Edinburgh Napier University

  The folio of musical works supported by this document, explores the relationship between text and music. Using a variety of textual sources, from a single line of text to an epic poem to political speeches, has produced six pieces in which the relationship of the text to the music is figured in different ways; these range from the literal setting of a text to music to the abstracting of a text into a musical piece. In each case the form of the original text has been an important factor in influencing the form of the musical works. Gender considerations impact on this folio in two ways: firstly, gender is a key issue in some of the texts used as inspiration for the pieces, particularly Guinevere (2007) and Hilary &Maggie (2009).' Secondly, the folio explores how the position as a female composer affects engagement with both music and text. Finally, the folio works are related to the importance of Italian nationality to the composer.
This supporting contextual document sets out the framework within which the folio was composed. It draws out the three main research threads that are explored in the folio: music and text, gender, and the Italian cultural perspective. Each thread of research is discussed with some contextual information given first, followed by an analysis of how this category impacts on the folio works.