Birmingham's Music Department was ranked joint second out of all the country's 53 Music departments in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise.
The work of all staff was returned for the RAE and a full 50% of our work was judged 'world-leading in terms of originality, significance and rigour'; a further 35% was judged 'internationally excellent'. This follows our top ranking of 5* in the 2001 RAE.
Our research community includes approximately ten staff and 45 research students, and we particularly welcome students from the EU and overseas.
Two important areas of our research are given additional focus by the activities of the Centre for Early Music Performance and Research (CEMPR) and the Centre for Composition and Associated Studies (COMPASS).
The Department’s research corresponds to the University’s major research theme ‘Heritage, Cultural Production and Interpretation’. Key themes within our research areas are:
Musical Composition
Electroacoustic, conventional and mixed media
See MiniBEAST Listening Sessions
See COMPASS Forum seminars
Electroacoustics - Jonty Harrison
Instrumental / Vocal - Michael Zev Gordon
Mixed Instrumental and Electroacoustic / Live and Interactive Electroacoustics, Laptop Performance, Multichannel Spatialisation - Scott Wilson
Musicology
Ranging from the medieval to the contemporary and across a number of European musical cultures.
See Seminars
Music in its Historical, Social and Cultural Contexts
Medieval to Eighteenth Century - Mary O’Neill
Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries - Andrew Kirkman
Seventeenth Century, Early Modern Gender Studies - Amy Brosius
Early Modern - John Whenham and Colin Timms
Classical Period - Matthew Riley
Nineteenth Century - Paul Rodmell
Twentieth Century - Ben Earle and Paul Rodmell
Ethnomusicology, Sound Studies, Popular Music - Eliot Bates
Text and Interpretation
Medieval to Eighteenth Century - Mary O’Neill
Renaissance - Andrew Kirkman
Seventeenth Century - Amy Brosius
Late Renaissance to Late Baroque - John Whenham and Colin Timms
Classical Period - Matthew Riley
Nineteenth Century - Paul Rodmell
Twentieth Century - Ben Earle and Paul Rodmell
Performance Practice
Medieval to Eighteenth Century - Mary O’Neill
Renaissance - Andrew Kirkman
Late Renaissance to Late Baroque - John Whenham and Colin Timms
Aesthetics and Music Theory
Ben Earle and Matthew Riley