What does a Secret Sound Like? Exploring Communicative Agency as a Composer

Abstract

This thesis and portfolio of compositions investigates an aesthetics of safety and secrecy in sound. The artistic research is especially concerned with the boundaries between or overlaps of public or private intent in communication and creative expression. While rhetoric is a prominent research focus in the study of composing traditions, the angle of agency, especially in withholding information or expression deserves further attention in the realm of music and sound. This perspective is informed by key scholars across secrecy studies, artistic research and sociology as well as composers whose works approach similar themes. Several musical compositions form this portfolio and discussion: Secret (2018-19) for concert & alto flute soloist, backing track and gate effect; Commute (2018-20) a chamber opera for mezzo-soprano, tenor, baritone and small ensemble; companion works Street Sketches (2018) for chamber ensemble of thirteen instruments, and Streets (2019) for orchestra; and Sonata: Ode (2019) a large-scale solo piano work. The benefits of journaling in both compositional process and output are explored as an avenue for combining creativity and privacy, and for expanding expressive agility across a variety of media whether in the thesis, my compositions or process manuscripts. Aspects of each work are analysed in depth to model various ways that the initial journaling format carries through from the experimental stage and into the final musical output. There are innovations in how live performance mediates with a fixed backing track, and in processes of deconstruction and juxtaposition with ancient source materials to critique gender dynamics in traditions such as opera to offer alternative modes of being and doing. These processes and perspectives have allowed the compositions to extend beyond an initial comfort zone to navigate vulnerable, sensitive and important themes such as street harassment and gendered violence, especially in the light of #metoo.