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published_or_final_version / Chinese / Master / Master of Philosophy

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This is an interpretive study of the life of the Prophet Muhammad as it is artistically depicted in the repertoire (especially the narrative ballads) of fifty-one contemporary Egyptian maddahin (singers of eulogies in honour of the Prophet Muhammad, sing. maddah). The elements of this repertoire, as diverse as narrative ballads, classical odes, Qur'an chanting, and the melodies of the secular songs of well-known Egyptian singers, do not exist as discrete units but rather as a lively tawlifa (blend)--to use a common term in Colloquial Egyptian Arabic (CEA). This study is about blends where discrete units lose their borderlines and leak into one another, about phenomena which are "betwixt and between" the perceived scholarly categories which confidently delineate boundaries between elite and popular Islam, the historical and the legendary Muhammad, the sacred and the profane, orality and writing, standard and colloquial Arabic. / In order to understand the process which marks the making of the people's Muhammad, the study deals with the sources and the contents of the repertoire of the Egyptian maddahin. The performance of these singers as well as their interaction with the audience are also considered. The "legendary" material in this repertoire is attested as historical by many authoritative and well-recognized "orthodox" authors of the past. Classical Arabic, classical poetic forms, philosophical notions, long believed to be the exclusive possessions of the learned, are freely utilized in the ballads and popular songs under study. The people's Muhammad appears as both a commanding figure, empowered by the supernatural, and a touchingly vulnerable human being; God's ascetic messenger and a man who savours life's lawful pleasures; an eloquent speaker who utters Qur'an-like terse Arabic and a lovingly familiar figure who also uses local patois. Bipolarity, beloved of many scholars, is seriously challenged by the art of the Egyptian maddahin. A renewed effort has to be made to discover more valid categories which will take into account the intermediary combinations (Mischbildungen) characteristic of that art.

Modern scholars have suggested various approaches to the analysis of the pretonal repertory. However, if we consider the question of how the individual voice parts interact in a Renaissance polyphonic composition to create coherence for the movement as a whole, we find that there are no tools available to undertake such a task. We may be able to speak generally of the arrival of certain moments as relatively accented or unaccented; we may even be able to dissect a complete melodic line with some segmentation process to highlight motivic structure, phrase development or contour-articulated pitch events. But there are no analytic strategies available yet which are capable of disclosing the structures of independent voice parts and their interaction as timepoint-accenting elements capable of creating formal, rhythmic and pitch-class patterns. This study outlines a methodology that has been developed to deal with these specific issues. The analytic strategy is based on the perception of accents in individual voices of polyphonic works. The types of accents germane to Renaissance polyphony include durational, leap, contour, cadential and beginning-accents. The study proposes a simple, bipartite classification of accentual strength—strong or weak. Each voice part in a work is then analyzed, with every pitch attack represented as strongly or weakly accented through special notation developed for the analysis. The methodology affords a picture of the most strongly- accented timepoints in the individual melodies of three- and four-voice cantus firmus masses of the mid- to late fifteenth century. The relative strengths of these accents, along with their synchronization in the multi-voice aggregate, are disclosed through the notation. After renotating scores with this special notational symbology, we extract points of coincident strong accents in three or more voices to create accent profiles for each section of a movement. We then compare profiles of same-texted works by different composers in order to disclose normative formal and pitch-class procedures in some Renaissance compositions.

This project presents the design of a theatre. The theatre site is located in Halifax, Nova Scotia and will serve as the home for the Legacy Centre for the Performing arts. A selection of theatre spaces and ritual spaces, including temples and churches are analyzed, with attention paid to performance theory research in order to interpret the shared activities within these two building types. Architectural connections between these spaces are made as well as a building language common to both. A collection of theatre buildings, including the design for the Legacy Centre, is produced. Each design exhibits the line between front of house and backstage that has been established as being similar to both theatres and ritual spaces and that will enhance the experience of going to the theatre.

Traditional church buildings negotiate thresholds in a way that supports a program of cyclical and elevating rituals. Each threshold is marked by an architectural image, one that comes to be associated with a particular practice or event. This thesis begins with an analysis of the experience of sacred spaces, then considers ways to emphasize qualities of existing elements. The design inhabits the liminal spaces across thresholds and promotes the contemporary ritual practices of art. The chosen test site for the design methodology is Central Presbyterian Church on the bank of the Grand River in Cambridge, Ontario. A recent resurgence of the local creative community has drawn interest to the area and provides the basis of the user-based program for this project.

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"Light, whose beauty within darkness is as jewels that one might cup in one's hands; light that hollowing out darkness and piercing our bodies, blows life into `space"'.'Tadao AndoThis thesis book documents the process and procedure of a two-year study of how daylight can be manipulated by design to enhance and elevate the experiential qualities of sacred space and then applies those characteristics to the design of an architectural thesis project.The exploration involved two major points of focus: one was the exploration to identify the principle qualities and characteristics of natural light and the other, to apply those principles of light into built form.This paper is presented in five processes: an introduction, three types of reflection, and a conclusion. Process I, presents the theoretical underpinning on the subject of light and identifies the key qualities and characteristics of light and the daylighting principles applied by Louis I. Kahn and Tadao Ando in the formulation of sacred space. Process II, presents the articulation of the necessary criteria to design a sacred space. Process III, applies the daylighting strategies to the design of a "one-volume" library for displaying Leonardo da Vinci's Codex. Process IV, presents an alternate scenario and an explanation of architecture as meaning. Process V, summerizes the meaning of the architecture and experience of the Library. 'Ando, Tadao, Complete Works, Phaidon Press Limited, London, (1997). / Department of Architecture

The Four Horsemen is an original composition in three movements that sets the texts of the Greetings and Doxology, the story of the four horsemen, and the River of Life from the Book of Revelation as found in the New International Version of the Bible. The text, which is presented in English, is set for a large SATB choir and narrator with a mixed ensemble, which consists of flute, clarinet, horn, trumpet, piano, organ, and cello. This fifteen-minute composition makes extensive use of pitch and numerical symbolism by way of a twelve-tone row. Although the piece uses a row, it contains elements of tonality and is globally organized around a tonal center. The piece uses several extended vocal and instrumental techniques to heighten the dramatic character of the apocalypse story. The accompanying document provides historical context for the piece and a discussion of the musical elements and compositional processes used in the work. The symbolic nature of the text, as well as a detailed account of the story of the four horsemen, is also included in this document. The review of repertoire considers a selection of recent works that set portions of the text, as well as compositions inspired by Revelation. The methodology chapter explains the construction, use, and symbolic elements of the row as well as the inclusion and setting of well-known motives like the Dies Irae and the chromatic-fourth lament bass. An analysis of each movement includes discussion of the use of pitch and rhythmic material, texture, setting of the text, and other musical elements that contribute to and/or enhance the symbology of the work. The first movement establishes C as the tonal center, introduces the row and other important motives, and sets the mood for the piece. The second movement, which includes two ostinato figures (a figure based on the reordered version of the row and the lament bass), makes extensive use of syncopation and hemiola throughout the multi-metric environment. The final movement sees the return of motives from the first movement; it employs the row’s retrograde and concludes with a plagal cadence. / School of Music