Abstract: The six pieces in this portfolio explore contemporary musical narratives as if approached from a traditional outlook. In these pieces many harmonic and rhythmic processes (modal, serial,‘post-serial’ and minimalist) that emerged in Post-War music, as well as their resulting forms or modes of continuity interact with a traditionally grounded, intuitive approach to 'thematicism'. Another important topic in this music is an engagement with certain formal elements and mannerisms of contemporary popular, rock and dance music, and the ethnic musical traditions of my cultural heritage. Writing for string instruments informed by the composer’s personal experience as a double bass performer is a central concern of the thesis. Knife in the Water (for violin and cello) explores elements of heavy metal rhythms, Middle Eastern incantations, and free and strict meter. Bonaparte Born to Party (for mixed quintet) builds on the jagged heavy metal and dance elements found in Knife in the Water, subjecting some of the harmonic structures of the latter to a fairly strict process of transformation while relying to a much greater extent!on repetition.
A Poem is a Burning City (for ten players) explores the possibility of creating a sort of'modality' by means of timbre as well as the 'transformation of sonority' itself as a means for delineating a binary form. While its harmonic language shares many aspects with the earlier pieces, here they are no longer the main concern of the music, which relies primarily on ‘colour', 'sonority' and extensive 'repetition' for the unfolding of a slowly evolving texture. In the string quintet Everything is Amazing and Nobody is Happy, the Suite for solo violin and the Lullaby for double bass and orchestra, the type of explorations of colour and! sonority incipient in A Poem is a Burning City are extended and combined with the developmental processes and clear thematic and! melodic/harmonic!materials that characterise the earlier pieces.

Abstract: Nicodemus! The Beds are Burning Again: The Ascension of Gorgomath is a 22-minute concerto for piano and chamber orchestra that explores the use of narrative as a means of unifying disparate musical languages into a cohesive single-movement structure. The narrative, as implied by the fourteen programmatic indicators within the score, features a protagonist, Nicodemus, and an antagonist, Gorgomath. Additional contrasting elements essential to the plot are: the burning beds, outer space, the ultimate weapon, and the three rituals. The programmatic indicators, to be listed in the program, function as a framework from which the listener can fabricate their own version of the story.
The narrative begins with “The beds are burning,” a heavy-metal inspired musical theme characterized by a pervasive rhythmic structure interspersed with virtuosic piano displays. Full orchestral forces add to the intensity of a relentless motor rhythm heard first in the piano. Following “Ritual I,” a transitionary theme of soli strings and piano, Nicodemus’s theme develops, a musical antithesis to “The Burning Beds” theme. It employs a simple melodic loop over a basic four-chord harmonic structure, reminiscent of 8-bit video game themes, and is voiced as piano accompanied by tremolo in the woodwinds and strings.
Nicodemus’s journey into space begins with a rapid deceleration in tempo. The following slow ternary form includes a funerary dirge bookended by the piece’s most lyrical piano writing, expressed by the rise and fall of melodic octaves. The pounding neo-Shostakovian strings of “Ritual II” transition directly into the development section, “Nicodemus seeks the ultimate weapon.” Nicodemus’s theme undergoes significant transformation, assuming the guise of stride piano and North Indian tabla music. These styles are unique to this section, as is their orchestration of high, sustained winds alternating with orchestral hits between low strings and percussion.
The piece’s recapitulation, “Meanwhile…,” begins with a return of the burning beds. Here, “Gorgomath’s Theme,” identifiable by the instability of its 7/16 motor rhythm is briefly foreshadowed. It appears in its entirety in the coda, “Boss Battle.”
The resulting work uses original narrative to blend polystylistic elements into a cohesive single movement structure with a dramatic musical arc.

Abstract: Foreverdark is a single movement, ten-minute concertino (short concerto) for amplified cello soloist with live electronic processing and chamber orchestra. The exact instrumentation consists of violoncello solo, flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon, trumpet in Bb, horn in F, tenor trombone, percussion, piano, harp, violin 1, violin 2, viola, violoncello, and double bass; each part is played by a single player. The compositional style is a continuation and deeper exploration of the composer’s current compositional interests, namely the integration of quotation and popular music style signals within more broadly art music formats. By amplifying and separating the cello soloist from the ensemble, the player’s position alludes to that of a “lead guitarist;” subsequently, much of their melodic material (and that of the orchestra around them) is sourced from a variety of heavy metal riffs, most of them from bands the composer listened to as a teenager. The piece’s title, “Foreverdark,” both references the song with a similar name (Foreverdark Woods) by Viking metal artist Bathory as well as the composer’s long and somewhat nostalgic relationship to the metal genre itself. In addition to heavy metal-sourced melodic and rhythmic motifs, “Foreverdark” also contains some material bordering on a folk music aesthetic. Surprisingly, metal-turned-folk is a common stylistic shift in for some of the bands quoted within the work.