Dr EDWARD CAMPBELL
Lecturer in Music and Music Education / Music Education Coordinator
BMus (Hons), PGCE, PhD
Personal Details
| Telephone: | +44 (0)1224 274612 |
| E-mail: | e.campbell@abdn.ac.uk |
| Address: | Room 006 School of Education University of Aberdeen MacRobert Building King's College Aberdeen AB24 5UA Tel: 0044 1224 274612 direct e-mail: e.campbell@abdn.ac.uk |
Web Links
http://www.cambridge.org/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780521862424
While acknowledging that Pierre Boulez is not a philosopher, and that he is wary of the potential misuse of philosophy with regard to music, this study investigates a series of philosophically charged terms and concepts which he uses in discussion of his music. Campbell examines significant encounters which link Boulez to the work of a number of important philosophers and thinkers, including Adorno, Lévi-Strauss, Eco and Deleuze. Relating Boulez's music and ideas to broader currents of thought, the book illuminates a number of affinities linking music and philosophy, and also literature and visual art. These connections facilitate enhanced understanding of post-war modernist music and Boulez's distinctive approach to composition. Drawing on a wide range of previously unpublished documentary sources and providing musical analysis of a number of key scores, the book traces the changing musical, philosophical and intellectual currents which inform Boulez's work.
Research Interests
Historical, analytical and aesthetic approaches to European modernism
The music and writings of Pierre Boulez
Compositional approaches in post-1945 Europe
Contemporary European opera
Music aesthetics/philosophy of music
Music theory in 20th century France
Music in relation to French intellectual culture of the 20th century
The interrelation of music, philosophy, theology, literature and visual arts
Current Research
Books (in progress)
'Music after Deleuze', under contract to Continuum International Publishing Group, manuscript due 1 February 2013.
Boulez Studies (co-editor and contributor)
Contemporary European Opera (sole author, manuscript in progress)
Articles (under consideration)
'Rethinking Boulez: Schemes, Logics and Paradigms of Musical Modernity'
Articles (in progress)
'Operatic assemblages, sentence-images and the question of impurity'
'Messiaen, Boulez and Grisey: Three Generations of French Composers on Musical Time'
‘A Parisian Mélange: Michael Levinas Nostalgia and Innovation and Les Aragons’
'Aspects of nostalgia, utopia and distance in Les Nègres by Michaël Levinas'
‘Dusapin, Faust and the Rhizome’
'The Boulez/Souvtchinsky Correspondence'
Conference papers and events:
Papers given
'Aperghis on Opera Today: the working of the interdisciplinary assemblage'. Conference: 'Love to Death: Transforming Opera Incorporating the Royal Musical Association Annual Conference. Cardiff University (by invitation), 31 May 2012.
'Assembling the Abstract: Boris Blacher's Abstrakte Oper Nr. 1'. Talk as part of a collaborative research/performance event on Boris Blacher's Abstrakte Oper Nr 1, The Opera Group, King's College, London (by invitation), 26 March 2012.
'Music after Deleuze: Aspects of difference in music from Beethoven to Boulez'. University of Leeds Post-graduate seminar in music (by invitation), 9 February 2012.
'Music after Deleuze: Difference, Rhizomes and Assemblages', University of Aberdeen Postgraduate Seminar in music, 17 November 2011.
'Rethinking Boulez: Schemes, Logics and Paradigms of Musical Modernity. Seminar on Musical Modernism, organised by the University of Oslo and the Centre franco-norvégien en sciences sociales et humaines, MSH, Paris, (by invitation), 9-12 October 2011.
'The Boulez/Souvtchinsky Correspondence'. Exploring the Labyrinth: An Internation Study Day on the Music of Pierre Boulez. Organised by the Southbank Centre in association with the Royal Academy of Music (by invitation), 1 October 2011.
'Aspects of nostalgia, utopia and distance in Les Nègres by Michaël Levinas', Seventh International Conference on Music since 1900/Lancaster Music Analysis Conference, University of Lancaster, July 28-31 2011
'Operatic assemblages, sentence-images and the question of impurity', First Annual Conference of the Royal Musical Association of Music and Philosophy, Institute of Musical Research and Institute of Philosophy, Stewart House, University of London, 1-2 July 2011
'Messiaen, Boulez and Grisey: Three Generations of French Composers on Musical Time', Conference - 'Time's excesses in music, literature and art', University of Caen Basse-Normandie, France, 27-28 May 2011
‘A Parisian Mélange: Michael Levinas and Les Aragons' (substantially revised and expanded), University of Glasgow, Colloquium Series (by invitation) October 2010'
‘Dusapin, Faust and the Rhizome’ (revised), Modernism/Music:An Interdisciplinary Workshop, The Scottish Network of Modernist Studies, University of Aberdeen (by invitation), May 2010
‘Dusapin, Faust and the Rhizome’, Sixth Biennial International Conference on Music since 1900, University of Keele, July 2009
‘A Parisian Mélange: Michael Levinas and Les Aragons', Conference on Nostalgia and Innovation, University of Lancaster, May 2009
'Boulez and Musical Virtuality', University of Aberdeen Music Department Seminar, December 2008
‘Footnotes to an Apprenticeship: Boulez and his Mentors’, John Bird Lecture, University of Cardiff October 2006, (by invitation)
‘Music, Dialectics and Phenomenology in post-war Paris’, SMA Study Day: ‘Contemporary Questions in Music Aesthetics’, University of Glasgow, April 2006
‘Boulez, Souvtchinsky and Dialectical Thinking:An Exercise in Genealogy’, 20th Century Music Conference, University of Sussex, August 2005
‘Making a Scene: Moments from Nono’s Al gran sole carico d’amore’, Society for Music Analysis Conference, University College, Dublin, June 2005
‘Staking the Territory: Philosophical Models of thought and the Music Aesthetics of the Future’, SMA Study Day, Royal Northern College of Music, May 2005
‘Boulez, Deleuze and the Music of Difference’, University of East Anglia Postgraduate Seminar (by invitation), October 2004
‘Serialism as a Musical Language:The Structuralist Debate’, Music and Language Conference, University of Aberdeen, June 2004
‘Boulez:Negation, binary thinking and dialectical "discourse."’ Boulez Day, Roehampton, University of Surrey (by invitation), February 2004
‘Boulez’s Webern: perceptive development, creative misunderstanding or self-deception?’, Music Analysis Conference, Hull University, July 2003
‘Boulez and Philosophy: dialectics, structures and the philosophy of difference.’ Third Biennial International Conference on Twentieth Century Music, University of Nottingham, June 2003
‘Signals and Envelopes:Boulez and Musical Perception’, 5th European Music Analysis Conference, University of Bristol, April 2002
'Serial Music, Difference and Repetition', University of Edinburgh, Music, Minds, Machines AI/Music Group, (by invitation), February 2000
‘Boulez and Difference’, University of Edinburgh Postgraduate Seminar, February 1999
‘Boulez and Expression’, 31st RMA Research Students’ Conference, University of Southampton, January 1998
Public Lectures (invited)
'A Rainbow in Curved Air': A Philosophical Consideration of Musical Space', Summerhall. Edinburgh Festival Fringe, 11 August 2012.
'From Plato to Primal Scream: Music and its connection to Philosophy', Summerhall Festival, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, 17 August 2011.
'Nono’s Al gran sole carico d’amore’, Edinburgh International Festival, August 2004
'20th Century Composers Unveiled (Nono, Feldman, Birtwistle)', Edinburgh Festival Muses, May 2004
'The Music of Helmut Lachenmann', Edinburgh International Festival, August 2003
'Adorno and the Philosophy of New Music', University of Edinburgh, March 2003
'The Music of Igor Stravinsky', Edinburgh International Festival, August 2002
'The Liberation of Sound' (4 lectures), Edinburgh International Festival, Feb-March 2002
'The Music of John Cage', Edinburgh International Festival, August 2001
Public Interviews/Conversations
Julian Anderson Composer Portrait, University of Aberdeen Music Prize, 5 November 2011
Participation in round table discussion with Pierre Laurent Aimard, Arnold Whittall, Erling E. Guldbrandsen, Jonathan Goldman, Robert Scholl and Robert Fallon, Exploring the Labyrinth: An International Study Day on the Music of Pierre Boulez, organised by the Southbank Centre in association with the Royal Academy of Music (by invitation), 1 October 2011.
With Giorgio Battistelli: on his work ‘Experimentum Mundi’, Edinburgh International Festival, ‘Behind the Scenes’ event, August 2009
With Jörg Widmann, Edinburgh International Festival, Festival Insight, August 2005
Chaired Sessions and Panel Sessions
'Approaches to Opera' (invited chair), Seventh International Conference in Music since 1900/Lancaster Music Analysis Conference, University of Lancaster, July 28-31, 2011
‘Twentieth Century Music in France 2’ (invited chair), University of Keele, Sixth Biennial International Conference on Music since 1900, July 2009
‘Boulez and Schaeffner’ (invited chair), Boulez Day, Roehampton, University of Surrey, February 2004
Research Grants
The British Academy Dec 06-October 07 £1569 received for research visits to: Bibliothèque nationale, Paris Paul Sacher Stiftung, Basel Bibliothèque royale de Belgique, BrusselsUniversity of Aberdeen, College of Arts and Social Science, Seed Funding £465 received for additional costs in publication of the book ‘Boulez, Music and Philosophy’
Teaching Responsibilities
Current Teaching and Course Coordination
BMusEd Programme Coordinator
MU1053 Writing about Music
MU1053 A Survey of Western Art Music
MU3003 New Directions
MU3509 Contemporary European Music, Culture and Ideas (Course Coordinator)
MU3512 Aesthetics of Music (Course Coordinator)
MU3518 Contemporary European Opera (Course Coordinator)
MU30M3 European Art Music 1945-2000
MU4043 Supervision of undergraduate Honours dissertations in Music and Music Education
MU5003 Music Research Skills and Methodologies
MPhil/PhD Dissertation in Musicology
MU2510 Music Education 2 (Course Coordinator)
MU3044 Music Education 3 (Course Coordinator)
MU4093 Music Education 4 (Course Coordinator)
Taught Previously
MU1033 Music from 900-1700
ED4018 Aesthetic Education
FS5006 Current Debates and Controversies in Visual Culture
Music since 1945
Music since 1980
Music Theory 1
Current PhD students:
Shelagh Noden (The revival of Roman Catholic Church music in Scotland)
Len Wiltshire (The sea in British art music from the late nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century)
Rodrigo Ferrari-Nunes: Steps to a Reconstitution of Dwelling: Toward a Critical Anthropology of Listening (Anthropology/Music)
M.Litt dissertations examined (Centre for Modern Thought)
Sean Higgins ('Toward an art of noise: music, medium, and listening in the age of phonography ') June 2010
Publications
- Campbell, E. Review of Ravel the Decadent: Memory, Sublimation and Desire by Michael J. Puri. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011., Book/Film/Article review, 2012, Modernism/Modernity, 19, 4, pp809 - 810, ISSN/ISBN: 1071-6068
- Campbell, E. Boulez, Music and Philosophy, Book, 2010, 27