This project consists of a theoretical examination of Australian music theatre and a portfolio of musical compositions. The thesis proposes an innovative analytical model for music theatre/multi-media with a distinctive perspective. Adapting concepts from feminist Deleuzean theorists, it advances a notion of feminine difference that moves beyond earlier debates between essentialists and anti-essentialists. This theoretical framework guides the close examination of three works ― Andrée Greenwell’s Laquiem: Tales from the Mourning of the Lac Women (1999), Greenwell’s Laquiem (2002) and Gretchen Miller’s Inland (1999/2000) ― that complicate the category ‘music theatre’ in the way that they cross genre boundaries. Greenwell’s Laquiem: Tales from the Mourning of the Lac Women is a new music performance work based upon Kathleen Mary Fallon’s ‘The Mourning of the Lac Women’. This work has a close relationship to Laquiem (2002), a short film directed, composed and scripted adapted by Greenwell based upon the same text by Fallon. Inland is a radiophonic work that Miller also staged as a live performance. The thesis argues that changing format and interdisciplinary content of works such as these has contributed to the current proliferation of genre labels. Recent works can be defined under various descriptors such as ‘performance art’, ‘documentary opera’ or ‘installation performance’. The thesis offers the concept of ‘deterritorialised music theatre’ to address works that exist at and beyond the limits of music theatre as a category. The penultimate chapter applies a Deleuzean feminist framework to the composition portfolio submitted with the thesis. The creative work consists of two audio-visual installations (one with quadraphonic sound), a music-theatre work (exploring ‘action’- instrumental possibilities) and a music-art tour that includes music for string trio, singer and brass/sax septet. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/244837 |
| Date | January 2007 |
| Creators | Bonshek, Corrina, University of Western Sydney, College of Arts, School of Communication Arts |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
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