Edward Campbell-Rowntree (image: Amelia Read)
Current PhD candidate Edward Campbell-Rowntree (Girton) has been awarded the Irene Alm Memorial Prize by the Society for Seventeenth-Century Music (SSCM) for his lecture-recital “Affective Affordance: Emotive Potentialities in Johann Jakob Froberger’s Death Meditations”, which was presented at the society’s annual conference at the University of Northern Colorado, Greeley. The prize was named in honour of Irene Alm, a founding member of the society and associate professor of music at Rutgers University, who made significant contributions to dance studies and the study of theatrical music and Venice.
Edd’s lecture-recital considers how two harpsichord pieces by Johann Jakob Froberger (1616-1667)–the Meditation faite sur ma mort future (1660) and the Meditation sur la Mort future de Madame Sibÿlle (c.1666)–relate to the textual practice of death meditation, particularly the fifth meditation of St François de Sales’ widely emulated Introduction à la vie dévote (1608). By using the Allemande, faite en passant le Rhin as a model of musical-textual-emotional correspondence, he proposes a model of ‘affective affordance’ that can allow us to engage with Froberger’s musical meditations directly alongside their textual counterparts.
Edd receives a substantial grant to participate in next year’s annual conference, which will be held at Rice University, Shepherd School of Music (Houston, Texas).