A majority of modern studies of Erik Satie’s Trois Gnossiennes seem to consider the French composer’s early piano music as a form of anti-Wagnerian nihilism. This view is misinformed. From Ravel’s first staging of Satie’s early piano music at the Société Musicale Indépendante in 1910, to John Cage’s lecture on the ‘Defence of Satie’ in 1948, composers from both waves of the modernist period (1890-1914 and post 1940s) have often given too much attention to Satie’s apparently anti-romantic and anti-Germanic mentality, failing to consider his early symbolist identity in the French fin de siècle. As a result, numerous studies today examine Satie as a precursor to the light-hearted nihilism of Les Six, Dadaism and the later John Cage. However, this dissertation argues that Satie’s initial behaviour in the fin de siècle period may have been influenced by mysticism, closely associated with the ideals of late-romanticism. Examining the period 1886-1893 (the years of Satie’s youth), this thesis offers a reinterpretation of some of the primary characteristics of Satie’s early piano music, taking into consideration the contextual evidence available on the anti-establishment of Montmartre. In this case, Satie’s aim was to use symbolist means to resist modern rationality, while also ascetically restraining himself from the grandiose subjectivity of late-romantic rhetoric.

The ephemeral nature of live music can, from some perspectives, serve to place limitations on its lasting socio-cultural impact. This thesis addresses such claims by analysing the enduring appeal of a ‘legendary’ venue, the Glasgow Apollo (1973-85), where a series of momentous live music moments from several decades ago continue to be celebrated. In order to accomplish this, the study primarily uses semi-structured and focus group interviews to explore the reminiscences of the audience and artists who shared live music experiences at the venue. Through the application of Actor Network Theory, the work focuses on the influence that actors such as locality, technology, industry and music genre held over these encounters, as well as the manner in which the collective memories of the events in question have subsequently shaped their cultural value. The study first establishes the foundation for Glasgow’s cultural traditions, which thereafter helped to shape the concert experiences at the Apollo. It then follows the actors through, and beyond, the period of the venue’s tenure, to argue that the Apollo ‘legend’ lingers due to the manner in which these live experiences have been collectively framed within several of the platforms dedicated to the venue’s legacy.

This thesis alms to identify and explore the ideas of John Cage, then looks at their impact on and absorption by a variety of American composers. This in turn provides the context for my own compositional work which forms the main substance of this submission and which is presented on compact disc (accompanied by indicative scores). The source material for the second half of the thesis comes largely from my own book of interviews with composers, American Originals (co-authored with Nicola Walker Smith), which is included as an appendix.

This Literature Review contextualises the work I undertook for 'Syd Barrett: A Very Irregular Head', a 140,000 word biography based on the life of the musician Syd Barrett, lead guitarist, vocalist, and principal songwriter in the original line up of Pink Floyd. The book is based on two and a half years of focussed research, carried out between January 1997 and August 2009. During this time I interviewed family, friends, schoolmates, fellow college students, musicians, artists, and admirers from every stage of Barrett‟s life, from his earliest days growing up in Cambridge, through his period as an active musician and pop star, to his final years as a reclusive and enigmatic figure in his home town. However, these 65 interviews comprise only one element of my research. In addition I utilised an extensive range of primary and secondary source material, and the bibliography for the book runs to some 49 texts. (See appendix.) I also drew upon significant audio and video material including rare and hard to find television transmissions, and archive and bootleg recordings, many of which are not in the public domain.

There can be little doubt that the usage of the concept of genre remains widespread in discourses around music, cinema, theatre, literature. However, for a long period of time, musicologists have paid little attention to genre which is considered to be an outdated legacy of positivism: a concept belonging to amateurish criticism or daily musical practice – and incompatible with the hegemonic ideology of ‘absolute music’. In the commentary that follows, the history of my own efforts to bring genre back to the theoretical core of musicological debate is outlined, and intertwined with the work of other scholars (sociologists, cultural theorists, anthropologists) who helped re-define genre as a useful concept in the scholarly study of music. Popular music, as a set of genres from which paramusical elements – and related social conventions – were never expelled as spurious (as formalist musicology did with respect to Western art music), was obviously my main focus, although in some writings I deal with classical music, electronic music and traditional (folk) music. After examining at some length the development of my theory of genre (definitions, ‘rules’ and conventions, inter-genre relations and intra-genre diachronic development), the commentary focuses on a number of studies of specific (mostly popular) genres, music scenes, forms, artists, where genre is an underlying concept. One of the most delicate aspects of any theory about genre, and one that has been at the centre of my investigation for so long, is that of diachronic development; as a consequence, the history of popular music became at some point a favourite subject for my study – my contributions are outlined in the commentary which can be read in conjunction with my writings on the subject. Finally, a section is dedicated to my writings on music technology, music industry, and media. In the conclusions my work on genre is contextualised nationally and internationally, with some considerations on linguistic issues; the commentary ends with a brief outline of my future research plans.

Many aspects of Ignaz Jan Paderewski’s life and career have been the subject of previous research, but some important areas remain uninvestigated. Moreover, many biographies, especially those written in English, have hitherto rarely adopted a critical stance. My aim here is to examine those elements of Paderewski’s performance style that have not hitherto been fully studied. Unique Polish sources include unpublished letters written to his father and Helena Górska, his secretaries’ letters written in 1935 and between 1938-39, and of course his correspondence with his pupils, which sheds considerable new light on his views on, and success in, piano teaching. This dissertation discusses in detail his stylistic approach, attitude towards piano playing, preparation for performance and methods of interpretation. Unpublished letters between Paderewski and his pupils deal with such issues as: choosing concert programmes, techniques of pedalling and advanced interpretational issues. To further evaluate changes in Paderewski’s playing style over his career I have analysed a representative selection of his recordings made over the course of his career. Although Paderewski’s style did not change radically, some of the recorded pieces do demonstrate significant differences in interpretation, and his experiments in phrasing, dynamics, tempo and pedaling. I additionally compare some of the recordings of the same pieces by Paderewski and his contemporaries. For instance, Arthur Friedheim’s recording of Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 in C sharp minor. An approach such as this will illuminate, for example, some differences in style between representatives of the ‘Liszt School’ (of which Friedheim was one of the most celebrated exponents) and that of Leschetizky (as represented by Paderewski). This documentation and evaluation of Paderewski’s performance style has naturally influenced my own performances of his works. The accompanying recital therefore includes one of Paderewski’s most substantial piano pieces, the Sonata in E flat minor, contrasted by a Sonata by Paderewski’s contemporary, Sergei Rachmaninov, and completed by works of Chopin in Paderewski’s repertoire, and a piece by his pupil, Ernest Schelling, also recorded by Paderewski. The recital therefore constitutes a practical application of Paderewski’s performance and programming styles as discussed in the dissertation.

This thesis considers the pervasive and multifaceted influence of Richard Wagner’s music, aesthetics, and politics on British composers during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Drawing on music analysis, hermeneutics, and various archival sources (composers’ writings, contemporary reviews, and unpublished music), each chapter of the thesis focusses on case studies that bring British musical Wagnerism into dialogue with a number of other prominent artistic and cultural currents during the period under consideration: notably, Celticism, Pre-Raphaelitism, Arthurianism, nationalisms, mysticism, pantheism, eroticism, and ideas relating to the integration of or translatability of the arts. Despite the sometimes widely divergent aesthetic, political, and social ends for which these composers called on Wagnerian ideas and techniques, this thesis argues that all these manifestations of Wagnerism were united by their composers’ desire to regenerate or re-enchant a world that was perceived to be in a state of crisis or decay. Ultimately, by viewing these composers and works through the lens of British Wagnerism, this study enriches our understanding of British music of the period and situates it the context of a wider European phenomenon.

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.

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.