Ocean of Forms is a cycle of five songs for solo soprano voice and electronic/computer music accompaniment on poems by noted Bengali poet, musician, philosopher, and author Rabindranath Tagore. This work approaches the song cycle as a vehicle for expressing and highlighting the poet's words. Word and syllabic stress, text painting, melodic development, and formal structure all function in relation to the text and its meaning. the replacement of the traditional piano accompaniment with electronic accompaniment provides further possibilities for new timbral structures and transformations, expressive microtonal intonation, algorithmic and aleatoric formal structures, acousmatic and spatialized sound, and a broad sonic palette. This work strives to provide a more fully developed expression of the text as afforded by these expanded musical means. the critical essay primarily explores the interaction between text and music in the work. the first chapter explores the historical precedents for the genre of the song cycle and other texted music as well as specific influences on the work. the following chapters explore the connections between the text and the vocal line and electronic/computer music, respectively. the final chapter deals with the formal structure of the work, especially the justly-tuned harmonic scheme and its relation to the text.

This project is based on collaborations between the clarinettist Maria Victoria Fernández and the composer Manuel Marí. The process of collaborating is described and two new pieces are composed as result. The first of the pieces is called “Cycles” andit is a solo piece for clarinet, while the second piece is called “Shadows” and is a piece for clarinet and live electronics. The concept of perception is explored and new techniques have been addressed to make this new music accessible both to new audiences and performers interested in this field.

The goal of this master project was to create reverberant sound worlds on the border between acoustic and electronic sounds. I approached this goal through the exploration of musical repetition, difference and timbre. These fields were approximated both through practical and theoretical work. This thesis gives insight into my practical work of solo piano playing, with specific focus on the combination of acoustic piano with electronic effect pedals and extended techniques. Reading about and translating concepts and ideas from the fields of minimalism and ambient music has led me to approaching repetition, difference and timbre through thinking-feeling texture. This thesis focuses on the music and concepts that arise in the in-between of these four fields: repetition, difference, timbre and texture. In addition, the text includes theoretical reflections on texture, repetition and listening modes from a conceptual and philosophical angle. This master project has given me new entryways to create music and changed my way of listening. I developed a new style and technique for playing solo piano, which includes a set up for electronically processed and prepared piano. Moreover, I developed several concepts that explain my musical driving forces as well as connect my musical work with visual art and serve as useful tools to share my artistic practice. Especially important are the concepts of uneven repetition, antipiano and texture-gesture continuum. / <p>Anna Wohlfarth – prepared piano</p><p>Marika Markström – electronic processing</p><p>"spatial magnets"</p><p>Solo:</p><p>Anna Wohlfarth – piano, effects</p><p>"3 improvisations"</p><p>Duo:</p><p>Anna Wohlfarth – piano, effects</p><p>Petter Norbäck – sampler, elektronik</p><p>"tonefloat; dark atmo // iceland memories; disintegration"</p>

Untune the Sky is a collection of ten original preludes, dances, and songs for microtonal viola da gamba in 7-limit just intonation with voice and live electronics that incorporates elements of Baroque music, traditional Irish dance music, extended just intonation tuning theory, and live electronic audio processing techniques. This thesis thoroughly describes the work and contextualizes its relationship to its historical and contemporary influences. The first sections explain why extended just intonation and viola da gamba were chosen as the central elements of the work. This is followed by a description of the structure, instrumentation, notational conventions, and intended performance practice of the work. The final section contains a musical analysis of the form, harmony, and structure of each piece in the collection. For researchers and interested performers, Appendix A contains a brief catalog of existing microtonal viol repertoire listed with a description of the microtonal techniques used.

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Transfigurations is a symphonic work in one movement for orchestra and live computer processing utilizing the graphical audio programming language Pure Data. The score and patch for this piece are accompanied by an essay describing the audio processing techniques and the compositional processes employed in this work. Programming methods discussed include strategies for data capture, patch structure, user interface, and processor management. All audio processing in the work is realized in realtime. These sounds are derived directly from the orchestra in performance, except for the last. The processes involved in Transfigurations include pitch and amplitude tracking, pitch-shifting, filtering, frequency and amplitude modulation, granular synthesis, delay, and convolution. The final sounds from the computer employ stochastic processes for synthesis which are derived from the germinal materials of the piece. The essay also discusses the aesthetic philosophy and formal structure of the work, principle themes and motives, and formative pitch materials, as well as the compositional processes in each section. The final discourse of the essay considers microphone and loudspeaker setups, patch preparation and leveling, and strategies for rehearsal and performance. / Music Composition / Accompanied by one .pdf file, Transfigurations for orchestra and live computer processing: Full score, and one .pd file.

This dissertation is a thorough examination of the problems modern composers of electronic music face when writing or discussing acousmatic music as derived from Pierre Schaeffer. By taking a close examination of Schaeffer's own writings on the subjects of reduced listening and acousmatic sounds, I illustrate the difficulties and inconsistencies in Schaeffer's philosophy and the problems that his reliance on Husserl's phenomenology creates. Further examination of criticisms of Husserl from Derrida and Heidegger highlight the ways that Schaeffer's phenomenology needs to be updated for the modern acousmatic composer. Articles by modern acousmatic composers such as Adrian Moore, Denis Smalley, Simon Emmerson, and others illustrate how artists have dealt with the problems in Schaeffer's ideas and the inconsistent ways they have applied his principles of sound and the sound object. I argue that a new method of musical meaning as a method of composition and analysis is necessary to resolve these conflicts and inconsistencies. This method is found in the writings of J.L. Austin, and Ludwig Wittgenstein through Andrew Chung, who places significant emphasis on the actions and effects that music takes. By reframing the acousmatic problem through meaning-as-use, I attempt to modernize Schaeffer's conceptions of sound and emphasize the significance of the ways that sound is used by composers as the crux of a modern acousmatic praxis.

Almost since the birth of electronic music, composers have been fascinated by the prospect of integrating the human voice with its expressiveness and complexity into electronic musical works. This thesis addresses how performing with responsive technologies in mixed works, i.e. works that combine an acoustic sound source with a digital one, is experienced by participating singers, adopting an approach of seamlessness, of zero – or invisible – interface, between singer and computer technology. It demonstrates how the practice of composing and the practice of singing both are embodied activities, where the many-layered situation in all its complexity is of great importance for a deepened understanding. The overall perspective put forward in this thesis is that of music as a sounding body to resonate with, where the resonance, a process of embodying, of feeling and emotion, guides the decision-making. The core of the investigation is the lived experiences through the process of composing and performing three musical works. One result emerging from this process is the suggested method of calibration, according to which a bodily rooted attention forms a kind of joint attention towards the work in the making. Experiences from these three musical works arrive in the formulation of an over-arching framework entailing a view of musical composition as a process of construction – and embodied mental simulation – of situations, whose dynamics unfold to engage musicians and audience through shifting fields of affordances, based on a shared landscape of affordances.

Starting in the mid-2010s VR's high cost of entry became low enough for consumers and artists to explore and experiment with the technology. There have been a few VR operas developed by medium to large sized teams such as Michel Van Der Aa's Eight (2018) and Alexander Schubert's ⁂ASTERISM⁂ (2021), but no widespread work has been produced by a small team comprising only a librettist and composer. Vessels engages in this process with a libretto written by Bea Goodwin and music, audio processing, visual design, and programming by Christopher Poovey. The first step in the process of creating Vessels was the creation of the song cycle Songs from Vessels for soprano, extended tenor, flute, bass flute, A clarinet, viola, contrabass, percussion, and live electronics. These songs are the basis of the micro-opera Vessels which presents recordings of the songs with live processing alongside two songs exclusive to the opera in a VR environment with immersive projections and audio. The development of an ensemble and electronic work along with a VR micro-opera necessitates the implementation and creation of software. Both the Grainflow and cpDelayNetworks packages for Cycling ‘74 Max are pivotal to audio processing in both versions of the work. In addition to these packages and other programming done in Max, the VR opera version of the work relies on custom scripts and implementations of tools for VR interaction, networking, spatial audio, and procedural animations to create an immersive environment to be shared between a VR participant and their audience.