Portfolio of Original Compositions

Abstract

This commentary shows the journey of my compositional research from its initial concerns with the combination of music and theatre for the communication of explicit political ideas to the embracing of a more ambiguous relationship between music and politics. The six works in the accompanying portfolio provide examples of my attempts at tackling the question of music’s potential for communicating political ideas. They are written for a range of instrumental forces in response to various opportunities taken up during my research. The works fall into three phases which broadly exemplify the progression of my research: Phase I, music theatre concerned with the explicit communication of political messages; Phase II, music theatre beginning to consider music’s more ambiguous relationship with politics; Phase III, autonomous music unconcerned with explicit political messages and embracing aesthetics as an implicit expression of politics. The six pieces are presented in order of completion: Factory (2019) Preludes & Fugue (2019) Concertino for Trumpet & Others (2019) Coworking / Cooperation / Collaboration (2020) String Quartet No. 1 (2020) Symphony No. 1 (2021) This commentary includes: an introduction with information about the author and overview of the research; six chapters analysing each work in the portfolio individually, explaining their goals and the techniques implemented to achieve them as well as evaluation of their success; lastly, a conclusion provides reflections on the journey of the research and the researcher and indicates possible future directions and goals.

Date of Award	31 Dec 2022
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The University of Manchester
Supervisor	Kevin Maloney (Supervisor) & Camden Reeves (Supervisor)