Research in Music at University of Manchester

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Place: Martin Harris Centre, University of Manchester.
Proposals are invited for papers or lecture recitals on any topic about Beethoven; papers relating to any of the following themes would be particularly welcomed:

• Performing Beethoven
• The year 1812
• Sketches and revisions
• Beethoven as a 19th-century cultural figure
• Translation of Beethoven documents
• Beethoven in his historical and social context

• The postgraduate community in Music is constantly expanding and currently numbers over 50 students from all over the world. All have been attracted by, and enjoy, the research-rich environment on offer. A focus for our research culture are Thursday Research Afternoons, which follow on from our series of free lunchtime concerts given by world-class performers, and these consist of Performance Seminars, Musicology Fora and Composers’ Fora. Although individual tutorials with supervisors can be arranged for any mutually convenient time, Thursdays naturally tend to form the focus of postgraduate activity.
  
  
• Performance Seminars take place from 2.30 to 4.00pm, and provide a platform for seminars and workshops, following on from the lunchtime concerts. The Quatuor Danel form the core of this series, with seminars by leading composers and musicologists, workshops in which they talk about their own ways of working, and Composition Masterclasses. From 2010, Psappha also have a very important role to play. There are also masterclasses and workshops presented by other musicians and ensembles, and these include numerous workshops with ensembles specialising in musical cultures from all around the world.
  
  
• Later in the afternoon, between 4.15 and 5.45pm, Musicology Forum alternates with Composers’ Forum. The former provides a place for lively discussion of significant issues as well as hosting guest lectures and presentations by current staff and students on their research. Some sessions are based around a particular reading (recent starting points have been James Currie's 'Music after all' and Carolyn Abbate's 'Drastic or Gnostic') or topic (musicologists and composers joined together to discuss the allure of musical miniatures). Postgraduates also give papers, particularly when this can act as a rehearsal for a presentation at a major conference such as those sponsored by the Royal Musical Association. We also run career-orientated sessions offering advice such as how to get published or how to negotiate the job market. All these activities are intended to create a friendly, intellectually stimulating and supportive academic community.
  
  
• Similarly, Composers’ Forum focuses primarily on issues relating to composition but again attracts all those interested in the entire Music research community. Presentations are given by guest composers, members of staff, and postgraduates on composition and issues relating to composition and contemporary music. From time to time the focus is more vocational, whereby publishers or members of the BBC (etc.) are invited to speak. Another strand running through composers’ forum are discussion panels about aspects of composition (for example discussing different approaches to a particular compositional parameter, such as timbre or tempo).
  
  
• We offer unrivalled opportunities for composers to have their music performed and workshopped by professional musicians. Composition Workshops, held throughout the academic year, provide training for postgraduate composers, and feature Psappha, our Contemporary Ensemble in Association, the Quatuor Danel, our String Quartet in Residence, and other ensembles. Through these, all postgraduate composers are given the opportunity to have at least one of their works performed professionally. Additional performance opportunities exist through Vaganza (the University’s New Music Ensemble) and the many other ensembles run by the University's Music Society which premiere new works. In addition, many postgraduate composers have had their works played and broadcast by the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, the Liverpool Philharmonic and the Manchester Camerata, or featured in concerts at prestigious events like the Cheltenham or Spitalfields Festivals or the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival.