School of Culture and Creative Arts

Research in Music

Music Staff within the School of Culture and Creative Arts pursue a number of Research Themes, which give both the research and the teaching of Music its particular character:

Composition:

  • Modernism in composition – Nick Fells, Martin Dixon, Bill Sweeney, Jane Stanley
  • Experimental Music – Martin Dixon, Nick Fells
  • Electroacoustic and intermedia composition – Nick Fells, Bill Sweeney
  • Jazz and Gaelic influences - Bill Sweeney
  • Intercultural aspects of composition – Nick Fells, Bill Sweeney
  • Improvisation – Nick Fells, Martin Dixon, Bill Sweeney, David McGuinness
  • Music and Moving Image – Bill Sweeney, Nick Fells, David McGuinness

New for 2012 - composer workshops with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra

The RSNO will be offering a series of workshops with a sinfonietta sized ensemble starting in November 2012, specifically for postgraduate composition students, leading to possible performance opportunities. This will provide a supportive professional context in which our postgraduate composers can develop their work, and will complement existing ensemble workshop opportunities with groups such as the Viridian Quartet and the student-led contemporary music ensemble.

Historical & Cultural Musicology:

  • Musicological method, historiography and criticism, systematic musicology – John Butt, Bill Sweeney, David Code, Martin Dixon, David McGuinness
  • Philosophy and Aesthetics of music – Martin Dixon, John Butt, Bill Sweeney, David Code, Björn Heile
  • Performance practice and cultures of performance – John Butt, Bill Sweeney, David McGuinness
  • Explorations of modernity and modernism, twentieth-century music – Martin Dixon, David Code, Bill Sweeney, John Butt, Björn Heile
  • Seventeenth-, eighteenth- and nineteenth- century studies – John Butt, Bill Sweeney, David Code, David McGuinness
  • Scottish Music – David McGuinness, Bill Sweeney
  • Music in popular culture – Bill Sweeney, Martin Dixon, Martin Cloonan, David McGuinness
  • Music and politics – Martin Cloonan 
  • Music and violence – Martin Cloonan 

Sonic Arts & Music Technology:

  • Sound manipulation and spatialisation in performance - Nick Fells
  • Tools for composition and performance – Nick Fells, Nick Bailey
  • Music, technology and disability – Nick Fells
  • Computationally supported performance studies –Nick Bailey
  • Music information representation, storage and retrieval  - Nick Bailey
  • Broadcasting & the recording industry - David McGuinness

Performance:

  • Historically informed performance – John Butt, Bill Sweeney, David McGuinness
  • Contemporary music practices – Nick Fells, Bill Sweeney, David McGuinness

Publication output typically includes critical scholarly editions, refereed articles, articles for professional journals, international concert performances and recordings, commissioned compositions, computer software, consultancy activities in industry, and papers presented at international conferences. 

The School of Culture and Creative Arts hosts a series of graduate seminars featuring national and international guest speakers along with staff and students from both institutions. All sessions are open to the public.