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Recent work carried out in Cambridge has brought academic research and performance practice into multiple relationships; the impact of this work has been far-reaching and various. On the one hand, research on the origins of polyphony and on nineteenth-century piano music has impacted performance practice and, through this, the experiences and thinking of a broad listening public. Some of this research has enabled performers to revive scores long thought unperformable, while other work has empowered interpreters in ways that would have been unimaginable before the digital age. On the other hand, research that links polyphonic composition and performance practice with scientific thinking has explored the potential of the concert hall as an arena for research, turning music into a vehicle for public engagement with science. In this way, academic research informs and transforms musical performance and listener experience, while the practice of performance informs and transforms the understanding of music.
This case study describes the impact of an AHRC-funded project examining the `St Emmeram Codex', a key source of early fifteenth-century European polyphony. Amongst the principal impacts of this research have been: (a) exposure of high-quality yet largely unknown repertoire for performers of late medieval music; (b) new insights into performance practice, enhanced prestige, and new performance opportunities for one of the project's collaborators, the German vocal group Stimmwerck; (c) increasing audience reach and understanding for this repertoire, through a series of concerts around Europe, over a period of six years; (d) creation of a highly distinctive and attractive offering for concert venues and a commercial CD company.
This new resource is the world's first to consider the historiography surrounding the Beatles and Merseybeat. The work is an intrinsic part of the framework of Liverpool's Beatles-related tourism industry. The Beatles Story heritage attraction relies on this reference manual as an important tool for its guides and staff. The work has also been warmly welcomed as a vital addition to Liverpool's Beatles Heritage tourism by clickLiverpool.com, the city's foremost tourist website. As such, the work has enriched the lives of those far beyond Liverpool Hope University, providing a comprehensive research scholarship reference resource for years to come, whilst positively contributing to heritage tourism in Liverpool (thence across the world) via its direct use within the industry.
The Digital Image Archive of Medieval Music (DIAMM) is an online digital archive of European medieval polyphonic music, captured direct from the original sources. DIAMM's database (c. 15,000 images) and its award-winning publishing activities make an unparalleled number of medieval manuscripts widely accessible beyond academia, enriching a corpus of music-cultural resources for the benefit of performers, students, libraries, and all those interested in manuscripts and the art and music they contain. The online resources, available without charge, permit collections, libraries, and archives to enhance their holdings, and allow users to access an extensive cross-section of medieval cultural activity of which they would otherwise remain unaware. DIAMM's robust technical standards and protocols have been widely adopted by other digitisation projects beyond academia, demonstrating its impact on source preservation and transmission.
With a series of three CDs, created by his ensemble The Dowland Project on the ECM label, Dr John Potter succeeded in bringing early vocal music that was formerly the preserve of the `classical' concert hall into the realm of contemporary practice, including jazz. The CDs and the public performances that followed them, influenced the creative practice of leading professional musicians from both sides of the jazz/classical divide, and directly inspired the creation of an innovative digital work by Ambrose Field (Being Dufay), which has itself received international acclaim through CD reviews and public performance in significant venues. Potter's work has played a significant part in the preservation and reinvigoration of musical heritage, while proposing and demonstrating a new creative approach to early music.
Since 2006 Professor Christopher Fox has been engaged in a series of linked projects which explore ways in which the engagement of performers and listeners in texted music for vocal ensemble can be enhanced. The research was initially based on received understandings of the perceptible relationship between music and text but, as the project and its impact have developed, the research has extended into a collaborative scientific study of this relationship, funded by two successive awards from the Wellcome Trust. Each stage of the research has been extensively disseminated through public performance, broadcast, recording, print and on-line media and the impact of the research now reaches into a wide range of communities of interest and the general public.
Dr Slater researches processes of musical creativity that involve technology. Music from two distinct projects reaches a public beyond academia via radio broadcasts, DJ and club culture, the commercial mechanisms of the music industry and more localised community pedagogy. His work contributes to an international audio culture that draws upon jazz, dance, electronica and orchestral music. Such resources provide rich material for education projects that offer young musicians and sound engineers an insight into the technical, social and musical processes of music production, composition and performance. Broadcast and pedagogy represent the two main routes through which his work has a wider impact. This case study documents impact on quality of life, cultural life and on pedagogy.
Dr Lucy Duran's ethnomusicological research into the traditional musical forms, cultural practices and instruments of Mali has underpinned the studio production of two internationally acclaimed albums, Segu Blue, winner of two BBC Radio 3 Music Awards for Best World Music Album and Best African Artist in 2008, and I Speak Fula, a 2010 Grammy nominee for Best Traditional World Music Album. Both have raised awareness amongst musicians and global audiences of Bamana musical traditions, including the ngoni, the oldest of the West African lutes and, until Segu Blue, an instrument hardly known beyond West Africa.
Nicola Dibben's research into the music of international pop icon Björk led to her creative role in Björk's ambitious multi-media project Biophilia. The Biophilia app is the first of a new format, a touchstone for developments in artist apps, sold in 200 countries, and described by the New York Times as "among the most creative, innovative and important new projects in popular culture" (2011). Dibben contributed musicological expertise and provided accompanying narrative to help create this internationally-renowned and pioneering artefact. Her research was pivotal to the development of public understanding of music and science, as evidenced by critics' use of Dibben's research, and feedback from teachers and students on associated educational activities. Her research also brought economic benefits to the music industry through the financial premium of products using her materials.
Dibble's research on Britain and Ireland's neglected Victorian and Edwardian composers, particularly Hubert Parry (1848-1918), Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924) and John Stainer (1840-1901), together with his public engagement and media work, has had a considerable influence on British musical culture. As a result of Dibble's research there has been a substantial increase in the performance, programming and recording of works by these composers, leading to enhanced awareness, enjoyment and understanding of this repertory and its importance to the nation's musical heritage. This research has also led to increased public access to archival documents related to this music, brought work to orchestras and choirs and contributed to the sales generated by music, CD and DVD publishers.