Professor John Butt
- Gardiner Professor of Music (Music)
telephone: 01413304571
email: John.Butt@glasgow.ac.uk
Research interests
Office Hours: Thursdays 11am - 12noon and by appointment
Biography
John Butt is Gardiner Professor of Music at the University of Glasgow and musical director of Edinburgh's Dunedin Consort. As an undergraduate at Cambridge University, he held the office of organ scholar at King's College. Continuing as a graduate student working on the music of Bach he received his PhD in 1987. He was subsequently a lecturer at the University of Aberdeen and a Fellow of Magdalene College Cambridge, joining the faculty at UC Berkeley in 1989 as University Organist and Professor of Music. In autumn 1997 he returned to Cambridge as a University Lecturer and Fellow of King's College, and in October 2001 he took up his current post at Glasgow.
His books have been published by Cambridge University Press: these include Bach Interpretation (1990), a handbook on Bach’s Mass in B Minor (1991), Music Education and the Art of Performance in the German Baroque (1994). Playing with History (2002) marked a new tack, examining the broad culture of historically informed performance and attempting to explain and justify it as a contemporary phenomenon. He is also editor or joint editor of both the Cambridge and Oxford Companions to Bach and of the Cambridge History of Seventeenth Century Music (2005). His book on Bach’s Passions, Bach’s Dialogue with Modernity, was published in 2010, and explores the ways in which Bach's passion settings relate to some of the broader concepts of modernity, such as subjectivity and time consciousness.
John Butt’s conducting engagements with the Dunedin Consort (2003-) have included major Baroque repertory and several new commissions. His recording of Messiah in its first performed version (Dublin, 1742) was released by Linn Records in 2006 and received the Gramophone award in the Baroque Vocal Category in 2007 and the MIDEM award for Baroque Music in 2008. In 2014 Butt and Dunedin won another Gramophone award, this time in the Choral Category, for a reconstruction of the first performance of Mozart’s Requiem. Linn have also released his recording of Bach's Matthew Passion in March 2008 (which was ClassicFM Magazine’s Recording of the Month), and Handel’s Acis and Galatea in November 2008 (which was Gramophone’s Editor’s Choice and Recording of the Month, and shortlisted for a Gramophone award). His recording of Bach’s Mass in B Minor was released in May 2010 and was also Editor’s Choice in Gramophone. This was followed by Handel’s Esther (2012) and Bach’s John Passion (CD of the month in both Gramophone and BBC Music Magazine) and Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos in 2013 (both the latter were shortlisted for Gramophone Awards).
John Butt has been guest conductor with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, The English Concert, Irish Baroque Orchestra, Irish National Chamber Choir, Stavanger Symphony, Portland Baroque Orchestra, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, the Göttingen Handel Festspiele, the Berkeley Festival and the RCS Chamber Orchestra and Chorus. He also continues to be active as a solo organist and harpsichordist. Eleven recordings on organ, harpsichord and clavichord have been released by Harmonia Mundi, and his recording of Bach’s complete Well-Tempered Clavier was released by Linn in November 2014. As conductor or organist he has performed throughout the world, including recent trips to Germany, France, The Netherlands, Belgium, Norway Spain, Poland, USA, Canada, Israel and Korea.
In 2003 John Butt was elected to Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and received the Dent Medal of the Royal Musical Association. That year his book, Playing with History, was shortlisted for the British Academy's annual Book Prize. In 2006 he was elected Fellow of the British Academy and began a two-year Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship for his research on Bach's Passions. He was a member of the Council of the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), 2010-14. In January 2011 he was the fifth recipient of the Royal Academy of Music/Kohn Foundation's Bach Prize, for his work in the performance and scholarship of Bach, and in 2013 he was awarded the medal of the Royal College of Organists and an OBE.
Research Interests
17th-18th Century Music; Performance Practice and history of performance; music and modernity; film and music; historically informed performance
Research Projects
John Butt is a Co-investigator in the AHRC-funded Bass Culture in Scottish musical traditions project; Future performance projects include a recorded recreation of the first performance of Bach’s Magnificat in the Leipzig Christmas Liturgy and a new recording of the Bach’s Christmas Oratorio. He is also undertaken a series of ‘Coffee House’ concerts with Dunedin Consort, in an exploration of the interaction of eighteenth-century music and public debate in the Enlightenment era. Other research directions include work on relations between the historic culture of classical music and religion, and between the culture of ‘absolute music’ and film.
Grants
- 1979-82 A.H. Mann Organ Studentship, King's College, Cambridge
- 1980 John Stewart of Rannoch Scholarship in Sacred Music, Cambridge University
- 2005 Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship for a two-year study of Bach’s Passions (2006-2008)
Supervision
- Bandy, Dorian
Melodic Embellishment in Mozart - Bols, Ingrid
Programming choices and national culture. The case of French and British symphony orchestras. - Lee, David George
Works in Progress: Vocation, Labour, The Act of Musical Composition and Early Modern Lutheranism - Mann, Bill
Arrival of Italian opera in London early 18C - McGregor, Aaron
The violin in Scotland from its beginnings to 1750. - Rickson, Raphael
Libidinal Discourse, Cognition, and Musical Structure - Ritchie, Andrea
The Relationship between the Music of Film and Filmic Representations of Reality - Rozsa, Laszlo
The Art of Musical Conversation: Behavioural Attitudes in the Performance Practice of Italian Music from c. 1580-1640. - Wilkinson, Tom
Is J. S. Bach a compositional theorist?
Teaching
- Historiography and Criticism
- Notation and Performance Practice
- Bach and the Lutheran Passion
- Chamber Music
- Film Music
- Dissertation
- Musicianship
- MMus Musicology
- MMus Historically informed performance
Additional Information
MMus Convenor
HIPP Convenor
Other Publications
2015
Bach’s Magnificat and Cantata 63 – Dunedin Consort (CD – Linn Records)
Bach’s Violin and Harpsichord Sonatas (with Lucy Russell0 – (CD – Linn Records)
2014
Bach’s Well-tempered Clavier, harpsichord (CD – Linn Records)
Mozart Requiem, Dunedin Consort (CD Linn Records)
2013
Bach Brandenburg Concertos, Dunedin Consort (CD Linn Records)
Reviews and Notes
- Over forty reviews of books and music for Country Life, Early Music, Early Music History, Journal of the American Musicological Society, Journal of the Royal Musical Association, Music and Letters, Music Library Association NOTES, Musical Times, The New Republic, Piano and Keyboard, The Times Literary Supplement, Early Keyboard Journal
- Numerous CD reviews for Gramophone, Early Music, Early Music Review
- Author of extended Guardian article on Bach, for the BBC Radio 3 Bach marathon, December 2005
- Sleeve notes and concert programme notes for Academy of Ancient Music, Aldeburgh Festival, Berkeley Festival, Britten Sinfonia, Carmel Bach Festival, Edinburgh Festival, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra (London), Andras Schiff's 2000 Bach series, Monteverdi Choir, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Angela Hewitt’s 2009 recording of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier
External Responsibilities
- Commissioning editor (with Laurence Dreyfus) for the series Cambridge Studies in the Performance and Reception of Music (formerly, Cambridge Musical Texts and Monographs) 1994 -
- Editorial Board of The Journal of the American Musicological Society, 1999 - 2003
- Advisory Board of Eighteenth-Century Music, 2003 -
- Advisory Board of The Journal of the Royal Musical Association, 2003 - 2006
- Council Member, Royal Musical Association, 2004 - 7
- Advisory Board of CHARM (Centre for the History and Analysis of Recorded Music), 2004 - 8
- Member of AHRC Peer Review College, 2004 - 7
- Member of RAE 2008, Sub-Panel 67, 2005 - 8
- Member of The American Musicological Society - Annual Conference Programme committee, 2005
- Member of Advisory Council for Institute of Musical Research (University of London), 2006 -
- British Academy awards in music, 2007-
- Editorial Board, Understanding Bach, 2005-
- Editorial Board, Scottish Music Review, 2007- (editor of first issue)
- Appointed to the Council of the Arts and Humanities Research Council, 2010
Broadcasting
- Numerous lectures and interviews for the BBC (relayed from San Francisco 1994-7, from London, Cambridge or Glasgow 1997-) - including 3 short papers on the history of western music ('The Unfinished Symphony'), 31 December 1999, contributions to the Sunday Bach programmes, 2000, and contribution to 'The English Cadence' (2002)); several interviews on Radio 3’s ‘In Tune’, 'The Choir' and on Radio Scotland
- Performances include:
- Recital from the organ in the Schosskirche, Altenburg, Germany (including interview with Joshua Rifkin, 2000)
- Concert of organ concertos and sonatas by Handel and Mozart (with EnsemblePtarmigan) from Glasgow University Chapel (2003)
Recordings
- Recordings as Conductor
- Chorus Director of UC Chamber Chorus in recordings by Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, conducted by Nicholas McGegan, Handel’s Theodora and Judas Maccabaeus with Harmonia Mundi, 1992-95
- Gibbons, anthems, with UC Berkeley Chamber Chorus, Centaur, conductor and solo organ, 1997
- Handel’s Messiah (Dublin version, 1742), Dunedin Consort and Players, Linn Records, CKD285 (November, 2006)
- Bach’s Matthew Passion (Bach’s final performing version c. 1742), Dunedin Consort and Players, Linn Records, CKD313 (March, 2008)
- Handel’s Acis and Galatea (first, Cannons, version 1718), Dunedin Consort and Players, Linn Records, CKD319 (November, 2008)
- Bach’s B Minor Mass (Rifkin edition of final version), Dunedin Consort and Players, Linn Records, CKD354 (May, 2010)
- Solo Recordings (Organ and Harpsichord; most involving substantial scholarly preparation)
- Pachelbel - Hexachordum Apollinis; two chaconnes; organ - Harmonia Mundi France, 1990
- Bach - Trio sonatas for organ - Harmonia Mundi France, 1992
- Cabanilles - Organ music - Harmonia Mundi France, 1992
- Solo harpsichord (with violinist Elizabeth Blumenstock) in Bach's complete harpsichord/violin sonatas (2 CDs), Harmonia Mundi France, 1993
- Kuhnau - solo harpsichord sonatas, Frische Clavier Früchte, Harmonia Mundi France, 1993
- Purcell - Complete Organ Music and Works by Locke and Blow, Harmonia Mundi France, 1994
- Kuhnau, Biblische Historien, played on organ, clavichord and harpsichord, Harmonia Mundi France, 1995
- Frescobaldi, Capricci, Harmonia Mundi France, 1996
- Recital, 2 July 1995 at St. Machar's Cathedral, Aberdeen (Bach, Liszt, Brahms, Dupré and Messiaen), released by University of Aberdeen on CD, 1997
- Telemann, Fantasies for Harpsichord (on instruments in the Russell Collection, Edinburgh), Harmonia Mundi France, 1999
- J.S. Bach - Four Toccatas and Fugues; Schübler Chorales - (Recorded on the Organ of Trinity College, Cambridge) Harmonia Mundi France, 2000
- Edward Elgar - Complete Organ Music, (Recorded on the Organ of King's College Cambridge), Harmonia Mundi France, 2002
- Organs of Glasgow (with John Kitchen), Delphian (2004)
- Recordings as Keyboard Soloist, Continuo etc
- Re-released recordings, originally from 1980-2:
- EMI, Duruflé, Fauré Requiems (King’s College Choir/Ledger); solo organ parts
- ASV, Gibbons church music (King’s College Choir/Ledger); organ solos
- Session Producer for American Bach Soloists recording of Bach’s Mass in B Minor, conducted by Jeffrey Thomas, Koch International
- Harpsichord 1, in Bach’s concerto for four harpsichords, with American Bach Soloists, Jeffrey Thomas, Koch International
- Harpsichord solo, in Bach’s Brandenburg concerto V, with American Bach Soloists, Jeffrey Thomas (recorded 1995, to be released 2007)
- 1989-1997 - About 15 recordings playing harpsichord and organ continuo, mainly with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and American Bach Soloists
- Re-released recordings, originally from 1980-2:
Fellowships, Awards, Honours
- 1983 Finalist in the London Lloyd-Webber Memorial Organ Competition
- 1984 Finalist in the Leipzig Bach Organ Competition
- 1992 W. H. Scheide Award from the American Bach Society for book, Bach Interpretation (Cambridge, 1990)
- 1995 Honorary member of the Riemenschneider Bach Institute, Ohio
- 2003 Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
- 2003 Book, Playing with History, shortlisted for the British Academy Book Prize
- 2006 Fellow of the British Academy
- 2007 Elected to membership of Academia Europaea (The Academy of Europe)
- 2007 Recording of Messiah awarded Gramophone Award, Baroque Vocal category
- 2008 Recording of Messiah awarded MIDEM, Baroque Music award
- 2010 Royal Academy of Music/Kohn Foundation Bach Prize
Awards
- OBE (2013)
- 2014 Gramophone Award for Mozart Requiem recording
- 2015 Grammy Nomination for Mozart Requiem recording
- 2015 Appointed Principal Artist, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Affiliation
- FBA, FRSE. Commissioning editor for series – Cambridge Studies in the Performance and Reception of Music (CUP)
