Music
University of Southampton
We have an active research community with about 40 postgraduate students. There is a dedicated Music Postgraduate Room within the department, to which all postgraduates have 24-hour access. This provides study spaces for up to twenty students at any one time, computer terminals with word processing and music processing software and email, microfilm and microfiche readers, bookshelves, storage space, and telephone. Our computing laboratory and electronic studio are also available for postgraduate use.
There are regular research seminars, involving presentations by students, staff and visiting speakers, as well as composition workshops; these events are open to all postgraduate students.
Our accommodation is adjacent to the Turner Sims Hall, a purpose-built concert hall supporting the most extensive series of professional concerts and workshops of any British university. Many of the visiting artists offer workshops and masterclasses, and the Allegri Quartet visits on a regular basis. We also have resident performers who work with students as well as playing in concert; at present these include David Owen Norris (piano), Jane Chapman (harpsichord), Mark Levy (viol consort), and Pamela Thorby (recorder consort). Associate ensembles include the Orlando Consort, Music Secreta, and Concordia. Our large undergraduate performance programme offers many opportunities for postgraduates interested in accompaniment and conducting, and our twice weekly lunchtime concerts provide a forum for postgraduates to perform as soloists and in ensembles, as well as a key part of the composition programme.
Southampton offers excellent resources for studying music at postgraduate level. The University's Hartley Library has extensive holdings of music, books, and periodicals, and includes a unique collection of Mahler's conducting scores with his autograph annotations (the Anna Mahler Collection). It has recently acquired several large collections of early audio recordings (including the Norman Del Mar Collection), together with a range of hard-to-find discographic materials, and this provides an excellent resource for studies in twentieth-century performance practice. There is also a CD library with over 5000 recordings (including many reissues of historical recordings as well as a wide range of classical, contemporary, popular, and world musics). And of course there are extensive computing facilities for word processing, music processing, library catalogue and database consultation (including on-line access to RILM Abstracts, Music Index, and the second edition of the New Grove Encyclopedia), as well as the Internet.
We possess an outstanding collection of historical and modern instruments, located in the Turner Sims Hall. There is a fine classical organ by Peter Collins, together with three harpsichords: French-and German-style instruments by Milan Misina and Robert Goble, and a particularly fine Ruckers copy by Mackinnon and Waitzman. There are also concert grand pianos by Steinway. All these instruments are available for student use as well as by visiting professionals. We also have a lute, a chest of viols, a consort of recorders, and a Baroque string quartet.
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Submitted by ncook@soton.ac.uk