This text contains a short general description of my experience at the University of Birmingham. This is an attempt to communicate how my perception in composing music has changed and evolved. The focus is to introduce briefly my experience before I arrived at the University of Birmingham, then go through all the compositions I have worked on during my PhD programme. This attempt is to explain the main processes I have used for composing, giving a wider view of the issues that I was interested in developing. Furthermore, I will consider some technical aspects with reference to facilities that the University of Birmingham offers to students. This appears to be the right opportunity for them to explore technology almost without any restrictions. I also give some information about other nonmusical issues, which I was interested in developing in order to look into personal aesthetic directions. My main reason for being at the University of Birmingham was to explore compositional processes different from my previous experiences, in order to enlarge my abilities and perspectives in music composition.

This PhD thesis includes a portfolio of electroacoustic and live electroacoustic compositions carried out at the electroacoustic music studios at the University of Birmingham. The portfolio consists of fixed multichannel and stereo works as well as a piece for solo live laptop performance written using max/msp and the supercollider programming language. I will also discuss my work with laptop performance and its influence on my compositional output during this Ph.D.

A portfolio of acousmatic and mixed compositions for stereophonic and multichannel formats. Particular focus is given to acousmatic music’s relationship with materials and features typically found in commercial dance genres. The portfolio also includes development of Max/MSP tools for various functions,including spatialisation of sound, generation of material and also for performance,which is integral to one of the portfolio’s later works.

This thesis defines the theoretical, sociological, historical, cultural and practical framework of “instructive editions” (IEs). The approach adopted evaluates, for the first time, the most significant discussions found in previous literature, realising a comprehensive overview of the issues involved. The principles expounded in the theoretical chapters are verified in practice through application to the specific case of Bach’s WTK and its role in Italy: here, in particular, the thesis dissects the “myth” of Thalberg’s edition and introduces a hitherto overlooked edition by Lanza. Careful comparison of a sample of Italian IEs identifies “genealogies” in performance traditions and their correspondence with the aesthetic trends of their era: the presence of an “Italian” attitude to Bach’s WTK, inspired by prevailing neo-Idealistic values, is shown in the coexistence of a sentimentalist approach with the fascination for structural objectivism. It is demonstrated that musicological studies in aesthetics, performance practice and the history of reception benefit from the analysis of IEs, and from their comparison with other written and recorded documents of performance: IEs are a vehicle for both preserving and transmitting interpretive aesthetics.

The folio of compositions submitted here consists of the six large-scale works that I have completed between the years 1994 and 2003. Over the course of this nine-year period I hope that the folio demonstrates a consistent and constantly evolving thread of techniques and processes in spite of the substantial developments in my overall compositional style, intentions and interests. The works make use of a wide and unconventional range of source materials and instrumental combinations indicative of the numerous and diverse musical styles and genres with which I have been involved. The two areas of study that were to have the most profound influence on my compositional methodology were those of minimalism and serialism. Compositions: by air, sea and land journey xpianos drum no bass journey’s end

A portfolio of compositions with additional commentary and a contextual chapter. In the introduction chapter, particular focus is given to the individual approach to elements such as form, structure, dynamism, stasis, texture, gesture, silence, unity, diversity and meaning in music, as well as its context in the musical tradition. The incorporation of this specific approach is described in the following chapter (Portfolio) where each of the compositions is given a commentary in relation to the above-mentioned terms and in relation to a broader cultural context.

This thesis uses the joint approaches of theatre research and musicology to reveal the overlooked soundscape of productions of Shakespeare’s Henry V. The starting point is the earliest surviving score (1859), and it concludes with the fragmentary remains of war-time performances (1916), that were on the cusp of change. The evidence, analysed alongside prompt books and other materials, establishes new insights into theatre practices. It problematises scholarly readings that suggest that productions of Henry V were invariably a response to English foreign policy, and challenges the common perception that pictorial realism was the key defining aspect of performance. I argue it is necessary to understand how the play was shaped aurally, physically and emotionally by music; the influence of church, melodrama, militia, musical-comedy, ballet, and opera are located and explored. Ensemble-workshop sessions and keyboard realisation have been central to a developed understanding of the genre. Where the world outside invaded the theatre - especially royal events and war - these are surveyed to understand their impact on the soundscape. This study rebalances the historiography of the play, it reveals the importance of seeking out a forgotten aesthetic, and it demonstrates the need for further scholarly theatre-music studies.

This thesis consists of a portfolio of 10 compositions accompanied by a written commentary with audio and video recordings of my works. These compositions span a wide variety of instrumentations from large orchestral works to solo instrumental works, of both Western and Eastern traditions, as well as vocal and live art installation pieces. Throughout the commentary I explore the continuum of how Eastern traditional idioms and Western art music play a role in the creation of my musical language. This includes an overview of the history of bi-cultural integration and an exploration of the motivations for integrating musics, both in my own work and that of other composers. I explore particular parameters within my works, focusing on the spectrums between composition and improvisation, the concepts of translation and transcription and collaborative practice with Western classical and musicians of Eastern traditional music. Additionally, I examine how my application of Eastern musical parameters and techniques are filtered through four of my other interests and influences: namely, my development of a gestural and timbral language which stems from an engagement with my approach to pitch and harmony.

My work during the last few years, parallel to teaching and concert management, has been focused on instrumental composition, composition with electronic media, sound design and performance. Spontaneous and continuous experiments in all these fields have enabled me to explore and develop many compositional techniques and processes, searching in this way for a unique personal language based on my own experience of listening. The following portfolio is a detailed examination of my compositions during this period, clarifying the issues in instrumental and electroacoustic music composition which relate to performance, spatialization and live electronic processing; my intention here is to develop, systematize and automate some of the currently vital processes in this area in a flexible, and adaptable way, thereby contributing to new developments in signal processing and enhancing the integration of live instruments and electronics, with the ultimate aim of delivering to the listener the most satisfying experience possible. In the works submitted, my special interest has been to investigate which current techniques, media, software, and interfaces are most appropriate for each given work. I have balanced these against existing standards which have long been fixed through tradition and technology – thus contributing to a better understanding of works of the past and at the same time seeking to move forward in the field of composition, sound design, live computer music, performance and spatialization.

This thesis explores the means by which, and the forms in which, the Virgin Mary and her medieval Cult are represented in the motets of the thirteenth-century northern French Montpellier Codex (Mo). It reveals how various musical and poetic techniques are used to worship and address the Virgin and to make her the central focus, even in works addressing apparently non-Marian aspects of Christianity. I demonstrate that the repertoire uses linguistic, musical, and numerical symbolism for Marian purpose, and consider how these symbols would have been understood by a medieval audience. This analytic approach reveals that the Feast of the Annunciation features more frequently in the Codex than has previously been recognised, and that the Virgin, and her Feasts of the Annunciation and Assumption, are of great, and previously unexplored, significance to Fascicle IV of the Codex. This thesis provides new insight into how the theme of mystical marriage is emphasised in Mo, and the final two chapters explore how the Virgin, and the Marian model of mystical marriage, were used as a means for molding and critiquing a variety of women, including the stock characters of the dame courtoise and the shepherdess Marion.