en plein air: Alphorn artistry, pedagogy, and scholarship at the confluence of tradition, innovation, and Zeitgeist

The artistic artifact at the core of this thesis, en plein air (2024), is a 40-minute audio album of innovative, ecologically inspired soundscapes featuring the Alphorn: a simple wooden lip-reed folk instrument from the Alps of central Europe. Conceived and created during my tenure as an SFU graduate student, en plein air emerged from the confluence of the myriad and often contrasting facets of my musical identity. In this thesis, I explore en plein air as both artistic outcome and research instrument. Drawing on the creative processes underlying this album, I explain and demonstrate a method I call confluent synthesis, which aims to generate new artwork from existing influences without compromising the core characteristics of its antecedents. By employing arts-based research methods to analyze the music on en plein air, I generate insights relevant to Alphorn artistry pedagogy, soundscape composition, and the lived experiences of the 21st century artist-teacher-scholar.