| Summary: | This essay, accompanying a portfolio of compositions, is being submitted for a doctoral degree in composition. It describes the results of my engagement with questions of classical music, how it fits within the wider world, and how these ideas are encompassed in the accompanying music. The questions of how the marketplace mentality of the world affects its thinking about classical music, classical music’s subsequent relevance, and how classical music is presented via the concert, lead to points of increasing musical specificity such as my use of discourse, determinacy, tonality and modality in the compositions, and my belief in the validity of the classical concert ritual. To make these points, I specifically turn to the musicological work of Julian Johnson, Christopher Small, and Milton Babbitt, engaging with and questioning each so as to describe how I decided on various aesthetic positions. Following this, I analyse three pieces of music by Arvo Pärt, Howard Skempton, and Martyn Harry to demonstrate how these ideas have been realised by other composers and what inspiration I took from them in my own compositions. The essay is closed with a detailed discussion of two large projects; one that was undertaken in 2013, and one that is currently in progress. In doing so, I hope to show how my engagement with larger questions has affected not only the music I have written, but also the way in which the music is presented. The essay is intentionally written with a more personal tone so as not to cause a discrepancy with the music in my portfolio, all of which was written with genuineness as the paramount concern. Lastly, I begin my argument by starkly contrasting different viewpoints. It has admittedly been challenging to find a balance in describing the extreme positions in a way that isn’t unnecessarily provocative to my aims. Provocation is certainly not my intention. So, in short, stick with me; all will be made clear as the dissertation progresses.
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