Musicalvisual Relationships a folio of compositions and critical commentary
Ross McLennan · The University of Queensland · 2007
The symbiotic relationship between music and visuals dominates modern society. For the modern audience, music experiences are usually combined with extra-musical stimulation - especially through television and films – and the enjoyment of pure music is challenged. The folio of works in this submission explores musicalvisual relationships through a series of commercial and non-commercial music compositions for conventional film and television formats, experimental live events, theatre and the Internet. Commercial works include three short, contrasting film soundtracks, two long-form documentaries and a theatre work. The non-commercial projects comprise a three act musical - including an original libretto - a musicalvisual website and interactive Flash composition, music for contrasting live installations and a collection of original short films. Projects also investigate the practical use of contrasting technologies commonly used in producing musicalvisual media, including sample loop software, surround sound, data projection, the integration of timecode and MIDI, the Internet and the application of virtual instruments - in particular sampled orchestras. Interpersonal, musicalvisual relationships are also considered and solutions offered to some common problems associated with creative collaboration.