Index of articles

The articles presented on this blog fall into four categories: those on music and musicology, politics, abuse-related material, and other articles. The articles on abuse are indexed separately here. Here I index the rest of my blog articles.

MUSIC, MUSICOLOGY, ACADEMIA

Musicological Observations 1: Björn Heile, Lauren Redhead and myself on the relationship between scholarship and new music (18/9/14)

Musicological Observations 2: Do some musicologists really like music? (12/4/15)

Musicological Observations 3: Multicultural Musicology for Monolingual Academics? (22/4/15)

Musicological Observations 4: Can Commercial Music be Research? (23/9/15)

Musicological Observations 5: Musical Crossover and Academic Interdisciplinarity (and Philip Clark)  (1/11/15)

Musicological Observations 6: Various earlier blog pieces on composition and performance as research (13/12/15)

Musicological Observations 7: Articles and Links from Ethnomusicology Debate (14/8/16)

Musicological Observations 8: Essential listening from post-1945 New Music? (16/10/16)

Musicological Observations 9: Scholars as Custodians of Tradition (26/8/19)

Musicological Observations 10: Practitioners and Scholars – Advocacy vs Criticism? (24/6/22)

Musicological Observations 11: The Value of Empirical Musicology for the Performer? (3/7/22)

Musicological Observations 12: Articles and links relating to Practice-Research (2/8/22)

Musicology is not Musical PR (25/8/13)

New Music 1: A Niche World (29/7/22)

Hierarchies in New Music: Composers, Performers, and ‘Works’ (29/9/13)

The fetish of the ‘contemporary’ (5/11/13)

Deskilling and Musical Education – Response to Arnold Whittall’s 80th Birthday Celebrations (21/8/16)

Spinning Research (18/10/16)

On Canons (and teaching Le Sacre du Printemps) (23/10/16)

On the importance of teaching musical theory and technique (18/3/22)

A comprehensive and brilliant critique of Taruskin’s Oxford History of Western Music (28/10/12)

Second part of Franklin Cox’s critique of Taruskin’s Oxford History of Western Music now available (15/11/13)

Reflections on Richard Taruskin and Performance – statement given at Performance Studies Conference, 2 July 2022 (14/7/22)

Rethinking Contemporary Musicology: Panel at the Royal Musical Association 2019 – Part 1. Papers of Larson Powell and Eva Moreda Rodriguez (17/9/19)

Rethinking Contemporary Musicology: Panel at the Royal Musical Association 2019 – Part 2. Papers of Darla Crispin and Peter Tregear (31/10/19)

The departure from academic of a brilliant scholar unafraid to critique the relationship of culture to capital (17/10/21)

Guest Post by Eva Moreda Rodriguez in response to my Spectator article – ‘How we read, how we write’ (16/10/21)

Safeguarding and the Avoidance of Deskilling: Position Statement for Debate on ‘Music in the Curriculum: tensions, choices and opportunities’, City, University of London, 15 November 2019 (15/11/19)

The Hegemony of Anglo-American Popular Music – an online discussion (15/8/15)

In Praise of Mic Spencer (2/5/15

Interview from International Piano, Nov-Dec 2006 (3/12/14)

Interview between Ian Pace and Michael Finnissy on English Country Tunes, February 2009 (3/12/14)

Remembering Bob Gilmore (1961-2015) (3/1/15)

Yefim Golyshev, Arnold Schoenberg, and the Origins of Twelve-Tone Music (2/9/14)

Nikolaus Harnoncourt and the limitations of all-purpose definitions of ‘beautiful’ music (7/3/16)

Friedrich Cerha and György Kurtág at 90 (19/2/16)

Concerts of English and Hungarian music in Wiesbaden, 1936 (8/3/16)

The Workers’ Music Association – A policy for music in post war Britain (1945) (26/3/16)

Mussolini musicista (1927) – full text (3/8/16)

Students taking A and AS-Level Music – declining numbers (13/11/14)

Siegfried at the Royal Opera House, October 2012 – some reflections (8/10/12)

Interactive Workshop on Musical Denazification and the Cold War at LSE Conference, March 28, 2017 (22/3/17)

Music into Words: Morley College, Sunday February 12th [2017] from 1:15 pm (6/2/17)

‘Radio-Controlled’, BBC R3 Feature, Sun 11 April 18:45. New Music after 1945 in Germany (10/2/18)

Some thoughts on classical vs. popular music from pianist Peter Donohoe (11/1/19)

Nick Gibb is right about many things to do with music education, but good intentions need to be paid for (13/1/19) 

 

WIDER ON ARTS, HUMANITIES, ACADEMIA

The RAE and REF: Resources and Critiques (3/4/18)

The Tory government distrusts the arts and humanities – but what about academics? (18/2/18)

My contribution to the debate on ‘Authoritarian Populism and Impure Futures: The Legacy of Stuart Hall’ (1/7/20)

The Enduring Value of Shakespeare (contra #DisruptTexts) -a short discussion (31/12/21)

Critical Engagement with Practice is not the same thing as subservience, or being a practitioner (2/8/22)

 

FINNISSY

The Gershwin songs that inspired Finnissy (12/9/16)

The Verdi that inspired Finnissy (29/11/16)

Ian Pace, May 2016, Finnissy Concerts and Lectures (3/5/16)

Fourth Concert of Finnissy Piano Music with new post-referendum composition (4/7/16)

Fifth Concert of Finnissy Piano Music – Piano Concertos, Gershwins – and Lecture on Experimental Music (2/9/16)

The Piano Music of Michael Finnissy – Forthcoming Concerts 2016-2017 (21/9/16)

Finnissy Piano Works (7) and (8) – November 7th and 21st, Oxford (1/11/16)

Interview between Ian Pace and Michael Finnissy on English Country Tunes, February 2009 (3/12/14)

Bright Futures, Dark Pasts: Michael Finnissy at 70 – Jan 19/20, Conference/Concerts at City University (13/1/17)

 

PIANO, CONCERTS AND COMPOSITIONS

23 world premieres at my 50th birthday concert, Friday 20 April, 18:30 (19/4/18)

The things new music pianists know (2/9/20)

New Piece, Matière: Le Palais de la mort, inspired by the life and work of Emily Brontë – first performance Monday 14 June 2021 (11/6/21)

 

PUBLIC DEBATES ON MUSICAL AND MUSICOLOGICAL ISSUES

Practice-as-Research, Performance Studies

Research Forum, ‘Can Composition and Performance be Research? Critical Perspectives’, City University, November 25th, 2015, 17:30 (4/11/15)

Performance-as-Research – A Reply to Luk Vaes (6/12/15)

Video of Research Seminar on Composition and Performance as Research, and some wider responses to John Croft and others (9/12/15)

Some final thoughts on composition, performance, the REF, and teaching (13/12/15)

Those 300-word statements on Practice-as-Research for the RAE/REF – origins and stipulations – ‘academic butt-covering’ or more problematic? (16/12/15)

My contribution to the debate on ‘Classical Music Performance: Meaning and Relevance in Modern Society’ (23/8/20)

 

Ethnomusicology

Video of debate ‘Are we all Ethnomusicologists Now?’ and responses (22/7/16)

My contribution to the debate ‘Are we all ethnomusicologists now?’ (9/6/16)

Quilting Points and Ethnomusicology (12/6/16)

Statement of Michael Spitzer for Ethnomusicology debate (12/8/16)

Ethnographically sourced experiences of Ethnomusicology – a further response to the debate (14/8/16)

 

Deskilling, Dead White Composers, Elitism, Musical Notation

Responses to Simon Zagorski-Thomas’s talk on ‘Dead White Composers’ (27/4/16)

Response to Charlotte C. Gill article on music and notation – full list of signatories (30/3/17)

An inspiring defence of the teaching of Western classical music and musical literacy (8/4/17)

Gilmore Girls, Notationgate, and Harvardgate (30/4/17)

Response to Stella Duffy on the Arts, Elitism, Communities (6/7/17)

Responses to Anna Bull (on Stella Duffy and ‘everyday creativity’) (20/7/17)

New contributions to #notationgate from Jon Henschen and Andrew Mellor (10/10/18)

New article in the Weekend Australian Review on issues relating to #notationgate and deskilling (29/8/20)

 

Protest at Donaueschingen

The Johannes Kreidler protest at Donaueschingen about the fusion of the radio orchestras at Baden-Baden/Freiburg and Stuttgart – a discussion (from Facebook!) (7/11/12) (more readable version here)

Statement from the Gesellschaft für Neue Musik concerning the Kreidler protest at Donaueschingen (30/11/12)

 

Musical Patronage

Musical Patronage – A Question from Marc Yeats and an invitation to others to debate this here (14/5/15)

 

British Composer Awards and Representation

The British Composer Awards have been criticised in terms of gender. But what about race? (14/12/13)

The whiter-than-white world of published British composers, and some wider thoughts (15/12/13)

British Composer Awards – updated figures in terms of ethnic representation (3/12/14)

 

ABUSE IN MUSIC

Reported Cases of Abuse in Musical Education, 1990-2012, and Issues for a Public Inquiry (30/12/13) (this post is in need of some updating to mention other cases during the period in question)

The Trial of Michael and Kay Brewer and the Death of Frances Andrade, and the Aftermath, 2013 (12/8/14)

Marcel Gazelle and the Culture of the Early Yehudi Menuhin School (7/5/13)

Robert Waddington, Former Dean of Manchester Cathedral, and Chetham’s School of Music (12/5/13)

The 1980 Department of Education and Science Report into Chetham’s School of Music, National Archives ED 172/598/2 (20/9/15)

The IICSA Hearings into Specialist Music Schools: Videos, Transcripts, Documents (5/10/19)

Chetham’s: alumni memories and reflections following the IICSA hearings (10/10/19)

The IICSA Report into Residential Schools – material on specialist music schools and some initial thoughts – Part 1 (1/3/22)

The IICSA Report into Residential Schools – material on specialist music schools and some initial thoughts – Part 2 (4/3/22)

A further question concerning Robert Waddington, former Dean of Manchester Cathedral, and Chetham’s School of Music (6/3/22)

A scathing indictment of John Vallins’ leadership at Chetham’s (22/3/22)

Proposed Guidelines to protect both Music Teachers and Students – a starting point for discussion (21/2/15)

Article from Music Teacher Magazine on Safeguarding, with Guidelines for Teachers and Students (27/4/15)

Clifford Hindley: Pederasty and Scholarship (3/3/14)

Research Paper at City University, November 12th, on ”Clifford Hindley: The Scholar as Pederast and the Aestheticisation of Child Sexual Abuse” (3/10/14

Alan Doggett, first conductor of Joseph and Jesus Christ Superstar, and the Paedophile Information Exchange (28/3/14) (an updated version of original post from 7/3/14)

Peter Righton’s Diaries: Benjamin Britten, Peter Pears and Michael Davidson (11/5/14)

Benjamin Britten and Peter Righton – A Response from the Britten-Pears Foundation (12/9/14)

Geoff Baker on El Sistema: sexual and other abuse in an authoritarian, hierarchical, archaic music culture (15/11/14

New article on abuse and classical music by Damian Thompson in the Spectator, and some wider reflections on classical music and abuse (5/12/14)

Abuse minimisation as an example of the writing of history as kitsch (14/7/13)

 

CULTURE IN THE EU

Culture in the EU (1): Austria (6/6/16)

Culture in the EU (2): Belgium (7/6/16)

Culture in the EU (3): Bulgaria (7/6/16)

Culture in the EU (4): Croatia (7/6/16)

Culture in the EU (5): Cyprus (8/6/16)

Culture in the EU (6): Czech Republic (8/6/16)

Culture in the EU (7): Denmark (9/6/16)

Culture in the EU (8): Estonia (21/6/16)

 

POLITICS

The UK EU Referendum and the decline of democracy in a time of social media, safe spaces and postmodern relativism (19/6/16)

How well or badly did the parties really do, in terms of votes, in the 2015 General Election? (9/5/15)

The rises and falls of the centre parties in the UK since 1918 (9/5/15)

Feasbility of a new UK centre party? And other Brexit-related thoughts (13/8/17)

Predictions for the 2015 UK General Election (27/1/15)

UK Politics 3/9/17: voting and parliamentary arithmetic (3/9/17)

To the metropolitan, academic and cultural left – who do you know who thinks these things? (11/5/15)

Labour can and must win in England alone – and has done so several times before (16/5/15)

Could Labour be playing a tactical game on #PeoplesVote? (11/11/18)

MPs in terms of gender, ethnicity and state/private education – some figures and reflections (9/2/14)

Blairite Lord Adonis attacks MPs who send their children to private schools – and Mehdi Hasan calls for the banning of private education altogether (7/9/12)

Be very sceptical about online communications laws which protect the powerful – social media and the right to offend (20/10/14)

Judith Butler responds to the hate campaign following her being awarded the Adorno Prize (29/8/12)

Tuition Fees for Higher Education in the UK lead to a record drop in applications (9/8/12)

Petition for Amnesty for Students at London Metropolitan University (3/9/12)

How views of high culture in the UK have shifted across the political spectrum (16/7/22)

 

ABUSE-RELATED MATERIAL

See separate index here.

OTHER

Mac’s cartoon in the Mail, the symbolism of the rat, and Der Ewige Jude (1940) (17/11/15)

Judith Butler on unthinking application of ‘theory’ (and Philip Auslander) (21/8/15)

How about a week without American culture? (29/1/17)

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