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Musicology, Page 2

Exchanging knowledge with the National Trust

Postgraduate researcher Kate Hawnt has been enjoying the advantages of an enthusiastic, non-academic audience for her work: On April 11th I ventured up to the National Trust-owned property, Mottisfont Abbey, to give a talk in their Knowledge Exchange Programme. This is a series of in-depth talks offered to National Trust volunteers and staff to widen their knowledge of the property they work in. Continue reading →

Postcard from Potsdam

I've just returned from the State University of New York in Potsdam after participating in a fascinating festival on the French composer, conductor and pedagogue, Nadia Boulanger. When founded by the redoubtable Julia Crane in 1886, the Crane Normal Institute of Music was small enough to be run in the living rooms of a house on the town's main street. Today, the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam is a flourishing institution that boasts more than 500 undergraduate music majors. Continue reading →

Sound Heritage returns

Just before the spring break, the Sound Heritage network met up for its second study day on music research and interpretation in country houses. Instead of gathering in the university, we made a field trip out to Chawton, home of Chawton House Library and Jane Austen's House Museum. Continue reading →

Residency, reception and regions

Master's student Daisy Smeddle reports on the most recent Hartley Residency, a programme that brings leading scholars to Southampton to interact with our postgraduates and staff over several days:  Professor Katharine Ellis from the University of Bristol is amongst the most esteemed musicologists of her generation. We were lucky enough to spend 2nd – 3rd of February exploring and discussing her current research fields with her. Continue reading →

Conductus III

Professor Mark Everist has been leading the ‘Cantum pulcriorem invenire’ (CPI) project at the University of Southampton since 2010; it has brought to life the repertory of twelfth- and thirteenth-century poetry and music – known as the conductus – through research, performance and recording. Continue reading →

New recording for old flutes

The Renaissance flute consort Zephyrus Flutes, under the direction of Nancy Hadden, has just released their latest CD, Aux Plaisirs, aux Delices Bergeres.   This is the second in a series of French music for Renaissance flutes, based on research that Nancy completed during her AHRC Fellowship in the Creative and Performing Arts at Southampton. The recording highlights the unique sound of the early modern flute. Continue reading →

A New Mozart Completion

A fragment of an Oboe Concerto by Mozart has been completed by William Drabkin, Emeritus Professor of Music, and published by the Music Haven (London) in full score and, very recently, in an arrangement for oboe and piano. Mozart’s manuscript, in the Fitzwilliam Library, Cambridge, comprises about 70 bars of a first movement in F major, including the complete opening orchestral ritornello. Continue reading →

What a Performance!

Our British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow Kate Guthrie consulted on a documentary for BBC 4, broadcasting this month. She writes about her experience: In early September, I received out-of-the-blue an invitation to consult on a BBC 4 documentary. The producers were in the middle of filming a three-part series tracing the evolution of music hall in Britain, from its mid-19th-century roots, through the Golden Age of variety entertainment, to the working men’s clubs of the 1950s. Continue reading →

Cosmopolitan operetta

On the 24 and 25 November, we were privileged to welcome Derek Scott as the first guest speaker for this year’s programme of Hartley Residencies in Music.  Master's student Catherine Garry reports: Launched in February 2015, the Hartley Residencies are a series of two-day events during which an eminent scholar is invited to share and discuss their current research. Continue reading →

Launching Sound Heritage

A couple of weeks ago heritage professionals, historical performance experts and music academics came to Southampton for the inaugural meeting of Sound Heritage, a new project on music in English country houses of the 18th and 19th centuries. Network leader Professor Jeanice Brooks tells us about the day: Country houses have special place in British culture, and with the huge success of movies and television dramas like 'Downton Abbey', more people than ever before are interested in them. Continue reading →

In praise of opera

Recent alumnus Beth Coopey describes her surprise discovery of Opera during her studies, and how that changed  everything... I arrived at the University of Southampton with little interest in opera. I had sung a selection of arias but knew little about the operas from which they came. That soon changed: my opera experience here has been so immersive and wide-ranging that I am leaving as (probably!) a lifelong opera lover. Continue reading →