UC Irvine

This dissertation consists of original compositions and a written research document that unites aspects of meditative practice, black music aesthetics, and custom/contemporary forms of music technology. The work is motivated by a desire to combat unconscious bias and offer space for black audiences to contemplate, gain self-esteem, and understand their identities. The research draws support from the work of cultural critics, such as bell hooks, to explain why it is vital for black composers to create music for black communities that intentionally aims to trigger contemplation and self-actualization. The original compositions offer a model for this kind of compositional practice, including creating music specifically with new technologies in mind.

The Preface tells of a small portion of my youthful years as a young musician, unknowingly embracing biases that shape who I am today. It relates three particular interactions with students who, through their words, revealed the indoctrination of the biases that they embraced. These personal stories show evidence that biases start at a young age and that we must take actions to combat them. My personal history reveals how I relate to my students and illustrates how I see myself in them. This reflection helped me to self-actualize to combat the biases I had adopted. Leaning on the works of black American writer, activist, and feminist scholar bell hooks, along with the support of other scholarship, Chapter 1 offers evidence of how unconscious bias begins in children and how the spaces we are in are crucial to our development as self-actualized people. This chapter also introduces the concept of Black Space as a recognizable genre of music. Chapter 2 overviews two practitioners, Herbie Hancock and Pauline Oliveros, whose work greatly influences this creative research to show where some of my views align with theirs, which is seen throughout this document. Chapters 3 and 4 both explain concepts of using technology to create space which ultimately begets contemplation for audiences and how this is possible. They also describe what eunoia is and how it is triggered through composition. Chapter 4 also explains how meditation and music work together and how to construct Black Space music. Finally, Chapter 5 describes the music created for this dissertation research and how concepts of meditative practice were applied and composed within the songs.