Sound as Drama
: Composing Music for H.G. Wells ‘The Time Machine’ within a Critical Framework

  • George Thomas Lloyd-O'Keeffe

    Student thesis: Master's ThesisMaster of Arts by Research

    Abstract

    This research project explores the role of music as a narrator without the aid of visuals or verbal dialogue narration. Different areas of composition will be studied and practiced, developing a suite of four-part music suite, that retells one of H.G. Wells texts as purely musical form. The research will focus on the practices of electroacoustic composition, in particular Red Bird (1977) by Trevor Wishart, and Francis Dhomonts reinterpretation of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons
    Spring movement, “Another Spring.” The analyse of Dhomont and Wishart identify compositional techniques that will apply to my composition. The works of contemporary film composers such as Mica Levi and Hildur Guðnadóttir will be explored to understand how a film score can be composed with the idea of looking through the eyes of a main character, and representing original and authentic soundscapes, especially with Guðnadóttir’s score for HBO’s Chernobyl. In support of my research questions, I investigated the rock music concept
    album and the ninetieth century tone to garner the narrative. Ultimately these techniques and methods are synthesized into my original composition, ‘The Time Machine Reimagined.’
    Date of AwardJun 2022
    Original languageEnglish
    Awarding Institution
    • Coventry University
    SupervisorTom Williams (Supervisor)

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