Briony Luttrell

Submitted in fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
Creative Industries, Queensland University of Technology (2017)
This thesis contributes new knowledge about string arranging for recorded Popular music. Specifically it contributes a new model for understanding and writing string arrangements based on an aural analysis of 500 albums released between 1952 and 2011. I show that string arrangements for recorded Popular music can be categorised under one of seven distinct styles. Each style is given coherence and made meaningful by its relationship with social and cultural institutions. The thesis collects and structures the detail of each style at the level of metafunction (Lemke, 2009, pp. 283-297; 1995a) which for the purposes of this project I define as the combination of intertextual patterns in musical and sonic elements, intertextual patterns in semantic functions, and relevant intertexts and intertextual canons. In order to frame and treat the string arrangements as styles I propose a new methodology, Inter-Dimensional Aural Analysis (IDAA), designed to facilitate analysis for praxis. To demonstrate the usefulness of the string styles I employ a practical component using them to inform the creation of nine new string arrangements.
The objective of this thesis is to establish an approach to string arranging for recorded Popular music that is derived from and situated in the cultural and historical canon of examples, and is thus informed by and tailored to the conditions of recorded Popular music. My contribution to knowledge is threefold and consists of methodological, theoretical, and empirical aspects. The first is an approach to analysis that uses intertextual patterns in aural data to inform and situate new creative practice. The second is a theory of style that helps describe instances of string arrangements and reframes the relationship between analysis and practice for string arrangers working in recorded Popular music. The third is an empirical analysis and categorisation of string arrangements in recorded Popular music between 1952 and 2011.