Czernowin, ChayaTutschku, HansHasty, ChristopherHoke, Justin2019-05-202017-052017-05-122017http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:40046530This dissertation is the result of seven years of creative work, during which ten new musical compositions were conceived, produced, and premiered. Eight of these are represented herein. A portfolio of works brought into being over such a diverse and experimental period of time, both professionally and personally, complicates the natural assumption that such works belong to a singular shared aesthetic project, rather than arising from disparate——often contrasting——stages of thought. Despite the variation in content and general character of the following works, they at once demonstrate a continuum of preoccupations——an interest in attack and brevity evolving into an interest in sustain and length; a predilection for strings, earlier, and later winds; etc.——as well as illustrating several unifying qualities and fundamental lines of thought which were critical to my general artistic project during this phase: a consistent and ever-evolving investigation of time and notation, and the possibilities for the relationship between the two to evoke a separateness of spaces; a general sense of ritualism, in both behavior and in temperament; the use of harmony, in one way or another, as a grounding force; an exploration of ‘unclarity,’ a carefully crafted haze——often through an excess of detail——running through most parameters of the music; and, most crucially, the pursuit of and inaccessibility of stillness.application/pdfenMusicThesis or Dissertation2019-05-20