Breathing in Composition and Performance: Portfolio of Original Compositions with Written Commentary

This thesis accompanies a portfolio containing nine compositions (2018–21). The research I carried out during these three years focuses on two approaches that explore changes in players’ breathing and the effect those changes can have on music composition and performance. The first approach looks at how flexible and indeterminate changes in performers’ breathing can regulate certain elements of a piece of music. The second approach also investigates indeterminate and undefined changes in players’ breathing but with the aim of classifying particular modes of breathing that can be reproducibly employed in the context of composition and performance. Special emphasis will be given to the relationship between breathing, indeterminacy, and timing.
I begin this text by outlining the context and the phenomenological approach underlining my research (Chapter 1). I then present two categorisations of my compositions based on the way breathing is explored (Chapter 2). The first category of compositions focuses on three aspects that are shaped by performers’ breathing: timing, movements of objects, and performer-performer interactions. The second category of compositions explores three insights that emerged in the process of composing and performing the first category of compositions, namely the threshold between exhaling and blowing, between voluntary and involuntary breathing, and the differences between four definitions of breathing. In the last two chapters (Chapters 3 and 4), I provide commentary on the first and second categories of compositions, respectively. In addition to providing my own interpretations and reflections, this commentary will include performers’ feedback that highlight particular aspects of the pieces uniquely accessible to performers. This feedback will be used to trace the processes of inquiry and discovery that occurred throughout each work. A brief conclusion reviews the two approaches adopted and considers possibilities for future artistic explorations in the role of breathing as a compositional tool.