Research Students

Outlined below are summaries of research dissertations and projects currently being undertaken by;

Roslyn_Kay, Chris_Perren, Chloe-Ann_Williamson, Josephine_Pollicina, Jeanette_Kennelly, Libby_Gleadhill, Tim_Byrne, Jessica_O_Bryan, Thomas_Green, Katherine_Iddles, Rohan_Jayasinghe, Leah_Kardos, Karlin_Love

 

Roslyn Kay, PhD candidate

French Requiems of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

In addition to the well-known Requiems by Berlioz, Fauré and Duruflé, many other Requiems were composed in France during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Research has been undertaken in French libraries to identify and analyse these Requiems, with the aim of understanding how contextual influences have impacted on their structure and function.  

Chris Perren, PhD candidate
 
Composition and Perception
 
Chris is interested in how our perceptions mediate our experience of music. He will delve into the areas of cognition and perception, and draw this knowledge back into the mix of his own compositional practice. Chris will create a range of new works using diverse techniques to explore these themes.
 
Chloe-Ann Williamson, MPhil candidate in Performance
 
A New Technique for the Orchestral Double Bass: François Rabbath Applied
 
This critical commentary focuses on a specific area of double bass technique: the innovative pedagogical ideas of François Rabbath (b. 1931), an internationally acclaimed, self-taught double bass virtuoso and composer. Specifically, this critical commentary investigates in particular the applicability of Rabbath’s New Technique to orchestral double bass playing, as a common criticism of Rabbath’s technique is that it is only applicable to solo double bass playing.
 

Josephine Pollicina, MPhil in Performance candidate 
 
 
"A performance guide based on the formation of style, interpretation and character in Mozart’s Sinfonie Concertante in Eb major K.364."
 
My project aims to identify the processes surrounding interpretation so to create an effective performance. As Mozart’s work involves both violin and viola solo parts, I will focus on how to address issues such as balance, articulation and interpretation in relation to style and character projection between the performers. My project will assess how I form my performance decisions based on both my research and the ideas I have developed with my co-soloist. Furthermore, through detailed documentation of my own personal experience of learning, rehearsing and performing Mozart’s Sinfonie Concertante in Eb major K.364, I hope that this project will provide others with a historically informed, interpretative guide for performance.
 
 
Jeanette Kennelly, PhD candidate

“Sights, Sounds & Feelings”: The Lived Experience of Professional Supervision for Australian Music Therapists

This two phased project using a mixed methods design will explore the views, experiences and practices of Registered Music Therapists regarding professional supervision whilst practicing in Australia. Data obtained from both a national survey and semi-structured interview will inform the supervision stories of these therapists and provide perspectives and understandings of this professional support system.
 
 
Libby Gleadhill, PhD candidate

The lived experience of music used in therapy for bereaved parents
 
The research project aims to explore the ways in which music therapy for bereaved parents, specifically song parody technique, shapes clients' engagement with music in their lives.
 

Tim Byrne, MPhil in Performance candidate, Thesis under examination. 

Aspects of Technique in Dvořák's Cello Concerto: An Approach Based on a Comparative Study of Relevant Treatises
 
This commentary examines four specific aspects of technique in Dvořák's Cello Concerto in B minor. A comparative study of select eighteenth to twentieth-century treatises forms the basis for this examination, and is used to deconstruct the selected techniques. The commentary thus evaluates the effectiveness and value of a detailed treatise-based approach on the study of advanced cello repertoire.
 

Jessica O'Bryan, PhD candidate
 
Participant values, beliefs and practices of vocal education models in tertiary environments

This mixed methods collective case study is exploring the values, practices and beliefs of singing teachers and students in tertiary environments. Through a social constructivist paradigm, ways of teaching and learning classical singing will be examined. Values and beliefs about how classical singing is taught will be investigated, and three case studies will scrutinise the relationships, the pedagogy, and the development of both the classical singer and the classical teacher within the culture of a music institution. Narrative inquiry methods will be the lens by which the data are analysed.
 
 
Thomas Green, PhD Candidate

An Integration of Score Based and Digitally Produced Composition

This project will undertake practice and analysis of musical composition using both traditional and present-day computer-oriented approaches, with the aim of highlighting divergences, inherent difficulties and areas of special musical interest. The completion of a folio of music and accompanying critical commentary will provide a case for instances of successful compositional integration, or indications of potentially immitigable divergences.

Katherine Iddles, PhD candidate

Performance Practices in Early Recordings of Solo Piano Works by Robert Schumann.

This project identifies and investigates performance practices in recordings of Robert Schumann’s piano music dating from 1905 to 1945. Selected recordings will be analysed to identify performance practices such as tempo, dynamics and tempo rubato. The analysis will be placed in a detailed historical context.
 

Rohan Jayasinghe, PhD candidate

The Application of Serial Technique to Tonal Music: The Emancipation of

This thesis presents the notion that aspects of serial technique, founded by Arnold Schoenberg nearly a hundred years ago, can be applied to tertian harmony. The result of this process is a novel quasi-tonal language that potentially has broad application. Counter intuitively, in the pursuit of a music devoid of tonal hierarchy, rather than abolishing consonance this compositional model embraces it. A four movement symphony which in various sections incorporates this method is presented.
 

Leah Kardos, PhD candidate

21st Century composer as producer - utilising technology as a creative tool in the composition, realisation and performance of new music

This project explores the unique opportunities for creativity that arise when working with technology applications, in contexts including live performance, studio production and film scoring. Of particular interest is manipulating recorded performances of score-based compositions to create completely new and vastly different works, focusing on timbral/textural elements and the use of production techniques to exploit psychoacoustic effects.
 

Karlin Love, PhD candidate

Composer development: learning from performance and performers

In order to gain further understanding into the pedagogy of creative practice, this study explores learning that occurred for a small cohort of emerging composers and myself during and after an intensive, week-long school with a professional orchestra and established composer-tutors. From the many aspects of teaching and learning observed within this rich and complex environment, the study focuses upon student composer learning via performance and performers. 
 

 

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