Potentials in a World of Becoming: Ecological Correspondence in Compositional Practice

Abstract

This thesis and portfolio examines my growing engagement with ecological thinking in my compositional practice. Grounding my ecological understanding in ideas of active, complex interconnectivity; open modes of engagement; and an ecological conception of materiality, I examine how this approach has helped refine and guide my creative process over the course of my masters research project. Sitting alongside these themes are recurring ideas of assemblage and vulnerable engagement. These are both approaches to composition and provide an analytical lens through which overarching ecological ideas can be examined. The compositions included in the portfolio range from small chamber to large orchestral works and the differing sizes and scales of these pieces allows for the examination of the overarching themes from a variety of angles and perspectives. Ideas of assemblage provide a structural approach in the examination of the mixed chamber octet Mycelium (2022). Ideas of assemblage are then further explored within the context of the orchestra, with the works drawing together, apart (2021), Detritus (2022) and Whale Fall (2022). Ideas of materiality and vulnerable engagement are then used as the primary lens for an analysis of the chamber works Etchings of Light (2021), Marine Snow (2022) and Phytoplankton (2022).