Abstract
The purpose of this project is to explore ways of expressing and evoking liminality and liminal concepts in music. The liminal is that which is situated at a boundary or threshold; liminality within the context of postmodernism is a particular way of understanding ‘in-between-ness’ that is associated with states of ambiguity and instability. My theoretical framework draws primarily upon the work of the literary theorist Sandor Klapcsik, who treats liminality as a basic category of postmodernism, taking a poststructuralist approach influenced by Derrida, Foucault, and others. Klapcsik employs several different forms of liminality (cultural/institutional; generic; narrative; thematic) in his analyses, and to some degree explores the aesthetic qualities that are characteristic of liminality. Some of these forms and qualities are less applicable to music than to literature, while there are other forms and qualities that are more applicable to music. By adapting Klapcsik’s ideas, I have developed an approach to musical liminality that operates on three main levels: thematic, aesthetic, and stylistic.On the thematic level, I have composed music that is concerned with ideas related to liminality. In some cases this thematic liminality is figurative, based on taking inspiration from, or attempting to evoke, non-musical liminal concepts and entities; in other cases it is more literal, based on exploring liminality within the tangible features of the music itself. On the aesthetic level, I have pursued the qualities associated with the liminal: ambiguity, uncertainty, instability, disorientation, unresolved tension, and so on. Finally, on the stylistic level, I have attempted to compose music that is situated at the boundary between the progressive and the nostalgic, in which stylistic elements associated with these contradictory impulses coexist in ways that go beyond juxtaposition but not as far as synthesis, creating a constant and uneasy stylistic tension. This is often accomplished by allowing different parameters of the music to be governed by conflicting stylistic approaches, such that the music is simultaneously pulled in multiple directions.
This portfolio comprises nine compositions, accompanied by a technical commentary that outlines my approach to the concept of liminality and explains the compositional processes I have employed.
| Date of Award | 1 Jul 2022 |
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| Original language | English |
| Awarding Institution |
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| Supervisor | Edward Nesbit (Supervisor) & Silvina Milstein (Supervisor) |