Professor John Butt

Gardiner Professor of Music (Music)

telephone: 01413304571
email: John.Butt@glasgow.ac.uk

R306 Level 3, Music, 14 University Gardens, Glasgow G12 8QH

ORCID iD https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0411-8220

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.

Publications

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Number of items: 78.

2020

Butt, J. (2020) Bach and the dance of humankind. In: Caddy, D. and Clark, M. (eds.) Musicology and Dance: Historical and Critical Perspectives. Cambridge University Press: New York, pp. 19-48. ISBN 9781108476188 (doi:10.1017/9781108567947.002)

2019

Butt, J. (2019) The malleable meanings of music. In: Hawkey, J., Quash, B. and White, V. (eds.) God’s Song and Music’s Meanings: Theology, Liturgy, and Musicology in Dialogue. Routledge: London, pp. 127-139. ISBN 9781472478641

Butt, J. (2019) Handel: Samson. John Butt (conductor), Dunedin Consort, Tiffin Boys Choir, various soloists. [Audio]

2018

Butt, J. (2018) Handel: Ode for St Cecilia’s Day; Concerto in A minor, Op 6/4. John Butt (conductor), Dunedin Consort, Polish Radio Choir, Carolyn Sampson and Ian Bostridge. [Audio]

Butt, J. (2018) Monteverdi, the 1610 Vespers and the beginnings of the modern musical work. Journal of the Royal Musical Association, 143(1), pp. 21-50. (doi: 10.1080/02690403.2018.1434328)

2017

Butt, J. (2017) Should there be a twenty-first century ‘Complete Kapellmeister’? The skills, content and purposes of a university music degree. In: Heile, B., Moreda Rodriguez, E. and Stanley, J. (eds.) Higher Education in Music in the Twenty-First Century. Routledge: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY, pp. 11-29. ISBN 9781472467324

Butt, J. (2017) Claudio Monteverdi - Vespers 1610. John Butt (Director) with Dunedin Consort and His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts. [Audio]

2016

Butt, J. (2016) Chorale Prelude for organ on ‘Was mein Gott will, das g’scheh allzeit’ (Orgelbüchlein completion project). [Compositions]

Butt, J. (2016) Johann Sebastian Bach - Christmas Oratorio, with Dunedin Consort. [Audio]

Butt, J. (2016) Johann Sebastian Bach – Complete Violin Concertos, with Cecilia Bernardini and Dunedin Consort. [Audio]

2015

Butt, J. (2015) Johann Sebastian Bach - Complete Sonatas for Violin and Harpsichord. [Audio]

Butt, J. (2015) Johann Sebastian Bach – Magnificat and Christma Cantata 63 (reconstruction of Bach’s first Christmas at Leipzig) with Dunedin Consort. [Audio]

Butt, J. (2015) What is a ‘musical work’? Reflections on the origins of the ‘work concept’ in western art music. In: Rahmatian, A. (ed.) Concepts of Music and Copyright: How Music Perceives Itself and How Copyright Perceives Music. Edward Elgar Publishing: Cheltenham, pp. 1-22. ISBN 9781783478187

2014

Butt, J. (2014) The Musician in Literature in the Age of Bach. By Stephen Rose. Music and Letters, 95(1), pp. 94-96. (doi: 10.1093/ml/gcu004)[Book Review]

Butt, J. (2014) The chapel organ: a harmonious anachronism? In: Massing, J.M. and Zeeman, N. (eds.) King’s College Chapel 1515-2015: Art, Music and Religion in Cambridge. Series: Studies in medieval and early Renaissance art history (75). Harvey Miller Publishers: London. ISBN 9781909400214

Butt, J. (2014) Johann Sebastian Bach: Das wohltemperierte Klavier. [Audio]

Butt, J. (2014) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Requiem (Reconstruction of first performance). [Audio]

2013

Butt, J. (2013) John Passion - Johann Sebastian Bach - Reconstruction of Bach's Passion Liturgy. [Audio]

Butt, J. (2013) Organs and universities: a universal association? In: The Organ in the Academ: Essays in Celebration of the Installation of the Charles B. Fisk and Peter J. Gomes Memorial Organ C.B. Fisk, Inc. Opus 139. Harvard University Department of Music: Cambridge, Mass, pp. 1-10.

Butt, J. (2013) Johann Sebastian Bach: Six Brandenburg Concertos. [Audio]

2012

Butt, J. (2012) Handel: Esther, first reconstructable version (Cannons, 1720). [Audio]

2011

Butt, J. (2011) George Friedrick Handel and the Messiah. In: The Oxford Handbook of the Reception History of the Bible. Series: Oxford Handbooks. Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK, pp. 294-306. ISBN 9780199204540

2010

Butt, J. (2010) Emotion in the German Lutheran Baroque and the development of subjective time consciousness. Music Analysis, 29(1-3), pp. 19-36. (doi: 10.1111/j.1468-2249.2011.00325.x)

Butt, J. (2010) Do musical works contain an implied listener? Towards a theory of musical listening. Journal of the Royal Musical Association, 135(S1), pp. 5-18. (doi: 10.1080/02690400903414780)

Butt, J. (2010) Bach's Dialogue with Modernity: Perspectives on the Passions. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge. ISBN 9780521883566

Butt, J. (C.) and Bach, J.S. (C.) (2010) Mass in B Minor. [Audio]

2009

Butt, J. (2009) Bach, Johann Sebastian. In: Landgraf, A. and Vickers, D. (eds.) The Cambridge Handel Encyclopedia. Cambridge University Press, pp. 80-81. ISBN 9780521881920

Butt, J. (2009) Bach, Wilhelm Friedemann. In: Landgraf, A. and Vickers, D. (eds.) The Cambridge Handel Encyclopedia. Cambridge University Press, p. 81. ISBN 9780521881920

Butt, J. (2009) Chorale. In: Landgraf, A. and Vickers, D. (eds.) The Cambridge Handel Encyclopedia. Cambridge University Press, p. 145. ISBN 9780521881920

Butt, J. (2009) Chorus. In: Landgraf, A. and Vickers, D. (eds.) The Cambridge Handel Encyclopedia. Cambridge University Press, pp. 145-147. ISBN 9780521881920

Butt, J. (2009) Counterpoint. In: Landgraf, A. and Vickers, D. (eds.) The Cambridge Handel Encyclopedia. Cambridge University Press, pp. 170-172. ISBN 9780521881920

2008

Butt, J. (2008) Classical music and the subject of modernity. Proceedings of the British Academy, 154, pp. 425-448. (doi: 10.5871/bacad/9780197264355.003.0016)

Butt, J. (2008) Bach's passions and the textures of time. In: Gallagher, S. and Forrest Kelly, T. (eds.) The century of Bach and Mozart : perspectives on historiography, composition, theory, and performance. Harvard University Press: Cambridge, Mass. ; London, pp. 111-120. ISBN 0964031736

Butt, J. (2008) Canonische Veränderungen. In: Rampe, S. (ed.) Bachs Klavier- und Orgelwerke : das Handbuch. Laaber Verlag: Laaber, pp. 949-962.

Butt, J. (2008) Choralpartiten. In: Rampe, S. (ed.) Bachs Klavier- und Orgelwerke : das Handbuch. Laaber Verlag: Laaber, pp. 494-510.

Butt, J. (2008) Clavier Übung III. In: Rampe, S. (ed.) Bachs Klavier- und Orgelwerke : das Handbuch. Laaber Verlag: Laaber, pp. 906-929.

Butt, J. (2008) Schübler-Choräle. In: Rampe, S. (ed.) Bachs Klavier- und Orgelwerke : das Handbuch. Laaber Verlag: Laaber, pp. 996-1107.

Butt, J. (C.) and Bach, J.S. (C.) (2008) Matthew Passion BWV 244 : Bach's last performing version, c. 1742. [Audio]

Butt, J. (C.) and Handel, G.F. (C.) (2008) Acis and Galatea, HWV 49a : Original Cannons Performing Version (1718). [Audio]

2007

Butt, J. (p.) et al. (2007) Requiem; Pavanne. [Audio]

2006

Butt, J. (2006) Historical instruments and the embodiment of music. In: Latcham, M. (ed.) Music of the past, instruments and imagination : proceedings of the harmoniques International Congress, Lausanne 2004. Peter Lang: Bern, Oxford, pp. 9-16. ISBN 0820483702

Butt, J. (2006) The Postmodern mindset, musicology and the future of Bach scholarship. Understanding Bach, 1, pp. 9-18.

Butt, J. (C.) and Handel, G.F. (C.) (2006) Messiah (Dublin, 1742). [Audio]

2005

Carter, T. and Butt, J. (Eds.) (2005) The Cambridge history of seventeenth-century music. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge. ISBN 0521792738

Butt, J. (2005) The 17th century musical work. In: Carter, T. and Butt, J. (eds.) The Cambridge history of seventeenth-century music. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, pp. 27-54. ISBN 0521792738

Butt, J. (2005) Figuring out Bach. In: Munro, G.J. and Elliott, K. (eds.) Notis musycall : essays on music and Scottish culture in honour of Kenneth Elliott. Musica Scotica Trust: Glasgow, pp. 211-219. ISBN 095488650X

2004

Butt, J. (2004) Bach e Händel: differenze entro una comune cultural dell'invenzione musicale. In: Nattiez, J.J. (ed.) Enciclopedia della musica. Vol. 4 Storia della musica europea. G. Einaudi: Torino, pp. 528-551. ISBN 880615852X

Butt, J. (2004) Bach in 2000. In: Bach studies from Dublin : selected papers presented at the ninth biennial conference on Baroque music, Dublin, 12th to 16th July 2000, pp. 191-204.

Butt, J. (2004) Germany and the Netherlands. In: Silbiger, A. (ed.) Keyboard music before 1700 2nd edition. Series: Studies in musical genres and repertories. Routledge: New York, pp. 147-234. ISBN 0415968917

Butt, J. (2004) Roman Catholicism and being musically English: Elgar's church and organ music. In: Grimley, D.M. and Rushton, J. (eds.) The Cambridge companion to Elgar. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, pp. 106-119. ISBN 0521826233

Kitchen, J. (p.) et al. (2004) Organs in Glasgow. [Audio]

2003

Butt, J. (2003) Preface. In: Geck, M. and Bell, A. (t.) (eds.) Bach. Haus Publishing: London, vii-xii. ISBN 1904341357

Butt, J. (2003) Towards a genealogy of the keyboard concerto. In: Hogwood, C. (ed.) The keyboard in Baroque Europe. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, pp. 93-110. ISBN 0521810558

2002

Butt, J. (2002) Choral culture and the regeneration of the organ. In: Samson, J. (ed.) The Cambridge history of nineteenth-century music. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, pp. 522-543. ISBN 0521590175

Butt, J. (2002) Choral music. In: Samson, J. (ed.) The Cambridge history of nineteenth-century music. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, pp. 213-236. ISBN 0521590175

Butt, J. (2002) Historische Auffuerungspraxis und postmoderne Befindlichkeit. Basler Jahrbuch fur Historische Musikpraxis, 26, pp. 11-16.

Butt, J. (2002) Playing with history: the historical approach to musical performance. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge. ISBN 0521813522

2000

Butt, J. (2000) Performance on paper: rewriting the stories of notational progress. In: Franko, M. and Richards, A. (eds.) Acting on the past : historical performance across the disciplines. University Press of New England: London, pp. 137-155. ISBN 0819563943

1999

Boyd, M. and Butt, J. (Eds.) (1999) J.S. Bach. Series: Oxford Composer Companions. Oxford University Press: Oxford. ISBN 0198662084

Butt, J. (1999) Bach recordings since 1980: a mirror of historical performance. In: Schulenberg, D. (ed.) Bach Perspectives. University of Nebraska Press: London, pp. 181-198. ISBN 0803210515

1998

Butt, J. (1998) Bach's vocal scoring: what can it mean? Early Music, 26(1), pp. 99-108.

1997

Butt, J. (Ed.) (1997) The Cambridge companion to Bach. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge. ISBN 052145350X

Butt, J. (1997) Bach's metaphysics of music. In: Butt, J. (ed.) Cambridge companion to Bach. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, pp. 46-59. ISBN 052145350X

Butt, J. (1997) Germany - education and apprenticeship. In: Burrows, D. (ed.) Cambridge companion to Handel. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, pp. 11-23. ISBN 0521454255

Butt, J. (1997) Introduction. In: Butt, J. (ed.) Cambridge companion to Bach. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, pp. 1-6. ISBN 052145350X

Butt, J. (1997) "A mind unconscious that it is calculating?" Bach's creative character and the rationalist philosophy of Wolff, Leibniz and Spinoza. In: Butt, J. (ed.) Cambridge companion to Bach. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, pp. 60-71. ISBN 052145350X

1996

Butt, J. (1996) Acting up a text: the scholarship of performance and the performance of scholarship. Early Music, 24(2), pp. 323-332.

1995

Butt, J. (1995) Germany and the Netherlands. In: Silbiger, A. (ed.) Keyboard music before 1700. Series: Studies in musical genres and repertories. Prentice Hall International: London, pp. 147-234. ISBN 0028723910

Butt, J. (1995) J.S. Bach and G.F. Kauffmann: reflections on Bach's later style. In: Melamed, D.R. (ed.) Bach Studies. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, pp. 47-61. ISBN 0521470676

Butt, J. (1995) Purcell's organ music: a tercentenary tribute. RCO Journal, 3, pp. 51-69.

1994

Butt, J. (1994) Music education and the art of performance in the German Baroque. Cambridge University Press,: Cambridge. ISBN 0521433274

1992

Butt, J. (P.) and Cabanilles, J. (C.) (1992) Obras de organo. [Audio]

1991

Butt, J. (1991) Bach: Mass in B Minor. Cambridge University Press,: Cambridge. ISBN 0521382807

Butt, J. (1991) Bach's Mass in B Minor: considerations of its early performance and use. Journal of Musicology, 9(1), pp. 109-123.

Butt, J. (1991) Improvised vocal ornamentation and German baroque compositional theory - an approach to 'historical' performance practice. Journal of the Royal Musical Association, 116(1), pp. 41-62. (doi: 10.1093/jrma/116.1.41)

1990

Butt, J. (1990) Bach interpretation: articulation marks in primary sources of J.S. Bach. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge. ISBN 0521372399

1988

Butt, J. (1988) Bach's organ sonatas BWV 525-530 - compilation and recomposition. Organ Yearbook, 19, pp. 80-90.

1985

Butt, J. and le Huray, P. (1985) In search of Bach the organist. In: Williams, P.F. (ed.) Bach, Handel, Scarlatti: tercentenary essays. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, pp. 185-206. ISBN 0521252172

This list was generated on Thu Apr 22 05:02:27 2021 BST.