Year
1987
Degree Name
Master of Arts (Hons.)
Department
School of Creative Arts
Recommended Citation
Dixon, John Wayne, Prospect and retrospect: a composer analyses thirteen of his own compositions, Master of Arts (Hons.) thesis, School of Creative Arts, University of Wollongong, 1987. https://ro.uow.edu.au/theses/2261
Abstract
The material 1 submit to the University of Wollongong in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (Honours) is presented in several volumes. The first thirteen, larger volumes, spiral-bound and printed in A3 size, consist of copies of the manuscripts of thirteen original compositions, among which are two symphonies for large orchestra, a large-scale work for eight-part vocal ensemble with instrumental ensemble, two string quartets, a work for string orchestra and percussion, a short string trio, an overture for orchestra, a piece for organ, an inter-arts work, a set of three songs and two chamber pieces involving woodwind ensembles. Finally, there is the A4 "thesis" which follows and which is entitled "Prospect and Retrospect", in which I comment upon aspects of both the structure and the spirit of the thirteen works. I bold-text the word "thesis" because the document is indeed not a thesis in the usual sense of hypothesis plus extensive analysis. Such an approach would have required that I devote the whole document to the discussion of any single one of the thirteen works, or else have thirteen separate theses! Rather, ! comment (and thus the use of the title "Commentary" rather than the usual "Chapter" for each section of the main body of the document) in my own vernacular on my own musical creations, unapologetically eschewing detailed corporeal in favour of spiritual description where I, as the composer, have found this to be seemly. In this thesis document musical examples are placed at the end of each commentary, and are numerated by opus number; thus the musical examples at the end of Commentary I, for instance, begin "Example 6a", "6" being the opus number of the first of the thirteen works. This format of placing musical examples at the end rather than within each commentary has been adopted in the interests of avoiding awkward spacing problems.
Unless otherwise indicated, the views expressed in this thesis are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the University of Wollongong.