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Robert Adlington

Associate Professor, Faculty of Arts

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Expertise Summary

My research interests include: the composers Louis Andriessen and Harrison Birtwistle; minimalism; music of the Netherlands; avant-garde music in the 1960s; relationship between music and political/social movements; public subsidy and cultural policy; the Cold War; situationism; communism (especially outside the communist bloc).

I am author of The Music of Harrison Birtwistle (CUP, 2000) and Louis Andriessen: De Staat (Ashgate, 2004), and editor of the volume Sound Commitments: Avant-garde Music and the Sixties (OUP, 2009). I am currently writing a book on avant-garde music in 1960s Amsterdam, and editing a volume of essays on music and communism outside the communist bloc.

I have broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and delivered pre-concert talks for Glyndebourne Opera, the South Bank Centre, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Aldeburgh Festival, and Het Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ in Amsterdam. I was Assistant Editor for the journal Music Analysis between 2000 and 2002, and an Associate Editor for the journal Twentieth-Century Music between 2004 and 2006. In 2003 I organised the Third Biennial International Conference on Twentieth-Century Music here at Nottingham. I was organiser of the conference Red Strains: Music and Communism outside the Communist Bloc, held at the British Academy in January 2011. I am a member of the Music, Dance, Drama and Performing Arts sub-panel for HEFCE's REF2014 exercise.

Teaching Summary

My teaching currently includes the undergraduate modules 'C20 Studies', 'Critical Thinking I' and 'Can Classical Music Change Lives?', and the MA modules 'Approaches to Musicology' and 'Analytical… read more

Research Summary

I am currently writing a book on avant-garde music in 1960s Amsterdam. This traces different phases in the politicisation of avant-garde musicians during this period, including assessment of… read more

Recent Publications

  • ROBERT ADLINGTON, ed., 2013. Red Strains: Music and Communism Outside the Communist Bloc British Academy/Oxford University Press. (In Press.)
  • ROBERT ADLINGTON, 2013. Expressive Revolutions: 1968 and Music in the Netherlands. In: BEATE KUTSCHKE and BARLEY NORTON, eds., Music and Protest in 1968 Cambridge University Press. (In Press.)
  • ADLINGTON, R.C., 2009. Forms of Opposition at the 'Politiek-Demonstratief Experimenteel' Concert. In: ADLINGTON, R.C., ed., Sound Commitments: Avant-garde Music and the Sixties New York: Oxford University Press. 56-77

My teaching currently includes the undergraduate modules 'C20 Studies', 'Critical Thinking I' and 'Can Classical Music Change Lives?', and the MA modules 'Approaches to Musicology' and 'Analytical and Critical Studies'.

I am active in developing Music modules with clear vocational relevance. 'Can Classical Music Change Lives?' is a new module which I first delivered in spring 2012. It examines contemporary projects using music to address conflict and social disadvantage, with the aim of giving students detailed knowledge of a field of crucial relevance to arts organisations in an era of funding austerity. Students are also exposed to specialist career paths outside the mainstream (for instance, in prisons, community arts organisations, and international music projects). I am currently developing a new Work Placement module for Music students, in partnership with a range of leading employers in the arts and beyond.

I believe that, in addition to preparing students for career pathways, university study cultivates habits of thought and levels of understanding that will immeasurably enhance graduates' future imaginative and intellectual lives, with consequent positive impact upon the communities to which they belong.

Current Research

I am currently writing a book on avant-garde music in 1960s Amsterdam. This traces different phases in the politicisation of avant-garde musicians during this period, including assessment of musicians' involvement with Situationism, the anarchist Provos, the hippie and student movements, and communism. Musicians including Louis Andriessen, Reinbert de Leeuw, Misha Mengelberg and Peter Schat sought to align themselves with the era's central preoccupations, such as mass creativity, social renewal, participation, and workers' management, and addressed political topics including Cuba and Vietnam. These developments present a striking case study of the concern of many progressive artists at this time for social engagement, but they also throw light upon the dilemmas and challenges that arise when experimental or recondite artistic practices are pressed into such service.

I am also editing a volume of essays on music and communism outside the communist bloc, arising from the conference Red Strains: Music and Communism outside the Communist Bloc, held at the British Academy in January 2011.

Past Research

My doctoral thesis, entitled 'Temporality in post-tonal music', examined the relationships between listening, compositional structures and cultural concepts of time, and drew on a number of interdisciplinary fields, including music psychology, cognitive science, and critical and literary theory. Work from this thesis has appeared in Music Analysis, the Berkeley journal Repercussions, the Journal of the Royal Musical Assoication and the Indiana Theory Review.

I have also written extensively on contemporary classical music. My monograph, The Music of Harrison Birtwistle (Cambridge, 2000), is a comprehensive survey of the output of this major composer; further articles on Birtwistle have appeared in volumes published by Ashgate and Boydell and Brewer. I have published articles on the music of Rebecca Saunders, on music theatre since 1960, and on the Australian art-music collective SLAVE PIANOS. My book Louis Andriessen: 'De Staat', published by Ashgate in 2004, was the first monograph in any language on this leading composer.

  • ROBERT ADLINGTON, ed., 2013. Red Strains: Music and Communism Outside the Communist Bloc British Academy/Oxford University Press. (In Press.)
  • ROBERT ADLINGTON, 2013. Expressive Revolutions: 1968 and Music in the Netherlands. In: BEATE KUTSCHKE and BARLEY NORTON, eds., Music and Protest in 1968 Cambridge University Press. (In Press.)
  • ADLINGTON, R.C., 2009. Forms of Opposition at the 'Politiek-Demonstratief Experimenteel' Concert. In: ADLINGTON, R.C., ed., Sound Commitments: Avant-garde Music and the Sixties New York: Oxford University Press. 56-77
  • ADLINGTON, R.C., ed., 2009. Sound Commitments: Avant-garde Music and the Sixties New York: Oxford University Press.
  • ADLINGTON, R.C., 2009. Introduction: Avant-garde Music and the Sixties. In: ADLINGTON, R.C., ed., Sound Commitments: Avant-garde Music and the Sixties New York: Oxford University Press. 3-14
  • ADLINGTON, R.C., 2008. 1968 and new music in the Netherlands. In: KUTSCHKE, B., ed., Musikkulturen in der Revolte: Studien zu Rock, Avantgarde und Klassik im Umfeld von '1968' Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag. 103-114
  • ADLINGTON, R.C., 2007. "A sort of guerrilla": Che at the opera Cambridge Opera Journal. 19(2), 167-193
  • ADLINGTON, R.C., 2005. Music theatre since the 1960s. In: COOKE, M., ed., The Cambridge Companion to Twentieth-Century Opera Cambridge : Cambridge University Press. 225-243
  • ADLINGTON, R.C., 2005. Editorial (jointly authored with Sophie Fuller) Twentieth-Century Music. 2(1),
  • ADLINGTON, R.C., 2004. Louis Andriessen: <i>De staat</i> Aldershot: Ashgate.
  • ADLINGTON, R.C., 2004. Louis Andriessen, Hanns Eisler, and the Lehrstück Journal of Musicology. 21(3), 381-417
  • ADLINGTON, R.C., 2003. Moving beyond motion: metaphors for changing sound Journal of the Royal Musical Association. 128(2), 297-318
  • ADLINGTON, R.C., 2003. In the shadows of song: Birtwistle's Nine Movements for String Quartet. In: O'HAGAN, P., ed., Aspects of British Music in the 1990s Aldershot : Ashgate. 47-62
  • ADLINGTON, R.C., 2003. A conversation with Harrison Birtwistle. In: O'HAGAN, P., ed., Aspects of British Music in the 1990s Aldershot : Ashgate. 111-118
  • ADLINGTON, R.C., 2002. 'Good lodging': Harrison Birtwistle's reception of <i>Sir Gawain and the Green Knight</i>. In: BARBER, R.W., ed., King Arthur in music Cambridge: D.S. Brewer. 127-143
  • ADLINGTON, R.C., 2002. Counting time, countering time: Louis Andriessen's "De Tijd" Indiana Theory Review. 22, 1-35
  • ADLINGTON, R.C., 2001. Taking Soundings: Music, Non-Music and Slave Pianos. In: KESMINAS, D., ed., Slave pianos: a diagnosis, 1998-2001 Frankfurt : Revolver. 7-15
  • ADLINGTON, R.C., 2001. Rebecca Saunders. In: SADIE, S., ed., The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians London : Macmillan.
  • ADLINGTON, R.C., 2000. The Music of Harrison Birtwistle Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.
  • ADLINGTON, R.C., 2000. Signs of sound: notation and musical culture Siblings - Sibelius Web Magazine. September,
  • ADLINGTON, R.C., 2000. Review of David Clarke, 'Tippett Studies' Music and Letters. 81(1), 145-48
  • ADLINGTON, R.C., 1999. Into the sensuous world: The music of Rebecca Saunders Musical Times. VOL 140(ISSUE 1868), 48-56
  • ADLINGTON, R.C., 1999. Review of Michael Hall, 'Harrison Birtwistle in Recent Years' Tempo (London, 1939). 209, 42
  • ADLINGTON, R.C., 1998. Review of CD recording of Birtwistle, 'The Mask of Orpheus' Tempo (London, 1939). 204, 43
  • ADLINGTON,R.C., 1997. David Epstein, 'Shaping Time: Music, the Brain, and Performance' Music Analysis. 16(1), 155-71
  • ADLINGTON, R.C., 1997. Musical Temporality: Perspectives from Adorno and de Man Repercussions. 6(1), 5-60
  • ADLINGTON,R.C., 1996. Review of CD recordings of Matthews, Sackman and Sawer, 'Guiding Hand' Musical Times. 137(no 1838), 30-31
  • ADLINGTON,R.C., 1996. Review of CD recordings of Maxwell Davies and Birtwistle, 'Grammar-school boys' Musical Times. 137(no 1835), 35-37
  • ADLINGTON, R.C., 1996. Live music review, 'Summary justice' (Harrison Birtwistle festival, Southbank Centre) Musical Times. July, 31-34
  • ADLINGTON, R., 1996. Harrison Birtwistle's Recent Music Tempo (London, 1939). ISSUE 196, 2-8
  • ADLINGTON, R.C., 1995. Live music review, 'Cresswell and Mason at the Proms' Musical Times. October, 564-565
  • ADLINGTON,R.C., 1995. Arnold Whittall: a bibliography Music Analysis. 14(2-3), 141-60
  • ADLINGTON, R.C., 1995. Review of CD recordings of Holloway and Ligeti violin concertos Musical Times. March, 163
  • ADLINGTON, R.C., 1995. Priorities for the next "critical musicology" conference Critical Musicology. 3, 14-15
  • ADLINGTON, R.C., 1995. Review of CD recording of Birtwistle, 'Antiphonies' Musical Times. June, 312
  • ADLINGTON, R.C., 1994. Review of Benjamin, 'Antara' Musical Times. February, 95
  • ADLINGTON,R.C., 1994. Review of CD recording of Glass, 'Through a glass darkly' Musical Times. 135(no 1813), 164-165
  • ADLINGTON,R.C., 1994. Review of Ferneyhough, 'Carceri d'invenzione l' etc. Musical Times. 135(no 1817), 450-451
  • ADLINGTON, R.C., 1994. Live music review of Birtwistle, 'Gawain' Musical Times. July, 463
  • ADLINGTON, R.C., 1994. Live music review, South Bank Centre 'Meltdown' festival Musical Times. September, 582-584
  • ADLINGTON, R.C., 1994. Review of Boulez, 'Anthemes' Musical Times. December, 764

Department of Music

The University of Nottingham
Lakeside Arts Centre
University Park
Nottingham, NG7 2RD

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