Dr Helen Julia Minors

 

Job Title: Lecturer Qualifications: B.Mus (hons) M.Mus PhD Telephone: +44 (0)20 8392 3420 Email Address: H.Minors@roehampton.ac.uk

Helen Julia Minors is a Lecturer in Music at Roehampton University. She joined the music department in September 2006. Helen is the director for the Centre for Interdisciplinary Music Research, and acts as Programme Convenor for the MA, Music and Culture as well as the convenor for the UG Music Programme. She also sits on the school board.

Helen is a musicologist with interests in music at the turn of the twentieth century, especially music theatre, music and the other arts, music and dance, and criticism in France. Her research outlook is interdisciplinary, confronting cultural musicology, historical musicology and analysis. She is increasingly interested in music/theatre criticism within this context. Helen completed her PhD under the supervision of Dr. Deborah Mawer at Lancaster University. Helen also sits on the executive committee of the Society for Dance Research as Administrative Secretary.

Teaching

Helen is a Fellow of the Higher Eduaction Academy.

She teaches a range of undergraduate courses at Roehampton, including 'Harmony A', 'Analysis and Listening', 'Critical Perspectives', 'Ensemble 1' and 'Ensemble 2', 'Group Performance 1', 'Group Performance 2', 'Historical Studies' exploring programme music or nineteenth century opera, 'Style and Tonality in Western Art Music', 'Composer Study', 'Experimental Music', 'Dissertation 1 and 2' as well as contributing alongside the other staff to 'Music in History and Culture'.

Helen is happy to welcome a second research assistant, Louise Victoria Johnson for a research project 2009-2010. Jessica Alonge acted as a research assistant 2008-2009. Both research assistants' roles form part of the service learning work experience hosted by the Translation Programme.

Helen convenes and contributes to the MA in Music and Culture, on the modules 'Music and the Other Arts', 'Critical Approaches', 'Audio-Visual Criticism and Musical Multimedia', 'Dance and the Other Arts in the Age of Globalisation' and 'Music and Dance'.

Her courses, as far as possible, link to her current research areas, including 'Exploring Musical Multimedia' and the newly written 'Music in Motion' which is a collaborative course combining both music and dance students. This teaching-research connection has born fruit in a recent conference papers (see below, Edinburgh University, Bayreuth University and McGill University).

Previously she has taught Counterpoint, Tonal Music, Pastiche, an Analytical case study on Debussy's Prelude to An Afternoon of a Faune, Music in Context exploring issues of canon, sponsorship, gender and so forth, Film Music, and Music in the Twentieth Century.

She has also taught music at Secondary School level, ranging from year 7 through to GCSE. She contributed to NAGTY (National Academy for Gifted and Talent Youth). More broadly she contributes sessions on Twentieth Century Music and Film Music dedicated to specific seasons for mature students at Lancaster University, including intensive courses exploring Film Music/Soundtracks, specifically considering charcaterisation and narrativity, the music of Stravinsky and music on Television.

Dissertation, UG/PG Supervision

Helen has supervised a number of undergraduate dissertation topics and postgraduate work. She has also examined a PhD as an internal examiner. Supervised topics range from and include:

UG
• Claude Debussy: including topics on Nature; the analysis of 'La Mer' and 'Prelude to an Afternoon of a Faune'; contextual studies.
• Broadway / West End Musicals
• Film Musicals
• Gender and opera in the nineteenth century
• William Byrd's masses: recusancy; Mass versus the Great Service
• Brass Band Music in the UK and America: contests; performance practice; origins
• Salvation Army Music; a Ethnographic Study, incorporating interviews with current editors and composers
• The Choral Music of John Rutter
• Musical Meaning; Music and Identity
• Choir Management and Choral Development
• Russian/Baltic Opera
• Music Education: orivate versus state education; primary curriculum; observation; movtivating students at key stage 4.
• Stravinsky: style and identity.
• TV in Music (Frith): X factor / Pop Idol format
• Music and the Everyday / TV adverts
• Saint-Seans: Samson and Dalia
• Harry Potter: characterisation and narrative

PG - Masters
• Musical Ekphrasis
• Mark Fish, 'Pictures of Miro' (2004)
• Andre Caplet, 'Conte Fantastique' (1924)
• Arvo Part, 'LamenTate' (2003)
• Greyworld's 'Soundscape' (2006)
• Petr Eben's 'Shagall Windows' (1976)
• Takashi Kako's 'Twittering Machine'
• Rachmaninov's 'Isle of the Dead' Op. 29
• Xenakis's 'Concrete PH'
• Cage, 4'33'' (1952)
• Multimedia Contexts: music and the visual
• Musical Identity in North American Native Music, Japanese Music, Celtic Music.
• Musical Depictions of British Society in British Film 1980s-1990s.
• Authenticity in Popular Music

PG - PhD supervision
• Salvation Army: Music and Mission
• 17th century Savoy court music

As well as the above Helen contributes guest lectures to the MA Applied Music Education Programme and to the Research Training Methods Seminars for the School of Arts.

Publications/Conference Papers/Seminars/Invited Talks

Research: Publications
• Conference Proceeding Compilation: Dance History Conference: Politics, Practices and Perspectives, Roehampton University (Forthcoming May 2010), to be published at http://www.dancebooks.co.uk/sdr-uk/publications.asp
• Book Review (forthcoming September 2010): ‘Paul-André Bempéchat, Jean Cras, Polymath of Music and Letters (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2009), xxviii, 569 p.’, Notes, The Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association (September 2010) c. 2000 words.
• Book Chapter (forthcoming January 2011): ‘In Collaboration: toward a gestural analysis of music and dance, Movements between Hearing and Seeing: Music, Dance, Theatre, Performance and Film, ed. Stephanie Schroedter c. 8,000 words.
• Article: ‘Paul Dukas’s La Péri (1911–12): A Problematic Creative–Collaborative Journey’, Dance Research: Ballets russes special edition part 2 (November 2009), 227-252, c. 12,000 words.
• Book Chapter, 'Paul Dukas et Claude Debussy : Identité dans l'opéra français', La musique française : esthétique et identité dans le processus de transformation 1892-1992, Conference Proceedings, 29–30 avril, Université Catholique de l’ouest, Angers, Pays de la Loire, France (November-December 2009) c. 8,000.
• Editing: ‘Conference Proceedings: Dance Research Conference March 2008, in collaboration with the Society for Dance Research and the Centre for Interdisciplinary Music Research. Co-edited with Dr. Geraldine Morris. Published on the website of Dance Research UK (November 2009). http://www.dancebooks.co.uk/sdr-uk/publications.asp and http://www.roehampton.ac.uk/researchcentres/cimr/research/index.html
• Conference Proceedings: ‘Paul Dukas and Serge Diaghilev: A Problematic Creative–Collaborative Journey’, in ‘Conference Proceedings: Dance Research Conference (March 2008), in collaboration with the Society for Dance Research and the Centre for Interdisciplinary Music Research. Co-edited with Dr. Geraldine Morris. Published on the website of Dance Research UK (November 2009), 15-22, c. 2,000.
• Book Review, ‘Musical Encounters at the 1889 Paris World's Fair by Annegret Fauser’, Nineteenth Century Music Review (Ashgate, July 2007), 135–9, c. 2,000 words.
• Article: ‘Paul Dukas’s La Péri as interpreted by two balletic collaborators’, Opera Quarterly: Performance, History, Theory, 22/1 (Oxford University Press, winter, 2006), 117–135, c. 10,000 words.
• Conference Report: ‘Interdisciplinary Nineteenth Century Studies International Conference. Interdisciplinary Nineteenth–Century Studies (INCS), The Centre for Nineteenth–Century Music & St Chad's College, Durham University, UK
6–9 July 2006’, RMA Newsletter (Autumn 2006), c. 1,000 words.
• Essay: Sound Moves International Conference on Music and Dance Proceedings, ‘Paul Dukas’s La Péri as interpreted by two balletic collaborators’. Conference proceedings, http://www.roehampton.ac.uk/soundmoves/ (Published January 2006), c. 2,000 words.

Research: Filmed Interview and Performance
• DVD: Invited to present an ‘Artist Interview’ with Walter Thompson, artist in residence, Soundpainting (October 2008), filmed on 30th October 2008, editing in process. The film includes a concert performance (including my trumpet playing), a rehearsal shoot, and the 45 minute interview discussing issues surrounding compositional authority and cultural associations in soundpainting. Directed by Helen McKlee and Prof. Michael Chanan.

Research: Conference papers; chairing; panel sessions
• (forthcoming) ‘A gestural analysis of music and dance through live composition’, Dance and Music: Moving Dialogues Conference, University of Montreal, McGill University, Société de recherché en musique, Concordia University and the Observatoire international de la création et des cultures musicales (March 2011).
• Invited ‘Gesture as a tool for analysing music and dance’, Movements between Hearing and Seeing: Music, Dance, Theatre, Performance and Film / Bewegungen zwischen Hören und Sehen: Musik, Tanz, Theater, Performance und Film, Symposion auf Schloss Thurnau (19–21 November 2009). Fully funded by the German Research Council.
• Invited ‘Paul Dukas’s critical response of Richard Wagner’, McGill University, Montréal (9–11 November 2009), fully funded by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Francophone Criticism Network; grant application led by Prof. Steven Huebner.
• ‘Gesture In and Between Music and Dance’, Centre for Interdisciplinary Music Research (27th October 2009), Roehampton University.
• ‘Wagner in the Parisian Music Press’, Centre for Interdisciplinary Music Research (20th October 2009), Roehampton University.
• ‘Erik Satie: responding to images’, Sixth Biennial Conference on Music Since 1900, Keele University (July 2009), research funding awarded by Roehampton University.
• Invited to chair, ‘French Transformation’, Sixth Biennial Conference on Music Since 1900, Keele University (July 2009).
• ‘Erik Satie “fashion milieu”: Sports et divertissements (1914/1922)’, Nostalgia and Innovation in Twentieth-Century French Music, Symposium, Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts, Lancaster University (8–9 May 2009).
• Invited to chair ‘Debussy Remembered: Dukas and pupils’, Nostalgia and Innovation in Twentieth-Century French Music, Symposium, Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts, Lancaster University (8–9 May 2009).
• Invited to chair Prof. Adam Ockelford, ‘Meaning in Art and Music’, International Research on Creativity and Learning in Education (CIRCLE), Roehampton University (25 November 2008).
• Invited 'In Collaboration: teaching performing arts', chaired by Prof. Stephanie Jordan, Centre for Dance Research, Roehampton University (20 November 2008).
• ‘In Collaboration: practical learning through gesture’, Dance, Timing and Musical Gesture, An International Conference, University of Edinburgh (13–15 June 2008).
• Panel statements and responses, invited by Reader Lucile Desblanche, session: 'Translating words, translating worlds', Research Festival, Roehampton University (10 June 2008).
• ‘Paul Dukas and Claude Debussy: French Operatic Identity’, 1892–1992 (29–30 April 2008), Colloque Internationale Musique Française: Esthétique et identité en mutation 1892–1992, Université Catholique de l’ouest, Angers, Pays de la Loire, France. Research funding awarded by Roehampton University.
• ‘Paul Dukas: A Collaborative–Creative Journey’, Dance Research Conference, Society for Dance Research in collaboration with the Centre for Interdisciplinary Music Research (15 March 2008).
• Chaired a session, Dance Research Conference, Society for Dance Research in collaboration with the Centre for Interdisciplinary Music Research (15 March 2008).
• Chair, research seminar for the Institute for Music Research Directions in Musical Research Seminar Series: Alexandra Wilson (Thursday 6 March 2008), Senate House, London. Invited by Prof. Katharine Ellis (IMR / Royal Holloway).
• Invited research talk, Dukes Theatre, Lancaster, hosted/funded by the Department of Continuing Education Community Research Project, Lancaster University: ‘Paul Dukas and French Musical Identity’ (22 February 2008).
• ‘Disappointment and Imagination: Paul Dukas’s French Theatre Criticisms’, Research seminar for the Centre for Interdisciplinary Music Research, Roehampton University (30 January 2008).
• ‘The Criticisms of Paul Dukas (1865–1935): Interpreting French Theatre Performance’, French Music: Performance and Analysis, An International Conference (16 November 2007), Brigham Young University, Laie, Hawaii. Funded by Roehampton University.
• Music in Interwar France 1918–1939: A Study Day (9 November 2007), Keele University, invited to chair a session by Prof. Barbara Kelly.
• Lecture–recital, presented original research and performed (trumpet), invited, ‘Stravinsky’s Histoire du soldat: The Concept of Voice’, Roehampton University, cond. Leslie Anne Lewis (22–24 October 2007).
• ‘Perpetual malleability: Paul Dukas’s La Péri (1911) — the phoenix’. Invited by Dr. Graham Cummings and Prof. John Bryan to the Research Forum, University of Huddersfield (November 2006). Funded by the Research Forum.
• ‘Paul Dukas’s Critical Writings: A Concept of Drama’, Interdisciplinary Nineteenth–Century Studies International Conference, The University of Durham (6–9 July 2006). Submitted online in a delegate password protected area at http://www.dur.ac.uk/incs.conference/PDFs/minors.pdf
• ‘Paul Dukas’s Concept of Drama in Music’, RMA Research Students’ Conference, Leeds University (5 January 2006).
• ‘Le musicien–sorcier: Paul Dukas, un musicien français’, Invited paper, Le Cercle Français, Leigh (November 2005).
• ‘Paul Dukas’s La Péri as interpreted by two balletic collaborators’, Sound Moves International Conference on Music and Dance, Roehampton University (6 November 2005). Also presented in Music, Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts, Lancaster University (2 November 2005).
• ‘The Visual Dimension in Paul Dukas’s La Péri’, Musical Iconography, RMA Study Day, Sheffield University (30 July 2005). Invited by Susan Bagust.
• ‘“Music necessarily has to express something”: Paul Dukas’s approach to balletic orchestration’, RMA Research Students’ Conference, International Centre for Music Studies, University of Newcastle Upon Tyne (30 March 2005).
• ‘“I will destroy it”: Paul Dukas’s La Péri and variation form’ Symposium on Music in France 1830–1940, An International Conference, University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia (17 July 2004). Funded gained from The Royal Musical Association, and from Music Lancaster University.
• ‘Active Listening in the Learning Process’, CiLTHE Conference, Lancaster University (1 July 2004).
• ‘Variation Form and an Exotic Ballet’, Departmental Research Seminar, Lancaster University (12 May 2004).
• ‘Reassessing Paul Dukas’s La Péri (1911)’, RMA Research Students’ Conference, Royal Holloway University of London (9 January 2004).
• ‘Paul Dukas’, Departmental Research Seminar, Lancaster University (3 December 2004).

Future plans include an article on Erik Satie's 'Sports et divertissements' and an analytical book appraisal of Paul Dukas’s critical writings written in partnership with Laura Watson (TCD, Ireland).

Events Organised

• Assisting in, Dance History Conference, March 2010, Dance, Roehampton University.
• Community Music Workshop Student Day, 15th February 2010, with Julian West, Royal Academy of Music. Music Department.
• Lecture-recital, Songs for Mary, All Saint's Day, Digby Chapel, CIMR Roehampton University, 6th November 2008.
• Walter Thompson Artist in Residency, Soundpainting, October 2008, CIMR Roehampton University.
• Soundpainting Workshop Day 24th October 2008, CIMR Roehampton University.
• Established Scholars Conference for the Society of Dance Research (15th March 2008). Conference committee.
• The first research seminar series for CIMR, Spring 2008, comprising 8 interdisciplinary papers on diverse topics representative of the centre aims.
• An opening event, Interdisciplinary Music Research Conference, for the Centre for Interdisciplinary Music Research (CIMR) at Roehampton University (13th October 2007). With key note addresses by Dr. Caroline Rae and Prof. Michael Chanan.
• New Scholars Conference, hosted by the Society of Dance Research (30th June 2007), London College of Fashion. Helen has been supporting the conference committee in organising this event.
• Exploring Musical Sources, A Study Day in collaboration with the Royal Musical Association (Saturday 12th February 2005). This event had guest speakers, personally selected and invited, to present recent work on tackling the issues and problems of source study. The event idea drew on Helen's own research areas. Speakers included: Richard Langham Smith (Arnold Kettle Distinguished Scholar of Music, Open University); Rebecca Herrisone (The University of Manchester); Edward Venn (Lancaster University); and John Byran (The University of Huddersfield). This event was reviewed in the RMA newsletter by Philip Taylor (Lancaster University).

Membership of professional bodies

Higher Education Academy

Royal Musical Association

American Musicological Association

Society for Dance Research

National Academy for Music in Higher Education

Universities and Colleges Union

Francophone Music Criticism Network: member

Institute for Music research [IMR]: associate

Undergraduate courses taught at Roehampton:

Music

Postgraduate courses taught at Roehampton:

Music & Culture
Music
Dance Studies
Music Education