Understanding Through-Composition in Post-Rock, Math-Metal, and other Post-Millennial Rock Genres

Since the dawn of experimental rock’s second coming in the new millennium, experimental artists have begun distancing themselves from Top-40 artists through formal structures that eschew recapitulatory verse/chorus conventions altogether. In order to understand the correlation between genre and form more thoroughly, this paper provides a taxonomic approach to through-composition in several post-millennial experimental rock genres including post-rock, math-metal, art rock, and neo-prog. Combining the presence or absence of two salient formal parameters (hierarchical grouping structure and thematic unification) generates four possible through-composed archetypes. Representative examples from the post-millennial rock corpus are provided for each archetype, and accompanying analyses identify the specific musical elements that engender such formal divisions. Included interviews suggest that this taxonomic model is congruent with the language musicians use to describe their own compositional strategies. Throughout the article, a case is made for the substantive link between specific types of through-composed forms and the genres in which those forms regularly appear, as well as for the difference between formal designs found in post-millennial experimental rock and those found in conventional rock music

Understanding Through-Composition in Post-Rock, Math-Metal, and other Post-Millennial Rock Genres

Since the dawn of experimental rock’s second coming in the new millennium, experimental artists have begun distancing themselves from Top-40 artists through formal structures that eschew recapitulatory verse/chorus conventions altogether. In order to understand the correlation between genre and form more thoroughly, this paper provides a taxonomic approach to through-composition in several post-millennial experimental rock genres including post-rock, math-metal, art rock, and neo-prog. Combining the presence or absence of two salient formal parameters (hierarchical grouping structure and thematic unification) generates four possible through-composed archetypes. Representative examples from the post-millennial rock corpus are provided for each archetype, and accompanying analyses identify the specific musical elements that engender such formal divisions. Included interviews suggest that this taxonomic model is congruent with the language musicians use to describe their own compositional strategies. Throughout the article, a case is made for the substantive link between specific types of through-composed forms and the genres in which those forms regularly appear, as well as for the difference between formal designs found in post-millennial experimental rock and those found in conventional rock music

Music in Site: Integrating elements of site-specificity into composition

Architectural spaces and their acoustic characteristics offer unique musical material for the compositional process. Acoustic and physical design features of unorthodox performance spaces can become part of works and their performances. This thesis examines ways to integrate acoustic characteristics of an architectural space into the compositional process, and discusses how different levels of site-specificity may be engaged in this process. This research grew from an interest in composing music for the acoustic problems of performance spaces rather than trying to resist them, after a jazz ensemble performance in a large reverberant space. This led to exploring built environments that offered an acoustic characteristic which could be used to initiate musical material which is directly linked to the site. Three sites were chosen as starting points for composition according to their varying acoustic characteristics; a stairwell, a tunnel and a bridge. Each site presented unique acoustic and physical characteristics as well as challenges which required creating a precompositional testing and work-shopping methodology. The processes and experiments engaged led to three varying compositions which are discussed in part two of this exegesis. The research also draws inspiration from secondary literature in theatre, dance and choreography that interrogates the way works can be linked to their particular site. British academic Fiona Wilkie developed a scale of site-specificity for theatre that provides a useful tool to gauge the level and type of site interaction each composition maintains and forms a frame for the different approaches used. In addition, dance choreographer and theorist, Fiona Hunter’s methodology for testing the possibilities of a site for an artwork has been employed. The three creative works at the centre of this project, Stairwell to Fifteen (four brass musicians, cimbalom and found percussive sounds in a stairwell), From Traffic Rises (eight acoustic musicians, electronics and four speakers) and Tunnel Listen (two clarinets, soprano sax, alto sax, tenor sax, two trumpets, two trombones and tuba) explore a range of approaches to site-specificity and embodiment as compositional devices. The outcome of this research has not only been the creation of these three new works, but also the exploration of an alternative compositional process which begins and is informed by a physical space as a musical starting point

An exploration of the relationship between touch and sound

This thesis serves as a written accompaniment for an interactive installation art project. In addition to a detailed description and evaluation of the other components of the project, it also features a number of abstract discussions on pertinent topics, and describes how the outcomes of these lines of research informed the final iteration of the installation. The project is a sonic art installation that explores several concepts, uniting them to create an audience experience that is intended to be both novel and accessible. It deals with the experience of physical space and structure, and how it can be complemented sonically, emphasising and reimagining the structure with sound. The structure and generated sound are intrinsically linked, and this relationship is exploited to transform the perception of space for artistic effect. The installation also places heavy emphasis on collective interaction. All audience members experience the same sound (albeit from a different position and perspective), so their interactions all affect each other. The installation was designed to optimise this paradigm of interaction, and it is a point of interest to observe what happens in this regard. Complementary to the exploration of physical structure and space is experimentation with physical materials and how they can be expressed sonically. Since all of the sound in the piece has its foundation in sounds recorded by contact microphones attached to the materials that make up the structure, a relationship of some form is inherent, and further expression can be established by manipulating and transforming the sound

Altered states of consciousness as an adaptive principle for composing electroacoustic music

The aim of this research was to use altered states of consciousness (ASCs) as an adaptive principle for composing electroacoustic music, in which common features of the ASC experience provide a basis for the design of sonic material and inform the structural design of corresponding musical sections. Various cultures throughout history have sought to undergo visionary journeys using hallucinogenic plants and drugs. In many cases these experiences have been used as a basis for the creation of art, literature and music. Informed by a survey of relevant work, this practice-led research develops a compositional process for creating electroacoustic music that is based upon hallucinogenic perceptual states. Though situated within the electroacoustic idiom, the work also draws significantly upon Western psychedelic culture and electronic dance music. The output is a creative portfolio containing a series of musical compositions, software and video. This supporting commentary describes the compositional processes in detail, and it is hoped that it will be of interest to other creative practitioners dedicated to exploring this theme in music and other mediums

Music and Architecture: An Interpresence

Having an extensive background in classical music performance and theory, as I began to explore architecture, I immediately noticed profound similarities between the two art forms. After additional research, I found that I was but one among many who had explored this relationship. What is most fascinating about the history of the long- standing interest in music and architecture is the richness of variation amongst the attitudes, inspirations, and discoveries that have come forth from within the union. This variation confirms the robustness of this concept as a source of inspiration not only for architects and music theorists, but also for cross-disciplinary thinkers. The goal of this thesis is two-fold. The first is to distill and illuminate the most powerful aspects of the relationships between music and architecture. The findings are presented in sections I, Background Research and II, Case Studies. Section I contains a survey of a variety of points of contact between music and architecture. Section II explores how these points of contact have been manifested in precedent works by architects and in personal experiments. The second goal of this thesis is to synthesize the above information and enact it upon an architectural design, as presented in sections III, Existing Site & Program and IV, Design. This is accomplished through a series of translations of musical strategies (such as rhythm, syncopation, and melody) upon the building blocks of architecture (including massing, circulation, and spatial arrangement)

Composition portfolio

PhD ThesisThis portfolio of compositions, prose and critical contextualisation is a practice-led PhD that incorporates site-specific field recording practice and electroacoustics into post-techno music production. Combining psychogeographical strategies and phonographic practices to investigate the production of a poetry of place within a rapidly gentrifying city, it also includes poetry and fiction written within the urban and architectural context of Newcastle upon Tyne from 2008 to 2012. An interactive city-wide art installation called Surrogate City brought these elements together during 2012 and is documented here. Straddling the cleft between rhythm, literature and place, this thesis draws on the writings of 20th century Irish writer James Joyce and contemporary African-American poet Nathaniel Mackey among others to quarry and sound out a particular relationship between music and writing centered around ideas of rhythm, meter and beats, specifically with regards to concepts of slippage and swing. An album of electronic music called Glyphic Bloom constructed from field recordings and experiments in beat programming is the fulcrum on which this practice-led research rests

The physicality of sound production on acoustic instruments

This thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University. The thesis is accompanied by 14 compositions which appear in the order specified in the Thesis Introduction.This thesis presents practical research into sound production on instruments, working collaboratively with players, in order to build an understanding of the sounds available. I have explored the way in which instrumental technique can be extended in such a way as to function as the basis for musical material. The function of ‘figuration’ has also be brought into question, by employing seemingly primitive, residual material pushed to such a degree that it is possible to hear what happens underneath a gesture. Research in this area has been conducted by, among others, Helmut Lachenmann and Rebecca Saunders; I am drawn to the way their work highlights the tangible quality of sound. The exploration of the physicality of sound production inevitably encounters the problem that the finished work becomes a catalogue of extended techniques. My research has drawn on the work of these composers and has attempted to resolve this problem by exploring the way in which texture can suggest ‘line’ and the structural implications of sculpting self-referential material through angular and polarized divisions. This facilitates a Braille-like reading of a sound’s progress by foregrounding a non-thematic sound-surface of resonance and decay. This takes a positive and active approach to the problems of musical language, by questioning the functions and expectations put upon music. The possible solutions have been worked through in a series of works for mixed chamber ensembles, in order to investigate the palette possibilities of fusing instruments in intimate settings.The Arts and Humanities Research Counci