"Looking for the Land that is Nowhere": A Portfolio of Compositions and Commentary

This portfolio comprises seven compositions in a variety of mediums:<br/><br/>1. In Time Entwined, In Space Enlaced (9 players+ 36 audience harmonicas)<br/>Noctilucence (mixed ensemble: 8 players)<br/>Looking for the Land that is Nowhere (theremin and string octet)<br/>On Love and Death- 5 Rossetti Songs (soprano and piano)<br/>Incandescence (solo cello)<br/>Learning Self-Modulation (violin and piano)<br/>!so/arion: Rituals of Resonance (large orchestra)<br/><br/>Through each of these works I explore the construction and elaboration of 'structural lines' and how they function in a variety of contexts. Central to my musical thinking, they provide a coherent core around which more complex musical situations are created through layering and textural invention. On a harmonic level these works attempt to integrate the insights of 'spectral', 'serial' and 'modal' thinking into a flexible language which has the capacity for motion between distinct realms while maintaining unity. Various concepts of time are investigated through musical processes which involve different degrees of repetition and predictability, expansion and contraction. Each work is also a point of contact between musical and extra-musical ideas and the relationships between these are elucidated in my commentary. Such conceptual oppositions as motion-stasis, change-continuity, time-eternity, and unity-diversity define my attitude towards musical form and material. In turn, recognition and consideration of the creative tension between 'constructive' and 'intuitive' compositional approaches is highlighted as being fruitful.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

Doctor of Philosophy

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Doctoral Thesis

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

King's College London

Year dc:date.issued

2012

Author dc:creator

• Mason, Christian

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Benjamin, George William
• Milstein, Silvina Raquel

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

oai:kclpure.kcl.ac.uk:studenttheses/3c42381e-d0f7-46fb-b21a-f8ab2cf59338

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:kclpure.kcl.ac.uk:studenttheses/3c42381e-d0f7-46fb-b21a-f8ab2cf59338