Early Winter Light: Portfolio of Compositions Inspired and Influenced by Place and Travel

Abstract

<p>Early Winter Light is a practice led project that investigates the influence and inspirations on compositional practice of place; a container of physical, environmental, social and cultural meanings and its concomitant connector – travel. Music and place are intimately bound together, each influencing the other; through environmental, cultural or political aspects, contribution to sounds and the timbres of music and through connections to composers. Music is able to conjure up images of, and feelings for, place, building individual political and cultural identities, providing cultural contexts through connection with place and facilitating and connecting memories. Place and travel inspire my creative practice through relating to my identity, stimulating me to create musical pieces, and influencing my musical representations. The resultant pieces display how these ideas and inspirations are approached, aesthetically, stylistically and technically, and how they are consolidated within a compositional approach. The associated exegesis explores and explains the works fashioned by the author’s journey as a composer reviewing the methodology and practices undertaken in creating this body of work. The project adds to, expands and becomes part of the body of the author’s compositional practice, as well as joining a broader and existing body of work that explores, models and illuminates the notions of place and travel within music.</p>