Initial Research into the Fragment/Fragmentation as a Key Concept of my Compositional Methodology

This thesis documents my writing of the pieces in-side (2018) for quartertone flugelhorn and percussion and Funèbres (2019) for string quartet through the lens of my research into the terms ‘fragment’ and ‘fragmentation’ as underlying concepts of my compositional methodology. I use this research to address the abstract issue of contextual background in my work alongside the practical issue of linking local-level gesture and large-scale form (part and whole) in my treatment of musical material. Using the notion that the fragment is a post-apocalyptic object which connotes the absence of a previously existing larger whole, discussion of context centres around the informed use of preexisting musical fragments to create new wholes which pay homage to their past lives. Discussion of the dichotomy between micro- and macro- level organisation techniques moves towards a methodology in which large-scale form is not something that is superimposed on subsidiary materials, but something that is co-dependent to those materials; they arise from each-other and are integrally related. Musical works by Liza Lim, Rebecca Saunders, and Jürg Frey act as case studies alongside the artistic works of Cornelia Parker, Gehrard Richter, Tim Head, and Mann Ray.