Composition<-->improvisation: Spiraling towards their confluence. Concerto for wind ensemble and MIDI/electric trumpet.

Composition&harr;Improvisation: Spiraling towards their Confluence explores the convergence of composition and improvisation. Chapter One is a comparison of their similarities and differences as music-making processes. Chapter Two is an abridged historical perspective of composer/improvisers and theorists within the Western musical canon. Chapter Three looks at recent interactive developments, some of which test the boundaries of the Western classical and jazz traditions. Chapter Four focuses on Olivier Messiaen and a scene of improvising composer/organists emanating from Paris in the early twentieth century. Chapter Five is an analysis of portions of Messiaen's Messe de la Pentecote, a collection of improvisations for organ. Embedded within this collection of improvisations is unmistakable evidence of his compositional language. I conclude that not only can improvisation be used to stimulate one's compositional powers, but that the opposite can occur; that composition can influence and inform improvisation. Therefore, the relationship between composition and improvisation becomes more comprehensive than many have previously thought, and their recent separation becomes worthy of our reconsideration. The Concerto for Wind Ensemble and MIDI/Electric Trumpet is a six-movement work; the outer movements feature the soloist with the entire ensemble while the inner movements place the soloist with more specific instrumental collections. The soloist will open the work with an improvised solo prelude, close it with a postlude, and connect the movements with a solo improvisation. By accessing the soloist's improvisatory skills, I hope to reinvigorate the concerto form by initializing a return to its origins. However, the music for the ensemble is not improvisational, nor is most of the soloist's music within the movements. The solo part also explores my interest in using a trumpet to trigger electronic timbres, and to use signal processing and MIDI to extend the traditional boundaries of the instrument. For example, the solo part includes chords and sudden leaps into registers beyond the trumpet's normal range, and the soloist will trigger sampled, synthesized, and processed timbres. The score includes a preface on equipment and setup suggestions for the soloist, and throughout I have included prose descriptions of the timbres I have in mind for the solo part.PhDCommunication and the ArtsMusicUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/132966/2/3057988.pd