News
Second Oxford-Princeton Analysis Symposium
In 2008 the Faculty of Music established a research partnership in music theory and analysis with our colleagues in the Music Department at Princeton University. The Oxford–Princeton Partnership aims to encourage closer research collaborations on projects of mutual concern between colleagues and graduate students in the two institutions.
The first Oxford-Princeton Analysis Symposium took place in Oxford in April 2010, when two faculty members and two graduate students from Princeton visited Oxford to participate in three intensive days of presentations and discussions.
The second Oxford-Princeton Analysis Symposium has just taken place at Princeton University (17–19 March 2011). Faculty members Eric Clarke, Jonathan Cross and Laurence Dreyfus, along with graduate students Simon Desbruslais and Maria Witek, took part in another three intensive days of presentations and discussions on and around analytical/theoretical topics. The aim of the Symposium was to share and explore current ideas in progress.
The speakers from Oxford were Eric Clarke and Maria Witek (on analysing rhythm), Jonathan Cross (on the 'Apothéose' from Stravinsky's Apollon musagète) and Laurence Dreyfus (on 'Es ist vollbracht' from Bach's St John Passion); the speakers from Princeton were Kofi Agawu (on the 'Adagietto' from Mahler's 5th Symphony), Scott Burnham (on Mozart's Requiem and Ave Verum), Noriko Manabe (on hip hop) and Dmitri Tymoczko (on Schubert's Quartett-satz). Graduate students from both institutions also gave short presentations on their current projects.
Aside from the fruitful seminar room discussions, our Princeton colleagues were outstanding hosts, and informal discussions continued late into the night at a dinner in Prospect House on the Princeton campus, and at Kofi Agawu's home (pictured right: the Oxford-Princeton Analysis Symposium hard at work chez Kofi Agawu, photo J. Cross).