“Flare for orchestra based on poetry by Mary Oliver” is a three-movement work based on the poem “Flare,” by Mary Oliver. In “Flare,” the emotional and expressive content of the poetry is captured in the programmatic narrative of the music. Oliver’s poem also influences structural elements of the music. Another important feature of the music is the use of a dialectic approach to the many contrasting aspects of the poetry. The goal of “Flare” is to infuse numerous elements of the poetry into the music programmatically and structurally to create a shared creative experience of both the music and poetry. / text

Many poets write about the earth or even about God using the language of nature. And many poets and contemporary authors concern themselves with the state of the environment. However, the poetry of Wendell Berry, James Still, Li-Young Lee, Mary Oliver, and Charles Wright seems to engage different kinds of questions about how humans creatively respond to the earth. Collectively, their responses seem influenced by their connections with Christianity rather than any specific ecological agenda. In all of their poetry lies a sensibility about how humans should interact with the earth. All five of the poets seem to acknowledge humanity’s place on the earth as important without elevating humanity as the most important organism on the earth. Their work presupposes the existence of God or creator and because of this, engages the questions of being human in light of that Creator rather than as creators of their own environment or as the architecture of imagination. Their work offers an important insight into how we might live in harmony with all environments—agricultural, rural, wild or urban. Their work also suggests a connection between the Christian concept of worship, and a way of living that takes responsibility for human actions within creation. Their poetry recognizes the earth’s value as well as God’s presence and results in praise of both the beauty of creation and Creator.

The thesis undertakes a Buddhist reading of Mary Oliver’s oeuvre. It seeks to fill a palpable lacuna in extant criticism of her work, which tends to adopt Romantic, Feminist, Ecocritical, and Christian viewpoints. Thus far, no criticism has offered a sustained reading of her work from a specifically Buddhist stance. The thesis is structured in five chapters. The introductory chapter is followed by a literature review. The next three chapters are devoted to the Buddhist themes of Mindfulness, Interconnection, and Impermanence respectively. Each chapter opens with detailed consideration of its respective theme before moving on to the analysis and amplification of poems pertinent to it. In addition, the main Buddhist theme of each chapter is subdivided into its component sub-themes or corollaries. The main methodological approach to Oliver’s poetry comprises explication de texte as this makes provision for detailed readings of the texts themselves. Furthermore, this approach has been adopted because it allows for in-depth exploration of Oliver’s literary devices, three notable examples of which are anaphora, adéquation, and correspondence. In the course of the discussion, reference is also made to the influence of Imagism and, more specifically, the Japanese haiku tradition insofar as they impact on her poetry. This discussion is intended to give some indication of Oliver’s place within the American poetic tradition. The predominant subject-matter of her corpus is an all-encompassing view of the natural world with its birth-life-decay-death cycle. She does not flinch from addressing the harsh and violent aspects of nature as well as its exuberance and beauty. Her unifying topos is being the bride of amazement as witness to the natural world. For her readers, this witnessing translates into an inner, potentially transformative process, ultimately integrating mind and heart. The thesis concludes with a list of references and a glossary of the Buddhist terms. / Thesis (PhD (English))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.

The thesis undertakes a Buddhist reading of Mary Oliver’s oeuvre. It seeks to fill a palpable lacuna in extant criticism of her work, which tends to adopt Romantic, Feminist, Ecocritical, and Christian viewpoints. Thus far, no criticism has offered a sustained reading of her work from a specifically Buddhist stance. The thesis is structured in five chapters. The introductory chapter is followed by a literature review. The next three chapters are devoted to the Buddhist themes of Mindfulness, Interconnection, and Impermanence respectively. Each chapter opens with detailed consideration of its respective theme before moving on to the analysis and amplification of poems pertinent to it. In addition, the main Buddhist theme of each chapter is subdivided into its component sub-themes or corollaries. The main methodological approach to Oliver’s poetry comprises explication de texte as this makes provision for detailed readings of the texts themselves. Furthermore, this approach has been adopted because it allows for in-depth exploration of Oliver’s literary devices, three notable examples of which are anaphora, adéquation, and correspondence. In the course of the discussion, reference is also made to the influence of Imagism and, more specifically, the Japanese haiku tradition insofar as they impact on her poetry. This discussion is intended to give some indication of Oliver’s place within the American poetic tradition. The predominant subject-matter of her corpus is an all-encompassing view of the natural world with its birth-life-decay-death cycle. She does not flinch from addressing the harsh and violent aspects of nature as well as its exuberance and beauty. Her unifying topos is being the bride of amazement as witness to the natural world. For her readers, this witnessing translates into an inner, potentially transformative process, ultimately integrating mind and heart. The thesis concludes with a list of references and a glossary of the Buddhist terms. / Thesis (PhD (English))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.

Founded in 1967, the Amsterdam-based improvising collective the Instant Composers Pool is one of the longest consistently performing groups in improvised music. This thesis forms an ethnography and musicological study of the ICP Orchestra, which originated when the "pool" developed a more coherent line-up around 1980. With a background in experimental music as well as free jazz, their performance practice differs in many respects from the practices of American forms of jazz. Whereas most accounts of improvisation emphasise orality and creative interaction in opposition to the performance of composed music, 'instant composition' defines improvisation precisely in terms of compositional thinking. Moreover, founding member and orchestra leader Misha Mengelberg composed a very diverse repertoire for the group which draws on styles from Duke Ellington to John Cage and uses various forms of compositional and notational techniques to explore the different improvisatory possibilities that they afford, thus blurring the distinction between improvisation and composition both in name and in practice. Apart from a detailed historical and ethnographic description of a group that is central to a genre that has been underrepresented in music-historical research, this thesis investigates the repertoire of the ICP and its use as an opportunity to reconsider the relation between musical text and performance. Drawing on my observations and interviews with the musicians, and connecting these to theories of material culture and science and technology studies, it develops a concept of compositions as animated and animating objects in performance, tools and materials that participate in the creative interactive process of improvised performance rather than textual representations of 'the music itself'. I substantiate this theory with detailed descriptions of ICP performances recorded during fieldwork. This contributes to a rethinking of musical notation and simultaneously brings new insights into improvisation as a creative practice.