Theses Doctoral

The Mechanisms of Instrumental Expansion: Musical Instruments and Their Gravitational Fields

Kochavi, Uri

While most orchestral instruments reached their final design in the 19th century, the expansion and redesign of traditional instruments have become increasingly common in experimental contemporary music. This dissertation explores the deep interconnections and reciprocal relationships between musical instruments, their historical, conceptual and technical frameworks, and the contemporary practice of instrumental expansion. It argues that musical instruments are both socially and historically saturated objects, deeply enmeshed in genealogical traditions that continue to influence their roles and possibilities. As a result, they function as aesthetically regulative devices.

Through a critical analysis of instrumental expansion and the examination of two key works representing different philosophies of expansion, this paper seeks to problematize the implicit restraints inherent to musical instruments and magnify the moment of instrumental expansion, shedding light on the inner workings of this process.

The dissertation is structured into four chapters, with each of the first three posing a fundamental question concerning instrumental expansion. The first chapter, "Why Expand?" draws from Deleuze, Guattari, and Foucault to contextualize musical instruments as territorial entities that demarcate and regulate a technical as well as conceptual field, rendering latent aesthetic values. These values, I argue, are perpetuated by the interaction between performer and instrument, which is codified according to pre-existing aesthetic standpoints.

The second chapter, 'What is Expanded?', traces examples from the historical evolution of instrumental ideals, which, I argue, conflate the technical domain with changing notions of beauty. The third chapter, "How to Expand?" presents two contrasting case studies, representing different philosophies of expansion: Mauro Lanza and Andrea Valle’s Systema Naturae, and Lisa Streich’s Pietà. Rather than providing an exhaustive analysis of each piece, this chapter focuses on specific moments to explore their poetic and technical approaches to instrumental expansion.

The fourth and final chapter offers a macro perspective, reflecting on history’s unrelenting grip on the present and its connection to the current stagnated cultural, social, and political moment. The dissertation concludes with a brief contextualization of three of my own works, Bricolage, Inquiline, and Relics of Movement, which are inextricably linked to the themes explored in this paper.

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More About This Work

Academic Units
Music
Thesis Advisors
Haas, Georg Friedrich
Cluett, Seth A.
Degree
D.M.A., Columbia University
Published Here
January 22, 2025