Between consonance and dissonance

Abstract

This document and accompanying portfolio trace the philosophical and technical evolution of my work in composition from 2012 to 2015. It shows how my work - originally influenced largely by Morton Feldman and John Cage - developed as a result of my interest in just intonation and microtonality and through the influences of James Tenney, Alvin Lucier, La Monte Young, and painters Jackson Pollock and Gerhard Richter. The first section provides background and places my work within the compositional/artistic canon while the second section discusses the work in more technical detail. At the end of the document there is a more detailed examination of four works: ’Harmonic Catalogue’, ‘Some Perfect Chords’, ‘Some Imperfect Chords’, and ’Landscape with Train Whistle’, which are the culmination of the attitudes at University College Cork.