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Chronicles of the time (lamentations from Macbeth)
No full textFor baritone and piano, duration 13 minutes, with text from William Shakespeare's Macbeth.
This work was commissioned for the LiederWerkstatt Kissinger Sommer 2012, and premiered there on 1 July 2012 by Hans Christoph Begemann (baritone) and Jan Philip Schulze (piano)
Music and musical performance: histories in disjunction?
No full text'If you love music, hear it; go to operas, concerts and pay fiddlers to play to you; but I insist upon your neither piping nor fiddling yourself. It puts a gentleman in a very frivolous, contemptible light . . . Few things would mortify me more, than to see you bearing a part in a concert, with a fiddle under your chin, or a pipe in your mouth.'
The Earl of Chesterfield's precept signals the disjuncture between the concepts of music and musical performance as perceived by a British aristocrat in the mid-eighteenth century: listening to music is something a nobleman might do and enjoy without compromise to his station in life, but to participate in its performance is to invite social stigma. And Adam Smith could observe that to work as a professional performer was a ‘sort of public prostitution’, and the ‘exorbitant rewards’ paid to the most admired players and opera singers both reflected the rarity and beauty of their talents, and compensated them for the social ‘discredit of employing them in this manner’. But Smith's prediction that any lessening in society's prejudice against performers would lead to a corresponding diminution of their earning potential was to prove very wide of the mark; it stands now as an indication of just how much the routine disparagement of performers and an accompanying ambivalence towards music's cultural standing was to change. For not only was nineteenth-century Britain to prove one of the most lucrative earning grounds for superstar performers, but as a nation it also became serious about encouraging and training its own native performing talent, so as to be the better able to satisfy its appetite for music of all kinds
The British military as a musical institution, c.1780-c.1860
No full textThe perceived need to centralise control arose from a growing sense of discomfort about the role played by foreigners in the military band network of the United Kingdom. Most bands had foreign conductors; they were musically competent, and their foreign origins offered some kudos to them and the officers who employed them, but they were also keenly protectionist, expensive, unreliable and usually outrageously corrupt. They were, for example, readily complicit in a corrupt system which bound a bandmaster exclusively to a particular instrument manufacturer, in exchange for commission on orders for instruments and printed music.2 They regarded themselves as private contractors, held civilian contracts and refused to accept anything close to military discipline. While a blind eye had been turned to this for decades, by the middle of the century it was reaching proportions that were beyond tolerance
The future?
No full text‘Without music, life would be a mistake, a hardship, an exile’, wrote the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, a claim that is fully endorsed by the integral role that music has always played in society. However, for all its well-recognised transcendent qualities, classical music of the Western art tradition has sometimes appeared marginalised alongside jazz, popular and other musics, and it has recently had to contend with a change from its privileged position in society to one in which it is repeatedly challenged by other forms of music and mass entertainment. One may welcome the disappearance of the old patrician assumptions that classical music is the only truly valuable part of our musical activity and yet feel alarmed at its ensuing undervaluing. Performers now have an important advocacy role in relation to the inherent value of music, along with its transformational powers in health, education and well-being.
The musical future is impossible to predict with any degree of assurance or accuracy, not least because of the volatility of the global economy, shifting musical tastes, and the speed with which technological developments are being achieved, bringing with them changes in music consumption and discovery. Yet the potential of classical music for elemental excitement is something to which every performer will want to aspire, whatever their working environment
In contemplation of the clarinets at the Royal College of Music, London
No full textFounded in 1882, the Royal College of Music enjoys a reputation as one of the world's leading conservatoires. Due partly to the vision of its founders, particularly Sir George Grove, the RCM holds research collections of international significance.
The Royal College of Music's Museum of Instruments, forming part of the Centre for Performance History, houses an internationally-renowned collection of over 800 instruments and accessories from c 1480 to the present (700 European, keyboard, stringed and wind; 100 Asian and African). This collection embraces some sixty instruments from the clarinet family, including specimens by Doleisch, Griesbacher and Scherer.
In using the RCM instruments as a case study, this paper examines the nature of such collections and the way in which objects interact within them
D'un opéra à l'autre: de Rodrigue à Pelléas [From one opera to the other: from Rodrigue to Pelléas]
No full textDanceries (set II) [version for symphonic wind band]
No full textFor symphonic wind band, duration c.15 minutes.
This work was commissioned by Keith Allen and Birmingham Symphonic Winds supported by PRS for Music Foundation and the RVW Trust, with the assistance of members from the 'Full Score' scheme.
It was first performed on 9 April 2011 by the Birmingham Symphonic Winds conducted by Keith Allen at the CBSO Centre, Birmingham, UK.
Danceries (set II) has been recorded by the Band Of HM Royal Marines Portsmouth, conducted by Lt Col Nick Grace (Chevron Recordings CHVCD46): https://www.discogs.com/The-Band-Of-HM-Royal-Marines-Portsmouth-Metropolis-1927/release/12077880.
The two live recordings on the video tab below are by UNT Wind Symphony conducted by Eugene Migliaro Corporon, and the Philharmonic Winds conducted by Timothy Reynish.
A version of this piece for brass band is also available, see https://researchonline.rcm.ac.uk/id/eprint/1535/
Music researchers’ musical engagement
No full textThere is an increasing awareness of the importance of reflexivity across various disciplines, which encourages researchers to scrutinize their research perspectives. In order to contextualize and reflect upon research in music, this study explores the musical background, current level of musical engagement and the listening habits of music researchers. A total of 103 respondents of 17 different nationalities, working in music psychology, music science and related areas at various academic levels (e.g., doctoral students, professors and independent researchers), completed an internet survey. Questions addressed four major areas: (1) detailed demographic information and research interests; (2) musical training; (3) current musical activities (e.g., composing, conducting, improvising, listening, performing); (4) musical preferences and listening habits. Findings indicate that nearly all respondents to the survey had studied one or more musical instrument(s), and around 90% still enjoy performing music to some extent. A relatively high number of researchers had composed or improvised music, thus engaging in particularly creative musical activities. Respondents show stronger preferences for classical music and jazz/blues/RnB as compared with other musical genres. Contrary to notions of expert listening, emotional listening styles were rated as more important than analytical listening. Strong relationships between respondents’ musical practice and research were found, leading to the conclusion that music research is a highly practice-informed field
Recording review article: ‘Kleinmeister’ music—a conflict of interests?
No full textRecordings reviewed: Christoph Willibald Gluck: Ezio (Oehms Classics OC 918, recorded 2007); Kraus: Aeneas in Carthage (Naxos 8.570585, recorded 2007); Vincente Martín y Soler: Il Burbero di Buon Cuore (Dynamic 33580, recorded 2007); Franz Xaver Richter: Messa Pastorale (Cypres CYP1659, recorded 2008); Æmilian Rosengart: Te Deum Laudamus (Carus 83.427, recorded 2007).
Abstract: We have long since acknowledged that later 18th-century musical and cultural life is largely represented by its vocal music, written for church and theatre; instrumental music’s obscurer meaning sometimes left theorists and audiences puzzled until the end of the century. It is also well known that changes in socio-political thinking affected not only the role of states and governments but impacted on ideals of individuality and citizenship; new ideologies were at times forged and tested, at times simply portrayed to an ever-expanding audience in cultural life, giving rise to the opera reforms of Gluck on one hand, of Piccinni on the other. What united the reformed opera seria, the emerging opera buffa, and also the sacred music of the last quarter of the century was the focus on emotions as instantiations of individuality