Thesis (M. Arch.)--University of Hong Kong, 1997. / Includes special report study entitled: Edge park in an urban environment. Added title page title: Stages and workshops for amateur drama. Includes bibliographical references.

<p> My thesis paper examines the process of capturing and studying the sounds that surround us through three case-studies involving audio recording, the subtext beneath the sound, and bringing documentation of real life situations into a performance atmosphere. Each topic will be discussed through the examination of the personal processes and compositional methods of three composers who use environmental sound recordings in very different ways. With specific reference to my own piece Within a Soundscape&mdash;Scorned Confusion, I will present compositional concerns in relationship to the particular issues discussed with each composer.</p>

<p> How does Martha Graham conceptualize and then give expression to information delivered by Psyche through her body and the choreographic process? This is a study of the relationship of Psyche and Soma considered through examination of Graham's choreographies as expression of their union. This study seeks to participate in discourse on the process of melding the Unconscious and the body through the art of choreography. Three choreographies of Graham as text in the symbolic form--offered through the aesthetic movement phraseology presented by the choreographer--are introduced and interpreted, opening doors that invite discourse upon the subject. Hermeneutics--a methodological approach in which interpretation of text is used to gather insight into the meaning of the text--is utilized to foster engagement in Graham's choreographies. To explore meaningful forms in dance as text, the research creates a frame through which to cultivate, interpret, and integrate information from Graham's choreography. What becomes evident is the complementarity of artistic processes and the unfolding of qualitative research practices and the interpretive activities fostered. Interpretation becomes a deep connectedness with the research material, in this instance the dance methodology, movement language and range of Graham and the manner in which she utilizes aesthetic movement as a path into the Unconscious. The choreographies Errand Into the Maze (1984), Lamentation (1930), and Light--Part 1 (2010) demonstrate how, as the dancer weaves the choreographic sequences into the performance, the Body becomes expressive of Psyche and is ultimately moved and informed by Psyche. Graham invites the onlooker to peer into the pathways leading her to thematic content and subject matter of Psyche, which she then fashions into choreography. Graham's systematic approach to setting emotion into motion on stage becomes evident. The implication of this study for Depth Psychology entails an invitation to include Soma in the study of Psyche. An exploration of Graham's choreographic repertoire reveals a profound range of self-expression, not bound merely to the spoken word. Hers--articulation and manifestation of subjective information derived from the Unconscious, performed through choreographic ventures--is a sensory-integrative and self-expressive experience.</p>

<p> This thesis examines the relationship between Giuseppe Verdi and the Paris Opera and the stage works that Verdi composed or reworked as a result of this business venture. Between 1847 and 1867, Verdi accepted four formal commissions for Paris: Jerusalem (1847), <i>Les v&ecirc;pres siciliennes </i> (1855), <i>Le trouv&egrave;re</i> (1857) and <i> Don Carlos</i> (1867). After a brief introduction discussing Verdi's career before Paris, each commission is discussed in detail from the genesis of the work through its premiere, and the eventual outcome of each opera. This study also evaluates the benefit of this collaboration to Verdi's international career given the requirements and time expended to produce each commission. It explores Verdi's adaptation to cultural differences, his handling of foreign business affairs, and his personal feelings toward French society. Much of the source material is drawn from Verdi's own writings and correspondence, as well as the writings of several Verdi scholars.</p>

<p> Ulysses Simpson Kay (1917-1995) was an African American composer, conductor, and professor. His compositional output contains more than 135 works that have been performed, recorded, and have earned him several awards, fellowships, and commissions. This document includes a descriptive analysis of three works for flute by Ulysses Kay: <i>Prelude for Unaccompanied Flute, Suite for Flute and Oboe</i>, and <i>Aulos for Solo Flute and Orchestra</i>. </p><p> The purpose of this study is to increase awareness of Kay's flute repertoire, to stimulate more frequent programming, to provide relevant historical information about these works and resolve discrepancies surrounding incorrect data. The discussion will provide flutists and teachers with a descriptive analysis that contains suggestions for performance practice. The procedures used closely examine the musical elements of tonality, pitch, rhythm, timbre, texture and form. This analysis will help flutists understand the historical context in which these works were written, and can assist in developing a clearer interpretation, yielding a more authentic performance. At the conclusion of each discussion, performance notes will provide a summary of technical challenges for the flutist, and recommendations for teachers to facilitate selecting appropriate repertoire for their students. </p><p> This investigation also includes an interview conducted with renowned flutist John Solum, the commissioning artist of the <i>Aulos</i>. Solum worked closely with the composer and has performed all of Kay's works for flute. The interview serves as a source of historical information and performance practice interpretations as told by one of the last living flutists to have worked personally with the composer. As there is very little written material surrounding Kay's compositions for flute, this study will serve to augment the current research concerning African American composers of flute literature.</p>

<p> This thesis examines the utilization of improvisational music techniques as a form of communication to address bullying in the Pitt County Community Schools and Recreation after -school program at Wintergreen Intermediate School in Greenville, NC. The study is based on a three week performance workshop conducted by the researcher with 17 students. The goal of the workshop was to teach children ages seven through eleven strategies to prevent, resolve and cope with bullying using improvisational music. Chapter 1 discusses previous literature on bullying, and improvisational music and performance. It lays the theoretical groundwork and provides the research methodology, while discussing the project's assumptions and limitations. Chapter 2 chronologically discusses the events of the workshop by week, highlighting and analyzing key moments. Chapter 3 discusses the follow up interviews, findings of the study, and recommendations for future projects.</p>

<p> This treatise will address the late twentieth-century and well-known Korean composer Chung Gil Kim's piano work <i>Go Poong</i> (Memories of Childhood; 1981) as a case study on how to make pedagogical use of works intended for performance. <i>Go Poong</i> is purely a programmatic composition intended to create a musical picture of four items in Korean cultural history including: a temple incense jar, a wooden shoe, a jade hairpin, and a paper window patch. The piece is also capable of functioning as an ideal pedagogical tool for intermediate and early-advanced players to experience technical exercises and compositional features that are a necessary part in the training of successful pianists. Repertoire useful either as preparation or as follow-up will be suggested.</p>

<p>This project report discusses the development of the transverse flute in the eighteenth century with reference to J. S. Bach's <i>Partita in A Minor</i> for unaccompanied flute. Though still relatively new, the transverse flute of this period rapidly developed to become the new standard over the recorder due to the new opportunities it provided to composers. The works of Bach serve as a prime example for showing the instrument's increasing popularity, and his motivations for creating the <i>Partita in A Minor </i> reveal the influences of many composers and performers of the transverse flute, such as Pierre Buffardin and Johann Joachim Quantz, on the instrument's developing idiom throughout the century. </p>

Thesis (MVisualArts)--University of South Australia, 2003.

PhD / In Australia, like most countries, circus has been an element, at times a very important element, in the mosaic that constitutes its popular culture. An outgrowth of the circus as recast in a modern form in London in the 18th century, an Australian circus profession has existed almost continuously since 1847. Australia’s circus entrepreneurs took the principal features of English, and later American, circus arts and management and reworked these features to suit their new antipodean context. The athletic, intellectually undemanding nature of its equestrian-based entertainments harmonised with the emerging patterns of modern Australia’s way of life. In time, Australia produced renowned circus artists of its own, even artists capable of reinvigorating the concept of circus in the very countries from which their art had been derived. Since their transience and labours, indeed their very existence, were somehow tangential and inconsequential to mainstream Australian society, Australia’s circus people did not attract tokens of recognition in story and verse as did shearers, drovers, diggers and other identities of the Australian outback. Their contribution to Australia’s social, economic and cultural development has been largely overlooked. Despite its pervasive role in Australia’s cultural life over more than 150 years, examples of academically grounded research into Australian circus are few. The primary aim of this study is to demonstrate the major themes evident in Australia’s circus history, in terms of society, enterprise and culture, between 1847 and 2006. None of these areas, of course, is exclusive of the others, especially the first and last named. These deliberations are framed within the broader influences and events apparent in Australian society and history. Implicit within this demonstration is the notion that circus, whatever its characteristics and merits as an artform, has been, and continues to be, a ‘barometer’ of social, economic and cultural change in Australia.