Category Archives: Current students

Laudan Nooshin Presents Research Seminar at Bath Spa University; and other conference activities …

On Thursday November 12th, Laudan Nooshin visited Bath Spa University to present a research seminar on the music of Iranian pop diva Googoosh (b.1950). The seminar explored Googoosh’s immense popularity, despite not being able to perform between 1979 (after the Iranian Revolution) and 2000 when she left Iran after 21 years of silence, and following which she toured North America, Europe and elsewhere to ecstatic audiences. The seminar sought to understand the power of Googoosh’s music to evoke a level of emotional engagement in her audience quite unlike any other Iranian musician. A recording of the seminar can be seen here: https://vimeo.com/145631933 (password: mparf123)

This seminar followed a series of conference presentations since the summer, some on joint panels with City Music PhD students. In late June, Laudan presented a paper at the London School of Economics at the Annual Conference of the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies (BRISMES), together with City PhD students Steve Wilford and Sam MacKay. The conference theme was ‘Liberation?’ and the panel was entitled: ‘Perspectives on Music and Liberation in the Middle East and North Africa’. Steve and Sam both talked about aspects of their current PhD research and their papers were entitled ‘Libération? Music, Independence and Postcolonialism in Algeria’ and ‘Freedom and Exile: North African Musical Migration in Marseille’ respectively. The panel also included a paper by Cristina Moreno Almeida (SOAS PhD student) – ‘Echoing the Moroccan ‘(R)Evolution’: Rap and the 2011 MENA Popular Uprisings’. The panel generated a great deal of interesting discussion.

Laudan also presented papers at the Joint Conference of the British Forum for Ethnomusicology/Société Française d’Ethnomusicologie in Paris in July 2015 and at the Royal Musical Association Annual Conference at the University of Birmingham in September 2015.

Laudan speaking at Bath Spa University, November 2015

Sam MacKay speaking at BRISMES, June 2015

Steve Wilford speaking at BRISMES, June 2015

New publication by PhD student Miranda Crowdus

9781138786431

PhD student Miranda Crowdus has published a chapter in the new book Boundaries, Identity and Belonging in Modern Judaism (Routledge). The work is a collection of interdisciplinary scholarship relating to contemporary Jewish identity. Miranda’s chapter explores negotiations of Jewishness at recent Palestinian Hip Hop performances in the Tel Aviv-Yafo underground.

Work Placement at the British Library

Jordan Barnes, MA Ethnomusicology student

Since March 2015, I have undertaken a work placement for two days a week in the World and Traditional Music section of the British Library. At first it was a little overwhelming – security scanners, winding basement corridors, and shelves and shelves of rare and priceless books, manuscripts and sound recordings – but also very humbling and motivating. I spent the first couple of weeks settling in and getting to know the archive, the software, and the staff who are extremely helpful and informative. I then started working on the archive of recordings from WOMAD (World of Music, Arts and Dance), an annual music festival established in 1980 by Peter Gabriel to showcase international artists and music, and to encourage cross-cultural collaborations. WOMAD has since evolved into a major festival both in the UK and internationally, with events throughout the world. The UK festival has been recorded by the British Library since 1985, making this year the 30^th anniversary of the WOMAD–BL collaboration. To mark this, the library is planning to celebrate at this year’s festival with CDs showcasing top past performances, past festival guides and art on display, with plans also for sound and information booths allowing visitors to browse and learn about the archive.

My role as an intern has been to document and categorise recordings from the festival. Through this I have learnt plenty of new names, developed software skills and helped organise over 2,200 recordings! This work has been a nice introduction to the archive, the festival, and the BL as a whole. If I need additional information, I can consult the physical archives, including festival guides from the 1980’s and 90’s. Through this work I have not only learnt a great deal about new music, but have also developed skills of archiving and recording. Another task I have been involved in is selecting, splicing and documenting tracks from WOMAD artists over the years, to be playbacked between performances at this summer’s festival. After talking to curators and recordists who have been attending the festival for many years, I added my own personal favourites from the archive. I then listened to and chose one or two tracks from each performance, creating different folders correlating with the time of day, the atmosphere of the particular tent and the mood of the audience in mind. If Seun Kuti and his band Egypt 80 are playing one night, the playback prior to the performance may include upbeat pieces with strong rhythms and brass. But if S:um is hypnotising the audience in the Siam Tent, the pre-concert music may likely include some relaxing ragas, floating ambience and hazy melodies of performances past.

Needless to say, I’ve really enjoyed working on this project, not only from my perspective as a musician, DJ and fan, but also as a student. There are also some great perks to a work placement at the BL including being able to explore the vast archive at any time of day: taking a break to dive into an old book or recording is encouraged by staff, indeed is a vital part of the placement experience as is being surrounded by some incredibly knowledgeable ethnomusicologists, engineers, historians and archivists. Picking the brains of my co-workers on a daily basis is one of my favourite parts of the job. I try to start a conversation with someone about their work, the library or just their interests each day I’m there. The amount of knowledge this place holds physically and intellectually is truly astounding and deeply humbling. I will miss it when my placement finishes, although they might have a hard time kicking me out!

Studio where I compile playlists for WOMAD playback

One of the many listening opportunities that I have throughout the day

Alex de Lacey featured in Songlines magazine

This month’s issue of Songlines magazine (#108) featured one of our Masters student’s guide to the world’s best festivals. Following a successful internship for Songlines in 2013, Alex de Lacey has been regularly contributing reviews and columns to the publication, but this is his first full feature to be published. It builds upon our strong relationship with the highly regarded world music magazine, with many of our students completing internships with them as part of our Professional Placement programmes offered at both undergraduate and postgraduate level.

You can purchase the new issue from participating retailers or direct from the Songlines website: http://www.songlines.co.uk/world-music-news/2015/05/new-issue-june-2015-108-on-sale-now/.

Recently Awarded Doctorates in the Music Department

The Music Department is delighted to announce that the following students have recently been awarded their PhDs.

Spiro Antonopoulos: “The Life and Works of Manuel Chrysaphes the Lampadarios, and the Figure of Composer in Late Byzantium” (supervisor: Alexander Lingas).

This thesis is the first full length study of the fifteenth-century composer and theorist Manuel Chrysaphes, one of the most important musicians of the late Byzantine period. It recasts the figure of composer in the Middle Ages, arguing that a cadre of self-consciously authorial composers whose compositions reflect “works” in perhaps a more modern sense was active in and around Constantinople as early as the fourteenth century.

Spiro continues to maintain an active performance schedule, singing regularly with the internationally acclaimed ensemble Cappella Romana as well as directing the Greek Institute’s annual Byzantine Christmas programme. Sipro is Director of the newly-founded vocal ensemble PSALTIKON and a researcher for Bodies and Spirits: Soundscapes of Medieval Byzantium, a multidisciplinary project led by researchers at UCLA and USC, which focuses on the interplay of sound, space, and liturgy in late medieval churches.

Mark Porter: “‘That’s not my music’: Experiences of Contemporary Worship Music in Relation to Extra-ecclesiastical Musical Attachments” (supervisor: Laudan Nooshin)

Based on ethnographic interview work at St Aldates Church, Oxford, Mark’s thesis investigates the relationship between individuals’ diverse musical backgrounds and the ways in which they experience and evaluate music in a congregational environment. Drawing, in particular, on ethical and cosmopolitan theories, he proposes new frameworks for understanding the ways in which musical diversity functions within this setting.

Mark is currently spending much of his time teaching whilst awaiting the results of numerous postdoctoral funding applications. He has recently submitted a proposal to publish his thesis in book form, a project which he hopes to complete in the near future.

Mark and Spiro were jointly awarded the 2014-15 Mercer’s Company prize for academic excellence in recognition of their outstanding work at doctoral level.

Many congratulations to them both!

City Students and Staff at the Royal Musical Association Annual Research Students’ Conference

This year’s RMA Research Students’ Conference was held in the Music Department at the University of Bristol from Thursday 8th to Saturday 10th January 2015 and there was a good representation of City students and staff presenting papers.

DMA student Annie Yim presented her practice-based research on ‘Regaining a Lost Performing Tradition: The Schumann Circle and the Young Brahms’s Piano Trio Op. 8a’, including live demonstration at the piano. Another pianist and DMA student, Sasha Karpeyev, gave a paper on the Edna Iles’ ‘Medtner Collection’ at the British Library, and talked about the value of this collection and its implications for Medtner performance practice.

Two PhD students also presented papers: in ‘”Yellow Bird” and Pan: Caribbean Musical Migrations’, Rachel Hayward gave a summary of her research plotting the migration routes of the ‘Choucoune’ song family from 1957 to the present day; and Sam MacKay presented a paper entitled ‘A Shared history? North African Musical Heritage and the Public Sphere in Contemporary Marseille’.

As well as the research students, Laudan Nooshin was at the conference in her new capacity as RMA Council member. She participated in a roundtable panel on the topic of ‘Perspectives on Analysing Music and Sound’ along with other panel members: Rachel Beckles Willson (Royal Holloway), Emma Hornby (University of Bristol), Bettina Varwig (Kings College, London) and Warwick Edwards (University of Glasgow).

All of the presentations were well received and generated enthusiastic comments and questions from the audience.

Further information on the Royal Musical Association and the conference:

http://www.rma.ac.uk

http://www.bristol.ac.uk/arts/gradschool/pg-activity/conferences/rma

Careers with a Music Degree Evening

On Tuesday November 18th the Music Department, together with the City University Careers Service, hosted a music careers evening with visiting speakers from different areas of employment, including a number of our own City music alumni.

The evening started with Laura Chiplin who graduated from City in 2009 and is now a Centre Manager at the Barbican Centre. Laura talked about the kinds of experiences and skills she built up whilst an undergraduate student that prepared her for the workplace, including managing a band and taking every opportunity to get involved in organising events. She also talked about her day to day duties in her job as well as informing students about the various internships currently offered by the Barbican.

Following this, Dr Jim Harrison from the Latymer School talked about careers in school music teaching: from the practicalities of gaining initial experience and applying for teaching courses, through to information on day to day life as a secondary school music teacher. He was accompanied by Connaugh Clarke (graduated City BMus 2012) who is currently studying for a PGCE at the Institute of Education and is undertaking teaching practice at Latymer School. Connaugh talked about his experience of the PGCE course and teaching practice so far.

The next speaker was Grace Watts from the British Association of Music Therapy who introduced the broad area of Music Therapy as well as giving information on which institutions offer Music Therapy training, and the kind of work involved in being a Music Therapist.

Sophie Ransby – another City graduate who is in charge of the gamelan education programme at the South Bank Centre – then spoke about how she had become involved in gamelan education and the kinds of skills and experiences that had been useful in gaining her current position.

The final speaker was Luke Shrewsbury, who graduated from City in 2009 after which he took an MA in Sound Design at the National Film and Television School. Luke now works as a sound designer. He talked about his transition from university to workplace and the kinds of projects that he now works on.

The evening rounded off with a general Q&A session, chaired by Alexander Lingas.

The event was attended by about 40 people including undergraduate, MA and research students.

Marie Saunders presents at ‘Understanding Scotland Musically’ conference

Marie Saunders, who is working towards her PhD in Ethnomusicology at City, recently presented a paper at the Understanding Scotland Musically Conference, sponsored by the AHRC and held at Newcastle University, 20-21 October 2014. The title of her paper was ‘Understanding Scotland differently: intergenerational musical reception amongst the London-Scottish diaspora’. Her paper was prompted by reflections on evidence from primary research she carried out in London among two different age groups drawn from members of London’s Scottish diaspora. The data from her current ethnographic research in progress is beginning to suggest a definite shift in perceptions of what Scottish music is. Responses about Scottish music differed from those gathered in her earlier research carried out in 2010. Three patterns are beginning to emerge: little connection with bagpipe music, the prominent place of Indie bands indicating new identity markers for Scottish music and the importance of audience participation, ‘musicking’(Small,C.,1998), with reference to Indie Concerts, ceilidh bands and the Proclaimers. It remains to be seen whether these patterns will be maintained or challenged as the quota of interviews moves toward completion in 2015.

Georgia Rodgers on the Next Wave Project

PhD student Georgia Rodgers is profiled in a recent entry on the NMC Recordings website highlighting her involvement in the Next Wave Project. Georgia is one of twelve composers from higher education institutions across the country to be selected for the project, which stems from a collaborative partnership between Sound and Music and NMC. The project has allowed Georgia to develop a new work for tuba and live electronics in close collaboration with tubist Oren Marshall and Sound Intermedia. The work — titled ‘partial filter’ — will be premiered at this year’s Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, and released on a dedicated Next Wave Album by NMC. An extract from the work can be found below, along with an interview with Georgia on her experiences as part of Next Wave.

PhD student Mark Porter co-edits special issue of Ecclesial Practices

PhD student Mark Porter has collaborated with editor and theologian Pete Ward to put together a special issue of the journal Ecclesial Practices on the theme of congregational music. Mark’s own contribution on ‘The developing field of Christian congregational music studies‘ sets out to narrate and define this emerging area of research with particular reference to the influence of ethnomusicology over the course of the late 20th/early 21st century.

Music at City

The blog for the Music Department at City University London