Desert Places is a composition for large orchestra with a duration of approximately 12 minutes. Inspired by the Robert Frost poem "Desert Places", the work is primarily concerned with "covering up" one type of musical material with another. Specifically, the work contains a large-scale "cross-fading" of two types of motivic material, and two types of harmonic material. While the processes at work remain clearly defined, the musical materials move smoothly and gradually through the piece, exchanging foreground and background positions, and blurring the divisions of sections.

De azufre y sal--which can be translated as "From sulphur and salt"--is a composition for orchestra with an approximate duration of 12' 30". This piece is mainly concerned with nuances of instrumental colour, registral space and tuning. The idea of exploring and working with these parameters was inspired by the work of Theophrastus Paracelsus (1493-1541) and by other texts about alchemy from different periods. The idea of conducting slow empirical work in laboratories in attempts to find the formula to create gold and the Philosopheris Stone suggested to me certain ideas about this piece, for example, the notion that the piece should always turn back on itself in order to proceed in a certain direction, while simultaneously accumulating the desirable features of each stage. The title is purely symbolic and should in no way be read as programmatic.

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Now and Forever is a thesis in two parts: a twelve-minute piece for orchestra and a text providing an analysis of the piece. The orchestra consists of two flutes (flute 2 doubling piccolo), two oboes, two clarinets in B-flat, two bassoons, four horns in F, two trumpets in C, two tenor trombones, one bass trombone, two percussion and strings. The work features the use of an original text as the underlying program, the use of golden section proportions as a principal organisational device, a rising semitone motive as the foundation for melodic, harmonic and registral development, and the intermittent appearance of micropolyphonic textures. In some passages, the harmonic series is the basis of pitch field development, notably in section VI, which consists of an orchestral evocation of the sounds of an aeolian harp.

This thesis consists of an original composition and an analysis of it. Scored for a small orchestra, the Camerata is approximately 16 minutes in length. The analysis deals with general matters of structure as well as details of harmonic organization that play a specific and prominent role in this work. The piece is to be perceived in four integrated sections. Each section has its own characteristics. However, the sequence from one section to another is functional, so that the piece would not work if the sequence of sections were arranged differently. Section B develops the thematic material of section A. Section C is an outgrowth of section B because of the exchange of the dynamic and static aspects pertaining to harmony and melody. Moreover, as a unifying element, these two central sections show tonal tendencies. Section D rounds off the piece with a concealed texturally decreasing formal design, which balances the crescendo and texturally increasing overall shape of the first section. / Arts, Faculty of / Music, School of / Graduate

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