In this thesis, I examined how practicing and studying musical motifs affect a jazz musician’s way of improvising.   The main purpose was to investigate how I could get away from old habits and discover new paths in my improvisations with the help of repetition and withholding of ideas.    In the project, I transcribed some of my musical heroes and analyzed their solos on different recordings. I developed ways of practicing with the transcribed material to get motivic development into my playing. I also did a lot of active listening to recordings in search for other musicians’ ways of using musical motifs. During the concert, I played my compositions and compositions written by other musicians. I transcribed and analyzed specific parts from the concert to hear my development.     Practicing and transcribing led to an overall understanding of the concept of motivic development. The actual progress was made through focused listening to recordings and committing to a specific part of improvisation for a more extended amount of time. / <p>Kalle Johansson - Piano</p><p>Olle Lannér Risenfors - Bas</p><p>Johan Förnell - Trummor</p><p>Floater - Carla Bley</p><p>Tautology - Lee Konitz</p><p>Jigsaw - Kalle Johansson</p><p>Cheryl - Charlie Parker</p><p>Ned - Kalle Johansson</p><p>Grew - Kalle Johansson</p>

The Light is a twenty-four minute composition for two narrators and chamber orchestra. The two narrators perform the roles of the Apostle John and Moses. After an overview of the piece and a brief history of pieces incorporating narrators, the essay focuses on my compositional process, describing how orchestration, drama, motive, and structure work together in the piece. The Light is organized as a series of five related scenes. In the first scene, God creates light. In the second scene, God places Adam and Eve into the Garden of Eden to tend it, allowing them to eat from any tree except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The serpent appears, Adam and Eve succumb to his evil influence, and God banishes them from the Garden of Eden. Many generations have passed when Scene Three begins. Moses relates a story from Israel's journey in the wilderness after leaving Egypt. The people had become frustrated with Moses and with God. When God sent serpents among them as punishment, they appealed to Moses to pray for them. God's answer was for Moses to make a bronze serpent and place it on a pole. Whoever looked at the serpent would live. In Scene Four, John relates his vision of final redemption. New Jerusalem descends from heaven, with the River of Life and the Tree of Life ready to bring healing to the nations. Sadly, some people are not welcomed into the city, and the drama pauses to give respectful consideration to their fate. Finally, the fifth scene celebrates the eternal victory over sin, death, and the serpent of Eden. As I composed The Light, I had in mind the dramatic profile, the general motivic progression and the fundamental structural progression. However, most of the intricate interrelationships among orchestration, drama, motive, and structure were the result of informed intuition. Throughout the piece, each of these four elements interacts with the others, sometimes influencing and sometimes responding to them. My hope is that these subtle tensions propel the composition forward toward its ultimate resolution.