Creating Mobile and Open Form Music: Composing New Music Through the Lens of Brown, Feldman, Stockhausen, and Fox

Abstract

The 1950s was an era that saw considerable experimentation within music, particularly in music composition, and interpretation. Through techniques such as indeterminacy and chance operations, the traditions of music-making were challenged. This thesis explores significant points in history, where the development of mobile composition techniques presented new creative processes in the production and interpretation of music, and aims to expand on the documentation surrounding the use of mobile and open forms within music composition. A select number of seminal works of the 20thcenturyAvant-Garde, including Earle Brown, Morton Feldman, and Karlheinz Stockhausen, along with a work from the 21stcentury by Christopher Fox, are analysed to evaluate developments in composition techniques and processes, and the impact they had on the realm of interpretation and performance. Contemporary musicological studies, in conjunction with music scores, are examined to understand the implications of mobile composition techniques. The analysis of mobile and open forms is rooted in autoethnographic and practice-based forms of research, drawing upon reflection of my own experiences devising and realising music employing mobile techniques. Drawing upon this analysis, an original composition that utilises mobile and open forms has been created as an example of this new knowledge.

Date of Award	Jan 2022
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Coventry University
Supervisor	Tom Williams (Supervisor)