Cross-cultural Synthesis

Abstract

‘Synthetic cross-cultural composition’ refers to the creation of a work that combines musical elements from different cultures, where the cultural elements of the resulting piece have formed a ‘hybrid entity’ that cannot be separated into their respective traditions. Despite this approach being utilised by many composers and artists throughout the last century, there is a noticeable lack of literature discussing the creation of this type of music from the perspective of a composer, with existing writing rarely providing any framework for navigating the challenges of exoticism and misrepresentation presented by this type of work. This thesis aims to demonstrate how cross-cultural elements can be used to create new hybrid entity through the process of synthesis using a framework that considers the affects of instrumentation and the personal musical experience of the composer. This will be shown through commentaries for eight new works composed through this framework which explore three overarching themes: the Spectrum of Tuning (a new approach to composing for instruments that use different tuning systems through a shared pitch language and Javanese gamelan concepts such as balungan and benuk), Extended Traditions (using musical elements from external cultures to build upon traditional performance practices) and Ma/Space (an exploration of how different understandings of a single concept can be used as a catalyst in the creation of new works).

Metadata

Supervisors:	Suckling, Martin and March, Daniel
Keywords:	Cross-culturalism; Cross-cultural Composition; Synthesis; New Music
Awarding institution:	University of York
Academic Units:	The University of York > School of Arts and Creative Technologies (York)
Date Deposited:	16 Sep 2026 09:23
Last Modified:	16 Sep 2026 09:23
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID):	oai:etheses.whiterose.ac.uk:39370

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Cross-cultural Synthesis

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