UC San Diego

This dissertation examines the concept of "Sonic Modulation" – utilizing one sonic element to transform another – as a creative strategy for achieving greater timbral, temporal, and textural flexibility in contemporary music composition. It is motivated by a desire to blur traditional boundaries between musical parameters through cross-parameter transformation, and its methodology centers on four interrelated compositional techniques. Chapter I examines instrumental vocalization, which applies vocal techniques and ornamentation to instrumental writing to merge vocal expressivity with instrumental timbre, drawing inspiration from Tibetan vocal ornamentation. Chapter II explores acoustic delay and reverb, simulating electronic delay and reverberation effects through acoustic performance techniques to enrich sonic texture without the need for electronic processing. Chapter III introduces structures of temporal illusion inspired by the flexible rhythmic elasticity of Peking Opera, in which layered accelerandi and ritardandi modulate the perception of pulse and temporal flow. This chapter also explores heterophonic percussion, influenced by the percussion and chuida music practices of Peking Opera, whereby multiple unpitched percussion instruments engage in coordinated, pitch-inflected rhythmic interplay that blurs the line between rhythm and pitch-definitive melody. Through these four approaches – (i) instrumental vocalization, (ii) acoustic delay and reverb, (iii) temporal illusion, and (iv) heterophonic percussion – the dissertation underscores a practice-based compositional framework in which one musical element modulates another, yielding an open-ended yet systematically applied model for expanding sonic possibilities in compositions.