Includes comprehensive bibliography the composer's works. / 1v. of music : / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Apart from Contours and densities at First Hill, which was commissioned by the University of Adelaide, these works submitted for D. Mus have not been published commercially. / Thesis (D.Mus.)--University of Adelaide, Elder School of Music, 2001

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The Prelude, Chorale and Fantasy is a tonally conceived work for orchestra with a duration of approximately twenty minutes which uses as its inspiration the final chapter of Ecclesiastes. It is constructed from a relatively small number of germinal elements which function throughout the work as connecting forces and icons. In it can be found musical ideas used to represent the Trinity, the most significant of which are the quotations of the hymn "How Brightly Shines the Morning Star" which appear throughout. / A greater understanding of the work can be gained by approaching it first on a philosophical level, making connections between the Biblical text and the music and extrapolating from those connections. Following this, a step by step analysis will show the microscopic structure of the work and its relationship to the larger form.

In this paper the compositional issues and techniques employed in my D.Mus. Thesis Composition Noite dos Tambores Silenciosos (for symphony orchestra) are discussed. The piece, constituted of three linked parts, exhibits a counterpoint of three distinct kinds of music as the main vehicle of the musical discourse. / Two of these musics are connected with Maracatu de Baque Virado and Maracatu Rural, popular musical manifestations found in Pernambuco, a state in northeast Brazil. In a "defragmentation" process, reference materials from the Maracatus are abstractly fragmented and reconstructed according to a technique I call Zin-Zout, implementing in the music a continuous state of transformation, back and forth between micro and macro dimensions. The third kind of music, free of folk references, follows a transformational process built up according to a "palimpsest" technique. In this transformation the hierarchy of the musical parameters changes along with the units of the musical content. / These procedures involve not only pitch and rhythm, but also other parameters like timbre, density and register in a structural way, as building elements of the content and form of the work. / The defragmentation process establishes some predetermined compositional paths, but permits micro- and macro-level decisions based on intuitive considerations, especially in the manipulation of orchestration and micro rhythms. More systematic, the organization of pitch involves a limited serialism and a variety of modal treatment.

Sets and the Senses is a work for symphony orchestra that bears the interaction between science and art as its overriding theme. Formalizations of compositional parameters that relate to this interaction are established, in particular those relating to the contrast between systematic and intuitively composed music, in order to provide a vehicle for musical communication on the theme. A summary of scientific and artistic elements of the compositional process reveals in the work an ingrained hierarchy of science/art interactions. Specific strategies for manipulating the science/art parameters are described. Genetic algorithms as applied to computer-assisted composition are discussed. The formal design of the work is described in terms of the relationship between science and art, accompanied by descriptions of systematic and intuitive musical procedures used.

This thesis is divided into two main parts. Part one is the presentation of the ethnomusicological research study on Abigbo choral dance music, and indigenous music type found in the Mbaise area of Ibgo land in Nigeria. This part is made up of three chapters. Chapter one present the research out line for this work, which contains the Background of the study, personal motivation for the study, need for the study, methodology and value of the study. Chapter two presents a study of Abigbo music and the musicians. In this chapter, the researcher discussed the socio-cultural and creative milieu of Abigbo musicians, the creative performance process, the theoretical content of Abigbo music, and the artistic criticism as well as social aesthetics normative in Abigbo music appreciation. Chapter three of the work discussed transcription and analyses of traditional Ibgo music. Some problems of transcription and analyses in Ibgo music are argued from the perspectives of other writers and the researcher’s experience. The transcription and analysis techniques are then applied to selection Abigbo music repertory. This part of the thesis is, therefore, an Ethnomusicological study of Abigbo music and musicians in which identifiable musical elements, compositional principles and the stylistic forte of Abigbo choral-dance music are discussed. The research-study enables the researcher to identify seminal compositional materials for the modern symphony orchestra composition deriving from the creative principles of Abigbo music. Part two of this work is, essentially, an original creative work for the modern symphony orchestra applying the musical elements, compositional principles and style of Abigbo choral-dance music. This part is in three chapters: four, five and six. Chapter four is the composition of “Abigbo for Modern Symphony Orchestra”. It is a three movement orchestral work in contrasting tempi, in which the second movement introduces a male chorus with the orchestra. Chapter five is a detailed analysis of the work and its compositional procedure. Chapter six presents the conclusions and projections emanating from the study. Part II then presents a perspective in the creative continuum of African music informed by Abigbo choral-dance music. It is a study of Abigbo choral-dance music of the Mbaise people in Igbo land of Nigeria and the application of its elements, compositional principles and style in the composition of modern art music for a modern symphony orchestra. / Thesis (DMus)--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Music / DMus / unrestricted

"Eyes Without Light" is conceived and scored for symphonic orchestra. The title of this work reflects personal concerns regarding global environmental issues. The phrase "eyes without light", derived from the Gaelic term "sul gan solas", refers in this instance to the blind greed of multi-national industrial and political corporations which are responsible for the destruction of the earth's ecosystem (primarily the forests and oceans). This work, influenced by the 19th-century symphonic poem initiated by Beethoven, Berlioz and Liszt, is programmatic in nature. The busy, confrontational destructiveness of mankind is represented by repeated or moving sixteenth notes at the beginning and end of the piece. These sections utilize varying densities of semitone clusters and are predominantly dissonant. The calmness and balance of the planet earth is represented by the middle section of the work, which consists primarily of slow-moving sustained lines. These sustained lines move to a sonority which is the structural focal point of the work (m 129-131). This sonority is resolved in the final measures. Both the focal point sonority and its resolution are constructed of P5 and P4 intervals. The aggressive destructiveness of mankind is emphasized by the repeated dissonant chords in the concluding measures (m 140-147, m 151-157) of the section. / Arts, Faculty of / Music, School of / Graduate