THE PORTRAYAL OF WATER AND WAVE PATTERNS IN THE MUSIC OF CLAUDE DEBUSSY

My thesis considers the shaping of Debussy’s aesthetic, the musical language he uses within an oeuvre that centres on the role of Nature as imaginative stimulus, and its particular relevance to his Water pieces within which I determine wave patterns. An examination of his piano and orchestral pieces, with particular reference to L’isle joyeuse, ‘Reflets dans l’eau’ from Images I and La mer reveals these wave patterns on every level of composition. Debussy’s use of modes to produce ‘floating’ harmonies that more easily suggest sliding curves and multiple lines above an equilibrium of water/key, together with his treatment of ‘rhythmicised time’ to evoke fluidity and the metamorphosis of spatial awareness, aid a perception of waves and liquidity within his Water music. This flowing organicism is supported by ternary-type forms when discernible (in an otherwise ‘open’ structure), and meticulous attention to musical instructions, particularly in the use of specific dynamic waves of sound, which repeatedly swell and contract. These elements contributed to the appearance of an improvisatory style that assisted the performer in the realization of Debussy’s conception for a ‘free’ music, so that the listener in turn recognizes audible waves of sound. All of these aspects are supported by the composer’s visual acuity, in the configuration and alignment of his notes and symbols on the written page, (which I have demonstrated on the relevant scores). Whether cognitively or intuitively based, they produce wave-like patterns that assist the spontaneity of Debussy’s intentions for his music, traversing bar-lines and enabling the composer to truly communicate his feelings. These pitch contours and innovative use of musical language act as signifiers for new correspondences between Debussy’s Water compositions and his twenty-first century followers, extending our knowledge of his genre

Xenakis

Xenakis: His Life in Music is a full-length study of the influential contemporary composer Iannis Xenakis. Following the trajectory of Xenakis’s compositional development, James Harley, who studied with Xenakis, presents the works together with clear explanations of the technical and conceptual innovations that shaped them. Harley examines the relationship between the composer and two early influences: Messiaen and Le Corbusier. Particular attention is paid to analyzing works which were vital to the composer’s creative development, from early, unpublished works to the breakthrough pieces Metastasis and Pithoprakta, through the oft-discussed decade of formalization and the evolving styles of the succeeding three decades

Making music out of architecture and from-architecture-music-an oddyssey

These are the documents submitted for the First Review as work-in-progress, the first (longer) and the second (shorter) versions of the PhD research project to date, together with a summary titled The Final Proposal for PhD for First Review September 2019. Please note that the first version is unfinished and needs approximately another 30,000 words, questions answered, some further exploration of points raised in discussion and other relevant points, revision and editing. The second version is on-going. Please Note: The file titled Latest save of Making music out of architecture seems unable to be viewed in Preview perhaps due to its size. It can however be viewed from Download in which case please allow some time for this to occur. The other two documents can be viewed in Previe

URI Graduate School Catalog 1993-1994

This is a digitized, downloadable version of the University of Rhode Island Graduate School Course Catalog.https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/course-catalogs/1045/thumbnail.jp

URI Undergraduate and Graduate Studies Catalog 1995-1997

This is a digitized, downloadable version of the 1995-97 Bulletin of the University of Rhode Island: Undergraduate and Graduate Studies.https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/course-catalogs/1048/thumbnail.jp

Undergraduate and Graduate Catalog of the University of Rhode Island 1997-1998

This is a digitized, downloadable version of the Undergraduate and Graduate course catalog.https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/course-catalogs/1049/thumbnail.jp

URI Graduate School Catalog 1992-1993

This is a digitized, downloadable version of the University of Rhode Island Graduate School Course Catalog.https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/course-catalogs/1043/thumbnail.jp

URI Graduate School Catalog 1991-1992

This is a digitized, downloadable version of the University of Rhode Island Graduate School Course Catalog.https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/course-catalogs/1041/thumbnail.jp

Algorithm and Decision in Musical Composition

Through a series of creative projects this doctorate set out to research how computer-assisted composition (CAC) of music affects decision-making in my compositional practice. By reporting on the creative research journey, this doctorate is a contribution towards a better understanding of the implications of CAC by offering new insights into the composing process. It is also a contribution to the composition discipline as new techniques were devised, together with new applications of existing techniques. Using OpenMusic as the sole programming environment, the manual/machine interface was explored through different balances between manual and algorithmic composition and through aesthetic reflection guiding the composing process. This helped clarify the purpose, adequacy and nature of each method as decisions were constantly being taken towards completing the artistic projects. The most suitable use of algorithms was as an environment for developing, testing, refining and assessing compositional techniques and the music materials they generate: a kind of musical laboratory. As far as a technique can be described by a set of rules, algorithms can help formulate and refine it. Also capable of incorporating indeterminism, they can act as powerful devices in discovering unforeseen musical implications and results. Algorithms alone were found to be insufficient to simulate human creative thought because aspects such as (but not limited to) imagination, judgement and personal bias could only, and hypothetically, be properly simulated by the most sophisticated forms of artificial intelligence. Furthermore, important aspects of composition such as instrumentation, articulation and orchestration were not subjected to algorithmic treatment because, not being sufficiently integrated in OpenMusic currently, they would involve a great deal of knowledge to be specified and adapted to computer language. These shortcomings of algorithms, therefore, implied varying degrees of manual interventions to be carried out on raw materials coming out of their evaluations. A combination of manual and algorithmic composition was frequently employed so as to properly handle musical aspects such as cadence, discourse, monotony, mechanicalness, surprise, and layering, among others. The following commentary illustrates this varying dialogue between automation and intervention, placing it in the wider context of other explorations at automating aspects of musical composition