Destabilised Composing - Re-thinking Instrumental Practices

Destabilised Composing is a practice based research project, conducted as part of a PhD in music composition, that rethinks the practice of instrumental composition through defamiliarizing some of its elements. This study examines dynamics of defamiliarization, alienation, and estrangement within an ecology of musical practices, emerging from my own studio work that encompasses composing for, developing and making instruments, and attending to the spaces and places they resonated in. Finding alternative relationships within each of these niches assists in revitalising the notion of composing, along with the figure of the composer. To examine these ideas through practice, this dissertation is accompanied by a portfolio of nine works that embody this re-orientation, six of which are discussed in detail. In alienating the notion of space and place in music, site specificity is addressed through spatial elements within the works, interventions in 'aural architectures' of performance spaces, as per Blesser and Salter, and the usage of field recordings as a compositional device. Instruments are defamiliarized through unconventional use, preparation and creation of entirely new ones, thus demonstrating how novel ergodynamics of experimental musical instruments allow for a different experience of musicking. Aligned with Brechtian principles of alienation, these methods uncover musicians' operating mechanisms and diverge from traditional performance practices. These approaches estrange the notion of composing, subvert habitual modes of new music making and extend it towards broader art making practices, collaboration and interdisciplinary. The included portfolio works follow Oliveros' call for 'auralization' in embracing non-ocular approaches to dealing with sound, and showcase how incorporating new, altered, instrumental, notated and site-specific elements transforms the practise of composing music, resulting in aesthetically diverse, enriched and interdisciplinary works. This research wishes to inspire practitioners to consciously navigate the ecology of their musical practices by providing insights into the potential of defamiliarizing these elements within creative endeavours.