This thesis addresses the aesthetics, ideologies and practicalities of contemporary European Improvised Music-making - this term referring to the tradition that emerged from 1960s American jazz and free jazz, and that remains, arguably, one of today's most misunderstood and under-represented musical genres. Using a multidisciplinary approach drawing on Grounded Theory, Ethnography and Social Network Analysis, and bounded by Berlin's cosmopolitan local scene of 2012-13, I define Improvised Music as a field of differing-yet-interconnected practices, and show how musicians and listeners conceived of and differentiated between these sub-styles, as well as how they discovered and learned to appreciate such a hidden, 'difficult' and idiosyncratic art form. Whilst on the surface Improvised Music might appear chaotic and beyond analysis in conventional terms, I show that, just like any other music, Improvised Music has its own genre-specific conventions, structures and expectations, and this research investigates its specific modes of performance, listening and appreciation - including the need to distinguish between 'musical' and 'processual' improvisatory outcomes, to differentiate between different 'levels' of improvising, and to separate the group and personal levels of the improvisatory process. I define improvised practices within this ifeld as variable combinations of 'composed' (pre-planned) and 'improvised' (real-time) elements, and examine the specific definitions of 'risk', 'honesty', 'trust', and 'good' and `bad' music-making which mediate these choices - these distinctions and evaluatory frameworks leading to a set of proposed conventions and distinctions for Improvised Music listening and production. This study looks at the representation of identity by improvising musicians, the use of social and political models as analogies for the improvisatory process (including the interplay between personal freedom of expression and the construction of coherent collective outcomes), and also examines the multiple functions of recording, in a music that was ostensibly only meant for the moment of its creation. All of this serves to address several popular misconceptions concerning Improvised Music, and does so directly from the point of view of a large sample of its most important practitioners and connoisseurs. Such findings provide key insights into the appreciation and understanding of Improvised Music itself (both for newcomers and those already adept in its ways), and this thesis offers important suggestions for scholars of Musicology, Ethnomusicology, Sociology of Music, Improvisation Studies, Performance Studies and Music/Cognitive Psychology, as well as for those concerned with improvisation and creativity in more general, non-musical, terms.

abstract: ABSTRACT "The Soul Unto Itself," a chamber music song cycle, was commissioned by the author, Rosa LoGiudice, and composed by William Clay, a doctoral candidate in composition at Arizona State University. The cycle was conceived and composed in the summer and fall of 2019. The chamber ensemble was a sextet comprised of Megan Law, mezzo-soprano, Kristi Hanno, clarinet, Emilio Vazquez, violin, Rittika Gambhir, bassoon, Nathaniel De la Cruz, double bass, and Rosa LoGiudice, piano, all based in Tempe, Arizona. The song cycle was premiered in a lecture recital on December 8, 2019 at Hammer and Strings Conservatory in Gilbert, AZ. "The Soul Unto Itself" is a cycle of six songs based on poems of Emily Dickinson. The poems all have common themes of personal transformation achieved through the introspective observations of the poet. An unusual chamber ensemble was chosen to include instruments not commonly used in vocal chamber music in order to create a greater variety of musical colors and timbres. This project included the creation of the musical score, a live performance that was video recorded, and the research paper. This document discusses the process of working with the composer, rehearsing the music as it was being composed, and negotiating revisions necessary to make the music more effective in performance. Each song is discussed in detail, especially the connection between the music and poetry, the overall form of the song, revisions discussed and implemented, and important motivic relationships between the songs that unify the cycle. In summary, the process of collaborating with a composer is a rewarding experience for both the performers and the composer, as everyone is challenged to improve their craft and overcome obstacles to achieve a successful performance. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Music 2020

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Violin repertoire composed in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries placed new demands on performers. While numerous pedagogues have written etudes and treatises analyzing traditional techniques, far fewer have thoroughly examined contemporary techniques. Many of the existing etudes and exercises inspired by contemporary violin repertoire are of a very high difficulty level and may seem unapproachable to students with little to no experience performing the music of recent decades. As a result, many violin students are unacquainted with the language of new music. This dissertation is intended to help fill a gap in the pedagogical literature by serving as a resource that familiarizes advanced students with the notation and proper execution of the non-traditional techniques commonly found in contemporary violin music. This document includes a survey of violin repertoire written since 1970, an analysis of the non-traditional techniques used most often in the works examined, methods for approaching specific technical problems that arise in them, and nine etudes originally composed by this author. The etudes focus on nine contemporary techniques, ranging from contact point variations to changing subdivisions, and are intended for study by advanced violinists interested in performing contemporary music.

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O filósofo frankfurtiano Theodor W. Adorno ocupou uma posição chave nos debates das vanguardas musicais ao longo de aproximadamente quarenta anos, entre cerca de 1924 e 1964. Seus ensaios e monografias musicais, produzidos ao longo desse período constituem a reflexão filosófica mais complexa e profunda sobre os destinos da composição musical de que se tem notícia. Uma reflexão que ao privilegiar a práxis compositiva como ponto de arranque foi amplamente absorvida e ajudou a impulsionar todo o movimento da Nova Música. A presente tese efetua uma interpretação do pensamento musical adorniano tendo como premissa fundamental esse enraizamento do filósofo nas questões relativas à práxis composicional de música radical. Seu principal objetivo é esclarecer em que termos Adorno concebera as categorias dialéticas próprias à imanência da forma musical em sua determinação recíproca com o caráter estético de aparência das obras musicais. / The Frankfurtian philosopher Theodor W. Adorno occupied a key position in the debates of the musical avant-garde over approximately forty years, between 1924 and 1964. His essays and musical monographies produced during this period are the most complex and profound philosophical reflections available on the destinies of musical composition during the twentieth-century. A reflection that privileging compositional practice as its starting point was largely absorbed and helped to drive the whole movement of New Music. This doctoral thesis makes an interpretation of Adornos musical thought starting from this fundamental premise which states the rooting of his philosophical reflection on questions regarding the compositional practice of radical music. Its main objective is to clarify how Adorno conceived along his work the immanent dialectical categories of musical form in their mutual determination with the aesthetic appearance statute of musical works.

This submission for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy focuses on works for large instrumental ensemble in conjunction with the voice. Instrumental ensemble and vocal mediums such as the orchestral art song, the song cycle and the opera in one act, provide platforms to explore the expressiveness of the lyrical dramatic voice and the dialectic tension between composing for the solo voice with a range of instrumental ensemble forces. The portfolio of compositions includes the orchestral song, The Woman Who Refused to Dance; the orchestral song trilogy, Spirit Songs; and the opera in one act, Queen Nanny of the Maroons. Issues of composition technique, vocal expression and operatic narrative are examined and in addition the three named works explore notions of post-colonial heroic representation of subjects that might not usually attract ideological recognition in Western European art music contexts. Methods for developing inclusive, post-modern musical language for the mixed instrumental and vocal ensemble are explored; including the employment of spoken word expression and the integration of popular music idioms within contemporary Western European art music contexts. In the writing of lyrics for the songs and libretto for the opera, increased responsibility is assumed in the completion of vocal works in addition to musical consideration to find the effects on the works when the roles of composer and writer are combined. With the opera in one act for solo voice, forming the major contribution to the portfolio, critical components that lead to effective music drama are assessed.

The work grafted hymnologies, a piece for chamber orchestra, explores connections between twentieth century formalist compositional techniques and formalist techniques of pretonal music. This document, which accompanies the score for the piece, provides an analysis of the work that explains the various techniques and their application to the music. This piece is composed in five large sections. The work pairs compositional techniques associated with pre-tonal music from those of twentieth century modernist music. For example, the second section employs the Medieval idea of tropes-- each time the melody is repeated, new melodic material is added, in the style of the elaborations to the Gregorian repertory that were common as early as the tenth century. This is paired with a single pitch class drone that evolves by timbral modulation, a technique influenced in part by Schoenberg and carried out exactingly by Elliot Carter. Each section contains a similar pairings, which are explained in detail herein. That these kinds of pairings could co-exist in a single piece seems natural; certainly, the intricate formalism that appeared in some Western concert music before 1600 exhibits a certain degree of aesthetic concurrence with the formalist music of the early to mid- twentieth century. Artistically, reaching back to the past (both near and far) and creating something new is an interesting exploration of how history can inform the creative process. / text

O filósofo frankfurtiano Theodor W. Adorno ocupou uma posição chave nos debates das vanguardas musicais ao longo de aproximadamente quarenta anos, entre cerca de 1924 e 1964. Seus ensaios e monografias musicais, produzidos ao longo desse período constituem a reflexão filosófica mais complexa e profunda sobre os destinos da composição musical de que se tem notícia. Uma reflexão que ao privilegiar a práxis compositiva como ponto de arranque foi amplamente absorvida e ajudou a impulsionar todo o movimento da Nova Música. A presente tese efetua uma interpretação do pensamento musical adorniano tendo como premissa fundamental esse enraizamento do filósofo nas questões relativas à práxis composicional de música radical. Seu principal objetivo é esclarecer em que termos Adorno concebera as categorias dialéticas próprias à imanência da forma musical em sua determinação recíproca com o caráter estético de aparência das obras musicais. / The Frankfurtian philosopher Theodor W. Adorno occupied a key position in the debates of the musical avant-garde over approximately forty years, between 1924 and 1964. His essays and musical monographies produced during this period are the most complex and profound philosophical reflections available on the destinies of musical composition during the twentieth-century. A reflection that privileging compositional practice as its starting point was largely absorbed and helped to drive the whole movement of New Music. This doctoral thesis makes an interpretation of Adornos musical thought starting from this fundamental premise which states the rooting of his philosophical reflection on questions regarding the compositional practice of radical music. Its main objective is to clarify how Adorno conceived along his work the immanent dialectical categories of musical form in their mutual determination with the aesthetic appearance statute of musical works.

This dissertation is a study on the integration of Chinese traditional musical elements in Western-style compositions for the violin by contemporary Chinese composers. As background, the development of musical synthesis in Chinese New Music since the 1930s is reviewed, and essential aspects of the musical language and aesthetics of Chinese Traditional Music are surveyed. Through detailed analyses of three representative compositions by contemporary composers Ma Sicong (1912-1987), Chen Yi (b. 1953), and Bright Sheng (b.1955), their different approaches to the synthesis of Chinese traditional and Western musical styles are examined. Historical context is provided in biographical information about the three composers, including their educational background, musical influences, and compositional styles.