The notion of identity between the ancient and the contemporary, which has its source in Mayan studies, informs the design principles of this work. Specific techniques are listed for the design of musical space and time in Guacamayo, which is "a musical drama that strives for synthesis." There follows an outline of the principle motivic material, approaches to melodic construction and text setting, techniques used to design space (or pitch) and time (or rhythm)--including traditional harmony, symmetrical modes, non-octaviating space and random number generation in the first case, and speech rhythm, folk rhythm, metre and tempo in the second--as well as the role of summation series in the construction of both time and space. A discussion of dialectic concepts, and the ways in which different techniques are combined to create a sense of motion between simple textures and complex ones leads to consideration of form-determining placement of important scenes from the opera. Comments on the composition of the orchestra and electroacoustic music conclude the essay.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.76520 |
| Date | January 1991 |
| Creators | Oliver, E. John C. (Edward John Clavering) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Music (Faculty of Music.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001324760, proquestno: AAINN74748, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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