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Sonia McCall-Labelle (University of Bonn)
1A: “from a ‘theory’ of music to a science of music”: Boleslav Yavorsky’s Musical Speech and its Application in Analysis
In his 1908 book The Design of Musical Speech, music theorist Boleslaw Yavorsky, born in Kharkov in 1877, aspired to create a universal theory of music. He compiles in a polemical appendix a list of “mistakes” made by Mozart, Beethoven, and Chopin, among others, moments in music history where we catch a glimpse of what could have been – the potential diversity of forms according to Yavorsky’s theory of musical speech – had even the most brilliant composers of the Western canon been able to discard the formal straitjacket imposed by what Yavorsky considers to be erroneous foundations of core concepts such as harmony and form. Yavorsky criticised the basis of Western art music’s harmonic trajectory in consonance and dissonance, as fixed qualities, as opposed to his preferred concepts of stability and instability, which are generated by context-specific systems of pitch and metre. Consequently, the “false, purely mechanical theory of the seven-tone ‘scale’” restricts a “logically valid implementation of lad [(modal)] content, which is musical form.” (Yavorsky 2022, 174) Observing the increasing contemporary recognition of “the unchanging laws that describe the phenomenon of musical speech” by “composers trained in folk songs, which were perceived not as an ‘ethnographic‘ peculiarity but as a source of musical sophistication” (212), Yavorsky predicted the advent of a new era, “in which the free artistry that realizes the laws of musical speech will join the path of folk art” and music theory “will change from being the ‘theory’ of music into the science of music.” (214) This paper explores the extent to which Yavorsky’s proto-structuralist theory enables an analytical framework that may be applied to a more diverse body of musical activity, thus approaching an evaluation of the theory’s claims to universality.
Sonia McCall-Labelle is a British-German musicologist. Having received a BMus in violin performance from the Royal Northern College of Music, she went on to complete her MA in historical musicology in 2021 at the University of Hamburg with a master’s thesis on Mieczysław Weinberg’s three sonatas for solo violin. She is currently working as a research assistant to the editorship of the Neue Beethoven-Gesamtausgabe at the Beethoven-Archiv in Bonn and is pursuing a PhD in music theory with a thesis on Soviet theory.
Billy Price (University of Liverpool)
1A: ‘Voyaging Through Time’: Thematic Cross-Referencing and Intertextuality in Big Big Train’s Grand Tour
In a celebration of European humanism, Big Big Train’s Grand Tour (2019) marks a radical departure from a previously Anglocentric thematic construct. A fruit of the songwriting partnership of David Longdon and Greg Spawton, its title alludes to a continental trip undertaken by young British gentries in the 17th-18th centuries to round off their education. Although intended as an odyssey “for the mind”, the Grand Tour was also a rite of passage, playing a crucial part in maintaining hypermasculinity and order within the aristocratic milieu. Yet, Big Big Train’s appropriation of the term serves not to recognise this ideal; rather, it upholds the Age of Enlightenment as a retrospective triumph while marking a change in their own creative direction. At its core, the album is thus a celebration of human spirituality and “aliveness”, realised through various music-theoretical parameters to take the listener on their own ‘Grand Tour’. This paper explores intertextuality and thematic construction within the work. With reference to Big Big Train’s wider discography, my analysis focuses on two tracks, ‘The Florentine’; a tribute to the polymath Leonardo da Vinci, and ‘Ariel’; an eight-part tale linking Percy Shelley with the Shakespearean spirit. Such compositions are bound by “thematic cross-referencing”, owing to a tapestry of interlinked musical and lyrical ideas which contribute to narrative, mood, and emotional depth. Having been researched very little so far, my aim is to cast the band into scholarly circles and provide a platform for contextualising their music; be it musicological or otherwise.
Billy Price is a PhD candidate in musicology at the University of Liverpool. He has a particular interest in the cultural divide between classical and popular music which forms the crux of his ongoing doctoral research. Billy is also an avid guitarist, composer, and teacher, with contemporary classical, sci-fi EDM, and prog rock works mirroring his eclectic interests.
Megan Rowlands (University of Liverpool)
1A: Olivier Messiaen’s Technique of my Musical Language and its impact on performance perception.
Olivier Messiaen’s Technique de mon Langage Musicale (Messiaen, 1944) discusses ‘musical language’ from three angles: rhythm, melody and harmony. As a composer Messiaen highlights the various components of his music, stating that a discussion of language is neither a treatise of composition nor of timbre or sentiment. Language in itself is a method of communication and as Noam Chomsky recounts, it inhabits “finite systems with infinite power” (2016). The coexistence of finite and infinite processes is distinctly relevant to Messiaen’s separation of language from composition. While one may argue that composition involves compliance with finite boundaries in relation to the flexibility of notation systems and instrumental techniques, Messiaen suggests that by considering his ‘techniques’ as language, he transports his work out of its finite compositional system to present it with the infinite power of communication, in which every consumer creates their own interpretation of the message. This paper will explore the linguistic philosophy of Julia Kristeva (1984), relating the composition-performance-consumption processes to the ‘genotext and phenotext’. Kristeva considers the genotext to be the non-signifying foundation of a language, while the phenotext constitutes the post-compositional communication between performer and listener. Considering performance as a transmitter from non-signifying object to signifying subject, we will assess the efficacy of performance in promoting the ‘communicative competence’ of the phenotext, employing this as a bridge to analysing birdsong case studies by Olivier Messiaen. This linguistic analysis investigates innovative opportunities for performance, expanding the process of composition-performance-consumption through the transformation of finite technique into infinite communication.
Since beginning her undergraduate studies in 2015, Megan has been a keen analyst and performer, pursuing both interests to an MMUS in performance in 2019. Having performed works by Olivier Messiaen, Megan is now coming to the end of a PhD at the University of Liverpool, considering how analytical and philosophical applications of Messiaen’s birdsong writings may impact modern performance conventions. Alongside the teaching work that she has already begun, Megan hopes to combine her passions into an academic career in a university setting.
Marta Riccardi (University of Liverpool)
1A: From triangles to squares: new ways of mapping cross-type transformations
Transformation theory has since its inception been preoccupied with mapping movement between chords, particularly in the mid- to late-nineteenth century repertoire. Scholars of neo-Riemannian theory, in particular, have develop an extensive array of analytical tools to explain and explore harmonic progressions (see Gollin and Rehding, 2011 for an overview). Most neo-Riemannian analyses and tools focus on mappings between consonant triads, and it is common practice within the field to reduce seventh chords to triads when discussing musical examples. There have been studies that focused on cross-type transformations, including Hook (2002; 2007) and on modelling transformations between sevenths (e.g., Childs, 1998), but the discipline has still not fully incorporated them into standard practice. This paper will explore new ways of conceptualising movement between triads and sevenths. It will present a model for mapping movement between triads and sevenths based on the concepts of ‘splitting’ and ‘convergence’, which allows one to move between three and four note formations. The concept of ‘split’ has precedence in the literature, e.g., in the work of Clifton Callender (1998) who discussed the relationship between Scriabin’s use of different pitch class collections, applying it to both chords and scales. The present paper will lay out the theoretical model, focusing on how different seventh chords, including dominant, minor and half-diminished, map onto consonant triads and vice versa. It will present examples that apply the model, showing how it can provide a robust and innovative account of musical movement.
Marta Riccardi is an Arts and Humanities Research Council-sponsored doctoral student at the University of Liverpool, under the supervision of Prof Kenneth Smith and Prof Michael Spitzer. Her research focuses on late nineteenth-century harmonic practices, specifically in the works of Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, examining the composer’s non-diatonic harmonic language in his last fantastic operas. She currently serves as SMA student representative and sits on the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion committee of the North West Consortium Doctoral Training Partnership. She has presented at conferences in the UK, Italy and Russia.
Hunter Hoyle (Northwestern University)
1B: Maximizing Form in Minimalism: Psychological Form as Narrative in Philip Glass’s Etude No. 6
In contrast to the strongly teleological, goal-directed nature of Western art music, the musical style of minimalism has long been purported to be antiteleological—that is, it lacks what Wim Mertens (1983) describes as the logical “musical argument” found in traditional teleological music. More recently, Robert Fink (2005) has asserted that minimalism is indeed goal-directed, but through “one-piece, multiple climaxes” recombinant—as opposed to “one piece, one climax” classical—teleologies. As these concepts pertain to Philip Glass’s piano etudes, most of them demonstrate the aforementioned recombinant teleologies, as there is no specific narrative the music is trying to convey that would require the invocation of classical teleologies. Etude No. 6, however, is a striking outlier in that the piece was commissioned to set the text of John Ashbery’s poem, “No Longer Very Clear.” As a result, I argue that Etude No. 6 psychologically manipulates textural density (as conceptualized by Spicer 2004) and metrical dissonance (as conceptualized by Hasty 1997, Krebs 1999, and London 2012) through the variation and rondo strategies proposed by David Huron (2013), engendering an interpretation of Ashbery’s text through the context of a dream, an inherently symmetrical phenomenon in which stages 1-4 of the sleep cycle gradually decrease one’s consciousness, leading to REM sleep that is followed by a gradual restoration of consciousness. Accordingly, this paper seeks to demonstrate how Glass’s Etude No. 6 builds on Fink’s argument, illustrating how—through formal manipulations of textural density and metrical dissonance—classical teleologies can be unconventionally recreated in minimalism.
Hunter Hoyle is a PhD student in Music Theory and Cognition at Northwestern University. Prior to his doctoral studies at Northwestern, he graduated Phi Beta Kappa with highest distinction and highest honors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2022, receiving a Bachelor of Music in Music Education and Piano Performance and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology. Hunter’s research interests include the perception and cognition of musical form, twentieth-century music that fuses Western and non-Western elements (especially the music of Margaret Bonds and Florence Price), and the practical applications of music-cognitive research to music theory pedagogy.
Phoebe Jones (University of North Carolina Greensboro)
1B: Becoming Android: Rejection of Humanity in Janelle Monáe’s Dirty Computer
In her forty-minute-long short film Dirty Computer, we witness Janelle Monáe’s character struggle and suffer at the hands of the oppressive dystopian regime, the New Dawn. Monáe’s alter ego, Jane 57821, suffers through memory erasure, hallucinations, physical violence, and dehumanization because she has been labeled a “dirty computer,” a machine that is broken and in need of fixing by those who know how life is meant to be lived. Monáe is one of many artists of color who align themselves with non-human beings as a way to rebel against marginalization and subjugation. Many feminist scholars argue that oppression of marginalized groups has been justified by Western society with the rationalization that these groups are less than human – human qualities being white, heterosexual, capitalist, and Christian, among others. Those that fall outside of these categories are seen as incapable of assimilating into Western civilization, and therefore undeserving of freedom from violence. In her article “Unbecoming Human: An Ethics of Objects,” Eunjung Kim uses her concept of “object becoming” to identify how purposefully identifying with objects or adopting object-like behavior can be used as a form of liberation from these rigid and often unattainable standards of humanity. In my paper, I draw on social commentary from various feminist and gender scholars to analyze how Monáe uses this concept of object becoming with her character Jane 57821, and how it bolsters her message of individuality and freedom.
My name is Phoebe Jones, I am getting my master’s degree in music theory at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro.
Rajan Lal (University of Cambridge)
1B: Scriabin’s Most-Mystifying Twenty-One Bars
In this paper, I focus on the Introduction to Scriabin’s Eighth Piano Sonata (Op. 66, 1913), perhaps the most underexplored twenty-one bar passage in the rich existing literature on the composer. I suggest that numerous existing analytical interfaces, though useful on their own terms, fall short of explicating how this section ‘works’ in a complete sense, even when our inquiry becomes as multivariate as several complex combinations of characteristic Scriabin collections. Present analytical tools also fall short of explaining the curious sound world that this passage creates for listeners. I thus propose a novel theoretical framework predicated on “Harmonic Quality”, before marrying it with existing scalar, set-theoretic and extended tonal approaches to generate two key outputs. Firstly, I situate this passage in terms of the strange aural experience its harmonies and motifs engender. Secondly, and inextricably linked to the first output, I suggest that its harmonic makeup represents a conscious inversion of tonal logic familiar to musicians from functional, diatonic tonality, that which, by 1913, Scriabin had firmly departed.
Rajan Lal is a Ph.D. student in Music at the University of Cambridge, working under the supervision of Professor Nicholas Marston. He completed his undergraduate and MPhil studies at Gonville and Caius College Cambridge, where he was a Senior Scholar and a Tammy Chen Graduate Scholar. Centred on Scriabin’s late music, his doctoral research explores applications for pitch-class set theory and scalar theory in close readings of Scriabin’s works, with a view to uncovering their inner workings and soundings. Rajan’s interests also include the late works of Liszt and Stravinsky, as well as general intersections between mathematics and music.
Evan Tanovich (University of Toronto)
1B: Analyzing Displacement Techniques and Their Uncanny Effect in Prokofiev’s Music
This paper posits a theory of general displacement in the music of Sergei Prokofiev. I investigate various techniques such as chromatic, rhythmic, diatonic, octave, motivic, and harmonic displacement by comparing a completed composition to a common practice prototype. Through this theoretical lens, under-analyzed concepts in Prokofiev’s compositions are revealed, and I focus on uncanniness. Whereas irony or sarcasm are conventional explanations for instances where an otherwise standard composition has been “Prokofievized” or displaced, I posit that a darker, more psychologically involved reading of musical uncanniness might better reflect a piece’s effect. Firstly, I canvas existing attempts to codify ‘wrong notes’ in Prokofiev’s music, such as Richard Bass’s theory of chromatic displacement, and expand on them introducing a new lexicon of terminology related to displacement techniques of various types. Secondly, I reveal the numerous displacement techniques Prokofiev employs through an analysis of excerpts from Peter and the Wolf (Op. 67), Cinderella (Op. 87), his Fourth Symphony (first version Op. 47), and a sketch from his sixth thematic notebook (McAllister 2020). Revealing these techniques not only offers insights into Prokofiev’s compositional process and “hypothetical original version[s] of the music lurking beneath the surface” (Kramer 1998, 518) but enables an analyst to read themes of irony and especially uncanniness into the music.
Evan Tanovich is a Research Assistant, Teaching Assistant and Master of Arts student of music theory at the University of Toronto. His studies are supported by a Canada Graduate Scholarship-Master’s Award from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). He received a Bachelor of Music in composition with a minor in political science from the University of Toronto in 2022. Evan’s research interests include theories of musical form, schema theory, historical pedagogies and 21st-century compositional practices. In his free time, he loves listening to Detroit sports-talk radio and playing vintage pinball machines.
Chenyu Xiao (University of Leeds)
2A: Multi-layered process in Unsuk Chin’s Graffiti
Graffiti is an art form that embraces artistic multiplicities. This aesthetic concept is embodied expressly in Unsuk Chin’s description of her own work that bears the title of this art form: “My ensemble piece Graffiti can be likened to a palimpsest. The music is polydimensional and multilayered; one can hear allusions to a manifold of styles, which are juxtaposed in a kaleidoscopic manner”. The current reception of Graffiti focuses primarily on the dialogue, juxtaposition, and superimposition between different musical styles. As I would like to argue, the polydimensionality of Graffiti also can be understood through different contrapuntal designs of the work. In this paper, this will be examined through three aspects: 1) pitch organisation; 2) rhythm; 3) musical structures. First, analysing through the lens of modes of limited transposition, I demonstrate the way in which polydimensionality is represented in the pitch organisation in this work, especially through the counterpoint of different modes, as well as the interval groups and palindromes derived from the modes. Second, I show that Chin’s use of accentuation, hemiola, and rhythmic series in Graffiti presents a complex constellation of temporalities, which form an intrinsic part of the contrapuntal design of the work. Lastly, I delve into three musical structures—texture, timbre, and metre—arguing that the contrapuntal nuances exhibited in Chin’s use of these structures also help contribute to a multilayered architectural design that resonates sympathetically with the “kaleidoscopic manner” of graffiti art. In conclusion, through this paper, I hope to show that analysing Graffiti from the perspective of counterpoint could significantly enrich our understanding of the graffiti-like polydimensionality of the work.
Chenyu Xiao is a PhD student in Musicology at the University of Leeds. Her research focuses on twentieth-century and contemporary composers. Under the supervision of Professor Edward Venn and Dr Matthew Pritchard, she is investigating Unsuk Chin’s concertos in the light of the notion of virtuosity and East-West musical dialogue. She obtained both her BAand MM degrees from Sichuan Conservatory of Music, China. She received a Distinction Award for her master’s thesis on the contrapuntal techniques in Unsuk Chin’s Graffiti, which was published in the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI).
Sylvia Hsu (University of North Texas)
1B: The Deliberately Forgotten Truth: A Motivic Analysis of the Taiwanese Horror Game Detention
Video games based on political histories have recently increased in popularity, especially in east Asia. In 2017, the Taiwanese horror game Detention created an uproar in the gaming industry, based on a series of actual events that occurred during Taiwan’s White Terror period — a sensitive time that still pervades Taiwanese political milieu. Several scholars focused on the connections between the narrative and the historical backgrounds — not the relations between the political meanings and the game’s music. Drawing examples of the monotones from the game, this paper explores several characteristic features of the soundtrack of Detention by connecting the motivic variation to the narrative of the game, as well as the hidden political and cultural messages in historical context.
Sylvia Hsu is a first-year Master student in Music Theory at the University of North Texas. Her research interests include video game music, music narratives, and performance analysis.
Chenyu Xiao (University of Leeds)
2A: Multi-layered process in Unsuk Chin’s Graffiti
Graffiti is an art form that embraces artistic multiplicities. This aesthetic concept is embodied expressly in Unsuk Chin’s description of her own work that bears the title of this art form: “My ensemble piece Graffiti can be likened to a palimpsest. The music is polydimensional and multilayered; one can hear allusions to a manifold of styles, which are juxtaposed in a kaleidoscopic manner”. The current reception of Graffiti focuses primarily on the dialogue, juxtaposition, and superimposition between different musical styles. As I would like to argue, the polydimensionality of Graffiti also can be understood through different contrapuntal designs of the work. In this paper, this will be examined through three aspects: 1) pitch organisation; 2) rhythm; 3) musical structures. First, analysing through the lens of modes of limited transposition, I demonstrate the way in which polydimensionality is represented in the pitch organisation in this work, especially through the counterpoint of different modes, as well as the interval groups and palindromes derived from the modes. Second, I show that Chin’s use of accentuation, hemiola, and rhythmic series in Graffiti presents a complex constellation of temporalities, which form an intrinsic part of the contrapuntal design of the work. Lastly, I delve into three musical structures—texture, timbre, and metre—arguing that the contrapuntal nuances exhibited in Chin’s use of these structures also help contribute to a multilayered architectural design that resonates sympathetically with the “kaleidoscopic manner” of graffiti art. In conclusion, through this paper, I hope to show that analysing Graffiti from the perspective of counterpoint could significantly enrich our understanding of the graffiti-like polydimensionality of the work.
Chenyu Xiao is a PhD student in Musicology at the University of Leeds. Her research focuses on twentieth-century and contemporary composers. Under the supervision of Professor Edward Venn and Dr Matthew Pritchard, she is investigating Unsuk Chin’s concertos in the light of the notion of virtuosity and East-West musical dialogue. She obtained both her BAand MM degrees from Sichuan Conservatory of Music, China. She received a Distinction Award for her master’s thesis on the contrapuntal techniques in Unsuk Chin’s Graffiti, which was published in the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI).
Matthew Burke (University of Liverpool)
2A: Headin’ t’ Kinnego: Observations and analysis following a recent collaborative composition workshop.
On November 29th, 2022, five vastly different musicians (including myself) were brought together into the studio for an observed workshop in collaborative composition. Utilising a very basic ‘score’ comprised of visual stimuli and some notated music, we five had the collective purpose to improvise with each other in order to co-create a new, fixed, composition that could not have existed without the combined efforts of all those in the room. Comparable to the phenomenon of the ‘jamming session,’ this method of composition allows for the possibility of differently abled musicians to comfortably work together and be transparently credited for their demonstratable contributions. Additionally, the observation of this workshop was intended to provide a clearer understanding of the ways in which different individuals can work together to co-create a piece of music; the social dynamics involved as well as the adaptations, compromises, and practices most beneficial when working collectively. This paper will provide an overview of the structure adapted for this observed workshop and how this shape was designed in order to evoke varying degrees of input from the performers. Additionally, I will examine and analyse the musical input provided by the participants, how this developed over the course of the session, and what impact this had on the final ‘fixed’ composition. Finally, with close reference to Greene (2002), I will briefly reflect upon the socio-musical aspect of the observation, discussing this specific group dynamic, how it may have affected the collaboration, how tacet knowledge was utilised, and if osmotic learning took place.
Matthew Burke is a composer and bass guitarist originally from Belfast, now living and working in Liverpool. Burke has played in numerous ensembles across the UK and Ireland, playing mainly heavy metal, jazz-fusion, experiential music, and more recently Irish folk. It was with his studies at The Queen’s University Belfast that he found a passion for contemporary classical composition and went on to achieve an MPhil in composition studies. Since then, Burke has worked closely with several professional ensembles to perform his music; some of which include: The Hard Rain Soloist Ensemble, The Fidelio Trio, The Royal String Quartet, Red Note Ensemble, Quatuor Danel, and Ensemble 10:10. Burke is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Liverpool. Matthew’s research is concerned with the incorporation of collaborative compositional practices as well as the aesthetic fusion of popular music with Western classical composition.
Kenrick Ho (University of Leeds)
2A: Flou: Performing Bodies in Musical Processes
My recent composition, Flou for solo violin explores the composer and performer’s joint attempt at embodying otherwise unidiomatic Markov-chain generated materials. This paper briefly discusses three examples of musical processes that are typical of the contemporary canon; that of James Tenney, Steve Reich, and Iannis Xenakis, to explain a recurring problem where pieces based on abstracted processes have a tendency to neglect the bodily presence of its performers. Inspired by Heideggerian phenomenology and the music of Lachenmann, I explain that performer’s bodies can be more noticeable by imposing a physical challenge for the performer, to draw attention away from the abstraction of process, and towards the physical embodiment of it. As a result, Flou was written as an attempt to embody the process without deviating significantly from it. The performer’s bodily presence is foregrounded by detuning the violin down by an octave lower and loosening the bow. The performer is expected to struggle with achieving the notated pitch because of this extreme scordatura, but I argue that this physical attempt at embodying the process is more important than actually ‘hearing the process’ as an abstraction. Finally, I conclude that this conflict between process and composition has historically been a long-standing problem for composers, and it presents itself as a creative opportunity to explore multifarious ways this tension can be resolved compositionally.
Kenrick Ho (b.1997) is a Toronto-born, Hong Kong-raised, and now UK-based composer-researcher currently completing a PhD in composition at the University of Leeds. His practice-led thesis, supervised by Martin Iddon and Freya Bailes, explores creative opportunities that emerge within the multifariousness of human agencies in AI embodiment through experimental composition. More specifically, his research/music engages with questions about the physicality of performance, embodied cognition, and more broadly, the manifold inter-co-authorship between the performer, composer, and the computer. He is expected to complete his doctoral degree by September 2023.
Gizem Nur Copcuoglu (Istanbul Technical University)
2B: Sight-Singing as a Translational Action: Comparative Analysis of Sight-Singing Performances of Turkish Makam Music in Light of Translation Studies
In this study, I assert that musical performance is a specific type of translation, wherein the performer acts as a translator by turning nonverbal signs on the score into sound. I argue that one can analyze a musical performance with the help of the methodologies of translation analysis as long as there is a source text like notation. To test this and gain a better insight into the translation process during the musical performance, I will focus on the sight-singing process where the performer translates the signs on the score into sound at first sight. As a case study, I will analyze the sight-singing performances of a song in the makam Kürdilihicazkar composed by Cinucen Tanrikorur, a renowned composer of Turkish makam music in the late 20th century. Comparing the transcriptions of the performances and the original notation, I will conduct a “shift analysis,” which is originally a method of analysis in linguistic translation. In this analysis, I will count everything additional or lacking in the transcription compared to the original text as “shifts,” and, in the end, I will make a classification of shifts. After the analysis of performances and classification of shifts, I will present a discussion in light of translation theories of Text Type, Shift, and Skopos. This discussion along with the interviews with the performers shed light on their motives for their performance, their styles, and their understanding of singing Turkish makam music, specifically Cinucen Tanrikorur’s compositions.
Born in 1991, I started taking Turkish makam music, oud, and classical kemenche lessons from a master at the age of 11. I earned my B.A. degree in the Translation and Interpreting Studies at Bogazici University. After my undergraduate studies, I received a Master’s Degree in Performance at Istanbul Technical University Dr. Erol Ucer Center for Advanced Studies in Music (MIAM). Now, I’m pursuing my Ph.D studies in ethnomusicology at the same institution. Currently, I work as a singer at the Istanbul State Ensemble for Research and Performance of Turkish Music under the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
Ayşegül Begüm Kuntman (İstanbul Technical University)
2B: STYLISTIC FEATURES IN ERIC WHITACRE’S EARLY CHORAL WORKS (1992-2002)
Eric Whitacre is a very well-known composer, especially in the choral music world. Although his pieces share some stylistic features with his contemporaries, his work has a distinctive sound. The main goal of this research is to find what makes his work so unique and distinguishable through analyses of various parameters in his music and to exhibit the techniques that are used by Whitacre. For this research, Whitacre’s early choral compositions are analyzed in terms of chordal, melodic and formal structures, compositional techniques and harmonic functions in a holistic way. Analyses of the structures of poems will be included in the research as well. The reason for this is that they can be an important part of the music, as it will be presented in the research, through their contribution to the establishment of the form and melodic or harmonic structures, sometimes through techniques like word-painting, or another technique which I will be calling mimicking in music. Additional features like sound effects and instrumental accompaniments will be briefly mentioned, as they can be significant elements in Whitacre’s music. All of the parameters mentioned here come together in Whitacre’s works building a unique language and creating a world. This research will hopefully shed some light on how that world is created.
Ayşegül B. Kuntman is a composer based in İstanbul. She was originally a music enthusiast studying Civil Engineering at Boğaziçi University. After graduation, she crowned that enthusiasm with a master’s degree in Music Theory from Istanbul Technical University, Center for Advanced Studies in Music (MIAM). She continues her studies with yet another master’s degree in Composition in ITU Turkish Music State Conservatory. Her academic interest lies in discovering the relation between visual and aural media and finding more effective ways of combining them. She is also a part time choir-nerd, singing in choirs since 2011.
Chieh Huang (Ph.D. in Integrated Composition, Improvisation and Technology (ICIT) at the University of California, Irvine)
2B: Relation and the Three Atayal Values
In this proposal, I use relation, listening positionally, and three Atayal values as a framework to examine my composition, Origin of Life. Edouard Glissant discusses the concept of relation in his book Poetics of Relation: “Relation is not made up of things that are foreign but of shared knowledge.” (8). He also holds that every identity is developed and produced in relation to another. Glissant’s concept of identity and relation, addressed in Poetics of Relation, correlates to the notion that there is no pure origin and is tied to interconnected relationships in indigeneity. These perspectives highlight alternative understandings of Indigenous cultures that are often less subject-centered. The three Atayal values are linked to relationships in time, space, and beings. Additionally, it is essential to consider your relationships with specific voices—how your positionality determines your approach to listening to music. Ultimately, I want to argue that Origin of Life demands ethical responsibilities such as deeply understanding the culture in which the piece was written, being conscious of encountering various relationships, having relations with different aspects, and realizing that all these perspectives produce results beyond the scope of just a musical performance. The heightened creativity that steers Origin of Life beyond Western analytical tools or traditional models can be described in three Atayal values. It is an outcome of the full manifestation of musician’s experiences, interpretations, and imaginations. Last, the three Atayal values stress that culture, spirituality, and music are profoundly interconnected, and composers should seek a balance in all three. This ongoing process does not stop when the performance is over.
Chieh Huang started playing snare drum and keyboard percussion at the age of five, expanded her training in other percussion instruments at the University of Minnesota (BA), and studied marimba performance under Nancy Zeltsman at The Boston Conservatory (MM). While at the conservatory, she began her multifaceted career as a composer-performer under the management of Jackie Chan Entertainment to develop her compositional skills and perform her music at venues such as the Taiwan National Concert Hall and the Taipei Novel Hall. Her interests include experimentation with sounds by incorporating keyboard percussion instruments and the Atayal language into her composition. She is completing a Ph.D. in Integrated Composition, Improvisation and Technology (ICIT) at the University of California, Irvine, where she received a UC Irvine Diversity Recruitment Fellowship, The Medici Scholarship, Tierney Scholarship, and a grant award from the Center for Asian Studies.
Sapphire Littler (University of Leeds)
3A: How do non-tonal composers suggest temporality to a listener? An exploration into metaphor, projective potential, and temporality, with musical examples from George Crumb.
The corpus examined during this paper will largely revolve around three topics – temporality, projective potential, and metaphor. There is an unavoidable use of metaphor when describing, and therefore, when experiencing music. Temporal perception may be altered for listeners through projective potential, which is, in turn, shaped using metaphor. These topics, while worthwhile in and of themselves, are all intrinsically linked – it is the interactions between them which ultimately shape listener perception of temporality. I will present a model of analysis, which can be applied to any musical genre: metaphors will first be categorised, before those which relate to projective potential are selected in order to discern which of those affect listener perception of temporality. However, in this paper, I will specifically be applying this approach to George Crumb’s Vox Balaenae, as compositional traits which affect projective potential will not be based upon schemes imposed by functional harmony. The methodology is largely based on concepts introduced by Christopher Hasty, Jan LaRue, Leonard Meyer, Steve Larson, and Matt Johnson. A large proportion of these writings look at the interaction between two of these concepts, when I believe that all three each have major effects on the others.
I am a PhD student with an interest in musical analysis and temporality. Throughout my BA and MRes degrees, I worked with a clear focus on the compositional analysis of 20th and 21st century music, with my MA exploring the reinvention of the concerto in Finland over the last forty years. It was during this thesis that I first read J. D. Kramer’s The Time of Music, which sent me on the tangent I am still on to this day. I have largely focused on works by Crumb, Stravinsky, Takemitsu, Saariaho, Lindberg, Tiensuu, and Ligeti.
Isabella Thorneycroft (University of Oxford)
3A: Martinů’s Mirrors: dualist approaches to extended tonality in the second movement of the Flute Sonata, H.306
Using the second movement of his Flute Sonata (H.306) as a case study, this dissertation will explore the Janus-like quality of Bohuslav Martinů’s harmonic language: whilst it can be parsed into the simple, triadic building blocks of diatonic, Common-Practice tonality, the way in which the composer combines these units yields harmonic structures—both horizontal and vertical—which are distinctly non-idiomatic to the Common-Practice. Notions of harmonic dualism help to explain how Martinů’s harmony is rooted in, yet reconstructs, Common-Practice principles: the octatonic and plagal structures employed by the composer can be understood to be generated through inversions of Common-Practice structures. Ultimately, however, I situate these systems at different points along the same spectrum; engaging with polemics concerning the definition of ‘tonality’, I argue that Martinů’s non-diatonic-yet-non-serial harmony can be described as ‘extended-tonal’, a stance which rejects the binarising of music history into two antipodal epochs separated by the supposed ‘death of tonality’ around the turn of the twentieth century. The Discrete Fourier Transform and Kenneth Smith’s theory of tonal function within chromatic music will prove particularly useful in demonstrating how Martinů’s extended-tonal vocabulary represents a recalibration of relationships which were already latent in Common-Practice materials. The former can be used to show how scales often contain both diatonic and octatonic harmonic quality and that fluctuation between the two qualities on the horizontal plane creates a consonance/dissonance trajectory; the latter makes a case for the presence of tonal-functional logic beneath octatonic macroharmony.
Izzie is in her third year reading Music (BA) at the University of Oxford. Having immensely enjoyed musical analysis tutorials with Oliver Chandler, she is writing a dissertation about harmonic vocabulary and tonal function in Bohuslav Martinů’s Flute Sonata and is excited to explore more extended-tonal music. Outside of her degree, Izzie is a keen flautist; whilst at school she was Principal Flute in the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain and currently plays in a range of ensembles across Oxford. For the past year she has also been President of Hertford College Music Society.
Chuyu Zhang (Oxford University (Music Faculty))
3A: ‘Historicist Modernism’? Revisiting Busoni’s form and syntax in Berceuse élégiaque, op. 42
Walter Frisch coined Ferruccio Busoni as one of the best representations of ‘historicist modernism’ where the musical newness and tradition converge on his aesthetic ideal ‘Young Classicality’. Yet how can we approach this ambivalence and co-existence of the old and new? More specifically: how do Busoni’s syntax and form in Berceuse élégiaque represent this ambivalence or even the ambiguity of it? This present paper proposes to answer these questions. The paper begins with revisiting the notions, of ‘musical modernity’ and of ‘musical historicism’, respectively. With modernity, one will distinguish several pairs of terms – relative vs. absolute novelty, recurrence vs recombination, ‘modern’ vs ‘die Moderne’. At the same time, the Dahlhausian definition of ‘music historicism’ will also be explored so that one can better situate Busoni as a transitional figure in the pre-WWI era. Next, the paper will outline, contextualise and historicise Busoni’s complex attitudes towards newness and tradition in his artistic ideal ‘Young Classicality’.
Berceuse élégiaque, op. 42 best represents this old vs new ambivalence. The analysis will mainly focus on Busoni’s form and syntax. Caplin’s terminologies in The Classical Form will be applied to explain his syntactical languages. (Surely, this paper will also briefly discuss how appropriate or applicable Caplin’s model can suit the post-tonal context here.) In terms of form, the paper shall argue that Berceuse élégiaque’s usage of ‘arch form’ cannot be fitted into any pre-given traditional structures, despite the fact the idea of ‘returning’ is rooted in music tradition. On the other hand, however, Busoni’s syntax here remains traditional if not Germanic. In the final part, this paper will discuss Busoni’s entanglement of newness and tradition: does he belong to ‘historicist modernism’ or ‘modernist conservatism’ (by adopting M. Steinberg’s term)? Or to ask differently: does he really make something new out of the old or he simply rebrands something old by new means?
I am Chuyu Zhang and study Master of Musicology at Oxford University. I am interested in traditional analysis and performance analysis. I am now working on the works of Ferruccio Busoni and Philipp Jarnach. I also transcribed the correspondence of both composers into a digital format during my undergraduate degree in Berlin.
Leah Davies (Bristol University)
3A: Making Madness: How Julia Perry crafts mad characters in the twentieth century
Julia Perry (1924-1979) was a composer who more than any other Black American composer we currently know about, was most active within white male compositional circles and she found great success. Whilst studying in Italy with Luigi Dallapiccola (1904-1975), she began composing a one act opera titled, The Cask of Amontillado (1953). With mad scenes reaching the pinnacle in popularity in the nineteenth century, by the twentieth century the mad scene had expanded to take over as the subject of an entire dramatic musical work, as such the case with Perry’s composition. In the Cask of Amontillado, the main character is portrayed as mad, and Perry uses the same techniques we recognise as showcasing madness from centuries before to convey this. With vocal techniques such as Arnold Schoenberg’s redeveloped technique sprechstimme. Schoenberg crafted a variation of the original technique in which a performer would sing the given pitch, but immediately abandon it by either falling or rising to another un-notated pitch. Alongside this Perry also used vocal techniques such as melisma, ornamentation, and large jumps in pitch. Following the musical style of Italian composer Dallapiccola, Perry’s opera is crafted using modified serialism. Dallapiccola worked towards creating a style of serialism with a technique he calls “polarity.” A technique perry uses to create madness as she uses polarity to create deliberately unstable structures within her tone which contributes to her portraying madness. This paper aims to explore how Perry crafts madness on the stage, using techniques and examples she has learned.
Leah Davies is currently a third year PhD student at the University of Bristol. Her work often explores female composers from the twentieth century, and though musical analysis of their compositions, she seeks to view them in the wider context of musical history. Her PhD work sets to explore the compositions of a forgotten American composer, Julia Perry. Often described as eclectic, Perry was an active composer in America, France, Italy and later returning to America during the Civil Rights Movement of 1960. Leah is currently researching how these changes in location and context have influenced Perry’s compositional style.
Mike Mitchell (Newcastle University)
3B: “Vom Tanz geht alle Musik aus”: The Structural, the Semiotic, and the Somatic in the Scherzo of Mahler’s Ninth Symphony
The form of the gargantuan scherzo in Mahler’s Ninth Symphony is undeniably complex and is a point of contention among scholars (Andraschke, 1976 ; Lewis, 1984 ; Adorno, 1971). Through an analysis and hermeneutic reading of this movement, I will rationalise its complex form into a tri-rotational structure by foregrounding the somatic meanings of the dance topics in the movement, and by interpreting the failed breakthrough as the rhetorical peak of the movement. Following Samuels’ semiotic study in Mahler’s Sixth Symphony (1995), and his ‘codes’ of musical semiotics, I will use somatic meaning as a semiotic code for music analysis. One senses that, following the failed breakthrough, the dances that return in the third rotation are hollow and unfulfilling, in their ‘damaged afterlife’ (Adorno (trans. Jephcott), 1992, p. 161). This can be understood through the structural and narrative implications of failed breakthrough, and crucially, through changes to the way in which the dances are presented, that undermine the somatic dance impulse. Ultimately, this analysis advances a more nuanced understanding of Mahler’s approach to formal procedure in his later style, particularly his use of failed breakthrough, and allows a richer experience of this scherzo.
Mike Mitchell is a fourth-year student on Newcastle University’s BMus Music course. His research interests include music analysis and hermeneutics, particularly of late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century repertoire.
Rafael Echevarria (Durham University)
3B: Wagner’s Formal Gift: Siegfried Idyll and the New Formenlehre
According to James Hepokoski (1992), Richard Wagner’s “Siegfried Idyll could well have provided one of the most influential models for late-century sonata deformations.” Despite this striking claim of historical significance, however, Wagner’s symphonic poem has received minimal scholarly attention. While most studies address the work’s biographical context—as a present for Wagner’s wife Cosima upon their son’s birth—its form has mainly been examined by Mark Anson-Cartwright. Writing in 1996 and 2016, Anson-Cartwright’s Schenkerian and programmatic analyses present two subtly different interpretations that require reconciliation. These intricacies demand closer engagement with contemporary formal discourse: the ‘New Formenlehre’ represented by William Caplin’s Form-functional Theory and James Hepokoski and Warren Darcy’s Sonata Theory. This paper brings Siegfried Idyll into direct contact with the New Formenlehre. By drawing on Sonata Theory, its associated conception of ‘deformation’, and Janet Schmalfeldt’s conception of Form-functional Becoming, I demonstrate how recent formal theories help clarify the work’s design. This analysis provides a challenging case study for ongoing formal debates on the relationship between deep Schenkerian structure and conventional form, how diatonic and hexatonic tonal relationships influence formal trajectories, as well as the relevance and utility of sonata typologies. These analytical complexities recontextualise the work’s relationship to broader symphonic trends throughout the nineteenth century. Thus, this paper not only enables a better understanding of Siegfried Idyll’s historical and analytical dimensions but also refines contemporary discourse within the New Formenlehre.
Rafael (Ardi) Echevarria is a musicologist and music theorist specialising in musical form and the long nineteenth century. Ardi earned First Class Honours and Masters degrees from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and is completing a PhD in Musicology at Durham University. He has worked with Sydney Conservatorium’s musicology division and the Australian National University’s School of Music. Ardi has presented at multiple national and international conferences, earning 2nd Prize at the Musicological Society of Australia’s 2019 Student Paper Awards. He is currently secretary for the MSA’s Sydney chapter and served on the organising committee for its 2021 national conference.
Darach Sharkey (Durham University)
3B: From Liszt to Russia: Form and Context in Glazunov’s 2nd Piano Concerto in B, Op. 100
‘In this delightful and compendious work Glazunov amuses himself by combining the rules of two games; one, the game of Liszt in his E-flat Concerto; the other the game of Tchaikovsky in the variation finale of his Trio.’ So opined Donald Francis Tovey regarding Glazunov’s First Piano Concerto. This provides any analyst of the Russian Concerto with an avenue of consideration when tackling Glazunov’s lesser known second piano concerto in B, Op. 100. A pre-soviet work composed in 1917, this concerto exhibits many traits of what some scholars have started to call Russian Silver Age music. Being adopted from literary studies, the term is a problematic one, and denotes varying degrees of nostalgia for fin de siècle Russian Art, Literature and Moscow Socialite Culture. This paper initially looks at Glazunov’s concerto in its genealogical context – tracing the link from John Field’s model up to the merging of Tchaikovsky’s and Rimsky-Korsakov’s (via Liszt) approaches to the genre. I then present an analysis in line with the contemporary ‘genre-critical’ branch of the new Formenlehre (Horton-2017, Taylor-2016, Vande-Moortele-2017), before drawing conclusions on its fascinating approach to single-movement concerto form, and its internal tonal anomalies. These observations are then situated in the wider context of fin-de-siecle Russian music and culture, and challenge previous attempts by Western analysts generally Austrocentric analytical methods to analyse such works. I advocate closer engagement with the cultural and philosophical contexts of not only Glazunov, but any analytical endeavor involving the fin de siècle post-romantic Russian composers.
Darach Sharkey is a composer, pianist and music theorist from Donegal, Ireland. He undertook undergraduate and masters studies at the University of Edinburgh from 2014-2019, where his dissertations were supervised by Dr Benedict Taylor. He is currently a PhD candidate in music theory and analysis at Durham University, where his thesis focuses on the fin de siècle Russian Piano Concerto and is supervised by Professor Julian Horton and Dr Ian Dickson. Much of Darach’s research focuses on Piano Concerti and the Russian composer-pianist Nikolai Medtner. He is also interested in New-Formenlehre, Neo-Riemannian Theories, Semiotics, Beethoven, Romantic/Organicist Philosophies and Ludomusicology
Yaou Zhang (The University of York)
4A: Unquiet Sexual Liberation – Attitudes towards Sexuality in Benjamin Britten’s “The Turn of the Screw” from 1954 to 2021
Relatively little scholarly attention has been paid to the production of Benjamin Britten’s chamber opera “The Turn of the Screw” (1954). As one of Britten’s most remarkable operas, it has been understood as a work that depicts either the psychological processes of the characters or a ghost story. The story of the libretto was from Henry James’s novella of the same name. The novella was created in 1898 and is one of the best-known ghosts stories in literature, having been adapted numerous times including Britten’s “Screw”. Since the legalisation of homosexuality and the liberation of sexuality in the late 1960s, scholars have focused on and debated sexual elements among the opera characters. My research focuses on the experience of seeing the opera on stage over several decades. This chronological research into productions of the opera not only offers a sense of how the stage performance can contemporarily shape and alter audience members’ understanding of the opera, but also clarifies a landscape of changed values of sexuality in aesthetics and receptions. To examine the hypotheses in interpretation and reception, I use qualitative research to examine the sexual elements in different productions. For instance, I have conducted field research into the topic by arranging interviews with the creative team and visiting Opera North in Leeds, the Britten-Pears Foundation in Aldeburgh, the Theatre Collection at the University of Bristol. The collected data reveals the “hidden identity” in creative teams’ interpretations, social preferences, and rediscover that have previously remained unseen.
Yaou Zhang is a 4th year PhD student in musicology at the University of York. Her doctoral research focuses on the “Staging, Production, and Reception of Benjamin Britten’s chamber opera The Turn of the Screw in the UK from 1954 onwards,” and her doctoral study has been funded by the University of York and the China Scholarship Council.
Sylvia Hsu (University of North Texas)
4A: The Deliberately Forgotten Truth: A Motivic Analysis of the Taiwanese Horror Game Detention
Video games based on political histories have recently increased in popularity, especially in east Asia. In 2017, the Taiwanese horror game Detention created an uproar in the gaming industry, based on a series of actual events that occurred during Taiwan’s White Terror period — a sensitive time that still pervades Taiwanese political milieu. Several scholars focused on the connections between the narrative and the historical backgrounds — not the relations between the political meanings and the game’s music. Drawing examples of the monotones from the game, this paper explores several characteristic features of the soundtrack of Detention by connecting the motivic variation to the narrative of the game, as well as the hidden political and cultural messages in historical context.
Sylvia Hsu is a first-year Master student in Music Theory at the University of North Texas. Her research interests include video game music, music narratives, and performance analysis.
Jack Ledigo (Trinity College, University of Oxford)
4A: Phase Space Analysis, Understanding the gap, and Henze
How do we describe music after Schoenberg that still uses tonal methods in part? Some would argue that it is Modern. – But does this mean a focus on the Avant-garde and experimental, or merely the “current”? – Others would deem it” 20th-century music” and leave it at that. But this is so general as to have no explanatory force. What emerges is, to use Paul Fleet’s term, a gap. If we can speak of this music as part of the gap the next logical question is: How can we analyse this music? I agree with Daniel Harrison in arguing that “Tonality did not ‘die’ or ‘go out’ in 1910, but was in fact so supplemented that in the hands of many composers, it continued to be a fresh and artistically compelling means of musical organisation.” Taking this in conjunction with Fleet, a definitional gap emerges where tonality is still a means of composing music and the predominant method. Coming back to the issue of how we analyse this music I will put forward Phase Space Analysis.
A stylistically and historically neutral method is the perfect tool for considering music so bound up in these arguments of 20th-century music. This talk will use this tool to dig further into the gap and uncover some interesting things about it. The study will be on Hans Werner Henze’s first Tentos and through this piece I will show points of interest as well as some idea of long-range connection through Phase Space Analysis. The aim of this is to reconsider music that resides in the gap and show how using alternate methods of analysis we can show the period to be more than just music written in the shadow of Schoenberg
Currently studying for the Mst in Musicology at the University of Oxford, Jack Ledigo is an academic with an interest in music analysis, musical expression, topic theory and representations of music in the 17th and 18th centuries. Having completed his undergraduate music degree at King’s College London, Jack was supervised by Professor Matthew Head for a dissertation which sought to rethink topic theory as a theory of expression rather than a theory of music. At Oxford, he is being supervised by Dr Oliver Chandler and is researching analysis of guitar music from both the 18th and 20th centuries.
Stacy Jarvis (The University of Manchester)
4B: Silent culmination
This research examines the use of silent culminations or quiet finale in music composition. Silent culminations are a musical technique that creates or increases tension in a piece of music by gradually building to a climax and suddenly stopping without any resolution. This technique can create suspense and anticipation in the listener and draw attention to a particular element of the music. Examples of silent culminations in classical music can be found in works by Verdi and Tchaikovsky, including Verdi’s Aida and Tchaikovsky’s Mazeppa, respectively. In Aida, Verdi uses silent culminations to create tension and suspense in the music and set the stage for the powerful emotions of the story. Through silent culminations, Verdi can draw attention to certain elements of the music, such as a particular motif or phrase, and emphasize its importance. Similarly, in Mazeppa, Tchaikovsky uses silent culminations to create tension and suspense in the music. This technique is used to emphasize the powerful emotions of the story, such as fear and excitement. In both works, silent culminations are used to create tension and suspense and to emphasize the pieces’ powerful emotions. By not resolving the tension with a resolution, the listener is left with a feeling of uneasiness and uncertainty that helps to convey the story’s themes. This essay demonstrates how silent culminations are a powerful tool for creating tension, suspense, and emotional depth in music composition. Through this technique, composers can draw attention to certain elements of their music, as well as emphasize the powerful emotions of their stories.
Stacy Jarvis is a professional violin performer and international competition winner based in Manchester, United Kingdom. She studies musicology and advanced music analysis at the University of Manchester and is planning to receive her Master’s degree in Summer 2023. Since 2019, Stacy has worked as a music teacher across the Northwest of England in the higher education sector, including schools and colleges. She has also performed as a soloist and orchestra performer in England, Wales, Poland, and the Czech Republic. Stacy Jarvis graduated as a violin performer from the Royal Northern College of Music in 2022. During college, Stacy has written several works analysing Debussy’s ballet ‘Jeux’, opera ‘Othello’ by Verdi and ‘Du côté de chez Swann’ by the contemporary Ukranian composer Leonid Desaytnikov. Stacy’s primary area of research is late 19th-century Italian opera. She is currently analysing ‘quiet’ finales in Verdi’s “Aida” and Tchaikovsky’s “Mazeppa” for her dissertation.
Rebekah Donn (Edinburgh Napier University)
4B: Schenkerian Analysis in UK University Music Curricula: Educator Perspectives on its Relationship with Music Education
While occupying a comparatively prominent position in UK university music curricula during the 1970s, ‘80s and ‘90s, the discipline of Schenkerian Analysis occupies a considerably less prominent one today. The aim of the research project entitled ‘An Investigation into the Learning and Teaching of Schenkerian Analysis in 21st Century Music Curricula’ (undertaken in 2018) was twofold; to investigate the process by which this decrease in curricular prominence has come about, and the way in which Schenkerian Analysis is currently perceived and taught by academics in UK universities. The project is an empirical study in which a range of academics working in UK universities were interviewed about their views and experiences on this topic. This paper will discuss some of the key findings from the study in relation to their wider implications for contemporary music education in the UK. These relate not only to current issues in university music curricula but also to questions related to the role of musical literacy within the UK secondary music education sector.
Rebekah is currently reading for a PhD in Music Education at Edinburgh Napier University. Her PhD is supervised by Dr Zack Moir and Bryden Stillie, and examines the relationship between Scottish secondary music provision and degree-level music study. Rebekah currently holds a BMus (Hons) from Edinburgh Napier University, an MMus from the University of Hull and is an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. In addition to her (part-time) studies, Rebekah works as a private piano and woodwind teacher.