A Modal Strategy for Contemporary Bass Performance

This research project establishes and investigates a vision of contemporary modal use through a creative practice founded upon bass performance and compositional method. Dorian was chosen as the vehicle for this project’s modal exploration. Questioning my own practice as a bassist and composer where mode has multiple Western historical and cultural significations, I am responding to McClary’s (2004) challenge to unpack mode via a strategic lens. In doing so the objective is to not only inform compositional and bass methodology and practice, but also to explore and extend the contemporary musician’s vista of Dorian in a contemporary Australian music context.