Music Department Research Seminars

All sessions will take place on Wednesday evening at 6.00 pm

January 18th    Capstone Theatre
    Mr Robin Hartwell Liverpool Hope University
    Cosmic Pulses – Karlheinz Stockhausen – 8 channel presentation

In Klang (SOUND), The 24 Hours of the Day, the 13th Hour is entitled Cosmic Pulses (Electronic Music). 24 melodic loops, each of which has a different number of pitches between 1 and 24, rotate in 24 tempi between 240 and 1.17 rotations per minute in 24 registers within a range of circa 7 octaves. They are successively layered on top of each other from low to high and from the slowest to the fastest tempo and end one after another in the same order. Each section of each of the 24 layers has its own spatial motion between 8 loudspeakers; 241 different trajectories in space.

“For the first time, I have tried out superimposing 24 layers of sound, as if I had to compose the orbits of 24 moons or 24 planets (for example, the planet Saturn has 48 moons).”

Hosted by Dr. Ian Percy and with thanks to Mr. Reinhard Fuchs, this seminar will present a premixed version of Cosmic Pulses (Electronic Music) in 8 channel surround sound preceded by a paper from Mr. Robin Hartwell discussing some of the methods, strategies and philosophies relative to the piece.

February 1st    Capstone Theatre
    Mr Geoffrey Smith Fluid Tuning Organisation: The Fluid Piano – a creative tool and a vision of a society yet to be realised

The seminar will consist of a lecture with film and audio given by Composer, Performer & Inventor Geoffrey Smith about his invention, the Fluid Piano™. The lecture will be wide ranging: it will focus on the nature and technical specification of the Fluid Piano™ and its implications for the future; as well as the musical, historical, cultural, sociological and personal contexts that led to the invention. The event will also include an eclectic discussion and question and answer session.

In this second decade of the 21st century, various European countries, particularly those with post-imperial legacies, are now profoundly multicultural societies. Mixed race relationships have become more common and the intensive creative interaction between cultures is part of every day life and is a significant stimulus and inspiration for innovation and invention. However, the nature of the acoustic musical instruments of the ‘western’ orchestra, and the predominance of ‘western’ (twelve semi-tone, equal temperament) and ‘fixed’ tuning, do not reflect this fact and are arguably ‘frozen in time’ and locked in an unacknowledged stasis.

Furthermore, this issue also manifests itself in countries around the world, where the predominance of western tuning (twelve semi-tone, equal temperament) and western standardised orchestral instruments have not only marginalised indigenous tuning systems but also inhibited general artistic exploration and experimentation. The Fluid Piano™ prototype, invented by Geoff Smith (UK), provides a solution to this problem in relation to the Piano: ‘Composer reinvents the piano’ The Guardian 2009.This instrument enables musicians to alter each note individually and separately by precise microtonal intervals per note before or during performance. An immense diversity of ‘bespoke‘ tuning layouts can therefore be created and explored per composition, in contrast to the instrument being creatively limited to ‘Fixed Tuning' and the ‘Western’ chromatic octave. A Fluid Piano™, which incorporates ‘Fluid Tuning™’, can also remain in, or be returned to, ‘Western’ Tuning. Click here for more information

February 15th    Dr. Alberto Sanna Liverpool Hope University: Musical Cultures in Early Modern Europe

This paper investigates the possibility of blending historical-contextual with theoretical-analytical approaches when studying the musical cultures of European peoples between the beginning of the sixteenth and the end of the eighteenth centuries. The paper shows how techniques of historically informed analysis may be combined with methodologies derived from historical-anthropological research to attempt to reconstruct the musical behaviours and thoughts of past musicians.

February 15th    Dr. Laura Hamer Liverpool Hope University – Sisters on the Podium: Pioneering Women Conductors in Early Twentieth-Century France.

Although the conducting activities of Nadia Boulanger are well known, and she is often cited as the first female conductor to work in France, she actually worked alongside a group of women, including Armande de Polignac, Marguerite Canal, and Jane Evrard, who all found their way onto the podium. This paper will examine the various strategies which they adopted, which ranged from de Polignac evoking the composer's authority to Canal situating her work within the patriotic context of contributing to France's War Effort during the First World War, to penetrate into a male-dominated profession. Discussion will also include a consideration of the all-woman orchestra which Evrard founded, the Orchestre féminin de Paris, that positions this ensemble within the wider proliferation of international women's orchestras which flourished during the interwar years.

February 29th    Dr. Michael Brocken Liverpool Hope University: The Story of The Beatles Story – Methods and Approaches.

March 14th    Carly Rowley Liverpool Hope University – The Heaventree of Stars: Burgess and Blooms

In 1982 Radio 3, in partnership with RTE, premiered Blooms of Dublin, a musical version of James Joyce’s Ulysses, composed by author Anthony Burgess. It was a project twenty years in the making, and Burgess was able to create a musical that came in at under three hours, from a novel of up to 1000 pages (depending on edition). The musical contains over twenty songs, with one of the most memorable being ‘The Heaventree of Stars’, a duet between Leopold Bloom and Stephen Dedalus. Yet since this initial broadcast, the musical has lain dormant for 30 years. Why is this? This paper seeks to give an introduction to this musical – one of Burgess’ most accessible works – and in turn provide an opportunity to discuss Burgess’ aims as a composer. In addition to his many literary works, Burgess composed over 250 musical works, including symphonies, a ballet, and this musical. The orchestral work A Glasgow Overture has been recently performed in Manchester, with a performance of select Burgess songs scheduled for November. It is apparent that interest is growing with regards to Burgess’ musical side. This paper - originally presented at the RMA Postgraduate Student Conference in Hull, January 2012 - aims to contribute to that growing interest by placing Burgess’ musical at the heart of discussion.

April 25th     Louis Johnson The University of Liverpool/Liverpool Hope University: Music, Narrative and Composition

May 2nd    Capstone Theatre
    Dr. Ian Percy Liverpool Hope University: Acousmatic Chakras

This session will present the full-length version of Acousmatic Chakras in eight channel surround preceded by a short paper discussing some of the compositional strategies employed within the piece. Various parts, extracts and movements from this work have been presented at three electroacoustic concerts at Hope over this past academic year. This presentation will premiere the work in its complete and continuous form.