You are warmly invited to Birmingham Conservatoire’s Spring 2016 Series of Public Research Seminars, on a wide variety of musical topics, which take place on selected Tuesday afternoons, 3.30-5.00 pm. Presenters include Conservatoire staff, doctoral students and external speakers.
These seminars are open to all, including members of the general public. They are held in Birmingham city centre, just a five-minute walk from New Street Station, in the Conservatoire’s Arena Foyer (see map: http://www.bcu.ac.uk/about-us/maps-and-campuses/birmingham-conservatoire/map-and-directions). A small admissions fee of £4 is payable on the door.
19 January 2016, Conservatoire Doctoral Students present Research-in-Progress
This termly venture offers a window on the world of doctoral research. Students from varied subject backgrounds give short presentations on topics that form part of their current research enquiries. Within historical musicology, Giulia Galasso discusses the musical challenges in creating a critical edition of masses by the hitherto neglected seventeenth-century Italian composer Francesco Foggia (1603–88). Excerpts from the first modern performances of some of Foggia’s music will be heard using Galasso’s edition. Meanwhile, the jazz researcher Michael Fletcher pursues the theme of jazz musicians’ usage of the 12-bar blues form as a test bed for new creative ideas, as well as how the blues as a common denominator may prove useful in analysing stylistic developments.
http://www.bcu.ac.uk/conservatoire/events-calendar/concert-diary/public-research-seminar-19-01-2016
26 January 2016, Professor Ronald Woodley and Simon Smith (Birmingham Conservatoire) – ‘Lecture-Recital: George Antheil’s Violin Sonata No. 1’
In the Parisian salons of the 1920s the extraordinary, radical music of the American expatriate George Antheil (1900–59) was, for many at the cutting-edge of the modernist aesthetic, all the latest rage. Not for nothing did he entitle his 1945 autobiography The Bad Boy of Music.
Much of his output, however – with the possible exception of the Ballet mécanique, and occasionally the Airplane Sonata for piano – is rarely heard today. Antheil’s First Violin Sonata (1923), at times utterly frenzied, at times hauntingly beautiful, presents serious challenges of interpretation to both players. Simon Smith and Ronald Woodley discuss the work, with extended performed examples, as part of their preparations for a full concert performance.
http://www.bcu.ac.uk/conservatoire/events-calendar/concert-diary/public-research-seminar-ronald-woodley-simon-smith-26-01-2016
9 February 2016, Dr Claudio Forcada (London) – ‘Good Violin Practice: Psychological Aspects related to Pupils’ Acquisition of Motor Skills’
This presentation discusses how motor learning can contribute to enhancing music teachers’ effectiveness and how its principles can be applied independently of the method teachers use. Initially, Dr Claudio Forcada considers the need for teachers to be systematic and have a solid background on which to base their teaching.
The characteristics of violin teachers who participated in a case study developed as part of Claudio’s doctoral thesis are analysed, exploring differences between their methods, pedagogies and approaches. Aspects of motor learning and their influence on teachers’ practice are also described. The talk concludes by showing the data collected in the case study and establishing comparisons between the teaching habits of the participating teachers.
http://www.bcu.ac.uk/conservatoire/events-calendar/concert-diary/public-research-seminar-dr-claudio-forcada-09-02-2016
1 March 2016, Professor Michael Russ (University of Huddersfield)– ‘Musorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition and the Subject of Art in Music’
http://www.bcu.ac.uk/conservatoire/events-calendar/concert-diary/research-seminar-michael-russ-01-03-2016
15 March 2016, Professor Rebecca Herissone (University of Manchester) – ‘ “A Complete and Correct Score”: Music Printing and Creativity In Late Seventeenth-Century England’
http://www.bcu.ac.uk/conservatoire/events-calendar/concert-diary/rebecca-herissone-15-03-2016
We look forward to welcoming you.
All good wishes,
Deborah Mawer
Professor Deborah Mawer
Director of Research
Birmingham Conservatoire | Birmingham City University
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