School of Performing Arts
Recent Deposits
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Composing for synthesisers in a Western art music setting
This Doctor of Musical arts in Composition has a focus on the use of synthesisers in the context of art music. It comprises a portfolio of compositions that use a synthesiser or synthesisers, usually alongside acoustic ... -
Placing Korngold : Erich Wolfgang Korngold's place in the twentieth century and in the great tradition
This thesis investigates the way Korngold's reception and reputation changed during the twentieth century. In 1930 Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Arnold Schoenberg were composers cited respectively as second and fourth "most ... -
Jazz compositions and the electric bassist in the late 20th century: A recording, a collection of performances and an exegesis
This exegesis is tied to the CD, ‘Portrait of New York’ – an assortment of inventive musical compositions to explore diversity in electric jazz after 1970, and three multi-faceted live performances focused on electric bass ... -
Improvising on the flute in nineteenth-century Italy: Pedagogy and performance practice
Improvisation has always been a key aspect of musical practice. In Western classical music improvisational practices have varied considerably from place to place and have evolved with time. Flautists have included forms ... -
Dispelling the myths of the brass wind embouchure: methods, mechanics and practices
The complex subject of the brass wind embouchure is a confusing one for musician or teacher with many different views espoused in a relatively small and inaccessible literature. Many concepts of embouchure can be found in ... -
Linking Improvisation to Cultural Context: Bringing a Jazz Drumming Aesthetic to the Music of Diverse Cultures
This exegesis explores how differing musical languages can be used in collaboration to create new stylistic interpretations, whilst retaining distinct music-cultural voices. Through this research I will advance the field ... -
The stylistic vocal techniques used in New Zealand’s prevalent contemporary commercial music (CCM) styles: Musical theatre, jazz and pop
Contemporary Commercial Music (CCM) is the umbrella term in vocal pedagogy for ‘nonclassical’ styles, the formulation of which has helped CCM styles to find legitimacy and respect in the academic world alongside classical ... -
The art of simplicity : design, sentiment, and value in non-developmental music : studies in works by Satie, Part and Poulenc
The hypothesis underlying this study, is that works of the western musical tradition using simple non-developmental procedures, are at their best capable of producing profound and enduring musical experiences. The study ... -
Our music, their music : identifying meaning in musical experiences
In contemporary cultures it is possible to experience many different musics within a single environment. At times, musics from different cultures are mixed together and released in recorded form for consumption by Western ... -
Songs for Middle America : Burt Bacharach and Hal David in the sixties
This work describes the extent to which the songs of Burt Bacharach and Hal David, written and recorded between 1962 and 1970, reflect significant challenges to the norms of pop music in that decade. It delineates unique ... -
Fog of War: British theatrical responses to the 2003 invasion of Iraq in an "exceptional" political environment
This thesis examines the “post-truth” political environment through a retroactive exploration of issues surrounding the 2003 Invasion of Iraq and how these were depicted on the British stage. By presenting “post-truth” ... -
The Conceptualization and Sustainability of Rotenese Gong Music
This dissertation presents an ethnomusicological study of Rotenese gong (meko), particularly in relation to the conceptualization and the sustainability of this musical instrument ensemble in Rote, Indondesia. Ethnographic ... -
The Sublime and Sensibility in French Keyboard Music in the Late Seventeenth and Early Eighteenth Centuries
This dissertation examines the aesthetic elements of the keyboard music from the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries in France, highlighting the concepts of the Sublime and Sensibility. In order to evaluate the ... -
Bending Form: Dynamic Content Within a Framework and the Recordings of the Beatles in the Mid-Sixties
This written exegesis, alongside three recorded albums, Pictures of Everyday, Baby Astronaut, and The Dunedin Electric Co., works to reconcile the analytic with implementation through a practice-as-research approach. The ... -
How can a contemporary composer use film to enhance music?
There is a body of literature on music in film, and some analytical writing on music video, but almost no writing that approaches the subject from the point of view of how the film might support the music. My research ... -
An analysis of the Chamber concerto for 13 instruments by Gyorgy Ligeti
This thesis is an analysis of Ligeti's Chamber Concerto for 13 instruments. It examines in detail the ordering of notes, particularly Ligeti's use of canon, and links the pitch organisation with other parameters, such as ... -
An historical ethnography of music in the town of Hawera in 1946 : from the recordings of the Mobile Unit of the New Zealand Broadcasting Service and oral histories of musicians
This work describes the music of a small New Zealand town, Hawera in south Taranaki, in the years immediately following the Second World War. It is the first musical study to draw on the extensive recordings of the ... -
Environmental Staging: A Practice-Based Exploration of Recording Locations in Contemporary Rock Production
This project (comprised of this exegesis, and the accompanying recordings) explores the role of recording environments in the production of pop and rock records in an independent music scene, located in Dunedin, New Zealand. ... -
Stranger than Fiction: the creation of two short theatre of the real plays about Closed Stranger Adoption in Aotearoa
My MFA explores how a range of theatrical techniques can be used to stage autobiographical and biographical narratives. Using practice-led research I created and staged two theatre of the real plays: Close Stranger and ... -
Re–Establishing Britishness/Englishness: Representation Through Music in a non–Parliamentary Nation
Folk singers were once principal media sources by which news of national events was disseminated in what became the United Kingdom in 1707. Folk song has since been imbued with significance as a record of political events ...