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Postgraduate

Places of Remembrance

Among the activities during last month's Remembrance Day premiere weekend was a composition workshop with guests from the world-leading new music vocal ensemble, EXAUDI.  Mate Szigeti describes the pieces he and fellow postgraduate composers created: The rite of remembrance is always connected with a place. We remember at festive dinner tables, we remember in churches, as we do in public spaces designated for this purpose. Continue reading →

Remembering the Great War

On 16th November, we are mounting the world premiere of a new work by Michael Finnissy, concerned with themes of war and remembrance in commemoration of the onset of WWI.  Lecturer in Composition Ben Oliver will conduct:  As the conductor of new music group Workers Union Ensemble I am fortunate to conduct around five to ten world premiere performances each year. I absolutely love learning and rehearsing new repertoire; it is such a joy to explore a new score with fellow musicians. Continue reading →

Mozart in Salzburg

PhD researcher David Jayasuriya is writing his thesis on the application of Fonte and Monte harmonic schemata in the symphonies of Joseph Haydn. Over the summer vacation he had the opportunity to present some of his work at a prestigious international conference: A highlight of my summer break was to attend and present a paper at the International Mozart Kongress in Salzburg. Continue reading →

Instruments in Istanbul

In the first of a series of posts on 'What I did over the summer vacation', postgraduate Anna Borg Cardona, who is researching instrument-making and musical culture in 17th-century Malta, tells us about the instruments she encountered on her trip to Turkey: Destination Istanbul – finally! This was the magical Constantinople which attracted so many Europeans in the 19th century. Continue reading →

Coming Soon – Ben’s Fresh Klang!

Postgraduate composer Ben Jameson tells us about his upcoming performance in an exciting new music series:  Kammer Klang is a concert series that was founded by cellist and curator Lucy Railton in 2008, and is currently directed by percussionist and composer Serge Vuille. The series presents thematically linked programmes of new contemporary classical, experimental, improvised and electronic music. Continue reading →

Where’s the Composer in “Making Music with Open Data”

  Jack Webster (BA Hons Music 2014) has now embarked on the MSc/PhD programme in Web Science at Southampton. Here he tells us about a recent event on music and technology:  On Friday 10th October, the Open Data Institute hosted a lunchtime lecture on the topic of “Making Music with Open Data,” which, for research purposes, I headed up to London to attend. The lecture consisted of a presentation by Nicholas Tollervey and Simon Davy about their project, “Oompah. Continue reading →

Nationalism in the North

 PhD students Xin Ying Ch'ng and Jacopo Mazzeo report back about their trip to Helsinki, Finland, for the 'Confronting the National in the Musical Past' international conference: We were greeted with unusually sunny weather upon reaching the Finnish capital the day before the conference. Xin Ying was starting to think that bringing her coat seemed like a waste of luggage space. Continue reading →

Behind the scenes at the museum

In a companion post to Chris Lewis's blog on the Making of the Modern Harpsichord, PhD student Kate Hawnt writes about her own research for the project : Good morning from St Cecilia’s Hall, Edinburgh.  I am currently sitting in the Green Room of the Museum of Musical Instruments taking stock of the past day’s work. Continue reading →

Reviving the modern harpsichord

Harpsichordist Christopher Lewis is working on a PhD as part of our 'Making of the Modern Harpsichord' project in collaboration with the National Trust.  Here he tells us about the newest addition to our keyboard room - a magnificent revival instrument by John Feldberg - and how it fits into his research: As the Early Music world continues to grow and move from strength to strength, what has especially pleased me is the growing resurgence of interest in the pioneers of the field. Continue reading →

Written in Water: Portrait of a Town

Final year PhD composer Ben Mawson tells us about his project 'Written in Water: Portrait of a Town', which allows listeners to explore Gosport in a new and exciting way: After receiving the first prize at the SXSC3 Dragons' Den competition (November 2013) to develop 3DBARE (software to allow listeners to walk inside a piece of music), I have just completed a commission from New Dimensions, portraying the maritime history and contemporary character of the town of Gosport - using virtual... Continue reading →

Nuffield launch

Last Wednesday we had an event to mark the opening of the newly-refurbished Nuffield theatre Kitchen, a cafĂ© space that is housing the lovely Brinsmead baby grand that was given to us in the autumn.  Andy Fisher, our head of commercial composition, played Gershwin and accompanied postgraduate singer Lizzie Rogers in a sneak preview of some of the songs from his new one-woman show, Girl in a Crisis. Continue reading →

Composing new music for early instruments

Postgraduate composer Alex Glyde-Bates talks about the process of writing his new work 'Objet d’Art' for Trio Aporia, which was premiered at the Turner Sims Concert Hall during our 'MUSIC @1PM' concert series: Last summer I was approached by flautist Stephen Preston to write a new ten-minute work for his new trio, Trio Aporia, to go in a concert of other new works to mark the 250th anniversary of the death of French composer and influential music theorist Jean-Philippe Rameau. Continue reading →