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The fact that Davis changed his mind radically several times throughout his life appeals to the curiosity. This thesis considers what could be one of the most important and definitive changes: the change from hard bop to modal jazz. This shift, although gradual, is best represented by and culminates in Kind of Blue, the first Davis album based on modal style, marking a clear break from hard bop. This thesis explores the motivations and reasons behind the change, and attempt to explain why it came about. The purpose of the study is to discover the reasons for the change itself as well as the reasons for the direction of the change: Why change and why modal music?

In contemporary consumer culture, branding is the term given to the creation of an image or text (visual, aural, textural or multi-sensory) intended to represent a commodity or product sold by a producer or service provider. This product’s commercial viability depends largely on the way it is presented (via branding) to its target market. The aim of this research report is to show that music used consciously as a branding medium, with special reference to film music (in its commodified form), has become a brand in itself, as opposed to merely a component of a multi-modal commercial product. Through analyses of a central film music theme from Star Wars: Episode IV, composed by John Williams, I aim to identify what I will term `audio-branding techniques’ within the music, thereby showing how music has come to be regarded as a brand. The audio branding techniques will relate directly to the four levels of analysis that I propose to conduct. The nature of branding implies the presence of three entities in the cultural and commercial `transaction’ that takes place: namely, the service provider (creator), the product (commodity) and the target market (consumer). I intend to argue that, as a result of powerful creative collaborations between John Williams and his various directors (not to mention his own unique talent), this composer’s film music has increasingly become an audio brand which is almost commensurate with the brand status of the film itself. Williams’s ability to create a symbiotic relationship between a music brand and that of a film has set him apart from most other contemporary art and commercial composers. As a result, it is not simply the actors, directors and producers associated with a movie that induce one to buy tickets to see it, but Williams’s independent audio branding style as well. I thus aim to prove that his film music is an audio brand independent of, and yet also allied with, other brands.

Sur le fil invisible reliant la temporalité tridimensionnelle de l'ancestral, du présent et du devenir, se profilent les pas du compositeur. Parcours individuel, traversée sociale, épopée humaine, l'acte créatif émane des profondeurs du ressenti de l'être et des profondeurs de la collectivité sociale. Notre recherche se veut un voyage en vue d'une reconstitution du parcours du dire musical en tant qu'expression de l'être impliquant culturalité et subjectivité compositionnelles et aboutissant à l'œuvre musicale en tant qu'entité-signe. En consacrant notre réflexion aux musiques modales arabo-musulmanes de tradition orale, nous développerons dans ce cadre une théorie des strates englobant le processus compositionnel dans sa totalité en le considérant comme un processus préparé par une phase pré-œuvre, élaboré en une phase poïétique et aboutissant à l'émergence d'une entité-signe porteuse de sens. La phase pré-œuvre met à contribution les strates profondes, à savoir la strate psychoperceptive empreinte des composantes immatérielles du ressenti modal, la strate neuroesthétique impliquant les prédispositions génétiques et l'impact du milieu culturel pour une imprégnation modale et la strate d'appropriation du mode d'expression propre au langage modal. La phase poïétique s'articule ensuite autour de l'évolution des strates d'influence constituées d'une strate des facteurs motivationnels, d'une strate permettant l'acheminement vers une amorce de l'œuvre et d'une strate de transduction aboutissant à l'œuvre. Après l'étude de la phase pré-œuvre et de la phase poïétique, nous entreprendrons une analyse sémiotique de l'œuvre en tant qu'entité-signe porteuse d'une mosaïque de sens. / On the invisible thread connecting the three-dimensional temporality of the ancestral, the present and the becoming, the figure of the composer looms large. At once an individual trajectory, a social crossing, a human epic, the creative act emanates from the depths of the being and from those of the social community. This research aims to be like a journey where we seek to reconstitute the path of musical telling as an expression of the being, involving both the cultural and subjective dimensions of composition, and leading to the musical work as a sign-entity. In this framework, by devoting our reflection to Arab-Muslim modal music of the oral tradition, a theory of strata will be developed to include the totality of the compositional process considered as a process prepared by a pre-work phase, elaborated into a poietic phase and leading to the emergence of a meaningful sign-entity. The pre-work phase engages deep strata, namely the psychoperceptive stratum imprinted with the immaterial components of modal feeling, the neuroaesthetic stratum implying genetic predispositions and the importance of cultural environment for modal impregnation, and the stratum of the appropriation of the expressive mode specific to modal language. The poietic phase is then organised around the development of the affluence strata constituted by a stratum of motivational factors, a stratum enabling the progression towards the onset of a work and a transduction stratum leading to the work. After the study of the pre-work phase and the poietic phase, we undertake a semiotic analysis of the work as a sign-entity carrying a mosaic of meanings.

This submission consists of three parts, found in two volumes. Volume 1 consists of a folio of eight original compositions, composed during the tenure of my PhD candidature at the University of Adelaide. These works cover a range of media, including symphony orchestra with soloist, large chamber ensemble, string quartet with soprano solo, guitar quintet, mixed choir and vocal trio. Volume 2 presents an exegesis that contains commentary on the genesis and analysis of the submitted works, together with an explanation of certain modal processes that have been explored and applied. Volume 2 also contains three minor compositions that were composed during my candidature, presented as an Appendix. These are analysed and referenced within the exegesis discussion. Two CDs of live recordings of some of the submitted works are included as part of Volume 2. The Exegesis, Appendix and Sound Recordings found in Volume 2 act as secondary material to support the primary material presented in Volume 1. Of the eight compositions presented in Volume 1, Skin, Metal, Wood – Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra is the major orchestral work of over 30 minutes, in fulfilment of submission requirements. The musical works contained within this submission offer a personal exploration of certain modal processes. In particular, the tonal principles of modulation and key relationships have been transferred into a modal system that features church, folk and synthetic modes. The exploration of modal processes has been carried out through the works themselves, and the accompanying exegesis acts as a commentary on the genesis of the works. / Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Adelaide, Elder Conservatorium of Music, 2008