A definição mais imediata para canção de ninar, uma das várias denominações brasileiras para este gênero poético-musical, é estabelecida por sua finalidade: canção feita para adormecer criança pequena; uma definição funcional,portanto. A análise do conteúdo poético e da forma destas canções permite identificar os elementos imprescindíveis à sua composição e eficácia estética, ampliando tal conceito. Desta maneira, a canção de ninar pode ser considerada um dos primeiros objetos culturais a que o ser humano é exposto. O medo da morte (perdas, despedidas, separações), presente nos cuidados maternos, paternos e de outros adultos com as crianças pequenas, especialmente com os recém-nascidos, penetra as canções de ninar em diferentes culturas, expressando-se em vários elementos, inclusive em suas figuras de terror. A esta linha interpretativa, substancializada por constatações advindas de uma prática clínica de atendimento psicológico às famílias de recém-nascidos, foi acrescida outra de caráter mais sociológico: o estudo de alguns textos de canções de ninar tradicionais brasileiras revelou elementos dos encontros e desencontros étnico-culturais dos diferentes povos que formaram a nação brasileira. O traço de terror, geralmente compreendido como medida disciplinar para o sono, aparece acentuado nas nossas canções também porque se origina em um ambiente colonial, escravocrata, contaminado por ameaças e hostilidades. Junto a vestígios de horror apareceram também traços de resistência e preservação cultural das etnias indígenas e negras; como se as canções de ninar fossem veículos propícios ao transporte resguardado de elementos fundamentais da cultura dos grupos humanos colonizados ou escravizados. As pesquisas e reflexões de Mário de Andrade e o estudo de acalantos compostos por artistas brasileiros contemporâneos permitiram conhecer e delinear melhor este gênero: o contexto que o origina, seu tom melancólico, sua forma curta e repetitiva, o uso da sonoridade nasal hum e da vogal u. Por sua qualidade artística, o acalanto pode revigorar o ambiente cultural que cerca o nascimento e a infância. Neste sentido, ele é potencialmente humanizador. O ambiente cultural é tão fundamental e delimitador da experiência humana quanto o ambiente físico e emocional (familiar ou institucional). Cuidar do surgimento das palavras, da sua afinação com a experiência vivida, de seu vigor e sentido; cuidar da experiência inicial com a palavra é condição para o desenvolvimento pleno deste ser de linguagem que é o homem. Assim, redimensiona-se neste estudo o conceito de puericultura que passa a abranger também as ações de cultivo da palavra e da poesia com a criança pequena. / The most immediate definition of lullaby, only one among several Brazilian denominations for this poetic-musical genre, is determined by its main purpose: a song intended for little children to fall asleep, a functional definition, therefore. The analysis of the poetical content and of the form of these songs allows us to identify the essential elements of their aesthetic composition and effectiveness, broadening such concept. Thus, the lullaby may be considered one of the first cultural objects that the human being is exposed to. The fear of death (losses, farewells, separations), present in the cares given by mothers, fathers and other grown-ups to little children, especially newborn babies, permeates the lullabies in different cultures, expressing itself in many elements, including its terror figures. To this interpretative line, based on observations derived from the practice of psychological assistance to the families of newborn babies, another one of a more sociological nature has been added: the study of some texts extracted from traditional Brazilian lullabies has revealed elements of the ethnic-cultural matches and mismatches of the different cultures that shaped the Brazilian nation. The element of terror, generally understood as a disciplinary measure for sleeping, is highlighted in our songs because it also has its origin in a colonial slave-based environment, contaminated by threats and hostilities. Along with the vestiges of horror, there have arisen traces of resistance and cultural preservation of black and indigenous ethnic groups, as if the lullabies had been proper conducive vehicles to the hedged transportation of fundamental elements of the culture of the colonized or enslaved human groups. The researches carried out by Mario de Andrade, as well as his reflections, and the study of lullabies composed by contemporary Brazilian artists allowed the better understanding and outline of this genre: the context where it comes from, its melancholic tone, its short and repetitive form, the use of the nasal sonority \'hum\' and the vowel \'u\'. For its artistic value, the lullaby can be quite refreshing for the cultural environment surrounding birth and childhood. In this sense, it is potentially humanizing.The cultural environment is as important and delimiting for human experience as the physical and emotional environment (familiar or institutional). Caring about the arising of new words, their affinity to the life experience, their vitality and sense; caring about the initial experience with words is a condition for the full development of this language-based being, the man. Hence, in this study, the concept of childcare is resized so as also to include the actions of cultivation of word and poetry with the little child.

An examination of the influences on twentieth-century wind music would be incomplete without the consideration of composer, organist, pianist, conductor, teacher, and critic Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979). Students from the United States began studying with Boulanger between World War I and World War II, and continued to travel to study with her for over fifty years. The respect awarded this legendary French woman was gained as a result of her effectiveness as a teacher, her influence on the development of each student's unique compositional style, and her guidance of an emerging American musical style. The correlation between the teacher's lessons and the compositional output of her students must be explored. Boulanger did not compose specifically for winds, and she did not encourage her students to compose for the wind symphony. However, this document will outline the influence that this powerful pedagogue exerted over the creation of repertoire by her students by providing insight into the pedagogical style and philosophical foundations of Boulanger as reflected in the literature and by the writings, comments, and compositions of three successful students who composed literature for the wind symphony: Aaron Copland (1900-1990), Leslie Bassett (b. 1923), and Donald Grantham (b. 1947). Three significant works for winds will be considered including Copland's Emblems, Bassett's Lullaby for Kirsten, and Grantham's Variations on an American Cavalry Song.

Within the science fiction genre, utopian as well as dystopian experiments have found equal representation. This balanced treatment of two diametrically opposed social constructs results from a focus on the future for which this particular genre is well known. Philip K. Dick’s VALIS, Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash, Samuel R. Delany’s Babel-17, and Chuck Palahniuk’s Lullaby, more aptly characterized as speculative fiction because of its use of magic against scientific social subjugation, each tackle dystopian qualities of contemporary society by analyzing the power that language possesses in the formation of the self and propagation of ideology. The utopian goals of these texts advocate for a return to the modernist metanarrative and a revision of postmodern cynicism because the authors look to the future for hopeful solutions to the social and ideological problems of today. Using Slavoj Žižek’s readings of Jacques Lacan and Theodor Adorno’s readings of Karl Marx for critical insight, I argue these four novels imagine language as the key to personal empowerment and social change. While not all of the novels achieve their utopian goals, they each evince a belief that the attempt belies a return to the modernist metanarrative and a rejection of postmodern helplessness. Thus, each novel imagines the revision of Žižek’s big Other through the remainders of Adorno’s inevitably failed revolutions, injecting hope in a literary period that had long since lost it.

This thesis explores the notion of ‘experimental voice’ in avant-garde performance, in the way it transgresses conventional forms of vocal expression as a means of both extending and enhancing the expressive capabilities of the voice, and reframing the social and political contexts in which these voices are heard. I examine these avant-garde voices in relation to three different liminal contexts in which the voice plays a central role: in ritual vocal expressions, such as Greek lament and Māori karanga, where the voice forms a bridge between the living and the dead; in electroacoustic music and film, where the voice is dissociated from its source body and can be heard to resound somewhere between human and machine; and from a psychoanalytic perspective, where the voice may bring to consciousness the repressed fears and desires of the unconscious. The liminal phase of ritual performance is a time of inherent possibility, where the usual social structures are inverted or subverted, but the liminal is ultimately temporary and conservative. Victor Turner suggests the concept of the ‘liminoid’ as a more transgressive alternative to the liminal, allowing for permanent and lasting social change. It may be in the liminoid realm of avant-garde performance that voices can be reimagined inside the frame of performance, as a means of exploring new forms of expression in life. This thesis comes out of my own experience as a performer and is informed both by theoretical discourse and practical experimentation in the theatre. Exploring the voice as a liminal, transgressive force requires analysis from an experiential perspective.

The present thesis investigates the music and career of Jeffrey Lewis (born 1942). The thesis is broadly divided into three sections. First is an account of the composer’s life, told mainly through an overview of his works, but also through a sketch of his early years in South Wales, his studies in Cardiff, Darmstadt, Kraków and Paris, his academic career in Leeds and Bangor, and his subsequent early retirement from academia. There follows a more detailed study of six works from the period 1978 – 1985, during which certain features of Lewis’s musical language came to the fore, perhaps most notably a very individual and instantly recognisable use of modal language. After an Epilogue, the thesis concludes with an Appendix in the form of a Catalogue in which all Lewis’s known compositions are listed, together with details of performances, broadcasts and recordings. Lewis’s music often plays with our temporal expectations; the close interrelationship between texture, structure, harmony and melody, and its effect upon our perception of the passage of time, are explored in the main analyses. These are conducted partly by means of comparison with other works by Lewis or his contemporaries. Memoria is examined in relation to a similarly tranquil score, Naaotwá Lalá, by Giles Swayne. The following chapter discusses the extra-musical inspiration for Epitaph for Abelard and Heloise, whose relationship to Tableau is then explored in the next. The difficulties of creating a large-scale structure that unifies the work’s various harmonic elements are also investigated. The analysis of Carmen Paschale considers it in relation to Lewis’s other choral music, whilst the final analytical chapter compares and contrasts two three-movement works, the Piano Trio and the Fantasy for solo piano. Lewis’s melodic writing in the Piano Trio is discussed in relation to that of James MacMillan, and the origins of the first movement of Fantasy in Oliver Knussen’s Sonya’s Lullaby are explored. In the Epilogue, the possible reasons for Lewis’s current neglect are explored, various influences on Lewis’s musical thinking are laid out, and his achievements are assessed.