Situated Sound and Compositional Circumstance in My Recent Musical Practices

My recent compositional work consists of installed sound environments and pieces for performance by ensembles, soloists, and machines. Throughout my research period I have proposed musical and sonic art works as fields of and for phenomenological inquiry and reflection. From this perspective, my pieces become sites for enacting environmental encounters that unfold around listeners. These circumstances problematize the certainty of subject and object within aural and aesthetic experiences of sound situations. This commentary surveys material and thought processes in my recent compositional work and accompanies a portfolio of works from my research period to comprise my submission for partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

In the opening of this text to follow I review and contextualize key technical areas within my material and compositional processes of my portfolio work. Three main areas of research and their outcomes within specific pieces are considered in Chapter 1. First, a permutational and parametric technique for composing patterned musical material is discussed. Following this, I examine and contextualize sculptural approaches to temporality in recent works. Finally, I consider applications of indeterminacy at several structural levels within my recent pieces.

In Chapter 2, I discuss the conceptual development of my research and portfolio work, locating my own strands of inquiry and contributions to thought and practice within contemporary and historical practices in music and the sonic arts. I consider key sources of inspiration from visual art, perceptual psychology, and philosophy. Developing this, I demonstrate how phenomenological activity underlies, has developed within, or assists in my reflection upon the outcomes of my compositional and experimental strategies.

Chapter 3 offers further commentary on each piece within my portfolio submission. I then conclude with Chapter 4 by proposing further developments for my research and future compositional projects.