This portfolio comprises seven compositions in a variety of mediums: 1. In Time Entwined, In Space Enlaced (9 players + 36 audience harmonicas); Noctilucence (mixed ensemble: 8 players); Looking for the Land that is Nowhere (theremin and string octet); On Love and Death - 5 Rossetti Songs (soprano and piano); Incandescence (solo cello); Learning Self-Modulation (violin and piano) Isolarion: Rituals of Resonance (large orchestra). Through each of these works I explore the construction and elaboration of 'structural lines' and how they function in a variety of contexts. Central to my musical thinking, they provide a coherent core around which more complex musical situations are created through layering and textural invention. On a harmonic level these works attempt to integrate the insights of 'spectral', 'serial' and 'modal' thinking into a flexible language which has the capacity for motion between distinct realms while maintaining unity. Various concepts of time are investigated through musical processes which involve different degrees of repetition and predictability, expansion and contraction. Each work is also a point of contact between musical and extra-musical ideas and the relationships between these are elucidated in my commentary. Such conceptual oppositions as motion-stasis, change-continuity, time-eternity, and unity-diversity define my attitude towards musical form and material. In turn, recognition and consideration of the creative tension between 'constructive' and 'intuitive' compositional approaches is highlighted as being fruitful.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:628200 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Creators | Mason, Christian |
| Publisher | King's College London (University of London) |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/looking-for-the-land-that-is-nowhere(3c42381e-d0f7-46fb-b21a-f8ab2cf59338).html |
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