The videogame now occupies a unique territory in contemporary culture that offers a new perspective on conceptions of high and low art. While the fear that the majority of videogames 'pacify' their audience in an Adornian "culture industry" is not without justification, its reductionism can be countered by a recognition of the diversity and aesthetic potential of the medium. This has been proposed by sociologist, Graeme Kirkpatrick, although without close attention to the role of music. Videogame music often operates in similar ways to music in other mixed-media scenarios, such as film, or opera. In the same way that film music cannot be completely divorced from film, videogame music is contingent on and a crucial part of the videogame aesthetic. However, the interactive nature of the medium - its différance - has naturally led to the development of nonlinear musical systems that tailor music in real time to the game's dynamically changing dramatic action. Musical non-linearity points beyond both music and videogames (and their respective discourses) toward broader issues pertinent to contemporary musicology and critical thinking, not least to matters concerning high modernism (traditionally conceived of as resistant to mass culture). Such issues include Barthes's "death of the author", the significance of order/disorder as a formal spectrum, and postmodern conceptions and experiences of temporality. I argue that in this sense the videogame medium - and its music - warrants attention as a unique but not sui generis aesthetic experience. Precedent can be found for many of the formal ideas employed in such systems in certain aspects of avant-garde art, and especially in the aleatoric music prevalent in the 1950s and 60s. This thesis explores this paradox by considering videogames as both high and low, and, more significantly, I argue that the aesthetics of videogame music draw attention to the centrality of "play" in all cultural objects.

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Music Johannesburg, 2016 / In this part-written, part-composed creative research project I consider the music of ‘indie’ video games, specifically exploring some of the myriad dynamic compositional approaches in this particular category of game development. In my written work I analyse three indie video games – Braid (2008), Fez (2012) and Journey (2012) – each of which use unique methods to apply music dynamically. I use interviews with the games’ creators, as well as close analysis and transcription of significant sections of each video game, in order to reveal how music is used to provide the player with a more immersive, satisfying, and involving gaming experience. I also consider the use of ambient music in indie video games, a common feature of a large number of contemporary games, weighing up its merits and limitations. Musical concepts and compositional approaches raised in my written work have informed the portfolio of compositions submitted for this degree, and, similarly, my creative work has informed my analytical research. My creative work explores, amongst other aspects, indeterminate form, ambient music, and ways of ‘looping’ material in the creation of unrepeatable structures. This thesis also considers music which functions narratively in games – a function that might necessitate a greater degree of musical linearity — and how this musical role might be incompatible with the demands of interactivity. After briefly introducing the concepts dealt with across this thesis in Chapter 1, Chapters 2 to 4 take the form of case studies of the indie games mentioned above, with each chapter tackling unique challenges that game composers face when writing music for non-linear games, by which I mean games structured so that not all players will experience the content in the same order due to player agency. More specifically, Chapter 2 deals with the game Braid and its use of pre-composed, licensed music and how the game’s developer applies this music dynamically to the game. Chapter 3 deals with Fez and its mainly adaptive musical approach, its built-in software music engine, ‘Fezzer’, which allows for a composer to input and manipulate musical loops in the game, and nostalgia in indie video game aesthetics. Chapter 4 centres on the video game Journey and on how autonomous, ‘narrative’ music in video games might be seen to exist in opposition to music’s ability to be truly dynamic. Finally, Chapter 5 reflects on my own creative work for this thesis; how concepts from the case studies have informed my creative work and vice versa. / MT2017