Diversity and the British String Quartet - Symposium
Primary Investigator:
Departmental Lecturer in Historical Musicology
Co-Investigator:
Associate Professor, Faculty of Music
Fellow of Somerville College
Researchers:
Lauren Braithwaite and Aaliyah Booker (Faculty of Music)
Partner organisations:
Collaborators:
St Gregory the Great Catholic School, Oxford
St Marylebone School, London
Graveney School, London
Framingham Earl High School, Norfolk
Trinity Catholic School, Nottingham
About the project:
Diversity and the British String Quartet were bring together composers, performers, students, and academics to explore issues of diversity in British classical music through the case study of the string quartet. The string quartet - and British classical music in general - are associated with elitism and exclusivity, yet historically the genre has attracted composers who defy this stereotype: women, BAME musicians, communists, and others from traditionally marginalised groups such as Ethel Smyth, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, and Elizabeth Maconchy. In this project, the Villiers Quartet and Oxford researchers were: commission and release as digital concerts new string quartets from British composers with varied connections to national identity; coach remotely 14-18 year old students from schools with low access to music education or diverse student bodies to compose their own string quartets with mentoring from Oxford students; and produce a live-streamed symposium with lectures, round-table discussion with composers, student workshops, and performances of historic British quartets.
Diversity and the British String Quartet Symposium Programme:
DAY 1: Monday 14th June, 10am-9pm
On the opening day of the symposium, we began by exploring with international experts the contributions of women, politically engaged composers, and émigrés to the history of the British string quartet. We then heard from Beethoven and string quartet expert Professor Laura Tunbridge on the history of performing quartets working in UK universities. In the evening, the Villiers Quartet presented a varied programme featuring two world premieres and two rarely performed historical quartets by the pioneering British woman composer Ethel Smyth and the communist composer Alan Bush. The day concluded with the first of two concerts featuring string quartets composed by 14–18-year-olds from schools across the UK, who had participated in a coaching programme run by the project..
10.30am-1.00pm: Case studies in the ‘British’ String Quartet: women, politics, émigrés
Chair: Associate Professor Paul Watt (University of Adelaide)
Speakers: Dr Leah Broad (University of Oxford, Dr Amanda Harris (University of Sydney), Dr Florian Scheding (University of Bristol).
https://www.youtube.com/embed/RbzPEwSWYzQOn the opening day of the symposium, we begin by exploring with international experts the contributions of women, politically-engaged composers, and émigrés to the history of the British string quartet.
2.30pm-4pm: Keynote lecture: ‘The string quartet takes residence: class, community, curricula'
Chair: Dr Wiebke Thormählen (Royal College of Music)
Speaker: Professor Laura Tunbridge (University of Oxford)
5.30pm-6.00pm: Short Quartets concert 1
Watch the livestream here.
7.00pm-8.00pm: Concert I: "Not Getting Out" | Villiers Quartet Concert
Florence Anna Maunders - Not Getting Out *From Home world premiere
Ethel Smyth, Quartet in E minor (1912)
Philip Herbert - Sollicitudo *From Home world premiere
Alan Bush - Dialectic (1929)
Villiers Quartet
Performing live at the JdP Music Building, the Villiers Quartet give the world premieres by Florence Anna Maunders and Philip Herbert from their From Home Commissions. They also play the only string quartet written by suffragette Dame Ethel Smyth, and Alan Bush’s dramatic Dialectic for String Quartet.
DAY 2: Tuesday 15 June
On the second day of the symposium, we began with a discussion among the From Home contemporary composers about the challenges and meaning of writing string quartets in Britain today. Our composers, in conversation with Professor Amanda Bayley, were explore issues of identity, musical style and influences, and exclusivity associated with classical music, in addition to the impact of recent events such as the global pandemic, and were talk about how they have explored these in their new compositions. In our final evening event, the Villiers Quartet’s second concert were present works showcasing an array of musical and cultural questions and influences, from Elizabeth Maconchy’s Bartókian Third Quartet, to Alex Ho’s enquiring contemporary work, Our Common Wealth.
11.00am-1.00pm: Roundtable discussion: ‘Writing string quartets in contemporary Britain’
Chair: Professor Amanda Bayley, Bath Spa University
Speakers: Rob Fokkens, Alex Ho, Jasmin Kent-Rodgman, Florence Anna Maunders
Register via Eventbrite.
7.00pm-9.30pm: Concert II: "Our Common Wealth"
Watch the livestreamed concert live from the JdP Music Building
Samuel Coleridge -Taylor - Five Fantasiestücke for string quartet (1895)
John Mayer - Quartet No.2 ‘Nava Rasa’ (selected movements) (ca 1970)
Alex Ho - Our Common Wealth *From Home world premiere
Elizabeth Maconchy - String Quartet No. 3 (1938)
Villiers Quartet
DAY 3: Wednesday 16 June
On our final day, we hade a keynote lecture from composer Dr Des Oliver on his ‘Diasporic Quartets’ projects. In the afternoon, a special workshop featured performers, composers, and experts in music education were showcase student works from our school coaching project and discussed wider issues of inclusivity in music education. At 7pm, the Villiers Quartet’s final concert featured variously lyrical and ebullient quartets that moved us from the allusive worlds of the earlier concerts into the pleasure of composers were speaking through the medium of the string quartet. The symposium finished with our final short concert of student works.
11.30am-1.00pm: Keynote Lecture: 'The Diasporic Quartets: Identity and Aesthetics'
Watch the livestream of the Keynote Lecture
Chair: Dr Nina Whiteman
Speaker: Dr Des Oliver
2.00pm - 4.00pm: Workshop and panel discussion: Music education, diversity, and inclusivity
Chairs: Dr Joanna Bullivant and Professor Samantha Dieckmann
Chairs: Dr Joanna Bullivant and Prof Samantha Dieckmann
Philip Herbert, composer
Roz DeVile, CEO, Music Masters
Kadiatu Kanneh-Mason, author of House of Music
Nate Holder, musician, author, and music education consultant
Lauren Braithwaite, DPhil candidate
5.30pm-6.00pm: Short Quartets Concert 2
7.00pm-8.00pm: Concert III: ‘where the conflict ends’
Jasmin Kent Rodgman - where the conflict ends *From Home world premiere
Matyas Seiber - String Quartet No. 3 ‘Quartetto Lirico’ (1948-1951)
Robert Fokkens - *From Home world premiere
Eleanor Alberga - String Quartet No. 2 (1994)
Villiers Quartet
Host: Professor Laura Tunbridge
The Villiers gave the premiere of Jasmin Kent Rodgman’s “where the conflict ends” which expressed the difficulty of finding one’s voice. Matyas Seiber was a Hungarian-British emigre who studied with Kodály and was heavily influenced by Bartók; he also taught John Mayer London. Eleanor Alberga’s vibrant String Quartet No. 2 closes the programme.
