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The forces used in the realisation of a musical work have typically been conceived of as independent to the compositional process. For example, composing a piece for a wind quintet historically has meant writing for the five instruments that make up that culturally defined ensemble configuration, and writing for the standard way in which those instruments are constructed and presented. This has changed within recent New Music. It has become commonplace for works to involve the adaptation of the physical properties of the instruments, and the application of electronic technology to acoustic instruments. This change marks an expansion of where the creative act of composition is located to include the construction of the set-up. A particular focus of engaging with the composition of the set-up is the creation of uncanny experiences of conventional musical instruments. This approach opens up possibilities to engage and transform established relationships between instruments, performers, and audiences. This project investigates the creation of hybrid set-ups that combine acoustic instruments with electronic technology and investigates how musical works can be composed for these bespoke set-ups. The submitted compositions engage this two-fold act of composition to focus on instrumental construction; instrumental techniques; and the cultural ground instruments occupy. Chapters one and two present frameworks to open up ways of theorising such works, the possibilities afforded by such works, and their effects. These ideas are developed in the two case studies that follow: Stockhausen's Mikrophonie I (chapter three) and Nemtsov's Drummed Variation (chapter four). Chapter five provides commentary on how these issues relate to each of the submitted works, and chapters six and seven draw out larger thematic concerns across the works.

This portfolio of compositions and accompanying commentary explores methods of engagement with iconic works from Western Art Music as an embedded, contingent aspect of a wider contemporary Western culture. The primary aim of this portfolio was to create a set of compositions that concretely engaged with well-known works from the Western Art Music canon explicitly as works and not as quotation. Secondly, it aims to find a set of methods for treating these historical works that not only engages with their materiality, but also with aspects of cultural association and reception that have accrued around them. To these ends, the portfolio draws on historical approaches to the application of Critical Theory in other artistic disciplines such as theatre and the visual arts. These approaches, which are discussed and critiqued within the opening methodological section of the commentary, form a set of frameworks that provided stimulation for the compositions that are presented in the portfolio. The portfolio of compositions, and their discussion within the commentary, are presented in the chronological order of their creation. This thesis, therefore, provides a selection of snapshots in time that reflect an on-going and dynamic process of composition, performance and critical reflection, whereby reflection on the approaches applied to one work feed directly and indirectly into the composition of the next. The portfolio and accompanying commentary thereby blends narrative account with systematic inquiry.

Western classical composers have a history of engagement with folk song, and this is something that has been particularly true of English composers and English folk song over approximately the last one hundred and twenty years since the so-called English folk song revival. This research project is primarily an investigation into the range of ways that English composers throughout this period have engaged with English folk song in their writing, with the accompanying aim of using this knowledge to write music within this particular tradition of repertoire myself. Western classical composers have a history of engagement with folk song, and this is something that has been particularly true of English composers and English folk song over approximately the last one hundred and twenty years since the so-called English folk song revival. This research project is primarily an investigation into the range of ways that English composers throughout this period have engaged with English folk song in their writing, with the accompanying aim of using this knowledge to write music within this particular tradition of repertoire myself. Three main areas of enquiry have been undertaken. Firstly, researching original English folk song sources and thereby gaining a detailed understanding of their musical structure and character so as to effectively utilize them for the composition purposes. Secondly, exploring compositional methodologies and strategies for interacting with extant musical materials generally and folk song sources specifically. Thirdly, studying a wide range of related compositional precedents in the works of other composers, including those from other countries in order to provide the broadest possible perspective. Out of these investigations a portfolio of new compositions has been written, including an extended six movement piano cycle which surveys in a contemporary idiom the subject of compositional engagement with English folk song from a range of different perspectives, aesthetics and critical interactions.

The aim of my research for the PhD has been to explore the possibilities of sacred music composition beyond liturgical contexts. Although the bedrock of Western sacred music has traditionally been vocal music, I have attempted to broaden the boundaries by delving into the feasibility of instrumental sacred music. The word ‘sacred’ has been used in this thesis in the context of the Christian faith. Chapter I explains the reasons behind choosing sacred music composition as the objective of this thesis. In Chapter II, details of three different approaches are discussed, along with analysis of the individual pieces. These approaches are: application of modern musical language to sacred music; composing sacred instrumental music without pre-existing references; composing sacred instrumental and vocal music with pre-existing references, such as quotations from the established canon of sacred music or derivations of the system for change-ringing English church bells.

The following commentary introduces six pieces written between 2012 and 2015, during the period of my PhD research at the University of Southampton, UK. All of the pieces discussed here are, on some level, concerned with the subject of borrowing, be it the use of pre-existing musical material, or elements of different traditions, compositional practices in a broad historical context. Different approaches are represented in the ways the individual pieces refer to existing music, ranging from literal quotations to stylistic allusions. The commentary presents the ways these references are transformed, manipulated, and re-contextualised in the pieces discussed. I also attempt to contextualise my music through considering related works by other composers, as well as related debates within postmodern theory. Today - partly as a result of globalisation - the concept of tradition takes on a new aspect: it is less significantly defined by national affiliations, or commitments to particular trends and movements that stem from regional cultures/aesthetics. It is no longer something given, inherited; a multitude of traditions are available to choose from and explore through the arts. In this spirit, the presented works refer to a wide variety of musical traditions, from folk music, through Renaissance polyphony, the German Lied to post-war compositional styles and practices. The commentary includes a general introduction to the compositional techniques lying behind the works presented as well as six analyses supplementing the pieces included in my composition portfolio.

This commentary paper explores two fundamental structural principles of music: repetition and change. In Western art music of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, there are works that utilise repetition and change not simply as binary tools for musical progression within a piece, but as the actual purpose and character of that work. Similar processes are found in other forms of art, such as visual arts and literature. Each portfolio composition is written whilst pursuing such works of the past, and some of them are reconstructions of similar examples in other artistic media. The introduction in Part One – 1 of this commentary reveals the motivations behind my choice of this particular topic. After examining what composers achieved through repetition, there will be a brief examination of past musical examples containing traits of repetition and change in manners that are intriguing enough for discussion. The analysis in Part One - 2 includes detailed analyses of each work of the portfolio, with explanations on how past examples are applied to my compositions. This section also illustrates how elements of repetition and change found in visual art and literature are musically reconstructed. The conclusion in Part One - 3 describes the transformation of my compositional perspective that occurred during my research. The main issues that were raised when the individual pieces were composed are also discussed.

Current means for simulation of impossible sonic realities are yet unmatched in the delivery of sound. This research is a preparation for fully immersive and interactive audition of composed music. The compositions submitted in this portfolio are experiments towards understanding newer technological ‘affordances and constraints’ and the possibilities these will engender. Having developed a proof of concept for my invention 3DBARE, which will allow fully immersive interaction with multi-channel digital audio, I have explored ways in which this creates new possibilities for the composer. This commentary reports the methods and rationale for virtual performance experiments in acousmatic compositions seeking either to simulate human agency or which are palpably unreal (“impossible music”) and in geo-located soundscapes. The works submitted are explorations of uses of both physical and virtual space for controlled indeterminacy of audition, with listener-action as the controller of the heard totality of the music. The control resides in the compositional methods and outcomes; the indeterminacy arises in the free variability of individual listener action to create differentiated consecutive auditions to the same music. Geo-location of composed sound is concerned both with augmentation of reality and the intersections of reality with virtuality. The experiments in geo-location revealed profound differences between current and proposed means of composing and of encountering composed sound. The discoveries made in the course of this research are outlined from acousmatic simulation to geo-located soundscapes in the search for ‘adequate means of listening’ to virtual performance. I have sought to identify the boundaries of auditory credulity in simulating ‘liveness’ in preparation for a system of immersive binaural sound reproduction: the means to ‘walk inside a piece of music’ and inspect it as though a physical object.

This commentary documents the changes in my compositional practice. It explores the rationale for my move towards collaborative compositional approaches, and the variety of processes that I have used. The work occurs in a range of environments, and involves diverse participants, highlighting the relevance of this work for people of all backgrounds, ages and skill levels. By altering the nature of the composition process and its context new arenas for educational and social practices have emerged. This commentary describes some of the benefits and challenges that arise from working in these new ways.

Composition is a process of applied research. In a portfolio of eight original pieces, the technical and aesthetic components of this process are investigated from the perspective of several theoretical precepts which both inform and underpin its creative strategy. Drawing on theories of intertextuality, composition is collocated within a broad current of thought in which ideas and material from pre-existing ‘texts’ across a variety of disciplines are utilised and explored to create new compositional ‘texts’. This procedure is tested from several, key perspectives, characterised variously as: (i) problem-seeking, (ii) serendipitous, (iii) transgressive, and (iv) transcriptive. The first of these draws on John Dewey’s notions of art as a form of creative problematisation. In the second, techniques are developed in which performance flexibility is balanced against structural exactitude, aided by a series of parametric tables that outline a range of variables across the different elements of musical sound. As a transgressive process, compositional procedure is informed by Viktor Shklovsky’s theory of aesthetic defamiliarisation. Finally, as a form of transcription, the research draws on Ferruccio Busoni’s observations about notation and its key transmutational role in manipulating and recasting musical ideas. By adopting an eclectic attitude towards materials and techniques, a compositional strategy is formulated which offers an alternative to the assumption that advancement in the field is inevitably shaped by an ineluctable, dialectical process. A polyvalent approach and direct interaction with materials, it is argued, are the important creative ingredients which present valuable and meaningful developments in compositional language, form and technique.

The spiritual journey of many greatly influential figures throughout history has been subject to physical journeys. The enlightening visions and experiences that prophets, poets and thinkers have witnessed have given birth to new intellectual horizons that might not have been achieved, but for the challenges and adventures entwined with the nature of migration. The musical journey of my life, too, has been affected by the physical and spiritual journey I have made by leaving Iran. The nature of Persian music, also, takes one on a mystical journey of self--‐analysis and awareness. Inevitably, my music is the product of the culture I was raised in and the ones I have had the privilege of living in. My interpretation of these cultures, hermeneutics of humanities and understanding of music, is also strongly influenced by my personality and psychological characteristics. As a composer, I have always refrained from commenting on my own music. I find the experience somewhat challenging, yet amusing, non--‐musical, yet poetic and unnecessary, yet fruitful. In writing this commentary, I have re--‐visited some of the most intimate compositional experiences I have had and I am grateful for the depth of insight provided by this experience.

During my Master’s degree I created a series of electronic collage compositions by superimposing pre-existing recordings of ‘found’ musical material. The aim of my PhD has been to expand upon this work by applying a modified version of the same electronic techniques to the composition of acoustic instrumental music, employing transcription as a means of converting audio recordings into MIDI information, which was edited using a computer sequencer to create new works. In Section One ‘PhD Background and Development’, I present a summary of the earlier work to illustrate the technical and conceptual concerns that were the point of departure for my thesis. An overview of the PhD work follows, focusing on central issues such as: the relationship between material, process and structure; definitions of musical information; the philosophical implications of using collage techniques, embodied in the phrase ‘the refusal of totality’; and the practicalities that result from working with notation and acoustic instruments as opposed to electronic media. In addition, I contextualise my work and practice in relation to those musicians who have directly affected my compositional aesthetic, thereby demonstrating how I have attempted to build upon pre-existing lines of development to create original music. In Section Two ‘Analysis’, I outline my compositional technique in greater detail, and provide individual analyses for each of the works in the portfolio.

The portfolio of compositions (part one) offers a selection of the composer’s most significant contributions to the body of creative human knowledge during four years of PhD study. The accompanying commentary (part two) has two objectives: 1. Exposition of the principal technical apparatus and aesthetic interests of the portfolio. 2. Investigation into the nature of poietic Ideas, music’s capacity to exemplify or embody Ideas, the analogising tendency in aesthetic experience and the impact upon the Idea of factors both intrinsic (technical, organological) and extrinsic (social and interpersonal) to the work. The commentary addresses compositional problems relating to large- and small-scale organisation and the perceptibility and expressive import of such features of a work, the problem of relating present work to past cultural achievements in the contemporary capitalist and pluralist Western world, and the problem of the social and educational situations that lead to composers’ loss of status as cultural assets and the marginalisation of the Idea. The thesis of the commentary is largely ‘anti-abstractionist’. It proposes that, through the analogising experience, music can express Ideas, not merely ‘abstract’, temporal geometric relations, but experiential, social and linguistic Ideas. These Ideas can be generated within the material organisation of a work, through cultural resonances associated with musical borrowings, or through the focusing influence of text. Contingent circumstances can serve to limit an Idea or to render it more precise. The commentary also argues that certain vicious circles in music-making and music education serve to damage musical culture, and suggests some causes for these phenomena. A Philosophical Introduction surveys attitudes and theories towards the Idea and musical expression and meaning; Arnold Schoenberg, Ferruccio Busoni, Arthur Schopenhauer, the claims of the logical positivists and Ludwig Wittgenstein, Milton Babbitt and Benjamin Boretz, the expression theories of Nelson Goodman and Jerrold Levinson and the relationship between music and physical movement all feature. Chapter One discusses the main technical apparatus of the composer, and the importance of Janusian thinking, harmonic architecture, canon, microtonality and spectralism. Chapter Two discusses musical borrowings and the significance of the past for the creative artist. Chapter Three discusses text as a powerful ‘designator’ (Kramer) of metaphorical meaning in music and possible text-music isomorphisms. Chapter Four discusses factors influencing composerperformer- listener interaction. A Preface and Afterword offer an anecdotal conte by the languages of contemporary art music.xt to this body of research and adumbrate future pathways for the composer. Together, the portfolio and commentary offer a conceptual framework for understanding 1. The nature and communication of poetic Ideas through music, and 2. The difficulties of audience reception engendered.

This is the written commentary on a practice-based period of research. This research has focussed on the development of a substantial series of new musical compositions considering the development of unique and personal identity in composition. As well as broader technical consideration the commentary emphasises the incorporation of new technology and electronic media into composition, collaborations with other creative artists and performers and in developing vocal music with Matthew Welton, a literary collaborator. The commentary prioritises three main compositions; the terminus wreck for cello and electronics; My name is Peter Stillman. That is not my real name. for piano and electric piano and; Things that are blue, things that are white and things that are black. for piano, electric piano, prepared piano with clarinet/bass clarinet, cor anglais, horn, viola, cello and at least 16 violins. These are all substantial pieces between 15 and 30 minutes in duration for a variety of forces and, particularly between the two piano works, demonstrate a clear trajectory of development. Chapters are also dedicated to smaller-scale chamber works, vocal music, collaboration and the house of bedlam, a new ensemble formed as an element of the research.

The commentary focuses on the predominantly applied extraneous media in my music, that is, the inclusion of literary sources. The discourse begins with a biographical sketch (Chapter 1), followed by a succinct description of the concept of polymediality, which involves two dimensions: the work-immanent compositional and polymediality on the process of staging (Chapter 2). Chapter 3 considers literary sources as a constituent component of music's polymediality. The first part is preoccupied with the implementation of textual elements and vocality in instrumental works, with special reference to the orchestral piece AKANTHAI. Simultaneously, this section elucidates a series of fundamental architectural tools and aspects of the music, encompassing (a) the methodological advancement concerning analogous relationships, (b) the processing of linear transitions and polyphonic settings depending on the model of imitative interaction, (c) the polydimensional articulation of homogeneity, (d) the aspect of permanent fleetingness, (e) the different facets of hybridization and their implications, (f) the question of the musico-literary intermediality form, and (g) the concept of polyaesthetics. To this extent, the commentary reports on a research aiming at elaborating the hypothesis that musical and non-musical elements, like the literary sources, are mustered from a diversified spectrum of coherent principles. Turning to the example of the opera entitled DIE JAGD, the second part of Chapter 3 is concerned with the situative conditions resulting from the abrupt omission of the relationship to the libretto, whereby the focus is displaced 'outside' the textual frame of reference. Chapter 4 briefly highlights the scope of three further text-related parameters of the music in conjunction with their aesthetic issues: the specified titles of the works, the delineated expressive nuances, as well as the descriptive commentaries and textual depictions found on the score. Furthermore, the chapter outlines the consequences of two-dimensional theatricality and meta-theatricality. In conclusion, the commentary argues that the compositional procedure adopts literary references for the benefit of creating self-generated concepts. In other words, constituted within a plethora of musical and extra-musical elements, texts function as energetic catalytic stimuli; they become the key mechanism to enhance interactive system performance amidst the music's structural-strategic and conceptual framework.

This PhD thesis consists of eight middle-size compositions and a written commentary. Each of the pieces explores a different pitch system. In Chapter 1, the aesthetic behind these pieces is discussed. This is based on the transformation of a single unifying sonority; every note has a function both in the moment and on a large scale. This implies a hierarchy that is established through techniques derived from Schenker and Lerdahl’s analytical methods, which are also explained. The following chapters apply these methodologies in the analysis of the eight pieces, unveiling a good deal of techniques and compositional issues derived from those presumptions. Momentum for 4 percussionists deploys rhythmic gestures, patterns, and regular pulsations. The piece has a ‘moment form’, where the materials are in constant transformation and the concept of balance emerges as a compositional issue. Knots in Time for ensemble makes use of a functional harmony constructed by analogy with the tonal system. In Looking forward/backward for ensemble modal and serial techniques merge with harmonic fields and pitch-class set techniques. The ‘solution’ to this puzzle is found through an extension of Schenker’s reduction techniques so that each of these conflicting systems belongs to a deeper or a more superficial level of the music. Across 1000 Oceans for String Trio is an instance of geometry applied to music since it uses quasi-symmetric and symmetric chords as a means to create tension and relaxation in the phrasing. Hasta dentro de un solo, Nunca más solos for scordatura violin is a synthesis of the previous compositional techniques. Fractal for 2 pianos is based on the fractal geometry. Interlude for piano and instrument uses registration as a structural element. In both cases, the geometric organization is enhanced to create an ‘organic’ form. ‘Organicism’ and ‘fractality’ are also compared, hypothesizing that Romantic writers had in mind a fractal model when discussing their ideas. Finally, Genesis Songs represents a hypertext in which several musical traditions coexist in a collage typical of the postmodern aesthetic, which is also discussed. These disparate materials challenge the classical conception of autonomous work or opus perfectum et absolutum.