Colloquium series

Dr Peter Asimov (University of Cambridge) The Hidden Poetics of Messiaen’s ‘Serialism’ The interpretation of Messiaen’s piano etude Mode de valeurs et d’intensités (1949) as an exercise in the application of Viennese dodecaphonism to parameters other than pitch—notably rhythm, as well as dynamics and timbre—was propagated...

Dr Lola San Martín Arbide (University of Seville) Cinematic City Harmonies in Early French Sound Film The city was waiting, wrote film pioneer Lucie Derain in 1929, for the cinéastes who would eventually create gripping and vibrating Parisian films. In this colloquium, I would like to suggest that we imagine filmmakers...

Prof. Christopher Chowrimootoo (University of Notre Dame) Staging Religious Affect in Bernstein's Mass Commissioned in order to celebrate the opening of the Kennedy Center, Leonard Bernstein’s Mass: A Theatre Piece for Singers, Players and Dancers (1971) originally caused quite a stir. While some commentators interpreted...

Dr Marta Gentilucci (University of Cambridge) Political Sound(s): Inside/Outside At the centre of the presentation are two collaborative projects that nurtured and challenged my relationship with composing (alone) and sounds-making processes. The first one began as an exploration of a suburban area of Paris, where a...

Prof. Michael Birenbaum Quintero (Boston University) Between Legibility and Alterity: Black Musical Self-Making in Multicultural Colombia Traditional Colombian Pacific music has been recast as a touchstone for cultural difference through its mobilization by Afro-Colombian artists, activists, and intellectuals, as well as...

Dr Amanda Hsieh (Durham University) Staging Hänsel und Gretel in Japan, 1913 I examine in this talk the 1913 staging of Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel at the Tokyo Imperial Theatre, which opened in 1911 as Japan’s first Western-style theatre. The Theatre’s operatic venture, among the earliest for the Japanese public, has...

Prof. Angela Impey (SOAS, University of London) Towards an Ethnomusicology of Peace Jurisprudence This paper considers the contribution of music (and sound studies more broadly) to current discourses about alternative frameworks for transitional justice. It responds to an increasing appeal for legal pluralism and reflects...

Karen Arrandale (University of Cambridge) Musick’s Curious Hand-Maid: Edward J. Dent and the Establishment of Cambridge Music A talk given to mark the 75th Anniversary of the founding of the Faculty and the publication of a biography of Professor Edward J. Dent. Although it had existed at Cambridge for centuries, Music...

Prof. Emanuele Senici (La Sapienza) Leverhulme Lecture Dancing Divas: La Sonnambula on Video in 1950s Italy 1950s Italy was an extraordinarily fertile ground for opera on video. The first half of the decade saw the release of several films of repertory works, while in 1954 Italian state television began studio broadcasts...

Orr Lecture 2023 The Orr Lecture was established in 1989 in honour of Robin Orr, 1684 Professor of Music (1965–76), and later Emeritus. Previous lecturers have included Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Suzannah Clarke, Reinhard Strohm and Erollyn Wallen. This year’s lecture forms part of the regular Colloquium series running...