Violin repertoire composed in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries placed new demands on performers. While numerous pedagogues have written etudes and treatises analyzing traditional techniques, far fewer have thoroughly examined contemporary techniques. Many of the existing etudes and exercises inspired by contemporary violin repertoire are of a very high difficulty level and may seem unapproachable to students with little to no experience performing the music of recent decades. As a result, many violin students are unacquainted with the language of new music. This dissertation is intended to help fill a gap in the pedagogical literature by serving as a resource that familiarizes advanced students with the notation and proper execution of the non-traditional techniques commonly found in contemporary violin music. This document includes a survey of violin repertoire written since 1970, an analysis of the non-traditional techniques used most often in the works examined, methods for approaching specific technical problems that arise in them, and nine etudes originally composed by this author. The etudes focus on nine contemporary techniques, ranging from contact point variations to changing subdivisions, and are intended for study by advanced violinists interested in performing contemporary music.

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The purpose of this intrinsic case study was to show how Expert Team Theory can explain the application of goal orientated rehearsal strategies which were designed for this study for an ad hoc ensemble at the School of Music of the North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa. The case study was considered as the most suitable research method to investigate the ways in which goal-orientated rehearsal strategies influence dynamics during rehearsals of a new music ensemble, and the experiences by the members of their interaction, because this approach allowed me to investigate these strategies in a real world environment. This study was born out of an interest in rehearsal strategies and in different ways to structure music rehearsals. The characteristics of a new music ensemble determined the use of Expert Team Theory as the theoretical basis for the design of the goalorientated rehearsal strategies. These characteristics correspond well with that of an expert team as “a set of interdependent team members, each of whom possesses unique and expert-level knowledge, skills, and experience related to task performance, and who adapt, coordinate, and cooperate as a team, thereby producing sustainable and repeatable team functioning at superior or at least nearoptimal levels of performance” (Salas et al., 2006:439-440). Based on interviews with the participants and the observations of video recordings of the rehearsals, the results show that interpreting the data through the theoretical lens of Expert Team Theory enabled me to explain the rehearsal process as a dynamic confluence of experiences created through the interaction of the ensemble members who grew through increasing cooperation and coordination to resemble an expert team. Their sense of collectiveness and their trust coupled with strong leadership allowed the success of the strategy of prebrief-performance-debrief. The ensemble developed progressively clearer shared mental models and understandings of roles and responsibilities. A clear, valued and shared vision helped them to manage and optimize performance outcomes. The findings are also interrogated in terms of cooperative learning to further explain the web-like way in which different themes developed. This led to a discussion of the limitations of this study and suggestions for further research. / MA (Performance), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

The purpose of this intrinsic case study was to show how Expert Team Theory can explain the application of goal orientated rehearsal strategies which were designed for this study for an ad hoc ensemble at the School of Music of the North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa. The case study was considered as the most suitable research method to investigate the ways in which goal-orientated rehearsal strategies influence dynamics during rehearsals of a new music ensemble, and the experiences by the members of their interaction, because this approach allowed me to investigate these strategies in a real world environment. This study was born out of an interest in rehearsal strategies and in different ways to structure music rehearsals. The characteristics of a new music ensemble determined the use of Expert Team Theory as the theoretical basis for the design of the goalorientated rehearsal strategies. These characteristics correspond well with that of an expert team as “a set of interdependent team members, each of whom possesses unique and expert-level knowledge, skills, and experience related to task performance, and who adapt, coordinate, and cooperate as a team, thereby producing sustainable and repeatable team functioning at superior or at least nearoptimal levels of performance” (Salas et al., 2006:439-440). Based on interviews with the participants and the observations of video recordings of the rehearsals, the results show that interpreting the data through the theoretical lens of Expert Team Theory enabled me to explain the rehearsal process as a dynamic confluence of experiences created through the interaction of the ensemble members who grew through increasing cooperation and coordination to resemble an expert team. Their sense of collectiveness and their trust coupled with strong leadership allowed the success of the strategy of prebrief-performance-debrief. The ensemble developed progressively clearer shared mental models and understandings of roles and responsibilities. A clear, valued and shared vision helped them to manage and optimize performance outcomes. The findings are also interrogated in terms of cooperative learning to further explain the web-like way in which different themes developed. This led to a discussion of the limitations of this study and suggestions for further research. / MA (Performance), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

O filósofo frankfurtiano Theodor W. Adorno ocupou uma posição chave nos debates das vanguardas musicais ao longo de aproximadamente quarenta anos, entre cerca de 1924 e 1964. Seus ensaios e monografias musicais, produzidos ao longo desse período constituem a reflexão filosófica mais complexa e profunda sobre os destinos da composição musical de que se tem notícia. Uma reflexão que ao privilegiar a práxis compositiva como ponto de arranque foi amplamente absorvida e ajudou a impulsionar todo o movimento da Nova Música. A presente tese efetua uma interpretação do pensamento musical adorniano tendo como premissa fundamental esse enraizamento do filósofo nas questões relativas à práxis composicional de música radical. Seu principal objetivo é esclarecer em que termos Adorno concebera as categorias dialéticas próprias à imanência da forma musical em sua determinação recíproca com o caráter estético de aparência das obras musicais. / The Frankfurtian philosopher Theodor W. Adorno occupied a key position in the debates of the musical avant-garde over approximately forty years, between 1924 and 1964. His essays and musical monographies produced during this period are the most complex and profound philosophical reflections available on the destinies of musical composition during the twentieth-century. A reflection that privileging compositional practice as its starting point was largely absorbed and helped to drive the whole movement of New Music. This doctoral thesis makes an interpretation of Adornos musical thought starting from this fundamental premise which states the rooting of his philosophical reflection on questions regarding the compositional practice of radical music. Its main objective is to clarify how Adorno conceived along his work the immanent dialectical categories of musical form in their mutual determination with the aesthetic appearance statute of musical works.

This submission for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy focuses on works for large instrumental ensemble in conjunction with the voice. Instrumental ensemble and vocal mediums such as the orchestral art song, the song cycle and the opera in one act, provide platforms to explore the expressiveness of the lyrical dramatic voice and the dialectic tension between composing for the solo voice with a range of instrumental ensemble forces. The portfolio of compositions includes the orchestral song, The Woman Who Refused to Dance; the orchestral song trilogy, Spirit Songs; and the opera in one act, Queen Nanny of the Maroons. Issues of composition technique, vocal expression and operatic narrative are examined and in addition the three named works explore notions of post-colonial heroic representation of subjects that might not usually attract ideological recognition in Western European art music contexts. Methods for developing inclusive, post-modern musical language for the mixed instrumental and vocal ensemble are explored; including the employment of spoken word expression and the integration of popular music idioms within contemporary Western European art music contexts. In the writing of lyrics for the songs and libretto for the opera, increased responsibility is assumed in the completion of vocal works in addition to musical consideration to find the effects on the works when the roles of composer and writer are combined. With the opera in one act for solo voice, forming the major contribution to the portfolio, critical components that lead to effective music drama are assessed.

The work grafted hymnologies, a piece for chamber orchestra, explores connections between twentieth century formalist compositional techniques and formalist techniques of pretonal music. This document, which accompanies the score for the piece, provides an analysis of the work that explains the various techniques and their application to the music. This piece is composed in five large sections. The work pairs compositional techniques associated with pre-tonal music from those of twentieth century modernist music. For example, the second section employs the Medieval idea of tropes-- each time the melody is repeated, new melodic material is added, in the style of the elaborations to the Gregorian repertory that were common as early as the tenth century. This is paired with a single pitch class drone that evolves by timbral modulation, a technique influenced in part by Schoenberg and carried out exactingly by Elliot Carter. Each section contains a similar pairings, which are explained in detail herein. That these kinds of pairings could co-exist in a single piece seems natural; certainly, the intricate formalism that appeared in some Western concert music before 1600 exhibits a certain degree of aesthetic concurrence with the formalist music of the early to mid- twentieth century. Artistically, reaching back to the past (both near and far) and creating something new is an interesting exploration of how history can inform the creative process. / text

O filósofo frankfurtiano Theodor W. Adorno ocupou uma posição chave nos debates das vanguardas musicais ao longo de aproximadamente quarenta anos, entre cerca de 1924 e 1964. Seus ensaios e monografias musicais, produzidos ao longo desse período constituem a reflexão filosófica mais complexa e profunda sobre os destinos da composição musical de que se tem notícia. Uma reflexão que ao privilegiar a práxis compositiva como ponto de arranque foi amplamente absorvida e ajudou a impulsionar todo o movimento da Nova Música. A presente tese efetua uma interpretação do pensamento musical adorniano tendo como premissa fundamental esse enraizamento do filósofo nas questões relativas à práxis composicional de música radical. Seu principal objetivo é esclarecer em que termos Adorno concebera as categorias dialéticas próprias à imanência da forma musical em sua determinação recíproca com o caráter estético de aparência das obras musicais. / The Frankfurtian philosopher Theodor W. Adorno occupied a key position in the debates of the musical avant-garde over approximately forty years, between 1924 and 1964. His essays and musical monographies produced during this period are the most complex and profound philosophical reflections available on the destinies of musical composition during the twentieth-century. A reflection that privileging compositional practice as its starting point was largely absorbed and helped to drive the whole movement of New Music. This doctoral thesis makes an interpretation of Adornos musical thought starting from this fundamental premise which states the rooting of his philosophical reflection on questions regarding the compositional practice of radical music. Its main objective is to clarify how Adorno conceived along his work the immanent dialectical categories of musical form in their mutual determination with the aesthetic appearance statute of musical works.

This dissertation is a study on the integration of Chinese traditional musical elements in Western-style compositions for the violin by contemporary Chinese composers. As background, the development of musical synthesis in Chinese New Music since the 1930s is reviewed, and essential aspects of the musical language and aesthetics of Chinese Traditional Music are surveyed. Through detailed analyses of three representative compositions by contemporary composers Ma Sicong (1912-1987), Chen Yi (b. 1953), and Bright Sheng (b.1955), their different approaches to the synthesis of Chinese traditional and Western musical styles are examined. Historical context is provided in biographical information about the three composers, including their educational background, musical influences, and compositional styles.

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