The chamber music of the Maltese composer Joseph Vella (1942-2018) : a study of selected works

Abstract

This dissertation constitutes of a study of four chamber works composed by Joseph Vella (1942-2018), who is one of the most important figures in Maltese music of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, as he continued to be an active composer until his death. The overall compositional idiom is mostly regarded as atonal; however, some of his works have a tonal centre. This dissertation explores a brief rationale of Vella’s compositional techniques that evolved and matured throughout his musical career. Although his extensive musical output includes some of the characteristics of commonpractice harmony, much of his works incorporate the harmonic language that was used by composers of the first half of the twentieth century, namely elements of Hindemith, Bartok and Stravinsky. The opening chapter, Pezzo per Quintetto d’Ottoni Op. 55 (1992) is a quintet written for two trumpets in C, horn in F, trombone and tuba. The second chapter, Lament Op. 103 (2001) is dedicated to the victims of 9/11 terrorist attacks. The third chapter focuses on the piece Ramblings Op. 136 (2014), which is different from the other works as it consists of five independent pieces for solo instruments, showcasing their characteristics and techniques. The final chapter, Charlie on My Mind Op. 144 (2015) was composed days after the terrorist attacks in the offices of Charlie Hebdo, in Paris. By this research, I wanted to contribute towards the literature about Malta’s compositional history that would be made available to future composers and analysts. I chose to analyse Vella’s chamber works mainly because of the instrumentation that he chose and the compositional idiom in which these works are written. Moreover, the historical element behind the pieces Lament Op. 103 and Charlie on My Mind Op. 149 intrigued me to further analyse how the composer manages to employ his compositions to convey and articulate the turmoil that was caused by the terrorist attacks.