associated with developing nineteenth-century romanticism. Building upon the work of Harker on the concept of ‘fakesong’, and of Gelbart on the developing idea of ‘folk’ versus ‘art’ music, I suggest that the sub-title of James Johnson’s Scots Musical Museum, ‘Our Ancient National Airs’, has implications which can be traced throughout this period. The nature of the finished collections tells us much about editorial decisions, value-judgements, and intended audiences. The prefaces, other published writings and surviving correspondence have been especially informative. Parallels can be traced between Joseph and Patrick MacDonald’s A Collection of Highland Vocal Airs, and the Ossian works of James Macpherson, embodying an urge to record and preserve the heritage of Highland Scotland’s primitive past. The collaborations of Robert Burns with James Johnson and George Thomson, and the English Joseph Ritson’s Scotish Song, similarly reflect the antiquarian ‘museum’ mentality. However, the drive to record and codify is tempered by Burns’s and Thomson’s wish simultaneously to improve and polish. The ‘discovery’ of the Highlands as a tourist destination, and the appeal of its primitive history, prompted a substantial body of literature, and Alexander Campbell’s output particularly exemplifies this, but the sense of place was as much a motivator for private collectors. It can also be demonstrated that later song-collectors, such as Robert Archibald Smith, were as much motivated to create and improve the repertoire, as were James Hogg and his literary peers. A passion for domestic music-making, and an increased wish to educate and inform, is evidenced in song-collections by George Farquhar Graham, Finlay Dun and John Thomson, but most significantly, this thesis demonstrates a resurgence of cultural nationalism, driven as much by William Chappell’s anxiety to define and defend the English repertoire, as by Andrew Wighton’s and James Davies’ passion for the Scottish, with Graham and Laing caught in the crossfire. Thus, even if ‘Our Ancient National Airs’ appeared at different times in different kinds of musical setting, and for differing purposes, it can clearly be demonstrated that published Scottish song-collections of this period can, indeed, be taken to reflect a wider range of contemporary cultural trends than has hitherto been recognised.

The first chapter outlines the background to the composer's compositional technique. It provides a basis for discussing the definition of folk and traditional music and highlights two differing uses, by other composers, of the folk music idiom within the art music context. The next chapter deals with some particular aspects of composition related to the portfolio works. Techniques such as the use of simultaneous tempi and the application of change ringing systems are discussed. The third chapter focuses on each of the three portfolio works and the final chapter deals with the new areas of composition that have been suggested to the composer by the work on this portfolio. It should be stressed that the second and third chapters should be read in conjunction with the relevant scores.

No description available.

The purpose of this doctoral research is to explore the nature and perception of timescales in electroacoustic music, to examine modes of experiencing time, and to discover a method that uses this knowledge to the advantage of the composer. Although the main focus is on acousmatic works, much of the research presented here has a broader scope and is relevant to music and sound art in general. This thesis is initially inspired by Deleuze’s philosophical views on time to discover relationships between the flow of time and music, and continues to investigate time perception by exploring prevalent theories in the fields of psychology and psychoacoustics. In parallel, it identifies and systematically analyses a set of factors that influence time perception and the formation and segregation of timescales. Theoretical analysis, hypotheses and reasoning were practically tested in the five electroacoustic pieces composed for this particular research. The study revealed and reinforced the importance of psychological time in perception and interpretation of structures in music, developed the idea of using parallel temporal forms in composition, and through an exploration of timescales, it necessitated a redefinition of microsound. Moreover, an analysis of extrinsic and intrinsic factors that affect our perception of time and thus our interpretation of a musical work reinforced the notion of acousmatic music as a holistic experience that comprises all its surrounding elements at the time of listening. This research is useful for both the composer and the analyst because it offers insights into time structures, and a better understanding of the listener’s response to temporal constructs.

This study investigates the reception of women pianists in London in the decade 1950-60, based on reviews published in three music journals, Music and Musicians, Musical Opinion, The Musical Times, and one national daily newspaper, The Times. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, women pianists, both amateur and professional, suffered from the notion that women were innately unable to engage with a superior art form such as music: thus argue scholars including Katharine Ellis, Richard Leppert, Ruth Solie and Judith Tick. Yet, such attitudes did not prevent a strong tradition of women pianists from being formed. In Britain, in the latter part of the nineteenth century, Arabella Goddard was at the forefront of the London musical scene; she was succeeded by Fanny Davies and Adelina de Lara and, later, Dame Myra Hess and Harriet Cohen, whose career successes came in the 1920s. While the situation of women pianists in Britain between the mid-nineteenth century and the late 1920s has been assessed by scholars such as Therese Ellsworth and Dorothy de Val, an in-depth study dealing with the reception of women pianists in post-WWII Britain has yet to appear. This study does not attempt to assess the technical or musical accuracy of the reviews considered; instead, it asks, what were the musical perspectives of the reviewers and, specifically, what were their views on women pianists? First, it presents six important critics, Frank Howes, Clinton Gray-Fisk, Sir Jack Westrup, Andrew Porter, Joan Chissell and Diana McVeagh, all of whom contributed to the four sources cited above. Then it assesses the extent of the prejudice embedded in the reviews examined (written by many more than the six above), which invoke such varied issues as masculinist repertoire and female anatomy. Following this, it examines the careers of six leading women concert pianists of the time: Dame Myra Hess, Harriet Cohen, Eileen Joyce, Gina Bachauer, Margaret Kitchin and Dame Moura Lympany. Their successes reveal the extent to which women musicians of the highest status were considered exempt from the prejudices to which others were subjected. It is hoped that such a study will illuminate aspects of musical life unique to London in the 1950s, partially fill the void in the historiography of women pianists in Britain after Davies, and also alert those women who perform, as well as all who listen and assess women performers, to the complex and often covert issues ‘beyond the notes’.

This research explores the dynamic fabric of experienced space in acousmatic music. The topology of spatial texture is a network of concepts treating music as a flexible, textural space, which deforms, shapes, and transforms in time. A comprehensive terminology is introduced, along with five fixed-media electroacoustic compositions, which exemplify a manifestation of spatial texture in composition and musical thinking. The theory draws from research on the cross-modality of texture perception, philosophical discourse on embodied meaning, physics, psychology of visual art, and discourse on space in acousmatic music. Several different structural perspectives are discussed, which reveal how spatial texture incorporates lower sound-structural levels, materiality, states and processes, motion, global networks and terrains, and relationships between space and time. Emphasis is put on visual and physical connections with spatiality in the acousmatic experience: cogency in spatial structure and dynamics reinforces links among modalities. The concepts and terminology are intended as a contribution to theory in the acousmatic medium, relevant to composition, analysis, and listening. The music represents an aesthetic orientation which emphasises materiality and morphology in texture, transformative processes, spatial design, and spatiotemporal polyvalence.

Sounds are often experienced as being spatially higher or lower in congruence with their frequency ‘height’ (i.e. pitch register). The term ‘spectral spatiality’ refers to this impression of spatial height and vertical depth as evoked by the perceived occupancy of evolving sound-shapes (spectromorphologies) within the continuum of audible frequencies. Chapters One and Two draw upon a diverse body of literature to explore the cognitive and physiological processes involved in human spatial hearing in general, and spectral spatiality in particular. Thereafter the potential pertinence of a spectral space consciousness in the acousmatic listening experience is highlighted, particularly with regard to more abstract acousmatic contexts where sounds do not directly invoke familiar source identities. Chapters Three and Four further elaborate aspects of spectral space consciousness and propose a terminological framework for discussing musical contexts in terms of their spectral space design. Consequently, it is argued that in acousmatic music, spectral spatiality must be considered as an inseparable aspect of spatiality in general, although its pertinence only becomes directly highlighted in particular musical contexts. The recurring theme in this thesis is that, in acousmatic music, 'space' is not a parameter but a multifaceted quality that is inherent to all sounds. As well as providing an analytical framework for discussing spatiality in acousmatic music, this thesis highlights the compositional potentials offered by spectral spatiality, particularly in relation to the creation of perspectival image in multichannel works. For instance, the possibility of (re)distributing the spectral components of a sound around the listener (circumspectral image) is discussed in context, and a software tool is presented that enables an intuitive and experimental approach to the composition of circumspectral sounds for 6 and 8 channel loudspeaker configurations. This thesis is useful for both composers and analysts interested in aspects of spatiality in acousmatic music. It also offers some insight into spectral space consciousness in non-acousmatic music, and may therefore contribute towards a more general understanding of the nature of our spatial experience in music.