Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston University

Typescript. / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

Typescript. / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

Typescript. / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

This paper examines the ways in which involvement with both French spectral music and Afrological forms of improvisation has informed my current work as a composer. I present a brief overview of the major concerns and preoccupations of both musics as well as an account of the overlapping histories of spectral music and Afrological improvisation, with particular attention to the concepts of liminality and rhythmic thresholds in the light of recent music perception research. Finally, through an in-depth analysis of two of my recent compositions, Echoes (2008) and Baltimore/Berlin (2008, rev. 2011), I show how this ongoing inquiry allows us to think about composition in new and fruitful ways.

This dissertation is in two parts: Part A is the score for the original composition, PendulumV: DM. Part B is a companion essay to the musical composition. Pendulum V: DM is a 17-minute work for large ensemble and live electronics. It was commissioned jointly by the Wet Ink Ensemble and AMP, with support from the TANK performance space and the National Endowment for the Arts. The piece was premiered on November 10th, 2009 by the Wet Ink Ensemble, under the direction of Carl Bettendorf at the TANK in Manhattan, NY. Pendulum V: DM is the most ambitious presentation of many concepts that have been critical to my recent musical thinking--namely, the use of physical movement and shape as models for musical structure and texture; the relationship of timbre and texture to the cognition of structural complexity; the paradox of difference and repetition; the ambiguity between physical gesture and audible structure; and the use of various characteristics of schizophrenia (considered as a virtual phenomenon rather than an actual clinical condition) as a model for the representation of expansion and interconnectivity. In the companion essay I will discuss the ideas listed above, show how they are related to one another, and demonstrate how in some respects they are all individually analogous to multiple characteristics of an important unifying model for many of my compositions: pendulums. I will alternate between technical and aesthetic descriptions of the work, in order to demonstrate how these ideas have been musically integrated. I will also refer to other recent compositions of mine (String Quartet No. 3: "lift-tilt-filter-split" and Pendulum VI: "Trigger") that are closely related in order to show how these concepts and practices have been used in other instrumental contexts. Referencing these peripheral works will also demonstrate how my ideas relating to musical form have evolved, and how the fundamental musical materials and processes used within these forms have proliferated. Additionally, I will reference other important influences (including Gilles Deleuze, Samuel Beckett, clocks, comic-book characters, gestalt theory) in the hopes of getting closer to the broader social meanings embodied by the work.

This dissertation is in two parts. The first is the dissertation essay, which features an analysis of the work Mansion, and the second is the score to the Mansion Cycle, written for the International Contemporary Ensemble between 2009 and 2011. The score is included as an appendix, and consists of five works, which may be performed individually or as a complete cycle. In order of appearance, the works are Prism Path, Altar of Two Serpents, Mansion, Luciform, and Portals Before Dawn. The essay is an investigation of poetic and aesthetic concerns in my compositional practice, as well as an analysis of my composition Mansion, for two alto flutes, percussion, and pre-recorded electronics. Broadly describing the work as an "inner journey", I discuss the relationship of mythological themes to my music and titles, citing examples such as the labyrinth and the trope of the "central structure." I then relate these concepts to my use of form, citing other works in the cycle as points of comparison, and identifying ways in which recurring ideas are elaborated in my body of work. The historical context of my work in "mixed music" is briefly considered, alongside my aesthetic interest in the medium and my choice of musical tools. I then present a concise analysis of the discourse in Mansion, and describe how its language of "thresholds and contrasts" operates on a moment to moment level.

This paper will present the analysis of the author's compositional work Enfilade: Lamento-Cambiata. The analysis consists of two levels. On the first level, formal outline, timbral discourse, pitch construction are examined in relation to the compositional and aesthetic motivations. The results of these examinations are then carried to the second level of the analysis, which is concerned with the perceptual evaluation of the sounding result. Both levels are informed by the recent research on auditive analysis and spectromorphological categorizations of timbre and gesture. In this respect, a detailed spectromorphological analysis of the piece is performed by applying the taxonomic approach of Lasse Thoresen's work on spectromorphology, as well as UST categorizations of Laboratoire de musique et informatique de Marseille. Finally, the relationship of spectromorphological units with the formal design is compared for the purpose of shedding light to the relationship between the musical structure and listening experience.