Forum for Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Music

The Forum for Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Music was created in 2016, with the aim of promoting the research into and performance of music of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It brings together one of the strongest concentrations of expertise in this area in the UK. The close links with performance, through work on performance practice and the creation of critical editions that lead to research-informed performance, mean that the Forum’s work is ideally situated in a Conservatoire setting. Members of the Forum’s research expertise informs the curriculum at UG and PG level.

Particular areas of specialism include:

• 17^th- and 18^th-century French music (Dingle, Thompson, Sadler, Skidmore)
• 17^th- and 18^th-century Italian music (Churnside, Savan, Talbot, Timms, Whenham)
• 17^th- and 18^th-century English music (Perkins, Roberts, Savan, Talbot, Timms)
• Performance practices of the 17^th century (Savan, Thompson)
• Latin American Baroque music (Skidmore)
• Late 18^th-century Austro-Germanic music (Derry and Pilcher)

Three key approaches present in much of the Forum’s work:

• Critical editing (Thompson, Sadler, Savan, Perkins, Churnside, Skidmore, Derry, Dingle, Timms, Whenham, Talbot)
• Performance practice (Thompson, Sadler, Savan, Perkins, Skidmore, Derry, Dingle)
• Historically-informed performance (Skidmore, Savan, Perkins, Roberts)

Research Objectives:

• To produce world-leading research that draws on the collective expertise of the members.
• To promote research-informed performances and performance-informed research of music

People:

• Dr Carrie Churnside (Director): Italian Baroque vocal music; cantata; Handel
• Dr Siân Derry: Beethoven studies
• Professor Christopher Dingle: Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges
• Dr Martin Perkins: Regional British music-making, especially the Midlands, in the 18^th century
• Dr Matthew Pilcher: Beethoven studies
• Dr Helen Roberts: Seventeenth-century English performance practice
• Dr Michael Robertson (Visiting Research Fellow in Baroque Music): German dance music of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
• Professor Graham Sadler: French Baroque music from Charpentier to Rameau
• Professor Jamie Savan: Performance practices of the late-sixteenth and early-seventeenth centuries
• Jeffrey Skidmore, OBE: Performance practice and Latin American Baroque
• Professor Shirley Thompson: French Baroque music from Charpentier to Rameau

External members:

Professor Michael Talbot (Emeritus, University of Liverpool): music of the late Baroque and early Classical periods from Italy, England, France and Germany, in most genres; Vivaldi.

Professor Colin Timms (Emeritus, University of Birmingham): late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century secular Italian music; Handel.

Professor John Whenham (Emeritus, University of Birmingham): Italian late Renaissance and early Baroque secular and sacred music; Monteverdi.