UC San Diego

The following Master's thesis represents the culmination of two years' work on composition in the UCSD Department of Music. The three pieces, Murder, woman, and hanged one, Onanspazautonomotor, and In a hall of mirrors waiting to die, appear in order of completion. Each of these compositions attempt to expand the possibilities of how a contemporary musical performer might be perceived. Murder, woman, and hanged one incorporates a theatrical narrative to make the performers metaphorically representative. Onanspazautonomotor is more influenced by performance art than theater, and evokes a sense that the instrument is both an extension of the body of the performer and a place on which to perform art. In a hall of mirrors waiting to die is about the physical limits of performance and how confronting these limits effects our sense of musical time and structure