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University of Huddersfield Repository Flanagan, Beavan Intersections Between Subjects and Objects in my Compositions from 2013 to 2016 Original Citation Flanagan, Beavan (2017) Intersections Between Subjects and Objects in my Compositions from 2013 to 2016. Doctoral thesis, University of Huddersfield. This version is available at http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/id/eprint/34417/ The University Repository is a digital collection of the research output of the University, available on Open Access. Copyright and Moral Rights for the items on this site are retained by the individual author and/or other copyright owners. 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For more information, including our policy and submission procedure, please contact the Repository Team at: [email protected]. http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/ University of Huddersfield School of Music, Humanities and Media Department of Music Intersections Between Subjects and Objects in My Compositions from 2013 to 2016 Beavan Flanagan Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Music Composition, May 2017 Copyright Statement The author of this thesis (including any appendices and/or schedules to this thesis) owns any copyright in it (the \Copyright") and he has given The University of Huddersfield the right to use such Copyright for any administrative, promotional, educational and/or teaching purposes. Copies of this thesis, either in full or in extracts, may be made only in accordance with the regulations of the University Library. Details of these regulations may be obtained from the Librarian. This page must form part of any such copies made. 2 Abstract The following commentary details aspects of my recent compositions attempting to bring about intersections between subjects and objects. I demonstrate how my compositions highlight an interplay between the poles of subjectivity vs objectivity, human vs nonhuman and nature vs culture. Various musical precedents rooted in objectivity form the basis of this endeavour, such as the inaudible cosmic vibrations proposed by the Pythagoreans' Musica universalis, the chance procedures of mid twentieth-century experimental music, and the Platonic forms of Tom Johnson. However, although these standpoints do attempt to broaden the scope of music beyond the human sphere, they remain most often framed by transcendent discourse without explicitly addressing the subjective implications of such work. I propose an approach to composition that distances itself from a transcendental perspective, instead choosing to highlight the effects that objectivity elicits in human beings, while maintain- ing the presence of an external reality that remains inscrutable. Thus, my portfolio addresses the precise ways in which subjectivity remains present even within an objective musical dis- course, whether through exploring psychological responses to chance, the existential boredom brought on by unchanging forms, subjective reactions to the objectification of the human body, and the input of the imagination in the face of withdrawn or speculative musical objects. 3 Acknowledgements I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to: • My supervisor, Professor Aaron Cassidy, who always knew which questions to ask at precisely the right times; • My friends and colleagues at the University of Huddersfield, for three years of inspiring, odd, enlightening and hilarious conversations: Michael Baldwin, Daniel Portelli, Eleanor Cully, Stephen Harvey, Cassandra Miller, Solomiya Moroz, Lawrence Dunn, David Pock- nee, Alex Grimes, Daniela Amortegui (an honorary colleague), the list could go on...I sincerely hope that our conversations will continue for years to come; • John Lely, for the excellent editorial advice and also for the many stimulating discussions during my visits to London; • Mira Benjamin, not only for being an exemplary musician and role model but also for providing much needed decompression time and personal support; • My parents, for sharing with me their love of music and for being nothing but supportive even of my most obscure life decisions; • Steven Darbyshire, who probably doesn't know how much he has helped me during this process. 4 Contents Abstract 3 Acknowledgements 4 List of Portfolio Works 9 Prologue 11 1 Contextual Matters 16 1.1 Precedents . 17 1.1.1 Object . 18 1.1.2 Subject . 19 1.1.3 Musical Subjects and Objects . 28 1.2 Point of Departure .................................. 48 1.3 Related Artistic Investigations . 49 2 Autonomy 54 2.1 Autonomous Musical Instruments in What is this Thing Called...? ........ 55 5 2.2 Technological Autonomy in Two-Part Inventions ................. 58 2.3 Autonomous Objects in Metamorphosen ...................... 62 3 Contingency 66 3.1 No Chance Music ................................... 68 3.2 Sometimes Patterns ................................. 72 4 Speculation 78 4.1 Mixtapes for... ..................................... 83 4.2 Sonification of... .................................... 84 5 Embodiment 88 6 Flatness, Boredom 96 6.1 Sonification of... .................................... 98 6.2 Fields ......................................... 100 6.3 Hypersolid ....................................... 104 7 Conclusion 108 7.1 Future Work . 111 7.1.1 Geiger-Curated Playlist ............................ 112 7.1.2 Cassette Underground ............................ 114 Bibliography 116 6 List of Figures 1.1 Map of subjects and objects in musics discussed. Arrows represent trajectories of accessing subjects and/or objects . 47 2.1 An educational diagram of the orchestra (\Meet the Orchestra!" 2016) . 55 2.2 What is This Thing Called String Quartet ..................... 57 2.3 Two Part Invention no.1, First Five Permutations . 62 2.4 Ren´eMagritte The Son of Man (Magritte 1964) . 63 2.5 Metamorphosen .................................... 65 3.1 Ordering of pitches in the 3rd Order of Sometimes Patterns ........... 72 3.2 A realisation of Sometimes Patterns V.2 for string instrument . 77 4.1 Spectral representation of the data used in Sonification Of... Blank / white sections represent missing data. 86 5.1 Photo from the premiere of No sweeter sound than my own name. Photo Credit: Tom Hartford. 93 6.1 Listening Statistics for Sonification of... (Bandcamp 2016) . 99 6.2 Chopin Prelude no.4 in E Minor, first five bars . 101 7 6.3 Initial chord progression in Fields .......................... 102 6.4 Harmonic progression in contrary motion . 102 6.5 Harmonic progression across all inversions . 103 6.6 Bifurcation Diagram of the Logistic Map (Weisstein 2016b) . 106 7.1 Sears Tower Model 6157 (\Sears Roebuck & Company" 2007) . 113 8 List of Portfolio works The list of works is presented here by order of appearance in the text beginning from Chapter 2 and on the accompanying USB drive. In this manner, references to portfolio compositions will be addressed in-text between brackets, with the identifier `USB #(work number)'. 1. WHAT IS THIS THING CALLED. (USB #1) • Date: 2014 • Format: still 3D illustrations and animated GIF • Materials included on USB drive: { Images ∗ WhatIsThisThingCalledStringQuartet.jpg ∗ WhatIsThisThingCalledOrchestra.jpg ∗ WhatIsThisThingCalledTrumpet.gif 2. TWO-PART INVENTIONS (USB #2) • Date: 2014 • Format: notated music and MIDI recordings • Materials included on USB drive: { Scores ∗ Invention1.pdf ∗ Invention2.pdf ∗ Invention3.pdf ∗ Invention4.pdf { Recordings ∗ Invention1.aif ∗ Invention2.aif ∗ Invention3.aif ∗ Invention4.aif 3. METAMORPHOSEN (USB #3) • Date: 2015 • Format: installation • Materials included on USB drive: { Video Documentation ∗ Metamorphosen.mp4 { Still Images ∗ Metamorphosen1.jpg ∗ Metamorphosen2.jpg ∗ Metamorphosen3.jpg { Audio Files (tracks diffused through apples) ∗ Apple1.mp3 ∗ Apple2.mp3 ∗ Apple3.mp3 9 4. NO CHANCE MUSIC (USB #4) • Date: 2014 • Format: web application • Materials included on USB drive: { URL link ∗ NoChanceMusic.txt { Source code ∗ NoChanceMusic.html 5. SOMETIMES PATTERNS V.1 (USB #5) • Date: 2015{2016 • Format: solo tuba, notated score • Materials included on USB drive: { Score ∗ SometimesPatternsV1.pdf { Recordings ∗ 3rdOrder.wav ∗ 4thOrder.wav 6. SOMETIMES PATTERNS V.2 (USB #6) • Date: 2016 • Format: bowed string instrument, score in web application format • Materials included on USB drive: { Link to online score ∗ SometimesPatternsV2URL.txt { Source Code ∗ SometimesPatternsV2source.txt 7. MIXTAPES FOR... (USB #7) • Date: 2014 • Format: text scores • Materials included on USB drive: { Scores ∗ MixtapeForAStomach.pdf ∗ MixtapeForSpace.pdf 10 8. SONIFICATION OF... (USB #8) • Date: 2016 • Format: 20-track LP • Materials included on USB drive: { Audio Tracks (folder) { Album Art ∗ SonificationOf.jpg 9. NO SWEETER SOUND THAN MY OWN NAME (USB #9) • Date: 2015 • Format: solo vocalist and live electronics, audio score • Materials included on USB drive: { Score ∗ ScoreInstructions.pdf ∗ Audio Examples · From Recording (folder) · From Score (folder) ∗ Audio Score · NoSweeterScore.aif { Recordings ∗ NoSweeterVideo.mp4 ∗ NoSweeterAudio.aif 10. FIELDS (USB #10) • Date: 2015 • Format: chamber ensemble (fl,