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Learning from the Past is a priority in the RCM's research strategy, building on the College's reputation for bringing music's context to life, whether through concerts, recordings or text-based outputs. The rich RCM Collections provide a stimulating environment for advancing dialogue across the theory and practice of music. RCM Director Colin Lawson, an internationally recognised clarinettist, takes a lead in working from historical sources (often from within the RCM) to invigorate and illuminate performance. His multifaceted research and his leadership across the institution and beyond have radically advanced the understanding of music across a wide range of national and international beneficiaries, including the general public, the business community and the public sector. He challenges the cultural values and sociological assumptions of performance practice in ways which enrich the lives, imaginations and sensibilities of a broad cross-section of society.
The University of Huddersfield's performance-led research into the consort of viols and its relationship to the voice has resulted in familiar repertory being heard in new ways and the performance of music largely unknown to modern audiences. This work has earned international recognition through public performances, lecture-recitals, commercial CDs and radio broadcasts, influencing instrument makers, performers, concert promoters and audiences. Its importance is further evidenced by a close association with the National Centre for Early Music, advising on and leading events and the award of a £268,000 AHRC grant for the project The Making of the Tudor Viol.
This case study focusses on the impact of research carried out by Robin Holloway. As a composer, Holloway has pioneered a sophisticated and multifarious practice based around quotation and reference, which continues to shape both compositional and critical thinking about postmodernism in music. His unique and idiosyncratic approach was initially regarded as controversial before becoming a point of reference and establishing itself as an integral part of a musical mainstream that it helped to form. Through its diversity, allure and referential richness, Holloway's music has reached a large and widespread public and has played a major role in shaping the discourse and terms of reference of new music both nationally and internationally.
Stowell's research into historically informed performance (HIP) resulted from his concern that performances of music of the `long 18th century' have lacked historical accuracy and fidelity, and that genuine `period' techniques have been widely misrepresented. Through his publications, outreach and public engagement activities he has fired imaginations and illuminated practice, influencing performers and conductors to revise their performance approaches and transform their interpretations by drawing on the evidence-based `period' string techniques and style that he promotes. His making more explicit the relationship between musicology and practice has also enhanced audiences' knowledge and understanding of HIP, with `knock-on' impacts on the trans- national music entertainment and recording industries, and on individual professional careers.
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.
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.
Misa de Corpus Christi, a choral-orchestral composition by Agustín Fernández, has been of seminal benefit to Instituto Laredo, a specialist music school in Cochabamba, and of key significance to the wider community in Bolivia. As the focal point of a major music-educational project developing instrumental, vocal, choral and orchestral practice, the composition has had a direct influence on the personal and professional development of 220 students and teachers from the school. Performances of the piece to several capacity audiences in large (1000+) venues were received with enthusiasm and acclaim. Misa is viewed as an emblem of both Instituto Laredo's success and Cochabamba's musical achievements, and represents a pertinent example of the role of musicking in the articulation of cultural identity.
Research at the Reid School of Music (RSM) identified the importance of music making for developing creative and social skills for children with educational and behavioural difficulties. This led to the establishment of the Botanics Project, which has provided primary school children from economically deprived areas of Edinburgh with an intense experience of music making and performing, while equipping their classroom teachers with effective techniques for animating interest in and response to the performing arts. The project has involved about 2000 children and 40 teachers, with an audience of around 500 for each event, many of whom were new visitors to the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and National Museum of Scotland.
The University of Southampton's Dr Laurie Stras co-directs the ensemble Musica Secreta and its amateur choir, Celestial Sirens. Stras's research informs their performances, specialising in music associated with women in Renaissance courts and convents. Through her collaboration with author Sarah Dunant, Stras's activities have had an international impact on artists and non-academic audiences. Perceptions of women in Renaissance musical culture have been profoundly changed for a broad constituency, and the performance practice of early music groups (professional and amateur) has altered as a result of Stras's work. Amateur choir members and workshop participants express long-term personal benefits ranging from intellectual satisfaction to positive feelings related to community and wellbeing.
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.