Portfolio of musical compositions

The submission consists in a portfolio of eight compositions of instrumental, electroacoustic and mixed music, together with an explorative psychological study that connects music and space. The research and compositions have been developed in relation to some problems observed in contemporary music theory. Faced with a lack of music theoretical concepts for dealing with contemporary music, I have advanced new interpretations of some traditional concepts, identifying in the notions of mimesis and cadence inspiring materials for music composition. After an introductory chapter, Chapter 2 provides an overview on the genre of mixed-music, and then some observations on the topic of music theory that have influenced the research practice of the composer. In Chapter 3, the concept of mimesis is addressed as an aesthetic concept for handling form, referring to the interpretation provided by Aristotle, and its later development in electroacoustic music theory. Chapter 4 then presents a commentary on the musical compositions, while Chapter 5 presents the result of a report on a psychological study conducted into the perception of ‘completeness’ for sound trajectories moving in a horizontal plane