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Composing Identities: Charting Negotiations of Collaborative Composition

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Composing Identities: Charting Negotiations of Collaborative Composition Composing Identities: Charting Negotiations of Collaborative Composition Andrew Faleatua A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Sydney Conservatorium of Music The University of Sydney 2019 0 Statement of Originality I certify that the intellectual content of this thesis is the product of my own work and that all the assistance received in preparing this thesis and sources have been acknowledged. This thesis has not been submitted for any degree or other purpose. Andrew Faleatua 30 June, 2019 i Abstract Polynesian artists who fuse popular music with traditional Polynesian musical elements have been celebrated by a range of scholars for establishing transcultural alliances and expanding the scope of Polynesian cultural expression. Yet a predominant focus in this discourse on the political and social resonance of fixed recordings and public performances has left relatively unexplored negotiations of cultural expectation and musical vision that occur during the formation/design period of these works. In this thesis I undertake a real-time investigation into the collaborative development of three sets of musical works that fuse popular and traditional musical genres in order to reveal the multiple mindsets and philosophical stances Polynesian musicians slip into and out of as a matter of course during the negotiation of transcultural music. I begin by illuminating the range of sonic positions contemporary Polynesian artists have staked out across a large body of recorded material and then document the collaborative development of my own composition portfolio in which I have threaded the melodic and harmonic language of contemporary jazz and pop through a series of traditional Polynesian rhythmic frameworks. Analysis of the development of these works reveals a constantly shifting hierarchy of concerns amongst participants related to cultural authenticity, audience expectations, musical reach, and aesthetic taste. Such findings reveal that artists assume multiple and at times conflicting ideological and aesthetic positions as they forge transcultural musical works, and foregrounds the importance of examining what goes on ‘behind the scenes’ as we seek to better understand what transcultural Polynesian music means to those who make it. ii Table of Contents Statement of Originality ......................................................................................................... i List of Figures ........................................................................................................................ v Acknowledgements .............................................................................................................. vi Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 1 Purpose and Rationale ...................................................................................................................1 Composition Portfolio ....................................................................................................................2 Chapter Summaries ........................................................................................................................2 Chapter One: Narratives of Transcultural ............................................................................... 7 Polynesian Music ................................................................................................................... 7 1.1 Turns in Transcultural Polynesian Music Discourses ...................................................................7 1.2 Theoretical Stance: Product vs Process .................................................................................... 13 Chapter Two: Researching through Practice ......................................................................... 15 and Cross-Cultural Collaboration .......................................................................................... 15 2.1 Musical Background ............................................................................................................... 15 2.2 Preliminary Research .............................................................................................................. 16 2.3 Recruitment Process ............................................................................................................... 17 2.4 The Participants ..................................................................................................................... 18 2.5 Talanoa .................................................................................................................................. 18 2.6 Participant Observations: Researcher Stance ........................................................................... 19 2.7 Intersecting Positionalities ...................................................................................................... 21 2.8 Documenting Observations..................................................................................................... 24 2.9 Coding and Analysis ................................................................................................................ 25 2.10 Compositional Process .......................................................................................................... 26 2.11 Composition Portfolio Overview ........................................................................................... 28 Chapter Three: Tai ............................................................................................................... 29 3.1 Fa’ataupati Fusion .................................................................................................................. 29 3.2 Amalgamating the Ailao ......................................................................................................... 36 3.3 Synthesising the Sasa ............................................................................................................. 38 3.4 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 42 Chapter Four: Matavai ......................................................................................................... 44 4.1 Traditional Samoan Dance Rhythms ........................................................................................ 44 iii 4.2 Cultural Rationales ................................................................................................................. 47 4.3 Sonic Rationales ..................................................................................................................... 50 4.4 The Absence of Negotiation .................................................................................................... 52 4.5 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 54 Chapter Five: Alex ................................................................................................................ 58 5.1 Alex ....................................................................................................................................... 58 5.2 Cook Island Drumming ........................................................................................................... 59 5.3 Documentation of Musical Transculturation ............................................................................ 60 5.4 Danceability Authentication.................................................................................................... 60 5.5 Dance Phrasing and Harmonic Considerations ......................................................................... 68 5.6 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 70 Chapter 6: Concluding Remarks on Musical .......................................................................... 73 Identity ............................................................................................................................... 73 Reference List ...................................................................................................................... 77 Composition Portfolio Audio Files ......................................................................................... 83 Nafanua ...................................................................................................................................... 83 Tidalwave .................................................................................................................................... 83 Crawling ...................................................................................................................................... 83 Waratahs ..................................................................................................................................... 83 Come Together Pasefika .............................................................................................................. 83 Tala Matavai ............................................................................................................................... 83 To the West ................................................................................................................................. 83 Maine .........................................................................................................................................
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