On Monday 5 December the Music department held a research day on the theme of Music and Place. This included a wide range of topics and approaches, from the music played at the wedding of Queen Mary I in 1554 to the travels of the Boyd Neel Orchestra in the 1940s and Black British Jazz in the 1960s and 1980s. Musicians’ diverse responses to place were considered, in particular Sullivan, Rubbra and Australian composer Peter Sculthorpe.
Peter Sculthorpe in Sydney, 2010
One session compared the different approaches to folksong in the Appalachians of collectors Cecil Sharp and Alan Lomax, and later in the day we were introduced to castrato Guadagni’s setting of ‘Che puro ciel’ from Orfeo. Two PhD students are working with business and statistical methods, and their presentations shed light on military music between the wars and on composer migrations.
We intend to run further themed research days, with the next event planned for March 2012.
