26 May 2017
Christopher Wiley
Presentation, Public Output, Research
Chris Wiley, Christopher Wiley, Cranleigh, Cranleigh Arts Centre, ethel smyth, Jacqueline Mulhallen, Lynx Theatre, Lynx Theatre and Poetry, Mulhallen, Music, suffrage activity, suffragette, suffragette movement, Surrey, Syliva Pankhurst, Sylvia, University, University of Surrey, Wiley, women's suffrage
Dr Christopher Wiley addressed an audience of theatre-goers on Ethel Smyth as part of a post-show discussion following the one-woman play Sylvia, presented by Lynx Theatre and Poetry at Cranleigh Arts Centre, Surrey on the evening of Friday 26 May 2017.
The main performance, a theatrical production based on Sylvia Pankhurst’s life, activity as a painter, and service to the suffragette movement, was performed by professional actress Jacqueline Mulhallen (pictured, as Pankhurst) having been developed from original research.
After a brief interval, the post-show discussion led with Dr Wiley’s talk on Smyth, following which the audience were able to put questions to Dr Wiley and the creators of Sylvia, and to engage in further general conversation on women’s suffrage.
Internationally acknowledged for his substantial contribution to scholarship on Smyth across the past 15 years, Dr Wiley has more recently acquired a reputation as a local historian, many of the audience members already being familiar with his work on the Surrey-based composer, writer, and suffragette.
Further information about the event is available here: http://purchase.tickets.com/buy/TicketPurchase?agency=CRAN&organ_val=40629&pid=8410211
19 April 2017
Christopher Wiley
Conference, Presentation, Publication, Research
25, Adele, Adele Adkins, autobiography, Bristol, Chris Wiley, Christopher Wiley, conference, ethel smyth, Music, music and literature, musical biography, musicology, presentation, research, Surrey, University, University of Bristol, University of Surrey, Wiley
Dr Christopher Wiley presented a paper at a two-day international conference entitled ‘Beyond Genius and Muse – Collaborating Couples in Twentieth-Century Arts’, held at the Victoria Rooms, University of Bristol on 18–19 April 2017.
Dr Wiley’s paper, ‘Subject and Countersubject: The Prevalence of the Genius and the Muse in Musical Biography’, explored the pattern of collaborating couples that has emerged historically in musical biography, drawing on examples including Brahms and Clara Schumann, Ethel Smyth and Henry Brewster, Britten and Peter Pears, and Adele.
It built upon Dr Wiley’s previous scholarship conducted in this area across more than 10 years, of which the most recent output, his book chapter ‘Musical Biography and the Myth of the Muse’, was published in 2015.
The conference brought together some 50 academics from across Europe and the US, encompassing a range of topics in music, literature, and the visual arts.
Further information is available at the conference website: https://collaboratingcouples.wordpress.com/
27 February 2017
Christopher Wiley
Presentation, Public Output, Research
Chris Wiley, Christopher Wiley, deafness, ethel smyth, feminism, feminist musicology, gender studies, Guildford, Guildford Hard of Hearing Support Group, hard of hearing, memoirs, Millmead Centre, Music, music and literature, musical biography, musicology, opera, presentation, research, Surrey, Surrey Heath, The Boatswain's Mate, University, University of Surrey, Wiley
Dr Christopher Wiley delivered a talk entitled ‘Ethel Smyth’s (feminist?) opera, The Boatswain’s Mate’ at the Millmead Centre, Guildford on 27 February 2017, for Guildford Hard of Hearing Support Group.
The Boatswain’s Mate was the fourth of six operas composed by Smyth (who suffered from distorted hearing and deafness for the last several decades of her life), and was the most popular and most frequently performed during her own lifetime. It was recently released in its first complete modern recording by Retrospect Opera (of which Dr Wiley is a part).
An acknowledged expert on Smyth, Dr Wiley provided an outline of the circumstances of the composition of The Boatswain’s Mate, its plot, and interesting features of the music. He also discussed the extent to which the work constitutes a ‘feminist opera’, as has previously been suggested.
This is the second time that Dr Wiley has addressed Guildford Hard of Hearing Support Group, having delivered a presentation on Smyth’s life and works two years ago in January 2015. Dr Wiley has also recently given talks on Smyth at The Guildford Institute and at the composer’s childhood home in Frimley Green.
18 January 2017
Christopher Wiley
Presentation, Public Output, Research
Chris Wiley, Christopher Wiley, ethel smyth, Guildford, Music, music and literature, presentation, research, Surrey, The Guildford Institute, University, University of Surrey, Wiley
Dr Christopher Wiley delivered a talk entitled ‘Dame Ethel Smyth, Groundbreaking Composer, Writer, and Suffragette’ at The Guildford Institute, Guildford on Wednesday 18 January 2017.
Speaking to a capacity audience of 70 in the Institute’s Assembly Room, Dr Wiley outlined Smyth’s significance to music, literature, and women’s suffrage, as well as her local connections to Surrey, illustrating his talk with excerpts from a variety of her works.
An acknowledged expert on the subject, Dr Wiley has recently given several talks on Ethel Smyth in the local area, including one at Smyth’s childhood home in Frimley Green, Surrey last September.
Further information on the event is available on The Guildford Institute’s website: http://guildford-institute.org.uk/whats-on2/dame-ethel-smyth-groundbreaking-composer-writer-and-suffragette/
11 September 2016
Christopher Wiley
Presentation, Public Output, Research
ATD Fourth World, Chris Wiley, Christopher Wiley, ethel smyth, Frimhurst, Frimhurst Family House, Frimley Green, Music, music and literature, presentation, research, Surrey, Surrey Heath, University, University of Surrey, Wiley
Dr Christopher Wiley gave a talk entitled ‘Ethel Smyth: Composer, Author, Suffragette, and Surrey Resident’, at Frimhurst Family House, Frimley Green (Ethel Smyth’s childhood home), on 11 September 2016.
Dr Wiley addressed an audience of some 50 members of the public during an event celebrating Ethel Smyth, part of the ‘Century of Sound’ Festival organised annually by Surrey Heath Borough. The full programme for the Festival is available here: http://www.centuryofsound.co.uk/event-programme.
Other features of the afternoon event included included performances of Smyth’s solo piano music by Dr Maureen Galea and of some of her songs by the Surrey Heath Singers, as well as a tour of the premises and a talk about the work of the charity ATD Fourth World, which now operates at Frimhurst Family House.
The event was jointly organised by Surrey Heath Museum, the University of Surrey, and ATD Fourth World.
2 August 2016
Christopher Wiley
Publication, Research
booklet, CD, Chris Wiley, Christopher Wiley, comic opera, David Chandler, ethel smyth, liner notes, Music, musicology, Odaline de la Martinez, opera, Publication, research, Retrospect Opera, Surrey, The Boatswain's Mate, The Bosun's Mate, University, University of Surrey, Wiley
Retrospect Opera’s newly released CD of Ethel Smyth’s The Boatswain’s Mate, the first complete modern recording of the work, includes an essay by Dr Christopher Wiley in the accompanying booklet.
The recording appears in the centenary year of Smyth’s comic opera, which premiered on 28 January 1916 at the Shaftesbury Theatre, London. It features singers Nadine Benjamin, Edward Lee, and Jeremy Huw Williams in the principal roles, accompanied by the Lontano Ensemble conducted by pioneering Smyth interpreter Odaline de la Martinez.
Dr Wiley is acknowledged as an academic expert on Ethel Smyth, with recent research activity including publication of a major journal article, a score preface, and promoting Smyth’s music in concert, in addition to giving several public lectures on the composer. His essay ‘The Boatswain’s Mate in the context of Smyth’s life and works’ appears in the CD booklet alongside contributions by Odaline de la Martinez and Retrospect Opera’s Professor David Chandler.
The CD is available direct from Retrospect Opera at the following link: http://www.retrospectopera.org.uk/CD_Sales.html
It may also be ordered through Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Boatswains-Mate-Ethel-Smyth/dp/B01HIJX83Q/
Full text
The full text of Dr Wiley’s essay is available for free download under licence from Surrey Research Insight Open Access: http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/811593/
28 January 2016
Christopher Wiley
Media, Research, Teaching
#SurreyInReview, Annual Review 2015, Chris Wiley, Christopher Wiley, education, Music, research, Surrey, teaching, University, University of Surrey, Wiley
Dr Christopher Wiley is featured in the University of Surrey’s Annual Review 2015, as one of 3 Inspiring Academics and 6 Exceptional Students across the institution.
Dr Wiley (profiled on p.11 of the Annual Review) discusses highlights of the past year including the Opportunities & Networking Event and ‘Careers in the Arts’ panel discussion, being nominated for the Students’ Union Academic Staff Member of the Year award, gaining Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy, and writing a report on the use of electronic voting systems in arts and humanities teaching, as well as his prolific activity in 2015 as a research-active Musicologist, publishing book chapters, organising an international conference, presenting papers at major UK universities, and giving talks for the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Glyndebourne Tour.
The Annual Review may be downloaded in full here: http://ow.ly/XEIuO
30 November 2015
Christopher Wiley
Publication, Research
Chris Wiley, Christopher Wiley, ethel smyth, musicology, oboe, preface, Publication, republication, research, score, study score, Variations on Bonny Sweet Robin, Wiley
Dr Christopher Wiley has contributed a preface to a republication of an Ethel Smyth work – the Variations on Bonny Sweet Robin (Ophelia’s Song) for flute, oboe, and piano – as a study score.
The republication was one of the new releases for November 2015 by the publisher Musikproduktion Hoeflich. The score and parts are available to purchase for €16 from the publisher’s website here: https://repertoire-explorer.musikmph.de/product/smyth-ethel-3/
The complete text of Dr Wiley’s preface may be read in both English and in German translation (by Anke Westermann) here: https://repertoire-explorer.musikmph.de/wp-content/uploads/vorworte_prefaces/1724.html
Dr Wiley, who is recognised as a leading researcher on Ethel Smyth, has also promoted her music as a performer, including the Variations on Bonny Sweet Robin which featured as part of a commemorative recital of Smyth’s music on the 70th anniversary of her death in May 2014.
Bibliographic citation
Wiley, Christopher. Preface for Study Score of Ethel Smyth, Variations on Bonny Sweet Robin (Ophelia’s Song). Munich: Musikproduktion Hoeflich, 2015. Available online at <https://repertoire-explorer.musikmph.de/wp-content/uploads/vorworte_prefaces/1724.html>.
7 October 2015
Christopher Wiley
Media, Publication, Research
30th anniversary, Boublil and Schönberg, Chris Wiley, Christopher Wiley, film music, Les Misérables, media, Music, musical theatre, musicals, musicology, stage, Surrey, teaching, The Conversation, The Conversation UK, theatre, University of Surrey, Wiley
Dr Christopher Wiley has contributed an article to The Conversation on the enduring popularity of Les Misérables, the world’s most successful musical, ahead of the 30th anniversary of its London production on 8 October 2015.
Dr Wiley’s article, ‘Les Misérables at 30: breaking hearts and records’, discussed aspects of the show’s plot and musical score, the role played by writers Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg and by producer Cameron Mackintosh, as well as more recent developments such as Tom Hooper’s 2012 film adaptation.
The full article may be read here: https://theconversation.com/les-miserables-at-30-breaking-hearts-and-records-48535
This is the second time that Dr Wiley has written for The Conversation, the first being a scholarly response to Stephen Fry, which has received 4,000 hits to date.
Founded in Australia in 2011 and launched in the UK in 2013, The Conversation is an independent global news website featuring stories and opinions sourced from the scholarly community. The University of Surrey is one of its founding UK partners.
Update: Dr Wiley’s Les Misérables article received over 1,300 hits by the end of 8 October (UK time), with readers fairly evenly distributed between the UK, US, Australia, and Continental Europe.
16 June 2015
Christopher Wiley
Colloquium, Presentation, Research
Bach, biography, Chris Wiley, Christopher Wiley, colloquium, conference, Faculty of Music, historiography, history, J. S. Bach, literature, Marchand, Music, music and literature, music history, musical biography, musicology, myth, mythology, nationality, Oxford, presentation, research, seminar, Surrey, The Master Musicians series, University, University of Oxford, University of Surrey, Wiley
Dr Christopher Wiley presented his paper ‘National Trends in Musical Biography’ in the Music Research Colloquia series at the Faculty of Music, University of Oxford on 16 June 2015, to close the series for the 2014–15 academic year.
Speaking to some 25 academics and postgraduate students in the Faculty’s Denis Arnold Hall, Dr Wiley explored the relationship between musical biography and nationality, in terms of the status of the genre at particular times and places as well as its development over time.
Case studies upon which Dr Wiley drew included biographical retellings of the story of J.S. Bach’s keyboard contest with Louis Marchand, and the ideologies that emerge from the original volumes of the ‘Master Musicians’ series. Dr Wiley had presented earlier versions of this research at the Institute of Musical Research, University of London in 2015 and 2014.
The weekly colloquia are organized by graduate students and feature musicological research presented by a range of leading academics and younger researchers from universities around the world.
Details of Dr Wiley’s Research Colloquium may be found here: http://www.music.ox.ac.uk/event/research-colloquium-chris-wiley/
1 May 2015
Christopher Wiley
Educational Research, Media, Public Output, Research
blog, Chris Wiley, Christopher Wiley, educational research, electronic voting systems, film music, Michael Jackson, module evaluation, music and literature, musical theatre, musicology, research, SRI, Surrey, Surrey Research Insight, Turning Technologies, TurningPoint, University of Surrey, Wiley
Dr Christopher Wiley has recently been profiled in an interview on the Surrey Research Insight blog as well as a case study written by Turning Technologies.
Turning Technologies’ feature on Dr Wiley’s pioneering use of electronic voting systems (EVS) in arts and humanities teaching, ‘TurningPoint in the Arts: Electronic Voting Systems as a Springboard for Student Engagement’, was published on their website on 14 April 2015. It discussed various aspects of Dr Wiley’s use of EVS in higher education teaching including multiple-choice questions that test deep-level understanding, game-based learning employed alongside flipped classroom techniques, and the technology’s moment to moment and demographic comparison features.
Surrey Research Insight (SRI), which manages the open access repository of academic publications for the University of Surrey, interviewed Dr Wiley in a blog post entitled ‘SRI talks to Dr Christopher Wiley’, which appeared on 1 May 2015. Dr Wiley spoke about his published work on Michael Jackson (which is available on open access), his interests in musical theatre and film music, and his current research on literature and music and on student evaluation of teaching.
The full texts may be viewed at the following links:
Surrey Research Insight: https://surreyresearchinsight.wordpress.com/2015/05/01/sri-talks-to-dr-christopher-wiley/
Turning Technologies: http://www.turningtechnologies.com/pdf/content/INTLCaseStudy-UniSurrey-DrWiley.pdf
10 April 2015
Christopher Wiley
Conference, Presentation, Research
Bach, biography, Chris Wiley, Christopher Wiley, conference, historiography, history, Institute of Musical Research, J. S. Bach, literature, London, Marchand, Music, music and literature, music history, musical biography, musicology, myth, mythology, presentation, research, Surrey, University, University of London, University of Surrey, Wiley
Dr Christopher Wiley and Dr Paul Watt (Monash University, Melbourne) have co-organized a two-day international conference on musical biography held at the Institute of Musical Research, University of London, on 9-10 April 2015.
The conference, entitled ‘Musical Biography: National Ideology, Narrative Technique, and the Nature of Myth’, brought together a broad range of some 50 interdisciplinary scholars from the UK, US, Australia, and Continental Europe.
In addition to several panel sessions, the conference incorporated two invited roundtable discussions, whose speakers included Professors Simon Keefe (University of Sheffield), Mark Evan Bonds (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), Jonathan Cross (University of Oxford), and Rosamund Bartlett (Oxford).
In the course of the conference, Dr Wiley also chaired three of the panel sessions as well as presenting his paper ‘Myth-making and the Politics of Nationality in Narratives of J.S. Bach’s 1717 Contest with Louis Marchand’, which discussed the ideological significance of the variations in retellings of a single biographical story across different countries in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
The schedule for the event may be viewed at the conference website: http://events.sas.ac.uk/imr/events/view/17765/Music+Biography+Conference
The full conference programme may be downloaded here.
31 March 2015
Christopher Wiley
Conference, Publication, Research
Chris Wiley, Christopher Wiley, City, City University London, conference, ethel smyth, gender studies, London, Music, music and literature, music historiography, music history, musical biography, musical canon, musicology, presentation, Publication, Radical Music History Symposium, research, Sibelius Academy, Surrey, symposium, University, University of Surrey, Wiley
An essay written by Dr Christopher Wiley, entitled ‘Musical Biography and the Myth of the Muse’, has appeared as the final chapter of a new anthology in which 17 international musicologists subject the writing of music history to groundbreaking scrutiny.
Critical Music Historiography: Probing Canons, Ideologies and Institutions is edited by Vesa Kurkela and Markus Mantere, and developed from the Radical Music History Symposium held at the Sibelius Academy, Finland (now part of the University of the Arts Helsinki) in December 2011, at which Dr Wiley presented a paper.
Dr Wiley’s essay explores the pattern in musical biography of specific female characters being cast in the role of ‘muse’ to a male genius, rising to prominence at specific points in that person’s life story as a signifier of their productivity and increasing artistic powers. Such women were thereby portrayed as having inspired their associated composer to greater heights, while implicitly denied the possibility of undertaking analogous creative activity themselves.
Further information
Listing of the volume on the publisher’s website: http://www.ashgate.com/default.aspx?page=637&title_id=19817&edition_id=1209349954&calcTitle=1
Listing of the volume on amazon.co.uk: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Critical-Music-Historiography-Ideologies-Institutions/dp/1472414195/
Bibliographic citation
Wiley, Christopher. ‘Musical Biography and the Myth of the Muse’, in Vesa Kurkela and Markus Mantere eds. Critical Music Historiography: Probing Canons, Ideologies and Institutions. Farnham: Ashgate, 2015, pp. 251–61.
Full text
The full text is available for free download under licence from Surrey Research Insight Open Access: http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/803216/
26 January 2015
Christopher Wiley
Presentation, Public Output, Research
autobiography, Chris Wiley, Christopher Wiley, deafness, ethel smyth, gender studies, Guildford, Guildford Hard of Hearing Support Group, hard of hearing, Millmead Centre, Music, music and literature, musical biography, musicology, presentation, research, Surrey, University, University of Surrey, Virginia Woolf, Wiley
Dr Christopher Wiley presented a talk entitled ‘The Composer Dame Ethel Smyth and her Deafness’ at the Millmead Centre, Guildford on 26 January 2015, for Guildford Hard of Hearing Support Group.
Smyth, who was active as composer, writer, and suffragette, was afflicted by distorted hearing and deafness for the last several decades of her life, particularly from the later 1910s until her death in 1944.
An acknowledged expert on Smyth, Dr Wiley has previously given public talks on the artist at the University of Surrey and The Women’s Library, London, as well as writing for the OUP Blog and organizing a recital of Smyth’s music to commemorate the 70th anniversary of her death last year.
18 July 2014
Christopher Wiley
Conference, Presentation, Research
aesthetics, biography, Chris Wiley, Christopher Wiley, conference, historiography, history, Institute of Musical Research, literature, London, Music, music and literature, musical biography, musicology, presentation, research, Surrey, The Master Musicians series, University, University of London, University of Surrey, Wiley
Dr Christopher Wiley presented his paper ‘Life and Works: The Master Musicians Series (1899–1906) as Victorian Period-Piece’ at the ‘Music Literature, Historiography, and Aesthetics’ Conference held at the Institute of Musical Research, University of London, on 17-18 July 2014.
Dr Wiley’s paper explored elements of Victorian ideology (including preoccupations with evolutionist theory and with ‘working partnerships’ between men and women) that emerge strongly from a close reading of the volumes of the original Master Musicians series. He then showed how these concerns yielded important consequences for the authors’ discussions of the musical works themselves.
The conference’s call for papers is available here: http://artsonline.monash.edu.au/news-events/call-for-papers-conference-on-music-literature-historiography-and-aesthetics/
The full conference programme may be downloaded here: http://music.sas.ac.uk/sites/default/files/files/Music%20Literature%20Historiography%20and%20Aesthetics%20programme%20(1).doc
Dr Wiley had previously presented a paper at a related conference held at Monash University, Melbourne earlier in the year.
16 June 2014
Christopher Wiley
Media, Public Output, Research
#PeoplesQs, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Chris Wiley, Christopher Wiley, education, ethel smyth, Higher Education, media, Music, musicology, People's Questions, research, Surrey, Twitter, Universities Week, University, University of Surrey, Wiley
Dr Christopher Wiley was among the researchers and academics who took questions from members of the public via Twitter as part of Universities Week 2014.
Using the hashtag #PeoplesQs, Dr Wiley took questions about his research on the music of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and on Dame Ethel Smyth, as well as on challenges faced by music education today.
A round-up of the week’s activity from University of Surrey academic staff may be viewed here: https://storify.com/UniOfSurrey/universities-week-2014 (click on the ‘Read next page’ button for some details of Dr Wiley’s contribution)
The complete list of panellists is available here: http://www.universitiesweek.org.uk/stories/Pages/PeoplesQs.asp
8 May 2014
Christopher Wiley
Media, Public Output, Publication, Research
blog, Chris Wiley, Christopher Wiley, ethel smyth, Music, music and literature, musicology, OUPblog, Oxford Journals, Oxford University Press, research, Surrey, The Musical Quarterly, University, University of Surrey, Wiley, Woking
Dr Christopher Wiley has contributed a text to the OUPblog, Oxford University Press’s Academic Insights for the Thinking World, to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the death of Dame Ethel Smyth, the pioneering composer and writer, on 8 May 1944.
Dr Wiley’s 1,000-word post, ‘Five facts about Dame Ethel Smyth’, may be read here: http://blog.oup.com/2014/05/facts-dame-ethel-smyth/
This blog entry follows Dr Wiley’s article on Smyth published in Oxford journal The Musical Quarterly last year.
To mark the anniversary, Dr Wiley also organized a lunchtime recital of Smyth’s music which took plan on 8 May 2014 in Woking, the town where she was resident from 1910 until her death.
Update: Dr Wiley’s blog entry was subsequently selected as one of the Editor’s Picks, appearing on the front page of the OUPblog for some weeks.
8 May 2014
Christopher Wiley
Performance, Presentation, Public Output, Research
Chris Wiley, Christ Church, Christ Church Woking, Christopher Wiley, concert, ethel smyth, Isabella Stocchetti, Margaret Roberts, Maureen Galea, Music, music and literature, musicology, presentation, recital, research, Sebastian Forbes, Surrey, University, University of Surrey, Wiley, Woking
Dr Christopher Wiley organized a recital of the music of Dame Ethel Smyth, given at Christ Church Woking by staff and students of the School of Arts at the University of Surrey, to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the composer’s death in Hook Heath, near Woking on 8 May 1944.
The one-hour lunchtime recital of chamber, vocal, and solo keyboard works featured pianists Maureen Galea and Margaret Roberts, Isabella Stocchetti (flute), and Christopher Wiley (oboe, organ), as well as members of the University Chamber Choir. The full programme was as follows:
- Two Interlinked French Folk Melodies (1928, from the opera Entente cordiale) for flute, oboe, and piano (Isabella Stocchetti, flute; Christopher Wiley, oboe; Margaret Roberts, piano)
- Aus der Jugendzeit!! E. v. H. (c.1878–80) (Maureen Galea, piano)
- Nocturne (Kanon in Gegenbewegung) (c.1877–80) (Maureen Galea, piano)
- ‘O Gott du frommer Gott’ and Canon on ‘O Gott du frommer Gott’ (Nos. IIa & IIb from Short Choral Preludes, c.1882–4) (Christopher Wiley, organ)
- Piano Suite in E major (c.1877–1880) (Maureen Galea, piano)
- Variations on Bonny Sweet Robin (Ophelia’s Song) (1928) (Isabella Stocchetti, flute; Christopher Wiley, oboe; Margaret Roberts, piano)
- Overture to the opera The Boatswain’s Mate, Piano transcription (1913–14) (Maureen Galea, piano)
- ‘Laggard Dawn’ and ‘The March of the Women’ (Nos. 1 & 3 from Songs of Sunrise, 1910) (University Chamber Choir, dir. Isabella Stocchetti; Maureen Galea, piano)
Dr Wiley, who has been conducting research on Ethel Smyth for over a decade, also gave spoken introductions to each piece, and Surrey History Centre provided their ‘Musical Passions’ exhibition celebrating Smyth’s life.
Attended by some 50 audience members, this commemoration followed the Ethel Smyth Symposium hosted at the University in February of this year.
Update: The event was favourably reviewed by Sebastian Forbes, who wrote that ‘Senior lecturer Christopher Wiley, who has done much research into Smyth, not only devised and introduced the concert but also, very expertly, played oboe and organ.’
The review is available here: http://blogs.surrey.ac.uk/arts/2014/05/12/celebrating-the-life-and-work-of-dame-ethel-smythe-concert-at-christ-church-woking/
12 April 2014
Christopher Wiley
Conference, Research
Australia, autobiography, Chris Wiley, Christopher Wiley, conference, ethel smyth, Master Musicians series, Melbourne, Monash University, Monash University Law Chambers, Mozart, Music, music and literature, musical biography, musicology, presentation, research, Surrey, University, University of Surrey, Wiley
Dr Christopher Wiley was among the speakers who presented at the ‘Words About Music’ conference held at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia on 12 April 2014.
Dr Wiley’s paper, ‘Music and (or?) Musical Biography’, examined aspects of the complex relationship between the life and the works in a range of composer biographies. Using case studies drawn from several different areas of his wider research – including the celebrated story of Mozart’s Requiem, the original volumes of the ‘Master Musicians’ series, and the autobiographical writings of Ethel Smyth – Dr Wiley illustrated how biographical narrative may shed much direct light on the music, or very little, or may even present a contradictory perspective from that evident from the score itself.
Held at Monash University Law Chambers, the international conference brought together scholars from across Australia and the UK, representing a range of disciplines including musicology, literature, history, and sociology.
19 February 2014
Christopher Wiley
Conference, Performance, Presentation, Public Output, Research
autobiography, Chris Wiley, Christopher Wiley, Clive Williamson, concert, ethel smyth, gender and sexuality, gender studies, Isabella Stocchetti, lesbian studies, LGBT History Month, Margaret Roberts, Maureen Galea, Music, music and literature, musical biography, musicology, opera, presentation, Sophie Langdon, Surrey, symposium, University, University of Surrey, Wiley
Dr Christopher Wiley contributed to a Symposium dedicated to Ethel Smyth (1858-1944), the Surrey-based composer and writer also noted for her suffrage activity in the early 1910s, which was held in the Performing Arts Technology Studios at the University of Surrey on 19 February. This was the University’s first ever event for LGBT History Month, for which Smyth was named as one of the faces of the 2014 theme of Music.
Introduced by Professor Diane Watt, Head of the University’s School of English and Languages, the Symposium commenced with a talk by Dr Wiley entitled ‘Dame Ethel Smyth (1858-1944): In Search of a Lesbian Identity in Music and Literature’, in which he discussed possible ways of interpreting Smyth’s artistic output as reflecting her sexual identity and feminist sensibilities, with musical illustrations provided by Maureen Galea (piano) and the University Chamber Choir.
A drinks reception followed the talk, during which audience members were able to view the ‘Musical Passions’ exhibition celebrating the life of Ethel Smyth, provided courtesy of Surrey History Centre.
The Symposium closed with a concert of solo, chamber, and vocal works by Ethel Smyth, featuring staff and students of the University including pianists Maureen Galea and Margaret Roberts, Isabella Stocchetti (flute), and Christopher Wiley (oboe), as well as the University Chamber Choir. Highlights included a performance of Smyth’s Violin Sonata with guest artist Sophie Langdon and the Head of Performance, Professor Clive Williamson. The full programme was as follows:
- Two Interlinked French Folk Melodies (1928, from the opera Entente cordiale) for flute, oboe, and piano (Isabella Stocchetti, flute; Christopher Wiley, oboe; Margaret Roberts, piano)
- Aus der Jugendzeit!! E. v. H. (c.1878–80) (Maureen Galea, piano)
Nocturne (Kanon in Gegenbewegung) (c.1877–80) (Maureen Galea, piano)- Sonata for Violin and Piano in A minor, Op. 7 (1877) (Sophie Langdon, violin; Clive Williamson, piano)
- Variations on Bonny Sweet Robin (Ophelia’s Song) (1928) (Isabella Stocchetti, flute; Christopher Wiley, oboe; Margaret Roberts, piano)
- Overture to the opera The Boatswain’s Mate, Piano transcription (1913–14) (Maureen Galea, piano)
- ‘Laggard Dawn’ and ‘The March of the Women’ (Nos. 1 & 3 from Songs of Sunrise, 1910) (University Chamber Choir, cond. Isabella Stocchetti, dir. Russell Keable; Maureen Galea, piano)
The Symposium was held in association with the University of Surrey Equality and Diversity, the School of Arts, the School of English and Languages, LGBT History Month, and Surrey History Centre. Both the talk and the concert were attended by around 50 people, including staff and students of the University and external visitors.
Further information
Event website: http://www.surrey.ac.uk/arts/music/events/ethel_smyth.htm
Poster: http://www.exploringsurreyspast.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/LGBT-History-Month-Final-2014-21-01-14.pdf
Surrey History Centre: http://www.exploringsurreyspast.org.uk/lgbt-2014/
Update
An academic response to Dr Wiley’s talk, ‘Musical Inversions: Ethel Smyth’ by Dr Heike Bauer (Birkbeck University of London), appeared on the blog A Violent World of Difference on 21 February 2014: http://violentworldofdifference.wordpress.com/2014/02/21/21-feb-2014-musical-inversions-ethel-smyth/
20 November 2013
Christopher Wiley
Presentation, Publication, Research
autobiography, Chris Wiley, Christopher Wiley, ethel smyth, gender and sexuality, gender studies, lesbian studies, Music, music and literature, musical biography, musicology, opera, Publication, research, seminar, Surrey, The Musical Quarterly, University, University of Surrey, Virginia Woolf, Wiley
Dr Christopher Wiley presented a research seminar based on his paper ‘Music and Literature: Ethel Smyth, Virginia Woolf, and “The First Woman to Write an Opera”’ at a research seminar hosted by the School of Arts at the University of Surrey on 20 November 2013.
Dr Wiley joined the University of Surrey in September 2013 following a nine-year tenure at City University London. One aspect of his research concerns the intellectual dialogue between Ethel Smyth and Virginia Woolf (pictured, R-L). The article on which his paper is based is being published in the refereed journal The Musical Quarterly.
15 November 2013
Christopher Wiley
Conference, Publication, Research
Chris Wiley, Christopher Wiley, Haydn, Joseph Haydn, London, Music, musical biography, musicology, myth, mythology, Publication, The British Library, Wiley
A book chapter written by Dr Christopher Wiley, entitled ‘Mythological Motifs in the Biographical Accounts of Haydn’s Later Life’, has appeared in a recently-published anthology that represents a major new contribution to Haydn scholarship.
The volume, The Land of Opportunity: Joseph Haydn and Britain, is edited by Richard Chesser and David Wyn Jones and has its origins in a conference hosted by The British Library (who also published the book) in 2009, organized to commemorate the bicentenary of Haydn’s death.
Dr Wiley’s essay investigates three prominent stories in life-writing on Haydn’s later life: his visit of 1795 to the monument erected in his honour by Count Harrach at Rohrau; the performance of The Creation in March 1808; and the episode of his death the following year. It explores various revealing themes that emerge from their retellings in musical biographies over the decades, including the rising social status of the artist, Haydn’s reconciliation with Beethoven, and notions of The Creation as a harbinger of the composer’s death.
Bibliographic citation
Wiley, Christopher. ‘Mythological Motifs in the Biographical Accounts of Haydn’s Later Life’, in Richard Chesser and David Wyn Jones eds. The Land of Opportunity: Joseph Haydn in Britain. London: The British Library, 2013, pp. 195–211. ISBN 978-0-7123-5848-4.
Full text
The full text is available for free download under licence from Surrey Research Insight Open Access: http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/800492/
Further information
Listing of the volume in the British Library Publishing catalogue:
Listing of the volume on amazon.co.uk: http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Land-Opportunity-Joseph-Britain/dp/071235848X/
11 October 2013
Christopher Wiley
Publication, Research
Chris Wiley, Christopher Wiley, ethel smyth, gender studies, Music, music and literature, musical biography, Musical Quarterly, musicology, Oxford Journals, Oxford University Press, research, The Musical Quarterly, University, University of Surrey, Virginia Woolf, Wiley
A major article by Dr Christopher Wiley, ‘Music and Literature: Ethel Smyth, Virginia Woolf, and “The First Woman to Write an Opera”’ (doi: 10.1093/musqtl/gdt012), has been published in The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 96.
Dr Wiley’s article calls into question the impression of the extent of women’s contributions to music composition given by Smyth’s published literature. He examines the traces of revisionism evident between her earlier and later prose writings, asking whether Smyth may have sought to present herself as essentially unique given her status as a female composer. Dr Wiley also explores the differences between music and literature as professions to which creative women aspired in the early twentieth century, with reference to Smyth’s Female Pipings in Eden and Woolf’s Three Guineas.
Founded in 1915 and published by Oxford University Press, The Musical Quarterly has long been cited as the foremost scholarly musical journal in the United States.
Bibliographic citation
Wiley, Christopher. ‘Ethel Smyth, Virginia Woolf, and “The First Woman to Write an Opera”’, The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 96, No. 2 (Summer 2013), pp. 263–95. doi: 10.1093/musqtl/gdt012
Full text
The full text is available for free download under licence from Surrey Research Insight Open Access: http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/800523/
Update: Dr Wiley’s article reached no.1 in The Musical Quarterly’s monthly ranking of most-read articles (based on full-text and PDF views) throughout the final quarter of 2014, and continued to hold the top spot at the start of 2015. http://mq.oxfordjournals.org/reports/most-read
12 August 2013
Christopher Wiley
Media, Publication, Research
Chris Wiley, Christopher Wiley, City, City University London, ethel smyth, London, media, Music, musical biography, musicology, Publication, research, Stephen Fry, Surrey, teaching, The Conversation, The Conversation UK, University, University of Surrey, Wiley
Dr Christopher Wiley has contributed an article to The Conversation UK, reflecting on aspects of Stephen Fry’s open letter on Russia’s controversial new anti-gay laws (which called for a ban on the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi) from his own perspective as musicologist, scholar, and teacher.
One claim that Fry made in his letter about the potential consequences of exploring Tchaikovsky’s sexuality and its relationship to his life and work under Russia’s controversial new legislation prompted Dr Wiley to reconsider elements of his own research on musical biography, not just on Tchaikovsky but also on Britten and Ethel Smyth.
Published on 12 August 2013 shortly after Fry’s letter went viral, Dr Wiley’s article, ‘Academics should stand with Fry against anti-gay Russia’, broke new ground for The Conversation UK for its content. It soon received thousands of views, helped in part by a mention by Fry himself on Twitter three days after it originally appeared.
The Conversation UK is an independent news and commentary website offering in-depth analysis, research, news, and ideas from academics and researchers, and has received over 300,000 visitors since its launch three months ago. Modelled on its successful Australian counterpart, its founding partners comprise 13 UK universities including City University London and the University of Surrey.
30 May 2013
Christopher Wiley
Publication, Research, Research Supervision
Chris Wiley, Christopher Wiley, City, City University London, Donat Berköz, London, Music, musicology, popular music, research, research supervision, Sini Timonen, University, Wiley
Two students whose doctoral research was supervised by Dr Christopher Wiley are celebrating recent publications.
Sini Timonen has written a book chapter on all-girl groups in garage, beat, and rock in the 1960s and 1970s for the anthology Women Make Noise: Girl Bands from Motown to the Modern, edited by Julia Downes (see here). Sini also contributed the Foreword to the e-book It’s Different for Girls, written by Merle Phillips and Margaret Brown (see here), two members of Mandy and the Girlfriends, an all-female beat group based in Hull and active in the 1960s. Its authors were first inspired to publish their reminiscences back in 2010, after Sini had interviewed them for her PhD dissertation on women musicians’ contribution to popular music in England between 1962 and 1971.
Dr Donat Berköz’s book chapter on the Turkish artist Nazan Öncel and women’s rights in modern Turkey appears in the anthology Resistance in Contemporary Middle Eastern Cultures: Literature, Cinema, and Music, edited by Karima Laachir and Saeed Talajooy (see here). Donat graduated from City University London in 2012 with a PhD dissertation entitled ‘A Gendered Musicological Study of the Work of Four Leading Female Singer-Songwriters: Laura Nyro, Joni Mitchell, Kate Bush, and Tori Amos’.
16 April 2013
Christopher Wiley
Academic Management, Educational Research, Research, Teaching
academic management, Chris Wiley, Christopher Wiley, Director of Learning and Teaching, learning, Music, new appointment, School of Arts, Senior Lecturer, Surrey, teaching, University, University of Surrey, Wiley
Dr Christopher Wiley has been appointed Senior Lecturer and Director of Learning and Teaching in the School of Arts at the University of Surrey. The University’s School of Arts comprises the subject areas of Music and Sound Recording, Dance, Film, and Theatre, as well as the Digital World Research Centre, the Lewis Elton Gallery, and the acclaimed Guildford School of Acting (GSA).
Dr Wiley commences his new position in September 2013. His academic profile on the University of Surrey website may be viewed here: http://www.surrey.ac.uk/schoolofarts/people/complete_staff_list/christopher_wiley
18 December 2012
Christopher Wiley
Media, Publication, Research
Chris Wiley, Christopher R. Smit, Christopher Wiley, City University London, Michael Jackson, Michael Jackson studies, Music, musical biography, musicology, Publication, research, Wiley
An interdisciplinary volume of essays on Michael Jackson published earlier this year, Michael Jackson: Grasping the Spectacle, includes a chapter on musicology written by Dr Christopher Wiley.
Informed by his participation in the international press coverage of Jackson’s death in 2009 and crystallizing around the iconic tracks ‘Thriller’ and ‘Black or White’, Dr Wiley’s essay, ‘Putting the Music Back into Michael Jackson Studies’, seeks to refocus attention on Jackson’s music in relation to discussion of his music videos and their sociocultural contexts.
It concludes by exposing the danger of over-interpreting the art through the lens of the biography of the originating artist, asking whether Jackson’s celebrity will ultimately rest on his contribution to the late twentieth-century entertainment industry or on the serious controversies with which he became associated.
Bibliographic citation
Wiley, Christopher. ‘Putting the Music Back into Michael Jackson Studies’, in Michael Jackson: Grasping the Spectacle, new essays ed. by Christopher R. Smit. Farnham: Ashgate, 2012, pp. 101–16.
Full text
Dr Wiley’s essay is available for download from City Research Online, the University’s research repository, at the following link: http://openaccess.city.ac.uk/1211/
16 September 2012
Christopher Wiley
Conference, Research, Research Supervision
Alex Jeffery, Alexander Jeffery, Chris Wiley, Christopher Wiley, City, City University London, conference, London, Music, popular music, popular music studies, research, research supervision, Sini Timonen, University, Wiley
Two doctoral students supervised by Dr Christopher Wiley presented papers at a major international conference, ‘Imagining Communities Musically: Putting Popular Music in its Place’, held by the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM) last week at the University of Salford.
Sini Timonen, who is in the closing stages of her PhD on women musicians’ contribution to popular music in England between 1962 and 1971, gave a paper entitled ‘The Girl Singer in 1960s London: the Position of Female Vocalists within the Pop Music Industry’. Drawing on original interviews conducted with lesser-known ‘Brit Girls’ active on the London pop scene in the sixties, Sini explored the major challenges they faced, the strategies by which they navigated them, and the implications of the essentially male-oriented contexts in which they worked.
Alexander Jeffery presented the paper ‘Reconfiguring Prince: how online fan communities are taking back control of the album’, in which he examined traditions amongst Prince fans active in online forums of proposing their own alternative track listings for landmark albums such as Purple Rain as well as abandoned album projects. Alex, who has recently entered his second year on the doctoral programme, is conducting research on manifestations of the long-form musical work in contemporary popular culture.
9 December 2011
Christopher Wiley
Conference, Presentation, Research
Chris Wiley, Christopher Wiley, City, City University London, conference, gender studies, London, Music, musical biography, musical canon, musicology, Radical Music History Symposium, research, Sibelius Academy, University, Wiley
Dr Christopher Wiley has presented a paper at the Radical Music History Symposium 2011 hosted by the Sibelius Academy, Helsinki on 8-9 December 2011. His paper was entitled ‘Musical Biography and the Myth of the Muse’, and discussed the portrayal of women in biographies of the Great Composers who, though silenced throughout much of the text, suddenly came into view at critical junctures in life-writing on their male associates as rhetorical signifiers of the increasing power of their creative genius. Chris argued that musical biography thereby became complicit in women’s historical effacement by casting them in the role of vessels for the stimulation of artistic creation in men, implicitly denying them the possibility of undertaking such activities themselves while simultaneously linking them inextricably to those of associated male composers. Chris concluded by demonstrating some ways in which this model, for its longevity and the robustness with which it has been perpetuated, yields profound consequences for more recent writing of the lives of women composers as well as for contemporary feminist musicology’s project to deconstruct and critique musical canon.
30 November 2011
Christopher Wiley
Conference, Presentation, Prizes & Awards, Research, Teaching
award, Chris Wiley, Christopher Wiley, City, City University London, dissertation supervision, Learning at City, London, Music, presentation, prize, research, research supervision, Student Voice Award, teaching, teaching excellence, University, Wiley
Dr Christopher Wiley has won a prestigious Student Voice Award (so named because all nominations are made by the students themselves) at City University London.
Staving off fierce competition from hundreds of nominees, Chris was one of 12 me
mbers of academic staff across the University to win the coveted £1,000 prize.
The Student Voice Award scheme is run by the University’s Students’ Union in conjunction with the Learning Development Centre, to acknowledge lecturers who have demonstrated great commitment to top-quality teaching, learning, and assessment over the past year, and who have made a positive impact on the student experience. Students are required to complete a one-page application by way of nominating a staff member.
Chris’s nomination was made primarily on the basis of excellence in dissertation supervision, together with quality and timeliness of feedback on written work. The students also commended him for the ‘buzz’ they feel after his lectures, for his listening and communication skills, and for the support he has given to student activities both on and off campus.
Chris was formally presented with the award at the prize-giving ceremony with which the annual ‘Learning at City’ conference ended on 23 June 2011. Earlier that day, he had delivered a presentation at the same conference based on his research on institutional handbooks for postgraduate research students.
27 September 2011
Christopher Wiley
Presentation, Public Output, Research
autobiography, Chris Wiley, Christopher Wiley, City, City University London, ethel smyth, gender studies, literature, London, march of the women, Music, musical biography, musicology, research, Sandi Toksvig, Smyth, suffrage activity, suffragette, The Women's Library, University, Wiley
Dr Christopher Wiley appeared alongside writer and broadcaster Sandi Toksvig at The Women’s Library, London on Tuesday 27 September, providing an introduction to the life, works, and suffrage activity of Ethel Smyth.
Dr Wiley has been researching and writing on Ethel Smyth for over a decade, including a groundbreaking article on Smyth’s intellectual relationship with Virginia Woolf, published in one of the UK’s foremost journals of musicology, Music and Letters.
The event, entitled ‘Shout! Shout! Up With Your Song!’, commemorated the 100th anniversary of the first performance of Smyth’s celebrated suffragette anthem ‘March of the Women’, and also featured a recital by the acclaimed a capella feminist choir Velvet Fist.
The flier for the event is available for download here.
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