David
Nicholls
Professor of Music, University of Southampton
Email: drn@soton.ac.uk
Before moving to Southampton in August 2000, David Nicholls was
Professor of
Music and Research Dean of the Faculty of Humanities at Keele
University. As an undergraduate and postgraduate, he
studied at St. John's College, Cambridge; from 1984 until 1987 he was
Keasbey
Fellow in American Studies at Selwyn College, Cambridge, and in 1986 he
was
awarded a PhD for his thesis on the experimental compositional
techniques of
Ives, Cowell, Cage and others. He is author of American
Experimental Music,
1890-1940 (CUP, 1990) and a musical biography of John Cage
(UIP, 2005); and contributing editor of The Whole World of Music: A
Henry
Cowell Symposium (Harwood, 1997), the Cambridge History of
American
Music (CUP, 1998), and the Cambridge Companion to John Cage
(2002).
He has also written numerous articles and book chapters on a variety of
contemporary
American topics, including transculturalism and the American avant
garde, the
New York School, Earle Brown, Henry Cowell, Ruth Crawford Seeger,
Charles Ives,
and Donald Martino. He is a regular contributor of reviews and other
items to
the THES and TLS, Music and Letters, BBC
Music Magazine
and American Music, and in 1997 devised and presented for BBC
Radio 3
five one-hour programmes on Henry Cowell. His next major project is the
Master Musicians volume on Charles
Ives, and an accompanying Ives
Reader (both OUP). Finally, he is editor of the journal American
Music for the period 2000-2005.
A second strand of research relates to rock music in the 1960s and
1970s, and the application of narrative theory to popular music topics.
An article on 'virtual opera,' focussing on extended albums by The Who,
Genesis, and Frank Zappa, appeared in JRMA
in 2004.
In addition to many conference presentations in Britain, America,
and Australia, he has thrice been an invited guest speaker at major
international events, these being the 1997 Henry Cowell Centennial
Conference and Festival in New York; the 2005 John Cage Conference
at the University of Calgary; and the 2005 John Cage Conference at the
Royal Northern College of Music.
Until the mid-1990s, Nicholls was also active as a composer. Many of his pieces were performed both in the United Kingdom and abroad; others were broadcast. His String Quartet, commissioned by the Bingham Quartet, was issued on CD, and his Cantata: Jerusalem - commissioned by the BBC - was premiered in London in November 1996, being broadcast shortly afterwards on Radio 3.
Authored books
American Experimental Music, 1890-1940. Cambridge University
Press,
1990
John Cage. University of Illinois Press, 2006
Edited books
Henry Cowell: New Musical Resources with notes and an
accompanying
essay by David Nicholls.
Cambridge University Press, 1996
The Whole World of Music--A Henry Cowell Symposium. Harwood Academic Publishers, 1997
The Cambridge History of American Music. Cambridge University Press, 1998
The Cambridge Companion to John Cage. Cambridge University Press, 2002
Book chapters and Articles
'Ruth Crawford Seeger - an introduction'. The Musical
Times
124 (July, 1983), 421-25
'Donald Martino - a survey of his recent music'. Music and Letters 73 (1992), 75-79
'Getting rid of the glue: the music of the New York School'. Journal of American Studies 27 (1993), 335-353
'Henry Cowell - a call for restitution'. Newsletter of the Institute for Studies in American Music 24/1 (Fall, 1994), 1-2, 15
'Henry Cowell's United Quartet'. American Music 13 (1995) 195-217
'Transethnicism and the American Experimental Tradition'. Musical Quarterly 80 (1996), 569-594
'Henry Cowell's "New Musical Resources"'. In Henry Cowell (ed. David Nicholls), New Musical Resources, (Cambridge University Press, 1996), 153-174
'Henry Cowell: living in the whole world of music'. In David Nicholls (ed.), The Whole World of Music-A Henry Cowell Symposium (Harwood Academic Publishers, 1997), 1-12
'Avant-garde and experimental music'. In David Nicholls (ed.), The Cambridge History of American Music (Cambridge University Press, 1998), 517-534
'Learning from Hugh'. In Robin Holloway (ed.), Goehrfest (January–March 1999), 21–24
'Defining American music'. Newsletter of the Institute for Studies in American Music 28/2 (Spring, 1999) 1–2, 14; republished in New MusicBox (web magazine of the American Music Center) (August, 1999)
'Reaching beyond the West: Asian resonances in American radicalism' (guest editorial). American Music 17 (1999), 125-128
'Getting rid of the glue: the music of the New York school'. In Steven Johnson (ed.), The New York Schools of Music and the Visual Arts (Routledge, 2001), 17-56
'The American Quartet.' In Douglas Jarman (ed.) The Twentieth Century String Quartet (Arc Music, 2002), 109-121
'Crossing the Border: Interactions between Art Music and Other Musics'. In Interpretation, Analysis, Criticism: Studies in Music, 1750-2000 (The Open University Press, 2002), 106-145
'Cage and America' and 'Towards Infinity: Cage in the 1950s and
1960s'. In
David Nicholls (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to John Cage,
(Cambridge
University Press, 2002), 3-19, 100-108
'EC=JC2:
John Cage as Exemplary Creator'. FZMw, published online at
http://www.8ung.at/fzmw/2002/2002_6.htm
'Brave New Worlds: Experimentalism Between the Wars.' In Nicholas
Cook and Anthony Pople (eds.), The
Cambridge History of Twentieth-Century Music, (Cambridge University
Press, 2004), 210-227
'Virtual Opera; or Opera Between the Ears.' Journal of the Royal
Musical
Association 129/1 (2004), 100-142
Stars and Distances 1977-78; revised 1981
Three Empson Songs 1978-79 (soprano, clarinet [both playing percussion]). Texts by Sir William Empson
Reflections and Refractions 1978 (flute, clarinet, piano, string trio)
Pleiades 1979-80 (three groups of instruments - 20 players)
... with which to open ... and ... with which to close ... 1982 (soprano, clarinet, piano). Texts by Ben Johnson and Sir Thomas Wyatt
Competitive Strategies 2 1982
The Giant's Heart 1983 (mimes/dancers/puppets/actors, 7+
singers, 15
players, optional tape)
Libretto by Richard Gaskell, after a short story by George Macdonald
Chi 1983, revised 1987-88 (dancer, percussionist, live electronics). Commissioned by James Wood and John Whiting
Carol 1983 (8 voices, organ, bells, crotales). Texts from the Graduel Neumé and a fifteenth-century nativity carol. Commissioned by St. James's, Piccadilly
Seascape 1984 (strings, harp, celesta, 4 percussion). Commissioned by the SPNM
Genopteryx rhamni 1985 (clarinet, piano)
Siva Dances 1985 (flute, viola, harp, optional percussion)
…whisperings upon leaves… 1986 (soprano, 10 instruments). Text by Richard Gaskell. Commissioned by the New McNaghten Concerts
Mosaic 1986 (flute, clarinet, piano, vibraphone, violin, cello)
In the Cage 1986 (singing/speaking recorder player, optional assistant/tape). Text by Tamar Hodes. Commissioned by Evelyn Nallen
2 Japanese Miniatures 1988-89 (8 players). Commissioned by Lysis, with funds provided by the Arts Council
Largo e Piano 1989 (14 players)
Winter landscape with skaters and birdtrap 1989-90 (string quartet). Commissioned by the Bingham String Quartet, with funds provided by the Holst Foundation
Cantata: Jerusalem 1990-91 (soprano, 2 mixed choruses, 2 wind and percussion bands). Texts selected principally from the Old Testament and the works of William Blake. Commissioned by the BBC
Lily's Birds 1996 (a musical story for children; string quartet and narrator). Text by Tamar Hodes. Commissioned by the New Victoria Theatre
Songs of the Spirit 1998 (SATB chorus). Texts from various sources; written in collaboration with Benjamin Nicholls, who composed two of the five movements. Commissioned by The College of William and Mary
Tears 1998 (soprano, clarinet, piano). Text by Guido Gezelle
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performances