Charles Pardoe

Following degrees in Music, (B.A., MSc.R.), Charles is pursuing doctoral research in organology, the branch of musicology concerned with musical instruments. With the working title ‘Fretting Chordophones: an Intellectual History beginning with the Writings of al-Kindi’, his thesis centres on the musical testimonia of the ninth-century philosopher Al-Kindi. These relay nuanced accounts of the construction and tuning of the medieval Arabian lute (al-‘ūd), and might preserve the earliest extant directly attributed music for a fretted chordophone. He is supervised by Rdr Sam Barrett (Faculty of Music) and Prof. Christopher Page (Faculty of English).