The application of electronic collage techniques to the composition of acoustic instrumental music

Abstract

During my Master’s degree I created a series of electronic collage compositions by superimposing pre-existing recordings of ‘found’ musical material. The aim of my PhD has been to expand upon this work by applying a modified version of the same electronic techniques to the composition of acoustic instrumental music, employing transcription as a means of converting audio recordings into MIDI information, which was edited using a computer sequencer to create new works.

In Section One ‘PhD Background and Development’, I present a summary of the earlier work to illustrate the technical and conceptual concerns that were the point of departure for my thesis. An overview of the PhD work follows, focusing on central issues such as: the relationship between material, process and structure; definitions of musical information; the philosophical implications of using collage techniques, embodied in the phrase ‘the refusal of totality’; and the practicalities that result from working with notation and acoustic instruments as opposed to electronic media. In addition, I contextualise my work and practice in relation to those musicians who have directly affected my compositional aesthetic, thereby demonstrating how I have attempted to build upon pre-existing lines of development to create original music. In Section Two ‘Analysis’, I outline my compositional technique in greater detail, and provide individual analyses for each of the works in the portfolio.

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