Composing Contrapuntal Worlds: Developing an Aesthetics and Practice of Counterpoint in the 21st Century

Abstract

This doctoral project centres on the composition of a series of works for different instrumentations that attempt to answer the question: “What could be an artistically satisfying aesthetics and method of composing music based on rethinking counterpoint beyond its historical forms?” This dissertation functions as a supplement to these compositions. It outlines the rationale and methodology of the project, before detailing the aesthetics of counterpoint that have been developed across the course of this research project. The core chapters then chart the development of my compositional approach by showing how each work relates to four core research themes: 1. Relation of parts—how the compositional logic structures relations between simultaneous parts; 2. Form—how the form of a work relates to its contrapuntal logic; 3. Scope of world—how individual parts are structured and to what extent the contrapuntal logic involves a homogeneous or heterogeneous aesthetic; and 4. Compositional process—how the contrapuntal logic influences the compositional process itself. ‘