Search

Since my first collaboration with accordionist Rafal Luc in 2010, I have been fascinated with composition for the accordion. I have created multiple compositions in classical and jazz settings, from solo works and chamber ensembles to an accordion concerto with full symphony orchestra. This research has enabled me to continue developing new repertoire for the concert accordion whilst exploring the instrument at a deeper level, connecting with the accordion community and reviewing the existing repertoire to inform the new works herein. While the core of this folio sits with the instrument itself, the resulting repertoire comes from my own exploration into the interpolation of groove into the breadth of the works, regardless of stylistic persuasion. I have had opportunity to collaborate with a diverse range of instrumentalists from different disciplines, virtuoso musicians both experienced in improvisation to those who play only from fully notated scores. In order to address the needs of the range of instrumentalists I have worked with and who themselves represent the wider community; I have incorporated a range of styles throughout. As the folio progresses, the role of the accordion changes, from fully notated settings in the opening fugue-style solo work, to the final ensemble project, which is fully improvised, with no scored material. It is this element of groove that led to the second research imperative of improvisation, a natural extension of many musical genres that incorporate a sense of groove, whilst being a factor which divides the musical community virtually in two; those who improvise, and those who do not. Through this folio, I have explored various ways and degrees of improvisation that can be included in contemporary works for the accordion, from gestural improvisation, with no harmonic basis, through single scales supported by ensemble based backings, to fully improvised material over jazz changes and free improvisation in a fully improvised quartet.

The word 'curate' derives from the Latin verb curare, meaning 'to care'; historically, a curator has been thought of as 'one who cares for a collection'(Graham and Cook, 2010, p.10). More recently, there has been a dramatic expansion in the range of activities undertaken by curators; the term 'curate' is being used in more and more contexts, and an increasing number of people are referring to themselves as 'curators', as will later be discussed (Graham and Cook, 2010). My portfolio, which comprises four original pieces, three essays and a series of commentaries, considers whether the concept of curating is applicable to composition. I have focussed on this concept in two distinct ways. Firstly, considering the role of 'curator-as-archivist', I have explored the ways in which archives of sounds, texts and images can act as the basis for musical compositions. Secondly, thinking about 'curator-as-historian', I have explored the idea of curating as a particular mode of engagement with history, in which the past is encountered as an array of fragmentary materials, rather than as a unified narrative. A number of research questions underpin the essays, the compositions and the commentaries: - Can creative practice be used as a form of historical enquiry? - Conversely, how can historical enquiry inform creative practice? - What might it mean to think of the composer as the curator, rather than the author, of his or her musical materials? - Does the notion of composer as curator rather than author also undermine the idea of composer as solitary practitioner? Is the composer always essentially engaged in an act of collaboration, either with other living artists, or with the originators of the other texts that inform his or her work?

This portfolio of compositions is comprised of eight works written between 2014 and 2018. The accompanying commentary addresses how particular pieces of visual art, along with links to architecture and geological forms, are used as a creative stimulus to devise the compositions presented in the portfolio. On the surface, the artworks discussed appear elementary and embrace economy in their construction, which has a direct influence on how my compositions have been conceived. Inevitably, in taking an economical approach to devise new works, Minimalist attributes in both visual art and music are primarily acknowledged; however, rather than extending any one of the dominant strands of these Minimalist traditions, the music in this portfolio seeks to return to these forms of art and contemplate them afresh in order to respond in new ways. As a result, my core research question focuses on how to create engaging music with maximum effect through minimal means. This question also raises a subset of concerns in regard to repetition, ritual, teleology, temporality and memory; all of which are addressed via the introduction and four subsequent chapters. These topics form the framework of discussion in the commentary and the portfolio compositions are referred to where their features highlight and challenge these concerns.

The compositions presented in this portfolio are unified by a common underlying theme: the idea of silence in music. The works were written between October 2012 and August 2015 during the course of my research. They were conceived as part of my exploration of three silence-related areas: the uses of silence in music; the ways of effecting a perception of silence musically; and an indeterminate approach to placing silence in a musical work. Some pieces seek to explore one major idea while the purposes of others may be manifold. But in all these compositions, silence emerges as an integral part of the overall musical structure.

This compositional portfolio comprises eight original works presented in musical scores. The works were written between October 2013 and April 2017 during the course of my PhD research. The compositions featured are for a variety of combinations of voices and solo instrument up to full orchestra. Audio recordings of performances are included for all except the final orchestral work. In these compositions, I introduce a new compositional idea, declaiming, which I have been developing and which is explained in this commentary. This idea is used to determine the formal structure of these pieces. Unique approaches to using this compositional idea are described in this commentary, regarding individual works.

This portfolio of compositions is the result of four years of practice-led research. It consists of nine original scores, all of which are written for acoustic instruments and intended for concert hall performance: 1. Unfurl (2014) — mixed sextet 2. Uhtceare (2014) – mixed quartet 3. Uncanny Vale (2014) — wind quintet 4. Ropes of Maui (2015) — symphony orchestra 5. Cast (2016) — piano soloist and nine players 6. Locks of the Approaching Storm (2016) — mixed octet 7. Monologues & Dialogues (2017) — bass clarinet and piano 8. Betelgeuse Astral Funicular (2017) — sixteen players 9. Three Movements for String Quartet (2017) — string quartet In the commentary, these compositions are discussed in terms of a series of interconnected dialectical relationships: motion and stasis; line and circle; continuity and discontinuity; change and repetition; unity and disunity. These oppositions provide ways of illuminating the shared features of the portfolio, whilst also demonstrating what makes each work unique. In addition, the commentary reflects the developing nature of my practice over the course of the PhD. It does so by illustrating the continuous process of analysing, refining, and expanding my repertoire of constructive compositional techniques. Finally, this music represents the confluence of a wide range of influences, musical and otherwise. These are too numerous to acknowledge comprehensively, and so are outlined selectively where they help to elucidate specific aesthetic ideas and technical processes.

The purpose of this thesis is to provide a commentary on eight works composed between 2014 and 2017. In particular, this text includes the main thoughts of the composer regarding compositional process, texture transformation, tone material and form. The pieces in this portfolio demonstrate the development of my compositional practice and personal style, characterised by the importance of pitch and textural elements and the use of gesture. Furthermore, references are made to the composer’s Selective Subtraction of Tone and Rhythmic Material composition method whenever is implemented.

This PhD composition portfolio explores through practice the collaborative relationship between composer and performer. The work demonstrates an inter-dependence between the desire to work with a person or group of people and exploration of an abstract or conceptual idea. Many of these conceptual ideas are from the Jungian school of psychology, or drawn from the real life experiences of composer and/or performer. The commentary reflects on the differing nature of these relationships, and the effect this has on the work. Ideas laid out in Vera John-Steiner’s book Creative Collaboration—such as ‘integrative’ and ‘complementary collaboration’, ‘supportive partnerships’, ‘self-in-relation’, ‘thought communities’, ‘enterprises’, and ‘life-span approach’—provide context. The portfolio follows and diverges from the atelier model used by composers like George Aperghis and Meredith Monk, and the director/composer auteur model as outlined by Eric Salzman and Thomas Desi in their book The New Music Theatre. It demonstrates that placing collaborators at the subjective centre of the work gives them autonomy within the compositional creative process, and the role of composer becomes more facilitator, less auteur. This contributes to knowledge by enabling the composer to look beyond the self and towards society. One aim is composing pieces that are immediate, meaningful and have lasting resonance with the creators, audiences and future performers. This is achieved by writing music rooted in human psychology and personal experience. Another aim is to legitimise the total integration of emotion and reason within the creative process. Ultimately, the portfolio presents research into the composer’s role as psychologist, the pieces as therapy, and the impact this has on the individual, the collaborators and society.

This portfolio of compositions contains ten pieces, composed between 2012 and 2016. It is a mixed portfolio, representative of a broad range of my musical interests rather than one which specialises exclusively on a single facet of my output. There are several strands of thought which emerge from this portfolio; I regard them as inter-connected and braided together throughout my work. They are fundamental to my composing and are central to the development of my personal musical language. For the sake of concision and cohesion I have grouped them into three sections: 1) the search for clarity, at all levels but particularly that of form and design, 2) exploring aspects of repetition within these pieces, and 3) the influence of cinematic practice upon the compositional process, specifically the impact of visual techniques (such as film editing) on the assembly of musical structures. That discussion is followed by commentaries on the individual pieces included in this portfolio.

The ten works presented here were composed between early 2012 and early 2015. They chart a process of experimentation, development and clarification with regards to my personal approach to composition and share a broad set of musical ideas. The works are diverse in terms of forces, aesthetics and sound-worlds, but are unified by the application of musical dialectics that can be metaphorically traced back to the investigation of human perception, an interest which ultimately derives from my experiences as a performer of notated and improvised music. This investigation is represented practically, descriptively, and metaphorically in various ways across the folio. This is not a scientific study: my own curiosity about the conscious and unconscious processes which shape one’s perception of the world provided a starting point for the construction of a set of musical relationships. These formative dialectics may provoke a listener to think about perceptual phenomena, or they may have an entirely different effect.

This portfolio presents the results of my doctoral research, Feast of La Tirana 2012 (Chile): Musical analysis and compositions based on field research, developed in the Music Department of The University of York from 2011 to 2015. This project is based on fieldwork developed in La Tirana, a small village located in the arid desert of Atacama, Chile, in 2012. Here, nearly two-hundred-thousand of the faithful attend the celebrations for the Virgin Carmen every 16th July, giving rise to a celebration known as ‘The Feast of La Tirana’. The aim of this research was to investigate the characteristic musical parameters and practices found in La Tirana, and to explore new creative possibilities afforded by their application in a variety of musical contexts (specifically big band composition, small and large jazz group performance, contemporary chamber music, live performance with electronics, and rule-based contemporary systems music). The research included ethnomusicological inquiry, in parallel with an ongoing dialogue with performers from La Tirana, which was principally intended to inform the creative practice (composition and performance) that is the focus of this portfolio. This supporting research resulted in two articles that additionally seek to update the musical analyses available in English and Spanish on the music of the Atacama desert. The outcome of this process is a portfolio of six practical projects and two accompanying articles.

This Folio of Compositions is the result of an intense musical search. A search that I do not believe to be finished yet and which probably never will be, as being a composer is a lifelong journey of exploration. There has been a clear development in my personal voice during the last 5 years, a development that is documented in the music of these 11 pieces. The folio includes solo pieces, several chamber works and an orchestral score. Through the composition of these works I have consolidated a style where polyphonic texture, which involves a strong use of polyrhythms and isorhythm, and progressive transformations in pitch and harmony, play an important role. This commentary is divided into two sections. The first part contains some information about all the compositions, outlining facts such as the date of composition, first performance and main features of the piece. In the second part I present details and examples of compositional techniques, focusing on three specific music elements: harmony and pitches, melody and rhythm. By composing this corpus of pieces I had the aim of looking further into the essence of music, into the process of communication and the beauty of art.

This thesis takes an interdisciplinary approach, combining composition and analysis to explore a series of musical notions associated with time and form in twentieth and twenty-first century music. Four ideas are investigated through analytical case studies of music by Webern, Stravinsky, György Kurtág and George Benjamin, alongside interlinked original compositions. Whilst the selected works share broad underlying concerns, a parallel between the composers’ broader oeuvres is not asserted. Rather, the folio can be seen as addressing two interlinked topics, each with two related halves: brevity, through fragmentation and miniaturisation; and connectedness, through continuity and organicism. An all-encompassing view of the themes is not sought; instead, by demonstrating the idiosyncrasies in approach in both existing and original works, a diversity of information is gathered that provides individual not archetypal examples. It is shown that unity can be achieved in fragmented works by taking into account non-linear associations, whilst in miniature works a synthesis of form and content creates cohesion. Furthermore, continuity can be created despite block-like structures, whilst notions of organicism require new approaches to musical material. Through a synthesis of approaches that combines elements of practice-led and practice-based research, these temporal themes are explored in a manner that provides insight for both composers and listeners: conceptual issues are highlighted, their application in new works is demonstrated, and their precedents in extant pieces are explored. The analytical case studies are principally concerned with manners in which a work might be experienced, and how an awareness of form and the manipulation of time can inform this, whilst the compositions offer an individual approach to each theme, aiming to engage with the listening experience by actively exploring the stated ideas.

My portfolio of compositions includes eight original scores, plus two revised scores and accompanying recordings. The recordings are presented on one CD and one DVD. Written over three years, the compositions are for a variety of instruments from solo piano through to orchestra. Most of the works have been performed, either by professional musicians or by students. My research is focused on the role of breath within the dynamic relationship between events, reverberations and rests. My primary goal was to compose decaying musical shapes from the concrete object to silence. In this commentary, I also discuss other aspects of my compositional practice, such as individual ritardando techniques. I have analysed the harmonic progression, pitch materials and structure for some of my pieces. In chapter II, I explain how my music is related to the ideas of the musical gestures of appearance and disappearance. In chapter III, I clarify the method of organising broken looping as repetition. Both chapters also include an explanation of my cultural, musical background and influences.

This thesis consists of a unified portfolio of eight compositions focused on and exploring alternative versions of the 3rd channel, which is a personal approach to composition and a way to describe my compositional technique. The instrumentation employs a variety of forces, and it is mainly for solo instruments and small/chamber ensembles – always with the accompaniment of a tape part – plus a summative, large-scale installation for eight speakers. The presented works were composed between December 2009 and August 2013. The commentary presents an individual, in-depth analysis of the eight pieces in order to reveal the methodology of their compositional process(es).

This thesis explores new music created for gamelan in Britain, focusing primarily upon works for Javanese gamelan. It explores the historical conditions and human motivations which have made composition for gamelan such a distinctive part of the UK scene, and explores the range of works created through a series of taxonomical spectra. It considers how composers writing for gamelan in the UK situate themselves amongst the transcultural influences they are at play with in their composition. This is explored through a variety of lenses: looking at how composers use, avoid or mix musical structures associated with gamelan and those from other systems; whether or not they draw upon creative processes and methods of transmission associated with traditional gamelan music; and what happens when gamelan instruments are combined with those from other systems or with electronically-generated sound. It also explores narratives of authenticity and hybridity, and the interrelationship between British gamelan composition and the wider cultural scene. It questions the extent to which the British gamelan scene is distinct from other international gamelan communities, and the extent to which it is not, suggesting that the appearance of difference is in fact more of an inflection, coloured by local conditions, history and individuals, but nevertheless an expression of the same contemporary trans-state cosmopolitan flows (Turino 2003) that characterise gamelan cultures around the world.

This document presents a portfolio of ten composition projects produced between September 2010 and June 2014 created by composer Jon Hughes working in collaboration with a number of artists and researchers. Each individual chapter deals with a separate project, and is accompanied by a Data Drive presented alongside the text as an integral part of the submission. This contains audio, video and other supplementary material. There is also an introductory essay, Chapter 1: Footprints and Philosophy: Sonic Explorations in Divergent Landscapes, designed to set the composition portfolio in context. Although contrasting in terms of content and media, the ten works presented here share a number of common conceptual threads. They all involve the use of sound to reveal, uncover, communicate, and to map hidden aspects of the subject matter explored with each individual project, whether that be mathematical principles (Phase Revival), the shared experience of landscape (Terrarium, Hydrology, Another Place), principles from evolutionary biology (Transmission), or the rich complexity of shared acoustic space (A Dip in the Lake). A further related common thread is the use of large-scale ambisonic speaker arrays (Terrarium, A Dip in the Lake, Phase Revival, Sonic Horizons, Hydrology). This gave production teams the ability to create fully immersive audio/visual environments in which hidden themes and concepts referred to above could be better communicated. Working together with fellow collaborators, it thus became possible to create cultural interventions in the form of portable, immersive public spaces. Other themes explored in the portfolio include the use of found sound, and the exploration of landscape narrative. Found sound is used extensively, in combination with instrumental and vocal material.

This folio is comprised of nine electroacoustic compositions for multichannel presentation. They are linked together by their shared concern with micro- and macro-structural relationships between sonic layers, similar use of space (particularly Simon Emmerson’s ‘soundfield frames’), and exploitation of process departure or interruption. Chronic Pulsatile Tinnitus uses saxophone and percussion recordings to address the above compositional concerns. BCN comprises three works, Barbecued Spanish Builder, Cerveza Beer and Siren, which explore interactions between field recordings and those of bass guitar and drums. Mr President uses vocal recordings of phrases taken from Barack Obama’s election victory speeches to examine sequence verticality, while Nothing But Sky, BCN Metro, Digital Fun Pen and Ahlan Wa Sahlan offer approaches to field recordings within the contexts of the issues common throughout the folio. It is imperative that these pieces are listened to in their specified multichannel formats, as opposed to on a stereo system. This is to ensure the listener’s identification of sonic layers, which is not satisfactorily achievable over a headphone or two-speaker setup.

Fragments are essential for the realisation of my musical ideas. This commentary explains the musical, aesthetical and philosophical backgrounds to my work, and also the detailed compositional processes employed. Chapter one is a brief overview of Sigimsae and main-tone as found in traditional Korean music, which subsequently become transformed in my composition through the integration with contemporary Western musical elements. Chapter two analyses six compositions in this folio to clarify how unique sounds and forms are developed and achieved through the ever-changing fragment.

This composition portfolio is an exploration of different collaborative compositional processes, and an examination of their outcomes, which include both the actual music produced, and an account of my personal creative development. It is a journey from collaboration to solo composition. It is also an examination of the close connections between karawitan (the traditional Javanese gamelan repertoire) and new music for gamelan, and how the latter can widen the boundaries of karawitan. The portfolio seeks to develop my own style and musical language through collaborations, in different ways. Gamelan music and gamelan instruments are natural resources in view of the collaborative processes that are intrinsic to karawitan, which I have translated into my compositional processes.

This Portfolio of Compositions consists of eight scores, recordings on CD and commentary on my creative process. The pieces are: (1) Stone Structures, for cello and piano; (2) The Path of the Thousand Doors, for three snare drums; (3) Four Poems for Guitar, for guitar solo; (4) Night View, for flute and piano; (5) The Path of the Old Oaks, for chamber ensemble; (6) The Lake Isle of Innisfree, for female voice with finger cymbals, and flute; (7) Poema Místico, for speaking pianist with amplified voice; and, (8) Paths Between the Wind and the Sea, for full orchestra. They were composed in York between October 2009 and February 2013. The work presented here is the result of my intense compositional practice, development of techniques, research, reflection, and experimentation with performers. The main aspect focused in the compositional process of the pieces in this folio was the creation of textures - those that results from the overlapping of gestures in combination or, in a greater degree, of the overlapping of textures, i.e. multilayered textures. For me, the use of these overlapping of gestures or multilayered textures is an important compositional tool that helps to create directionality, contrast, ambiguity, transition in different hierarchical levels and between sections, and continuity in an atonal musical discourse - either in clear-cut multimovement pieces, or in larger-scale single movement pieces.

This folio presents eight works, composed between 2007 and 2013. The works represent the outcomes of my research which has focussed on the development of compositional approaches that bring together techniques and materials from different areas of musical practice, including electroacoustic music and electronic dance music. All of the pieces use algorithmic compositional techniques to some degree. A visual component is important in four of the pieces. The Bridge is a film soundtrack, 8 Switches, Algorithms for Electronics Fake Woodwind and Strings and Bastard Structures 2 are audio-visual works. In two of the pieces, Some Trees and Untitled (Two Pieces for Surround), 5.1 surround sound is used as a compositional element. The commentary serves to give background information, placing the work in context with other work in the field and to explain the compositional approaches that have been taken.

This folio of compositions represents four years of practice-led research into the relationship between musical context and musical content. The outcome is a spectrum of pieces through which the usefulness of terms such as ‘jazz’, ‘classical’, ‘Experimental’, ‘composed’, and ‘improvised’ music is surveyed. The purpose of the research is to find ways in which to express my own individuality as a composer through a very personal exploration of relationships between jazz and classical music contexts – to blur distinctions between them, to invent new musical materials (or, to situate existing musical materials differently), and to explore new relationships between composition, improvisation and indeterminacy. This commentary is in two parts: Part One, ‘Categories’ provides a context for my research and includes an evaluation of relevant musical terms and categories, before situating the folio of compositions accordingly; Part Two, ‘Materials, Methods and Techniques’ explores two distinct approaches to the organisation of pitch materials in the music: the first section is titled ‘Interval Cycles, Integration and ‘Extra-contextuality’’, the second ‘Modes, Form, and Narratives of Difference’. A third section, ‘Composed and Improvised Musical Material’, explores some of the ways in which distinctions between specified and unspecified musical content are blurred in the music. Part Two emphasises the combination of methods and techniques necessary to deal with multiple perspectives in the music, and the search for a common ground through which to explore relationships between musical styles and genres authentically and creatively.

A major part of gamelan’s appeal lies in the prevalence of aural transmission for both karawitan (traditional gamelan music) and new compositions. It is a medium through which I hope to have created music that departs from existing repertoire to an interesting degree, satisfyingly rich with fresh ideas even to specialists’ ears, without losing the players’ comprehension-of-the-whole that is a prerequisite of good ensemble. This comprehension can be much aided by building on existing norms, to make use of that which has been honed over generations by knowledgeable players, to extend rather than replace conventions of garap (musical realisation from an abstraction of, and/or partial notation of a piece). For this reason the pieces presented here tend to start with an initial tweak to a karawitan norm which then requires a cascade of related tweaks to garap. The initial modifications I explore in this body of work fall into two strands: 1) Garap for 3-beat gatra; and 2) Garap to three-note seleh-chords – to seleh notes harmonised with the kempyung above and the kempyung above that, for example harmonisation of seleh low 6 with 3 and high 1. For subsequent transmission of music initially created in these ways, full scores will not most usefully aid other musicians whether their wish is to play, to lead rehearsal of, or to analyse pieces. What is required instead is a guide to the interconnected set of ideas and skills required to realise a piece from various media. Ideally this guide will convey the desirability of adaptation of those realisations to context: to sets of players, to sets of instruments, to performance situation, to musical whims. That is, the means of transmission ought not inadvertently define “the piece” as an immutable ideal. Hence the submission as a website, for clear connecting of multiple media sources in the communication of my extended garap methods. This PhD/website is hosted by the University of York at http://php.york.ac.uk/library/dlib/johnjacobsphd/

As a result of six years of research in further developing my personal compositional techniques, this portfolio contains eight pieces of music. Each one of them is an attempt to solve certain aesthetic or technical problems concerning composition, by finding a viable balance between coherent construction and intuitive creativity.

This portfolio comprises the nine pieces written during my PhD research at the University of York and a commentary about the process of composition. My work seeks to focus on timbre and texture as guiding parameters, with due attention to comprehensibility through unity of material. I first give an overview of my compositional processes during the years previous to my research. Then I discuss the general principles of my present approach, sketching the links between it and earlier work. Finally, I illustrate these principles by discussing individual pieces and the links between them.

My portfolio of compositions comprises 13 original composition scores and accompanying CD and DVD media. This work spans a six year period from 2006- 2012 and is written for a variety of instruments from solo piano and vocal works through to large scale orchestral and choral. Nearly all the works have been commissioned and performed professionally and recordings of the performances are included. There are several arcs to the development of my composition that are displayed in this portfolio, and the commentary splits these into four main categories: mechanics of performance, exploring vocal technique, sonority as a structural mechanism and using ‘found material’ for tonal structure. My folio also covers areas of research involving the use of vocal multiphonics (such as traditional Mongolian throat-singing), and conveying poetic meaning through reference and musical discourse. My goal in composing these works is to create a flexible and meaningful compositional technique and, above all, to display a breadth of material and diversity of musical techniques that are equally balanced between experimentation and self-expression.

This portfolio includes pieces for ensemble, solo instrument, voice and choir as well as electroacoustic music, which are products of research into various aspects and degrees of freedom and control within a composition. Through collaboration with performers from different backgrounds, the pieces explore elements of improvisation by means of a variety of methods: graphic and conventional notation, written and verbal instructions, choice of materials within a given framework, or freedom of structure with given materials. Music from different cultural backgrounds is discussed in this commentary, outlining how these influences may hint at different ways of approaching freedom and control in music.

This portfolio of original compositions focuses on exploring instrumentation and orchestration techniques. The eight pieces, composed between October 2010 and September 2013 represent different genres varying from solo work to full orchestra. These pieces are the results of my exploration of various compositional and orchestration techniques that I have developed over the period of research. Before examining the pieces individually, general comments are provided to explain my orchestration principles and how I put them into practice.

This portfolio presents seven projects that use improvisation as source material for subsequent electronic music. Fixed media pieces including music for film, contemporary dance as well as two albums are included. Furthermore, recordings of live performance works where improvisation was controlled via compositions, loop- based material, custom-made software tools and hardware devices are presented in the folio. The commentary explains the methods used in the projects and shows them in a wider context of other artists’ work. It describes the creative usage of technology in the pieces presented in the folio. Also, the examination of visual elements as a guide for improvisation is discussed in relation to each project.

This folio of compositions represents three years of practice-led research into the development of my own distinct compositional voice, through the use of techniques and ideas that I have explored and developed. All of the works presented here are concerned with at least two of the following areas, which have been the focus of my research during this time: note rotation as a method for expanding on a small amount of material, free rhythm and bar-less notation, movement form, and the corporeal aesthetic of the American composer Harry Partch (1901-1974). The pieces in this folio were all written between October 2009 and September 2012. They employ a variety of forces, from chamber to orchestral, including two vocal works. Through these compositions, common threads can be traced, as I explored and investigated these different compositional techniques and ideas, all of which reach a peak in the two summative pieces of the folio, the orchestral work 'trees and paths I loved fade' and the smaller-scale song cycle 'cloud chamber music'.

The ten original compositions presented in this portfolio are products of practice-led research into the use of language as musical material. The different methods of incorporating aspects of language into musical forms that my research has explored are outlined in the following commentary. My particular areas of interest can be categorized as follows: 1. Communicating my interpretation of text meaning through the medium of composition, using musical devices to control 'oratory elocution' - which comprises speed of delivery, phrase-length, frequency of pauses, loudness and accentual character, posture, physical movement and facial expression etc. 2. Exploiting the potential for musical settings to convey subtextual meanings, which are inferred but not explicitly stated in texts. 3. Taking an integrated approach, in which musical and dramatic variables are compositionally controlled with equal priority and attention to detail. 4. Shaping musical and extra-musical variables in order to create specific atmospheres, or to stimulate atmospheric changes, in performance environments. 5. The deconstruction of language into its phonological components to create a palette of non-semantic, timbral materials - e.g. vowel sounds, whispers, prosodic gestures, hisses, plosive attacks etc. - for use in vocal compositions. 6. Exploring the inherent 'musicality' of grammatical and semantic structures in text and language to identify principles that may be applied to instrumental composition. 7. Analysing spectral characteristics of phonemes and creating orchestral timbres which emulate them, using both intuitive and spectrographic techniques.

The works presented in this portfolio were created to research and explore the interplay between sound, space and perception in the medium of sound installation. The portfolio consists of five audiovisual installations; States of Being, Intrinsic, Structure, Slit and Shape. These site-dependent installations belong to the category of Klangkunst but they work by carefully acknowledging and placing considerations towards the encounter, more specifically spatial encounter; exploring concepts of space and what it means to experience immersive spaces sonically. Three of the five works were installed and presented to the public. The development process included critical feedback from both the public and academic peers.