Portfolio of compositions (and accompanying commentary)

Abstract

The first half of this commentary/thesis will explore changing perceptions of the musical work and the creative process. Ultimately, it will seek to identify and expose the myth of what we might call the ‘tyrannical composer’. That is to say, a suspicion of what is implied hierarchically by the figure of the composer and the consequences this has on critical thought, scholarship, performance and the public perception of music, new and old. By drawing upon recent research in, among other things, semiotics and mediation theory, I seek to reimagine the traditional composer-performer-audience relationship as something far more democratic and linear than is often given credit. Discussions typically reserved for overtly challenging and ‘experimental’ genres of music can here be reframed and proposed as a defence of related but contrasting styles of acoustic avant-garde composition. The above argument will be supported in the second chapter by a selection of case studies drawing upon my own portfolio of compositions. Analysis of some of these works will ask questions about composer authority and agency and draw upon my practical experience as composer of the works in question. The composer will ultimately be understood not as a dictator-like figure and privileged arbiter of the ‘musical work’, but as a democratically motivated creative agent, dialectically and collaboratively involved in the mediation and reception of the performed work