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Abstract
Rebecca Saunders (b. 1967) is a central figure in contemporary timbre-based composition. Her music incorporates a rich sonic palette of extended techniques and unusual instrumental sounds. While Saunders describes her compositional approach as intuitive, she cautions that this does not imply a lack of rigour: rather, 'intuition is based upon thorough research and experience'. This paper seeks to establish new analytical approaches that can address the subtleties and sophistication of Saunders’s timbral and orchestrational techniques. Drawing on a wide range of methodologies—including Dora Hanninen’s distinction between segmentation and association, Judith Lochhead’s call for a more phenomenological approach to analysis, Lasse Thoresen’s aural sonology, Stephen McAdams’s taxonomy of orchestral grouping effects, and Saunders’s own analyses—I examine the composer’s approach to timbre and orchestration in two works for soloist and ensemble: Fury II (2009), a concerto for double bass and mixed quintet, and Skin (2016) for soprano and thirteen instruments.
Biography
Music theorist and composer Robert Hasegawa joined the faculty of McGill University's Schulich School of Music in 2012. His research explores contemporary music, spectralism, psychoacoustics, timbre and orchestration. Recent projects include studies on composers Georgia Spiropoulos and Pascale Criton, microtonal theory and composition, creative constraints in contemporary compositional practice, and applications of transformational theory to the music of George Benjamin and Georg Friedrich Haas. He is a co-editor of the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of Orchestration Studies and associate director of the ACTOR Partnership (Analysis, Creation and Teaching of Orchestration) supported by Canada's Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.
Oxford Seminar in Music Theory and Analysis
Season 6 (2023–24)
The theme for the sixth season of seminars is: Sound—Timbre—Silence.
The Oxford Seminar in Music Theory & Analysis (OSiMTA) meets twice a term on selected Tuesdays at 17.15 UK time. Its convenors are Dr Esther Cavett and Professor Jonathan Cross.
Our conception of theory and analysis is critical, plural and interdisciplinary. In shaping the seminars, we aim to reflect the broad range of activity taking place under the heading of theory and analysis today, as well as to challenge boundaries, embracing not only ‘conventional’ practices, histories of theory and repertoires, but also new interdisciplinary approaches that engage with cultural studies, ethnomusicology, aesthetics and philosophy, psychology, politics, performance studies, popular music studies, and so on. Speakers include distinguished local, national and international scholars.
Seminars are open to all, including the general public. Sessions will last 90 minutes and lively discussion is encouraged. They will also be livestreamed via Zoom.
Regular updates, abstracts and Zoom links will appear on the OSiMTA pages. You can also follow OSiMTA on Twitter/X.
