Abstract:
This exegesis is an investigation into my creative process. It is an exercise in making
more conscious the themes in, and relationships between, the musical materials I
employ and the concepts that govern them. This is in order to obtain a clearer idea of
the aesthetic I am currently exploring, to develop a stronger and more coherent
viewpoint on what it is that I currently wish to hear in my music, and to contribute to
the general discourse on the creative process in composition. Being primarily an
intuitive composer, I consider the role improvisation plays both in the compositional
stage and within the performance of my music. The accompanying portfolio of works
gives fruition to a number of improvisatory approaches, and also highlights my
fascination with a number of the world’s musical traditions, tackling both how to
combine instruments of more than one tradition in fresh and interesting ways, and how
to distill and internalize certain qualities of a particular musical tradition into my music
by ways other than direct appropriation.
