Meet our PhD supervisors: Dr Kenneth Gloag
Meet our PhD supervisors: Dr Kenneth Gloag
BMus Surrey University, MMus King’s College, London, PhD Exeter University (an analytical study of the music of Stravinsky)
Kenneth has published extensively on a broad range of musics, including popular music and 20th-century British music with particular reference to Michael Tippett. During the Tippett centenary (2005) he gave papers and presentations on aspects of Tippett’s music at Glasgow University, the Sage Gateshead (in dialogue with Mark Elder on the Second Symphony), and in collaboration with the BBC at the Barbican (The Knot Garden). He has also given papers at international conferences in Europe, the USA and Australia and has been reviews editor of twentieth-century music since its inception.
Current book projects
- Kenneth is working with Cardiff colleague Dr David Beard on updating and significantly expanding their 2005 book, Musicology: The Key Concepts (published by Routledge). This book has become a standard point of reference for university music students through the UK and sells well throughout the USA and Europe.
- The Cambridge Companion to Tippett, co-editor with Cardiff colleague Dr Nicholas Jones (Cambridge University Press, expected publication in 2013).
Selected research/publications
- Postmodernism in Music (forthcoming 2012) – This new text clarifies the term postmodernism and explores its relevance for music through discussion of specific musical examples from the 1950s to the present day, providing an engagement between theory and practice. Overall, this book equips readers with a thorough understanding of this complex but important topic in music studies.
- Maxwell Davies Studies (2009) – 2009 marked the 75th birthday of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. This book, co-edited with Dr Nicholas Jones, is an opportunity to reflect upon a period of compositional achievement beginning in the 1950s through a statement of the current condition of research on Maxwell Davies’s music. It describes selected works from all periods of a rich and diverse career, providing detailed analytical discussions of individual works alongside broader issues and perspectives.
- Nicholas Maw: Odyssey (2008) – Nicholas Maw’s Odyssey is a landmark in contemporary music; at approximately 90 minutes, it is one of the longest continuous examples of music written for full-orchestra and took Maw years to complete. Kenneth’s analysis of Odyssey provides a detailed description of Maw’s musical identity and reputation as a contemporary composer in relation to romanticism, modernism and postmodernism.
“The breadth of Gloag’s perceptions is worthy of his huge task in every respect – a grand and mysterious work has found an ideal expositor” – Anthony Payne, Composer
Kenneth has successfully supervised a large number of PhD students with a wide range of topics, including Welsh popular music, analysis of Maxwell Davies Third Symphony, the canon of rock music, Perircian semiotics in music, the biography of Charles Ives, minimalism and postmodernism, the aesthetics of Hanslick, analysis of the music of Vaughan Williams.
He would be happy to consider applications from students considering postgraduate research in the following areas: All aspects of 20th century music, but in particular British music, the music of Tippett, analytical issues in the music of Stravinsky, modernism, postmodernism, critical and cultural theory.
Postgraduate funding:
Interested in pursuing postgraduate research at one of the largest and most diverse music schools in the UK? The School of Music is currently offering three competitive Studentships that cover tuition fees at the Home/EU rate. More information on our funding opportunities is available at:
http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/music/degreeprogrammes/postgraduate/funding/index.html