Creative Orchestra Music (BHX): Developing a shared compositional language

Paton, Simon (2024) Creative Orchestra Music (BHX): Developing a shared compositional language. Doctoral thesis, Birmingham City University.

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Abstract

This research seeks to create a shared compositional language that can incorporate improvisational aspects by musicians from diverse musical backgrounds, and through this process create a micro-society consisting of these performers. It comprises a portfolio of works that are based around trans-idiomatic practices, all of which require creative improvisation to varying degrees. The result is new repertoire for creative music performers as well as new insights into the curatorial aspects of the compositional process, such as choosing ensemble personnel, and which approaches for improvisation to utilise. By expanding on the way composers such as John Zorn and Anthony Braxton set parameters for creative improvisation, I demonstrate how myself, and other composers that have followed them, can incorporate these aspects into our practice.

This series of ensemble pieces demonstrates the ways in which I curate personnel for each composition project as a result of their own musical backgrounds and idiosyncratic playing style, as well as exploring different approaches to composing for improvisers within compositional parameters. This leads to a new large-scale work, Don’t Exist Inside Your Own Head, in which the personnel and the different options for creative improvisation are the factors that give the piece its compositional identity. The accompanying reflective commentary explains the compositional process, examining how and to what extent my curatorial approach has informed the works. The project proposes possibilities for how ensemble personnel and compositional frameworks can exist within creative improvising.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Dates:	Date Event 28 July 2023 Submitted 11 January 2024 Accepted
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Composition, creative music, free improvisation, contemporary composition, experimental music, avant-garde jazz
Subjects:	CAH25 - design, and creative and performing arts > CAH25-02 - performing arts > CAH25-02-02 - music
Divisions:	Doctoral Research College > Doctoral Theses Collection Faculty of Arts, Design and Media > Royal Birmingham Conservatoire
Depositing User:	Jaycie Carter
Date Deposited:	18 Sep 2024 12:54
Last Modified:	15 Oct 2024 08:34
URI:	https://www.open-access.bcu.ac.uk/id/eprint/15855