Singing the Lord's song in a strange land : compositional voice towards expression of Christian transcendence

Abstract

This thesis explores the musical expression of Christian transcendence in my folio of compositions. The "Lord's song" of the thesis title is a reference to Psalm 137, in which the Psalmist, in exile in Babylon, asks "how shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?" (King James). This question could be paraphrased, in terms of the thesis, as "how can the transcendent be expressed in the material form of music?" The transcendent is primarily expressed in these compositions by static referential pitches which symbolise the immanence of the eternal within the temporal, and by the use of borrowed musical material that has associations of transcendence. The compositions are seen as places that contain the transcendent and in which the transcendent may be met, and these places are likened to a musical 'nest' in which my own and borrowed musical materials are woven together. The compositional credo discusses ways that music refers to and contains the transcendent through the voices of the composer, other musics and the transcendent at work in the process of composition. The chapter on compositional voice and craft lays out the general principles of mosaic form and modal voice-leading that are at work in these pieces. Three chapters cover individual works in detail, showing how they express particular aspects of the transcendent drawn from their texts or titles.

Date of Award	2009
Original language	English