The Eighties were a time in Western popular music that seemed to exist only by virtue of it coming after something else---namely, the 1960s counterculture and the punk rock of the 1970s. Inheriting both the failure of permanent cultural revolution and the intense cynicism that is punk's strongest legacy, youth cultures in the 1980s found it increasingly difficult to live in the present. This thesis labels this historical dilemma postmodern. It will show how SPIN magazine attempted to move past this dilemma in order to assert a unique identity for 1980s popular music and youth cultures. In particular, John Leland, a columnist for SPIN, appropriated a pop aesthetic as an identity marker and, in the process, questioned the supposed ineffectiveness of pop music for a political postmodernism. An analysis of Leland's writing uncovers what accounts of this era tend to ignore: the social function of postmodernism.

This thesis is a detailed biographical review of Brother Clement Sithole's life (1). This thesis traces Brother Clement's musical development, his acquisition of indigenous musical knowledge, and his application of this knowledge to his present experience. The purpose behind my enquiry is to further understand the relationship between historical musical practices and the present world experienced by the individual. What is the impact of past indigenous musical performance on the performer? Is indigenous musical performance an effective way for displaced people to alleviate alienation and disjuncture? What problems, complications, and contradictions are encountered by an individual when they attempt to use past musical practices to express their contemporary experience? The thesis is divided into six chapters. Chapter One is a general introduction to the Master's project. Chapter Two highlights Brother Clement's early years, and presents discussions related to the musical practices and cultural ideas acquired during this period. Certain childhood events are analyzed for the impact of these events on Brother Clement's later development. Chapter Three concerns Brother Clement's religious vocation and his liturgical compositions. Brother Clement has composed a number of religious songs for the umakhweyana bow and choral songs for Catholic Mass. In his compositions, he combines the text of the Catholic liturgy with indigenous Zulu musical styles. I discuss how indigenous Zulu music has assisted Brother Clement to create a sense of individuality, place, and belonging within the context of the Catholic community. In addition, I analyze how these compositions have brought a sense of continuity to his life through easing the tension between his commitments to the Catholic Church on the one hand, and to Zulu culture on the other. I also discuss some of the problems, and complications, which Brother Clement encountered when he attempted to introduce these indigenous musical styles to the context of the Catholic Church. In Chapter Four Brother Clement's work as a caregiver within his community is introduced. In the late 1980's, he opened a children's home to cater for needy children from the Vryheid area. Brother Clement is fully responsible for these children. In the home, the children practice and perform indigenous music on a regular basis. Brother Clement has named all of his musical work, including the children's home "Inyoni Kayiphumuli" which translates from isiZulu as "the bird that does not rest." The name is descriptive of his work within the abbey as a monk, and his continuous effort to transmit indigenous Zulu music and heritage to the youth. I focus on the impact of Brother Clement's work, and of the indigenous musical practice on the children from the Inyoni Kayiphumuli Children's Home. I analyze the relationship between the performance of past indigenous Zulu music and the introduction of certain moral values to the youth, and examine the relevance of these values in the context of contemporary South African society, in particular the national HIV/AIDS epidemic. Chapter Five provides a self-reflexive account of the creation of the accompanying video anthology. I discuss the relevance of video documentation in ethnomusicological study and analyze the relationship between the video and the written text presented in the thesis. Chapter Six serves as a conclusion to the thesis and presents an analytical summary of the project outcomes. I highlight the significance of this project and make some suggestions for future scholars undertaking similar research. (1) In this thesis, I use the name Mpimbili when referring to Brother Clement Sithole's formative years, since this is the name given to him at birth. In 1956, Mpimbili was baptized and his name changed to Albert, therefore when referring to these years I use the name Albert. In 1965, Albert takes his first vows as Benedictine brother, and his name changes to Brother Clement. Following this final name change I use his current name, which is Brother Clement. / Thesis (M.A.-Music)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2005.

No abstract available. / Thesis (M.Mus.)-University of Natal, Durban,1994.

This thesis presents a method of algorithmic composition in which the music is seen as motion through a multidimensional musical space. An analogy is drawn between physical space and musical space, each direction of the physical space corresponding to a musical parameter. A computer program was developed using the MAX programming environment to simulate the goaldirected motion of a mobile robot through an environment containing obstacles. The potential field method of mobile robot path planning was used. The program maps the location of the robot to musical parameters in the musical space. Based on the instantaneous values of the musical parameters, the program generates melodic material and transmits the resulting MIDI data to a synthesizer. For this research, the program was limited to three spatial dimensions and one obstacle. The program successfully created simple compositions consisting of large musical gestures. A model composition was created. Suggestions were made for further development and more elaborate applications of the method. / School of Music

The purpose of this study was twofold: first, to collect information relating to `classic' sound synthesis methodologies which have formed the basis of current synthesis methods into one comprehensive report, and secondly, to describe and develop an interactive CD-ROM as a new tool for the instruction of these synthesis methods. The historic trend has been the acquisition of sound synthesis through direct interaction with a particular piece of software or hardware. The intentions of this interactive media are to allow students to form conceptual knowledge, and develop the ability to perceive timbral differences produced by these methods. This environment allows students to interact at their own speed and assist in customizing their learning development.

The study has identified seven Puerto Rican composers that shared a common bond as first products of the recently established system of post-secondary music education of the island of Puerto Rico. A review of relevant literature produced only one fugitive document with any information about these composers. Through the use of a questionnaire and documents supplied by the composers, information available about these artists was collected and updated in order to provide accurate documentation of their artistic activities. An orchestral work from each of these composers was examined in order to give an insight into some aspects of their individual style, although it was not possible to make generalizations about each composer's style due to the limits of the sample.The study demonstrated the existence of significant works for orchestra by these composers and provided, for each of these artists, a short biographical sketch and a complete list of works up to the present. The composers and works studied were:Esther Alejandro, El zapatero prodigioso Carlos Cabrer, CanticosErnesto Cordero, Concierto evocativo (guitar concerto)Jose Daniel Martinez, Tiempo sinfdnicoJose A. Montalvo, Canto para la America sufridaRoberto Sierra, PolarizacionesCarlos A. Vazquez, Casa LlenaDuring preliminary research, the study also identified substantial errors and omissions in general reference works in music on the subject of Puerto Rican music. The first chapter includes a review of all available literature on the subject of the study, covering published and fugitive sources. The bibliography includes a section with annotated newspaper articles on some of the composers appearing in the study. Computer print-outs from searches of the Comprehensive Dissertation Index and the Repertoire International de Literature Musicale on key words "Puerto Ric" and "music" appear in the appendices.

The view that the lute exercised an important influence on the formation of French harpsichord style in the seventeenth century is a commonplace of musicology which has not until now been thoroughly investigated. This thesis is an attempt to determine the nature of that influence taking into account as much of the available relevant material as possible. The first chapter outlines the status and function of stringed keyboard instruments, particularly in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, using a wide variety of non-musical sources whether literary, archival, or documentary. It also charts the relative standing of the two instruments and the interrelationship of their repertoires as viewed by contemporaries throughout the seventeenth century. The second chapter provides a survey of the evolution of French lute style based on a detailed study of most of the French lute sources from the period cl600-cl670 and including the more important sources from cl670-cl700. The third chapter presents detailed comparisons of individual works existing in versions for both lute and keyboard. These are based on numerous parallel transcriptions presented in the second volume. The material for this section is provided by a concordance file for virtually all French seventeenth-century lute sources designed to be usable in conjunction with Gustafson's keyboard catalogue. The final chapter is an attempt to define the degree of affinity existing between particular features of the central harpsichord style and that of the lute on the basis of principles established in the previous discussions. This thesis contains the first detailed discussion of the works of the principal seventeenth-century French lutenists in the context of a survey of the general development of the lute style. Numerous illustrative examples of hitherto unpublished lute music are included in the second volume. The final chapter also discusses some new sources of French harpsichord music dating from the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, with transcriptions. Also discussed for the first time is the Premier Livre (1687) of Elizabeth Jacquet de la Guerre, and a transcription of a suite supposedly written in imitation of the lute is given. A comprehensive concordance of pieces existing in versions for both lute and harpsichord is given in Volume II.

The videogame now occupies a unique territory in contemporary culture that offers a new perspective on conceptions of high and low art. While the fear that the majority of videogames 'pacify' their audience in an Adornian "culture industry" is not without justification, its reductionism can be countered by a recognition of the diversity and aesthetic potential of the medium. This has been proposed by sociologist, Graeme Kirkpatrick, although without close attention to the role of music. Videogame music often operates in similar ways to music in other mixed-media scenarios, such as film, or opera. In the same way that film music cannot be completely divorced from film, videogame music is contingent on and a crucial part of the videogame aesthetic. However, the interactive nature of the medium - its différance - has naturally led to the development of nonlinear musical systems that tailor music in real time to the game's dynamically changing dramatic action. Musical non-linearity points beyond both music and videogames (and their respective discourses) toward broader issues pertinent to contemporary musicology and critical thinking, not least to matters concerning high modernism (traditionally conceived of as resistant to mass culture). Such issues include Barthes's "death of the author", the significance of order/disorder as a formal spectrum, and postmodern conceptions and experiences of temporality. I argue that in this sense the videogame medium - and its music - warrants attention as a unique but not sui generis aesthetic experience. Precedent can be found for many of the formal ideas employed in such systems in certain aspects of avant-garde art, and especially in the aleatoric music prevalent in the 1950s and 60s. This thesis explores this paradox by considering videogames as both high and low, and, more significantly, I argue that the aesthetics of videogame music draw attention to the centrality of "play" in all cultural objects.

In this dissertation, overviews and detailed examinations of three compositions are presented. These compositions which constitute the portfolio of the M.MUS degree, are an attempt to explore syncretism between Indian and western music. Two of these works are written for a flute quartet (flute, violin, viola and cello) accompanied in part by a mridangam (Indian percussion instrument). The third work is written for a jazz quartet (piano, saxophone, double bass and drums). Syncretism between western and Indian music can take on a variety of forms, and while this concept is not new, there exists no suitable model or framework through which these compositions can be analysed. The approach used In this dissertation IS therefore guided solely by the compositions themselves. The syncretism in these works lies in the use of melodic, rhythmic and timbral elements of Indian music within two ensembles which are essentially western. This dissertation describes each of these elements in their traditional context as well as the method of incorporating them into western ensemble playing.

This thesis on the Rise of the French Organ Symphony refers especially to the relevant works of Alexandre Guilmant and Charles-Marie Widor. It commences with a survey of the historical background, dealing with the development of French organ music from the 16th to 19th Century and the development of organ building in France from the 17th to 19th Century. It then proceeds to descriptions of the organs of St Clotilde, La Trinité and St Sulpice Churches in Paris, which are followed by biographical profiles of Cesar Franck, Alexandre Guilmant and Charles-Marie Widor, respectively. The major part of the thesis is devoted to a detailed analysis of the organ sonatas of Guilmant and the organ symphonies of Widor, which are discussed from the point of their cyclic outline and aspects of form and of style. The final chapter summarises the major findings of the analytical research and evaluates by comparative method, the merits and achievements of the two composers. In addition, Appendices are attached, providing specifications of various French organs and pictorial material relevant to the thesis. A separate cassette tape features characteristic sounds of Cavailie-Coll organs.