Job-housing relations, job accessibility and commuting efficiency have been the concerns of academics and policy makers alike, and a large body of literature has been published on relevant topics. Although various hypotheses from the West have been tested in research on some Chinese major cities, most neglects the role of the hukou system, the most essential and unique institution influencing every aspect of people's daily life in China. This thesis responds to this deficiency by placing hukou at the forefront in the analysis of job-housing relations and commute. The data used in this thesis is from a household survey in Guangzhou as well as the population and economic census. Firstly, it analyses the job-housing relationship and commuting patterns in Guangzhou as well as the influence of hukou system. Secondly, it examines the spatial pattern of job accessibility in Guangzhou and accessibility inequality between local and non-local hukou holders. Also, the differential influences of land use and mobility on different hukou holders' job accessibility are evaluated. Thirdly, it estimates and compares the commuting efficiency of Guangzhou with other cities, and evaluates the roles of hukou system and other socio-economic factors in the commuting efficiency of Guangzhou. Meanwhile, the present research highlights the mechanism underlying the interactions between hukou system, job-housing relations and commute, and discusses the influences of hukou system on job/housing market and public services/welfare provisions. Taking hukou into consideration, this thesis contributes to the fields of jobs-housing relationship and commute in urban China by addressing the complex influences of local context on job-housing relations and commute as well as providing a mapping of inequalities between different hukou holders.

This thesis examines the core concepts of early minimalism and the ways that they were influenced by recording as a medium of musical creation. The first chapter considers early minimalism’s historical lineage as the narrative has been passed down by music scholars, noting over-arching trends and problems of exclusion and misunderstanding inherent within it. Having established the myriad of concepts at the core of the early minimalist movement, the second chapter examines the recording medium’s effect on art music performance, noting trends in repetition, objectivity, and process that are represented within minimalism itself. With these ideas in mind, the idea of “post-minimalism” is interrogated, proposing that a music for the concert hall is not the natural development of the early minimalists’ expansive mission. In the third chapter, analysis of one iconic late-twentieth century musical style, techno music, demonstrates that it is fundamentally of the same artistic spirit as the early minimalists and an alternate manifestation of Minimal art. Ultimately, early minimalism and techno are “alternate minimalisms” of the age of the recording, referencing and embodying the musical consciousness of the twentieth century.

This thesis investigates the extent to which networking technology can be used to provide remote workstation access to a pool of shared music studio resources. A pilot system is described in which MIDI messages, studio control data, and audio signals flow between the workstations and a studio server. A booking and timing facility avoids contention and allows for accurate reports of studio usage. The operation of the system has been evaluated in terms of its ability to satislY three fundamental goals, namely the remote, shared and centralized access to studio resources. Three essential network configurations have been identified, incorporating a mix of star and bus topologies, and their relative potential for satisfYing the fundamental goals has been highlighted.

This dissertation seeks to identify the purposive force that determines the form and function of commercial stereophony in capitalist society, and the ways in which this force affects the productive and consumptive activities of stereophonic practitioners and listening audiences. Employing dialectical materialism, I examine three social processes that either historically established or continue to influence the mediative potential of stereophonic sound: the invention and industrial standardization of the stereophonic apparatus, the professionalization of stereophonic practitioners, and the social construction of stereophonic listeners as a mass consuming audience. These interrelated studies reveal perceived economic necessity as the dominant causal force that governs all stereophonic processes and practices under the capitalist economic system. Informed by my chapter findings, which complicate Karl Marx’s materialist base and superstructure schema – a coarse conceptual abstraction of capitalist production, I construct a more refined and flexible schematic diagram that offers a distinctive bird’s eye view of the universal interplay between capitalists, producers and consumers. This novel conceptual schematic depicts productive forces and productive relations as coterminous expressions of the dual-purpose of capitalism: to produce surplus-value for accumulation by capitalists, and to do so in perpetuity.

During the 1950s the experience of recording was transformed by a series of technical innovations including tape recording, editing, the LP record, and stereo sound. Within a decade recording had evolved into an art form in which multiple takes and editing were essential components in the creation of an illusory ideal performance. The British recording industry was at the forefront of development, and the rapid growth in recording activity throughout the 1950s as companies built catalogues of LP records, at first in mono but later in stereo, had a profound impact on the music profession in Britain. Despite this, there are few documented accounts of working practices, or of the experiences of those involved in recording at this time, and the subject has received sparse coverage in academic publications. This thesis studies the development of the recording of classical music in Britain in the long 1950s, the core period under discussion being 1948 to 1964. It begins by considering the current literature on recording, the cultural history of the period in relation to classical music, and the development of recording in the 1950s. Oral history informs the central part of the thesis, based on the analysis of 89 interviews with musicians, producers, engineers and others involved in recording during the 1950s and 1960s. The thesis concludes with five case studies, four of significant recordings - Tristan und Isolde (1952), Peter Grimes (1958), Elektra (1966-67), and Scheherazade (1964) - and one of a television programme, The Anatomy of a Record (1975), examining aspects of the recording process. The thesis reveals the ways in which musicians, producers, and engineers responded to the challenges and opportunities created by advances in technology, changing attitudes towards the aesthetics of performance on record, and the evolving nature of practices and relationships in the studio. It also highlights the wider impact of recording on musical practice and its central role in helping to raise standards of musical performance, develop audiences for classical music, and expand the repertoire in concert and on record.

This practice-based thesis offers a new approach to editing processes that take place during the recording and subsequent editing of an individual speaking directly to a camera. Rosalind Krauss identified all performance to camera as narcissistic (1976), which includes the subset of artists’ direct address to camera, and since then the area has been widely understood within a psychoanalytical framework. This new approach provides a non-psychoanalytical perspective on direct address to camera, taking into account linguistic self-editing during the generation of speech (Skinner, 1957, p. 370) and technological editing processes once the speech has been recorded. While ‘artists’ film and video is a distinct form of cultural practice with its own autonomy’ in relation to mainstream film (Rees, 1999, p. vii), editing practices within the field of artists’ direct address to camera show no such independence and widely adopt techniques and terminology from the mainstream canon. I consider ways that the language and practice of editing can be expanded beyond the mainstream, and I introduce a transdisciplinary approach to the editing of speech, which is between, across and ‘beyond all disciplines’ (Nicolescu, 2008, p. 2). My practice plays a major role in developing a context for this enquiry. I use the video process, artist’s books, transcription, drawing and text to add to the existing vocabulary of mainstream editing. I create a new technique called blindediting, which involves cutting out video material without looking at it. Finally, I discuss my publication A Relational [Video] Grammar: Extrapolation (2013) which illustrates my transdisciplinary approach and explores the new language that I have developed for editing speech. My research provides a new perspective on the editing of speech in artists’ direct address to camera and suggests that a transdisciplinary understanding of editing practices can shed light on existing works within artists’ film and video.

abstract: The symphonies of Gustav Mahler (1860 - 1911) constitute an essential element of the orchestral repertory; they are therefore essential for young conductors to understand and for instrumentalists to play. Yet they are impractical in many school situations because they call for large orchestras. One solution to this problem is for the conductor to study the original, full version of the works as Mahler composed them, but to consider performing one of the reduced instrumentations now available. A smaller-scale version provides an opportunity for both the conductor and the instrumentalists to confront the challenges of performing Mahler's music and to explore Mahler's musical language and style in a more manageable setting. This project focuses on Mahler's Fourth Symphony, which is available in two reduced orchestrations: one by Erwin Stein made in 1921 and another by Klaus Simon from 2007. This paper is part of a larger project that includes a lecture-recital with commentary and a performance of the symphony in the more recent Simon arrangement (documented on video). It presents some background on Mahler's Fourth Symphony and compares the two reduced instrumentations to Mahler's original and to one another. Taken together, the parts of this project demonstrate an approach to learning and performing Mahler's music in a more accessible and practical setting for student conductors. / Dissertation/Thesis / Video recording on Lecture Recital: Mahler symphony No.4, Arr. Klaus Simon / Doctoral Dissertation Music 2016

abstract: Born in 1937, the Ukrainian-Russian composer Nikolai Kapustin has gradually gained recognition among Western music scholars and pianists by blending American jazz idioms into classical forms, such as concertos, sonatas, and preludes; recently he has become a very prominent composer. As one of the most prolific composers of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, he has composed over 160 works to date. Most of them are piano solo works. The uniqueness of his compositional philosophy is that he consistently treats the music language of jazz as a core element in all his output, while others might only use jazz idioms experimentally in their works. Being an excellent pianist himself, Kapustin has recorded many of his own works, giving a firsthand reference for interpreting his piano music. Some of his most famous works, including the Variations, Op. 41, the Eight Concert Etudes, Op. 40, and the 24 Preludes in Jazz Style, Op. 53 have been recorded by other prominent artists, such as Steven Osborne and Marc-Andre Hamelin. Scholarly research on Kapustin’s piano works remains limited. Most of it is found in journal articles and dissertations. Unfortunately, all of them are focused on his early popular works. His more recent works from 2007-2013: the Six Little Pieces, Op. 133, Dialogue, Op. 148, Etude Courte mais Transcendante pour piano, Op. 149, Nobody Is Perfect, Op. 151, A Pianist In Jeopardy, Op. 152, and Wandering, Op. 153, have not yet been discussed in any scholarly writing. In brief, the purpose of this study is to present a first recording of these six major solo works, and to examine them in a research paper. The paper discusses Kapustin’s consistent use of jazz elements in his recent works, addresses musical and technical concerns in their performance practice, and facilitates more extended study of these valuable but yet to be recorded works. The paper consists of eight parts. The first part covers brief background information on the composer, as well as reviewing important jazz features, in order to more effectively analyze his stylistic language in the six compositions which are explored in the subsequent chapters including a conclusion. / Dissertation/Thesis / SIX LITTLE PIECES, OP. 133, No. 1 Allegro Moderato / SIX LITTLE PIECES, OP. 133, No. 2 Comodo / SIX LITTLE PIECES, OP. 133, No. 3 Allegretto / SIX LITTLE PIECES, OP. 133, No. 4 Larghetto / SIX LITTLE PIECES, OP. 133, No. 5 Allegro Scherzando / SIX LITTLE PIECES, OP. 133, No. 6 Allegro non troppo / DIALOGUE FOR SOLO PIANO, OP. 148 / ETUDE COURTE MAIS TRANSCENDANTE, OP. 149 / NOBODY IS PERFECT, OP. 151 / A PIANIST IN JEOPARDY, OP. 152 / WANDERING, OP. 153 / Doctoral Dissertation Music 2018

abstract: This dissertation focuses on seven solo piano works written by contemporary Chinese-American composer Chen Yi. It is presented in the form of a recording project, with a written analysis of each recorded composition. The seven recorded pieces are Variations on "Awariguli", Duo Ye, Guessing, Two Chinese bagatelles: Yu Diao and Small Beijing Gong, Ba Ban, Singing in the Mountain, and Ji-Dong-Nuo. They were written between 1978 and 2005, presenting a wide range of Chen Yi's compositional style. The written portion consists of five chapters. After the introductory chapter, a sketch of Chen Yi's life is presented in Chapter Two. This chapter specifically uncovers Chen Yi's deep roots of Chinese traditional and folk music through her experiences during the Cultural Revolution. Chapter Three analyzes each of the seven pieces. Through formal structure realization, motivic analysis, and folk music implication, the author discovers the blend of Chinese and Western cultures throughout Chen Yi's music. Chapter Four discusses the performance aspect of these compositions through the author's recording experience. In this chapter, the author provides background information as well as suggestions on specific performance practice. The last chapter summarizes the entire dissertation. / Dissertation/Thesis / Variations on "Awariguli" / Duo Ye / Guessing / Two Chinese Bagatelles: Yu Diao / Two Chinese Bagatelles: Small Beijing Gong / Ba Ban / Singing in the Mountain / Ji-Dong-Nuo / D.M.A. Music 2012

abstract: A common concern among musical performers in today'’s musical market pertains to their capacity to adapt to the constantly changing climate of the music business. This document focuses on one aspect of the development of a sustainable, entrepreneurship skill set: the production of a recording. While producing the recording Chocolates, the author examined and documented the multiplicity of skills encompassed with a recording project. The first part of the document includes a discussion of various aspects of the recording project, Chocolates, through an entrepreneurial lens, and an evaluation of the skill sets acquired through the recording process. Additionally, the inspiration and relevance behind the recording project and the process of collaboration between the two composers from whom I commissioned new compositions, Noah Taylor and James Grant, and myself is considered. Finally, I describe the recording and editing processes, including the planning involved within each process, how I achieved the final product, and the entrepreneurial skills involved. The second portion of this document examines a broad range of applications of entrepreneurship, marketing, and career management skills not only within the confines of this particular project, but also in relation to the overall sustainability of a twenty-–first century music-–performing career. / Dissertation/Thesis / D.M.A. Music 2013