• Lecturer (Music)
• Adviser of Studies (Arts College Academic and Student Administration)

telephone: 01413302068
email: Martin.Dixon@glasgow.ac.uk

Office Hours: Please contact the Music Secretary.

Biography

Martin Dixon studied classical guitar and composition at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow. From here he made the long and arduous journey to Edinburgh University to study for an MMus in music theory. This was swiftly followed by a long and arduous PhD on T.W. Adorno at Wolfson College, Cambridge. As the result of an administrative oversight he was even briefly appointed Director of Studies in Music at Peterhouse. The proud owner of a Diploma in Computer Science, he was also Research Associate at the Electroacoustic Music Studios at UEA Norwich and worked on a web based media archiving project where he learnt Unix System Administration, PHP, mySQL and how to reboot Mac OSX. Ironically, he returned to Glasgow in order to join the Music Department in January 2002.

He worked for many years with Cambridge Experimental Theatre and continues to work in devised and experimental theatre as director, composer and collaborator when opportunities arise. He even composes music occasionally, though to no avail. He thinks long and hard on the subjects of post-war music and philosophy and, without really being able to remember why, finds himself trying to develop a radical hermeneutics of contemporary music.

Current students:

• Kelsey Jubin:  Composition
• Amy Parker Dixon:  'Towards a Poetics of Criticism: Adomodian Negativity and the Experimental in the Essays and Musical Marginalia of Virginia Woolf.'
• Ella-Kate Nye:  'The connection between music and language, with a focus on the developments in music criticism in the nineteenth century.'
• Bethan Parkes:  'Describing Spatial Features of Contemporary Electronic Popular Music.'
• Joanna Collinson Scott:  'Schizoanalysis of Avant-Garde Musical Works by 'Fluxus'.'
• Markee Rambo-Hood:  'What a difficult task it is for music to fulfil the demands of the Epic Theatre.' (2nd supervisor)

Administration

• Adviser of Studies (MA Music) 2013
• JYA / Erasmus / Exchange Student Advisor 

Compositions

• Jun 2006   ... for of course it was that afternoon ...   A short opera about Virginia Woolf for Soprano, Flute and Piano. Premier: Musica Nova, University of Glasgow.  Also performed at the Scottish International Flute Summer School, Strathallan, Perthshire.
• Jun 2005 Composition for Piano and a Woodwind Instrument.  Premier: Musica Nova, University of Glasgow.
• Feb 2004  The Head of Bernado Soares. Paragon Ensemble Commission for small ensemble and Baritone. Settings of texts from  Premier: Musica Nova, University of Glasgow.
• Feb 2002   All Quiet in Preston Park.  Scottish Flute Trio, RSAMD, Glasgow.

External Responsibilities

• Jun 2007-9    Overall External Examiner, School of Music, Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, Glasgow.
• Nov 2006    Specialist External Assessor, Royal Northern College of Music.
• Jun 2005-Jun 2007     External Examiner – School of Music, University of East Anglia.
• Jun 2005         External Examiner for post-graduate composition, Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.
• Jun 2003-Jun 2006   External Moderator for BMus Performance Recitals, Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.
• Oct 2000 – Dec 2001     Director of Studies in Music, Peterhouse, Cambridge.

Conference and Seminar Presentations

• Jun 2007    The Name of Action: Decision in the Compositional Process International Conference: “Music and/as Right Action”, University of East Anglia.
• May 2007 Aesthetic Economies “The Institute for Capitalising on Creativity”, RSAMD, Glasgow.
• Oct 2006 Decision Theory in the Creative Context  “The Institute for Capitalising on Creativity”, University of St Andrews. 
• July 2006 On Kierkegaard's Musical Erotic Second International Conference on “Music and Gesture”, the Royal Northern College of Music.
• Mar 2006    John Cage: Production, Inwardness, Voice “The Voice in Modernity” Research Seminar Series, University of Sussex.
• May 2005    The Self-Reflection of the Artist as a Path to Aesthetic Insight 21st Century Music: “Aesthetics and Reception”, RMA Study Day, Royal Northern College of Music.
• April 2005    Towards a Tragic Criticism Keynote Address, Society of Music Analysis Study Day, University of East Anglia.
• March 2005    Textual Experiment in Adorno's Music Criticism Research Seminar, School of Modern Languages, University of Glasgow.
• Oct 2004    Towards a Philosophy of Listening Postgraduate Seminar, Royal Northern College of Music.
• April 2004    On John Cage’s Water Music Music Research Seminar, University of Edinburgh & University of Glasgow.
• July 2003   Adorno, Musical Experience and the Uses of Criticism CongressCATH 2003: “Warp:Woof Aurality/Musicality/Textuality” University of Leeds.
• Feb 2003   Critical Language and the Concept of Experience “Adorno’s Schubert”, SMA, Winter Study Day, University of Cambridge.
• Nov 2002    Intermezzo: Robert Schumann and Recent French Critical Thought 38th Annual Conference of the Royal Musical Association, University of Glasgow.
• Sept 2002    Art and Life: John Cage, Avant-Gardism and Technology “Cage 2002 - 90/10”, University of Southampton.