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.

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.

There is an arguable lack of activity and interest in the analysis of electroacoustic music when compared to its composition and performance. The absence of a strong and active analytical community is very concerning, as it should be a fundamental part of any larger musical community that wishes for works to be performed and discussed in later years. The problems that face electroacoustic music analysis are that there is no consensus or single analytical tool/methodology that dictates how such an activity should be undertaken. Rather than attempting to appropriate existing tools meant for traditional musics or create a new universal one this thesis will argue that a new culture should be adopted that promotes different opinions on the subject of electroacoustic music analysis, as opposed to defining a consensus as to how it should be conducted. To achieve this the thesis will: evaluate and critique what constitutes and defines electroacoustic music analysis; provide a general and flexible procedure to conduct an analysis of an electroacoustic work; develop a set of criteria and terms to cross-examine the current analytical tools for electroacoustic music in order to define the gaps in the field and to identify pertinent elements within electroacoustic works; analyse a number of electroacoustic works to test and implement the ideas raised within this thesis; and finally the concept of an analytical community (in which such a culture could exist) is outlined and implemented with the creation of the OREMA (Online Repository for Electroacoustic Music Analysis) project. This universal approach will cover both epistemological and ontological levels of electroacoustic music analysis. All of the concepts raised above are interlinked and follow the main hypothesis of this thesis: • There is no one single analysis that can fully investigate a work; • Analyses are a perspective on a work, ultimately formed through the subjective perception of the analyst; • These perspectives should be shared with other practitioners to help develop a better understanding of the art form. This PhD study was part of the New Multimedia Tools for Electroacoustic Music Analysis project (2010-2013) funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK). Other outcomes of that project included the various analysis symposiums held at De Montfort University in Leicester and the electroacoustic analysis software EAnalysis created by Pierre Couprie.

Der Beitrag basiert auf Erfahrungen im Höranalyse-Unterricht unter dem speziellen Aspekt ›Klangfarbe und Instrumentation‹ im Rahmen des Studiengangs Komposition für Film und Medien. Die Klangmischung, modern gesprochen der ›Sound‹ spielt in der Filmmusik eine große Rolle. Das musiktheoretische Interesse ist daher unverändert groß, die Wurzeln dieses Phänomens aufzuspüren und zu erforschen. Wann, wo und wie vollzieht sich der Prozess der ›Emanzipation der Klangfarbe‹, also die Loslösung des Klangs von der kompositorischen Substanz, beginnt die Umkehrung von ›Erscheinung‹ und ›Wesen‹ eines Kunstwerks? Ausgehend von einem Abschnitt über Lohengrin aus Adornos Versuch über Wagner wird zunächst der Versuch einer theoretischen Begründung unternommen, so dann die methodische Umsetzung in der Unterrichtspraxis mit anderen Beispielen aus Wagners späten Opern demonstriert. Im (kürzeren) zweiten Teil meiner Ausführungen soll gezeigt werden, dass Debussy (besonders in seiner einzigen Oper) noch einen Schritt weiter gegangen ist: Klangfarbe wird zum Symbol, zum (bildhaften) Topos. Hier nimmt die Filmmusik ihren Ausgangspunkt, und diese Tendenz hält bis heute an. Beispiele aus aktuellen Filmmusiken sollen dazu die (nicht nur) stimmungsvolle Untermalung liefern. / This article describes experiences in a course on aural-analysis of timbre and instrumentation in the context of the major Composition for Film and Media. After all, the sound experience as a whole plays a central role in film music. Thus the music-theoretical interest in researching the roots of this phenomenon is potentially unlimited. When, where, and how is the process of “emancipation of timbre” implemented—that is, disengagement of sound from the compositional substance? And when, where, and how does an artwork transition from “emerging” to “being”? Based on a section on Lohengrin from Adorno’s Versuch über Wagner, an attempt is made to form a theoretical foundation, followed by a demonstration of the methodological implementation in pedagogical practice using other examples from Wagner’s later operas. The brief second part of this article illustrates that Debussy (particularly in his only opera) went a step further still: timbre becomes a symbol, a metaphorical topos. This is the starting point for film music—a tendency that continues until the present day. Examples from recent film music then provide (not only) the atmospheric accompaniment.

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The dissertation focuses on the early piano sonatas of Russian composer Nikolai Karlovich Medtner (1880–1951). It approaches them in the context of genre history, confronts them with other composers' works, and discusses them from various analytic perspectives. A special goal is to consider the pieces in the aesthetic environment of their time, and to regard them as peculiar instances of the ›sonata principle‹, an ageless conception of musical form. The study is subdivided in three large parts, the first of which presents a summary of sonata composition before Medtner, exploring lines of tradition in Western Europe and Russia. The second part concentrates on Medtner’s musical language and its stylistic features. The third and most comprehensive part provides detailed examinations of eight of Medtner’s piano sonatas, including aspects of their genesis and reception, and making use of recent methods of musical analysis. / Die Dissertation widmet sich den frühen Klaviersonaten des russischen Komponisten Nikolaj Karlovič Metner (1880–1951), die im Kontext ihrer Gattungsgeschichte und im Vergleich mit Musik anderer Urheber betrachtet werden. Ein Hauptanliegen der multiperspektivischen Analysen ist es, den Werkkorpus in ästhetische Kontexte der Entstehungszeit einzubetten und die Einzelwerke als Spezialfälle des ›Sonatenprinzips‹, eines zeitlosen Formkonzepts, darzustellen. Die Studie gliedert sich in drei Sektionen, deren erste die Entwicklungen des Sonatenkomponierens vor Metner zusammenfasst und Traditionslinien in Westeuropa und Russland nachzeichnet. Der zweite Teil ist eine Darstellung der Tonsprache Metners und ihrer stilistischen Merkmale. Der dritte und umfangreichste Teil präsentiert Detailanalysen von acht Klaviersonaten Metners und untersucht die Notentexte mit Hilfe aktueller Analysemethoden.

The dissertation focuses on the early piano sonatas of Russian composer Nikolai Karlovich Medtner (1880–1951). It approaches them in the context of genre history, confronts them with other composers' works, and discusses them from various analytic perspectives. A special goal is to consider the pieces in the aesthetic environment of their time, and to regard them as peculiar instances of the ›sonata principle‹, an ageless conception of musical form. The study is subdivided in three large parts, the first of which presents a summary of sonata composition before Medtner, exploring lines of tradition in Western Europe and Russia. The second part concentrates on Medtner’s musical language and its stylistic features. The third and most comprehensive part provides detailed examinations of eight of Medtner’s piano sonatas, including aspects of their genesis and reception, and making use of recent methods of musical analysis. / Die Dissertation widmet sich den frühen Klaviersonaten des russischen Komponisten Nikolaj Karlovič Metner (1880–1951), die im Kontext ihrer Gattungsgeschichte und im Vergleich mit Musik anderer Urheber betrachtet werden. Ein Hauptanliegen der multiperspektivischen Analysen ist es, den Werkkorpus in ästhetische Kontexte der Entstehungszeit einzubetten und die Einzelwerke als Spezialfälle des ›Sonatenprinzips‹, eines zeitlosen Formkonzepts, darzustellen. Die Studie gliedert sich in drei Sektionen, deren erste die Entwicklungen des Sonatenkomponierens vor Metner zusammenfasst und Traditionslinien in Westeuropa und Russland nachzeichnet. Der zweite Teil ist eine Darstellung der Tonsprache Metners und ihrer stilistischen Merkmale. Der dritte und umfangreichste Teil präsentiert Detailanalysen von acht Klaviersonaten Metners und untersucht die Notentexte mit Hilfe aktueller Analysemethoden.

Extensive research has documented the relationship between listening to certain genres of music and negative effects on social behavior such as aggressive and antisocial behavior. The present study explored whether there are genres of music associated with altruism. Altruistic behavior is defined as behavior that is consistently more caring, helpful, considerate of other's feelings, and self- sacrificing. These behaviors promote our ability to thrive as a community. Yet, few studies have addressed the relationship between music and altruism. Data was collected from 608 college students who completed a self-report altruism scale, music preference measure, the Marlowe Crowne social desirability scale, and a demographic information form in order to see if there is a relationship between choice of music and altruism. A multiple hierarchal regression analysis found music genre choice accounted for 15.9 percent of variance in self-reported altruism. Significant, positive correlations emerged also between altruism and several music genres including alternative, country, classical, and emo.