For my research, I am developing a 3:4 Parametric Model of Dramaturgical Fragmentation, which works like a climate classification system for my music. Its purpose is not to prescribe rules, but to instead to serve as my compositional compass. It helps me stress-test my catalogue, compare narrative climates across works, and discover terrains I wouldn’t necessarily reach on intuition alone.

Its categories are drawn from perceptual science, but its purpose is to weigh my improvised narrative architecture against calculated, preformulated ones. I want to see how different formal and textural scales behave. I want to push my music to the limits of personal comprehension. The model is set up to confront these desires.

The framework systematically maps the relationship between a fragment’s structural environment (the “Climate”) and its specific action (the “Role”). Adding a layer of objectivity helps me compare works more clearly, beyond subjective ambiguity. It is achieved by categorizing phenomena across two primary dimensions:

The three (3) macro axes—Integration, Latency, Transformation—define the climates. The four (4) micro roles—Veiling, Constriction, Fracture, Extinction—define the gestural behavior within the climates of a piece. The Axes reflect concurrent group behavior within a larger formal unit (e.g., a larger structural unit, a section). The Roles reflect individualist behavior of units contained within the broader climate (e.g., a motif, a cell, a bit).

This establishes a means of filtering through layers within my music, like a background/foreground relationship that is always in motion and communication with each other. Another way to consider it is like coprecipitation in Chemistry, where different materials crystallize together into a fused structure (ex. germanium into sodium silicate)

Each axis or role can be low, medium, or high. Axes are concurrent measurements and roles can overlap in their duties. This yields a wide number of possible outcomes (2187); however, the point is less in the enumeration and more in it being a systematic, nuanced, and finite framework.

Instead, what is more important is that these can be further grouped into high-contrast zones of Alignment (GREEN), Transition (YELLOW), and Conflict (RED), thereby creating a topography of formal and narrative movement. This topography identifies which “switches” (Role x Climate combinations) are pulling the fragment towards stability (Alignment) or generating maximum dramaturgical tension (Conflict).

Ultimately, the framework helps me see my own tendencies more clearly, across scales, forms, and narrative intentions.

Below, you can find the works written during PhD study at the University of York. Some are not fully public yet.