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    Canons, airs sérieux and airs à boire : a study of the contribution of the eighteenth century French composer and copyist C. de La Serre
    (Massey University, 2010) Dillon, Teressa
    C. de La Serre was a composer, copyist and maître de musique. His known compositions are all airs sérieux and airs à boire, appearing in printed sources and manuscripts between 1716 and 1724. His individual collection, Recueil d’airs nouveaux sérieux et à boire (1724) provides the most complete picture of his achievements as a composer, as it exhibits the largest number of his songs in a single volume. Another side of La Serre’s musical activity is also considered in the present study, as it includes the examination of selections from the manuscript F-CECm/Ms. 282, of which he was the copyist. The distinguishing characteristic of this manuscript is its collection of canons, which may be the largest of its kind. La Serre’s own music is included in F-CECm/Ms. 282, along with airs by composers such as Jean-Baptiste de Bousset, François Couperin and Jean-Philippe Rameau. This thesis places canons, airs sérieux and airs à boire composed by La Serre and other prominent songwriters of the period within the social context of the French Regency, and the context of the genres at the beginning of the eighteenth century. The conventions of verse and music are also considered in relation to specific airs of the printed collection and the manuscript. A catalogue of La Serre’s Recueil d’airs nouveaux sérieux et à boire and the edited selections of F-CECm/Ms. 282 is also included. Volume II comprises a critical edition of La Serre’s 1724 collection and selections from the manuscript.
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    Distilling the essence : vocal provenance in the work of Jack Body : a thesis and portfolio of original compositions submitted to the New Zealand School of Music in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Music in Composition
    (Massey University, 2010) Shortis, Carol
    Jack Body is a prolific New Zealand composer of contemporary art music, who is best known for his engagement with the cultures of our Asian neighbours, and his transcription and transformation of their music has influenced a whole generation of composers in this country. However, in addition to this fascination with non-Western music, the use of voice as a means to express and explore the human condition has been an underlying theme in much of his work. This study uses critical analyses of three specific works by the composer to explore both text setting and his use of vocal provenance as a transformative compositional process. The string quartet Saetas is examined as a straightforward example of vocal provenance in instrumental music. An analysis of the text setting in Love Sonnets of Michelangelo informs an examination of the subsequent work for solo violin and string orchestra Meditations on Michelangelo where Body uses his own earlier vocal work as provenance for instrumental music. Body’s compositional practises in regard to the transformation from voice to instrument can therefore be separated from his response to original text, allowing an examination of the specific techniques he employs in works in which vocal provenance strongly informs instrumental compositions. This written dissertation is submitted with a portfolio of my original compositions that explore the use of voice in solo and choral works, as well as using the provenance of voice for instrumental music. These compositions were informed and influenced by my research of Jack Body’s work.
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    Perspectives on developing a music therapy programme within an educational setting for adolescents with mental health issues : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Music Therapy at the New Zealand School of Music, Wellington, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2010) Young, John-Paul
    This thesis outlines exploratory research that sought to find out how music therapy could most effectively address the needs of the students and support the ideas and learning objectives of staff at an innovative new school for adolescents with mental health issues. This was achieved by involving staff and students (n=12) in a series of group interviews, in combination with reflections from a research journal. Amongst other things, the findings suggested that students valued the opportunity to learn new musical skills, relax and express themselves. The staff appeared to value the way music therapy could support therapeutic and educational objectives within the school; for instance, by providing students with opportunities to work together in small groups, or by providing individual students with a way of relaxing and experiencing success. The writer describes efforts to tailor music therapy to fit with the needs of the setting and concludes by suggesting possible avenues for future music therapy research in a setting of this kind.
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    Cover to cover : an examination of book covers : a thesis submitted to Massey University in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Education
    (Massey University, 2009) Rahui, Maria
    Cover to cover is a study involving the book covers of two books. Mason Durie’s book Ngā Kāhui Pou - Launching Māori Futures and Linda Smith’s Decolonizing Methodologies Research and Indigenous Peoples. Each book cover is analysed to find out whether academics should consider their book cover as important. The research explores the two book covers in this study to find out how the covers authenticate the author. However, the main focus is how the covers represent the book’s content. The publishing process through its practice is explored to understand why it is important for academics particularly Māori academics to take responsibility for their book covers. Arguing that book covers are as important as textual content, the research shows how a Māori centred approach to what gets on the cover has cognisance with the Māori centred book content.
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    Striking a balance : improving practice as a student doing group music therapy with adults with substance abuse and dependence : a research thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Master of Music Therapy at the New Zealand School of Music, Wellington, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2010) Yearsley, Sharon
    An action research project was devised to help a music therapy student improve her practice in a group alcohol and drug treatment setting. The project initially focussed on improving practice by delivering more creative, sustained and holistic experiences. Four action cycles of one week each were carried out, each cycle comprising planning, action and reflection stages. Data sources were gathered in the form of clinical notes, a reflective journal and supervision notes from meetings and session de-briefs with counselling staff at the facility. The data was then woven into narrative accounts of each cycle, and key learning points for each cycle were identified. Cycles were also examined for common themes, and nine themes were identified. Findings show the student developing a deeper understanding of practice through the examination of structure and flexibility in facilitation style and musical interactions, and how and when to find balance between structure and freedom. Other key factors relevant to improving practice such as building confidence and working with the interdisciplinary team, are explored. Findings are discussed, along with ideas about the value of carrying out an Action Research project, and suggestions for future projects focussed on improving practice with this client group.
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    The development of a music therapy school consultation protocol for students with high or very high special education needs : a thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Music, New Zealand School of Music
    (Massey University, 2010) Rickson, Daphne Joan
    Music therapy school consultation is positioned to become a significant practice for music therapists. Historically, music therapy work with children who have special education needs in New Zealand has focused on those who attend special schools or units and, according to the published literature, seems to have taken place in clinic settings or withdrawal rooms. The current emphasis on inclusive education demands that music therapists consider other ways of working. Further, a paucity of music therapists and the geographic isolation of many students who attend their local schools suggest that the large majority of students who would benefit are unable to access music therapy services. The aims of the current study therefore were for a music therapist to empower members of special education teams to use music experiences which had been especially planned to assist children to meet individual developmental or academic goals, and to describe how the process was perceived, understood, used, and valued by participants. A further aim was to develop and trial a protocol for music therapists undertaking consultation work. Eight registered music therapists interviewed in stage one of the study, to aid the development of the initial protocol, had differing views and attitudes about consultation, and findings confirmed the need to clearly define the practice. The initial protocol was therefore fragile, based on limited understandings from sparse music therapy consultation literature and the author‟s previous experience of working with team members in isolated areas. In stage two, four consecutive case studies enabled the protocol to be trialled in the field and, using an action research approach, to be developed further. Accumulated learning outcomes led to the development of a music therapy school consultation protocol based on social learning theory which emphasises the interdependent relationships between the consultant‟s (music therapist), consultees‟ (identified team members), and clients‟ (students) behaviour, their internal personal factors, and environmental factors. The establishment of collaborative relationships, and an ecological assessment which is based on the theory that human development is influenced by environmental systems (Bronfenbrenner, 1989), are critical components of the protocol. Thus the music therapist spends a full week at each student‟s school. Findings demonstrate that interacting with team members as they went about their daily lives led to deeper understanding of their needs and in turn enabled pragmatic, accessible, and meaningful music activities and strategies to be successfully implemented. A „clinical‟ music therapy session remains an important part of the protocol, but findings suggest its primary significance is in highlighting students‟ strengths so that team members develop fresh understandings and increasingly positive views of students that enhance their mutual relationships. Team members became more motivated, energised, self reflective, and able to support as well as challenge their students‟ development. They were thus able to continue to use, develop and evaluate their use of music strategies, after the music therapist left the field. Music therapists are currently unprepared for the triadic relationships and the emphasis on adult empowerment that is fundamental to consultation. The findings therefore have significant implications for music therapy practice and training. These implications, including areas for future research, are discussed herein.
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    A night at the (imaginary) opera : the visual dimension in Hector Berlioz's Lélio, Roméo et Juliette, and La damnation de Faust : a thesis submitted to the New Zealand School of Music in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Music in Musicology, New Zealand School of Music
    (Massey University, 2009) Moore, Frances Claire
    In keeping with the spirit of Romanticism, Hector Berlioz has always been something of a rogue figure. Works like Lelio, Romeo et Juliette and La damnation de Faust, which Daniel Albright refers to as 'semi-operas', occupy an uncomfortable place within the concert hall. The intersections between song, symphony, opera and the spoken word that form these works immediately pose questions concerning musical unity, narrative interpretation, issues of genre, and performance style. While the musical and literary aspects of the three compositions have been the subject of scholarly attention, this study turns its gaze onto the various visual dimensions that are present within Lelio, Romeo et Juliette and La damnation de Faust. By emphasising the presence of spectacle in Berlioz's compositions, questions soon arise concerning the implications of these visual elements for performance. Berlioz's relatively early work, Lelio, illustrates the extent to which the composer is already concerned with how the visual suppression of performing bodies can create and change narrative meanings. Romeo et Juliette raises the curtains that hide Lelio's musical forces. Rather than simply distilling Shakespeare's drama into music, Berlioz relies instead on a visual memory of Romeo and Juliet to replace the absence of physical characters within his 'symphonie dramatique', thus creating an aural rendition of a past theatrical event. Through an exploration of the spectacle within Lelio and Romeo et Juliette, we see how Berlioz has constructed a visually detailed imaginary theatre that resides within the score. An understanding of this imaginary theatre is integral in the subsequent analysis of Berlioz's controversial and wonderfully diabolical La damnation de Faust. This work is performed as often in the opera house as it is in the concert hall. However, an in-depth analysis of the libretto and score reveals curious and occasionally contradictory visual implications. The impact that these contradictions have on the visual dimension in the performance of La damnation de Faust will be explored through a reading of two ground-breaking productions: Raoul Gunsbourg's La damnation de Faust from 1893 - the first production to treat Berlioz's score as an opera; and Robert Lepage's mixed-media production of La damnation. The work of these two directors serves to highlight, perhaps inadvertently, the problematic effects of Berlioz's imaginary theatre on the necessarily more concrete realisations of La damnation when confined within the opera house. However, the cinematic approach of Lepage suggests another avenue of performance that has the potential to reveal new dimensions of Berlioz's unique dramatic-symphonic works. Ultimately, it may be that the supreme technicolour nature of Berlioz's music always functions to transport us beyond our own mundane experiences and forever challenges us to seek something beyond the limits of the possible, however much those limits might change.
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    Engagement in music therapy : a detailed study of communication between the therapist and client presenting with severe and multiple handicaps : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Music Therapy at the New Zealand School of Music, Wellington, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2009) Stamenovic, Miona
    The impact of multiple disabilities causes difficulties in the area of communication. Individuals with severe and multiple handicaps often have no verbal language as a result of serious physical impairments. This population may show little obvious response and it is therefore difficult to know if they are engaged and for the person him or herself to maintain engagement when involved in activities. The purpose of the study was to find out what happens in a normal music therapy session, during moments of perceived engagement. Four individuals experienced in the field of multiple disabilities were invited to take part in semi-structured interviews where they observed a half hour video of a therapist and a student with severe and multiple handicaps participating in music therapy. Data was analyzed in two steps, firstly through participants observing and explaining their reactions to video of music therapy and secondly by the researcher interviewing the participants and writing up a transcript of their commentaries about the video. The key themes that emerged in participants’ descriptions of engagement during moments in music therapy suggest it is possible to observe and identify engagement as reflected in the students’ non-verbal responses, such as body movement, eye contact and vocalizations.
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    Blind insight : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters in Design at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2010) Pfeil, Claudia
    The loss of sight is usually associated with the loss of the visual outer world. Traditionally, total blindness has been defined by sighted people in a negative way. The stereotypical belief is that the totally blind inhabit a dark world in which mental images of the outer world no longer exist. However, gaining insight into an experience of blindness may help the sighted to understand more accurately what Michael Monbeck (1973) terms ‘the true meaning of blindness’. (Monbeck, 1973, p. 157) Blind Insight provides an insight into what is named ‘imagined blind seeing’ by exploring the systematic processes of sensing, selecting and perceiving. Through tracing and mapping two auditory experiences photographically, the resulting work, Blind Insight, seeks to give a visual voice to moments of perception and imagined images as described by the blind author and scholar John Hull who describes sound as equating with light: “This is my way of turning on the light. Sound is the equation to light. Rain has turned the light on.” (Hull, 2001, p. 10) Abstract black and white photography has been employed to convey a sensory experience and photo collage to make visible the dimensional complexity of imagined blind seeing. The design work argues for a fresh insight into the sensory and imagined world of the blind. By fostering a dialogue between the blind and the sighted, the research project aims at celebrating the many rich and diverse ways the senses, and in particular the sense of sound, are used in experiencing the phenomena of the physical world.