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Creative Works Portfolio: String arranging for recorded popular music as cultural semantic: a praxis model for industry-quality arrangements
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Creative Works Portfolio: String arranging for recorded popular music as cultural semantic: a praxis model for industry-quality arrangements

Briony Luttrell
2017
url
https://eprints.qut.edu.au/108032/View
Published VersionPhD Thesis
url
https://doi.org/10.1080/10350330.2018.1434971View
Published VersionA rhetoric of style article (Journal Article)
url
https://consumevalve.bandcamp.com/album/bandito-folk-the-perimeter-fence View
VideoBandito Folk (string arrangements on All American, Mona Lisa)
url
https://open.spotify.com/album/1G4EdJNYYhtiVqVcSGtWYv?si=P970tR6yRLuNs_y6UsuFMw View
VideoAmela (string arrangements on Fall, Never Said A Word, The Joker)
url
https://research-repository.griffith.edu.au/handle/10072/370959View
ThesisVincent Perry thesis (string arrangements on The Least That You Can Do (Smile) + Always)

Abstract

Music Cultural studies string styles string arrangement arranging cultural semantics popular music praxis music industry metafunctions rhetorical formation
Research Background String arranging has long been the almost exclusive remit of Western art music practices when deployed in popular song, from The Beatles to Kanye. The theory, tools and methods of string arranging are situated in written traditions which are Common Practice Era technique-based, educationally gatekept, and not tailored to recorded popular music contexts (Luttrell 2017). The result of this is an industry barrier to diverse practitioners who are trained in aural and popular contexts or have limited CPE training, and the lack of a methodology that situates popular music string arranging practice in the culture industries. Research Contribution This portfolio consists of 5 string arrangements for recorded popular music that demonstrate the application of a new style-based methodology for writing arrangements for industry (Luttrell 2017). The styles are framed by Lemke’s metafunctions (1989, 1995, 1998) and describe intertextual patterns of technical and cultural features of strings, using instance^institution rhetorical formations (Burke 1950, 1969) to persuade a listener of an intertextual relationship between new work and existing canon. The portfolio features Broadcast, Western Classical and World styles. Research Significance To date, the successful deployment of the methodology in these works resulted in commercial releases with over 10,000 streams; 2 songs placed in a feature film which screened at national and international film festivals; 2 songs that are part of a documentary in development; and dozens of subsequent national and international commissions. It also underpins the articles ‘A rhetoric of style’ (Graham & Luttrell 2019) published in Q1 journal Social Semiotics, and ‘Multimodal Narrative Songwriting’ (Ward & Luttrell in press). This approach to praxis is foundational to USC’s new Bachelor of Music and is a significant step towards changing the discourse around musical creative practice to be more diverse and industry embedded.

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