28 October 2020
Christopher Wiley
Conference, Publication, Research
Amsterdam, artist biography, biofiction, biography, Chris Wiley, Christopher Wiley, conference, Dodo, E.F. Benson, ethel smyth, fiction, historiography, history, keynote, life-writing, literature, literature and music, Music, music and literature, music history, musical biography, musicology, national, nationality, Palgrave, Palgrave Macmillan, presentation, research, Surrey, The Netherlands, transnational, transnationality, University, University of Amsterdam, University of Surrey, Wiley, workshop
Dr Christopher Wiley has co-edited, together with Dr Marleen Rensen (University of Amsterdam), a new volume entitled Transnational Perspectives on Artists’ Lives, published by Palgrave Macmillan and including chapters on artists from Europe, North America, Africa, and Australasia representing a range of arts disciplines.
The book’s international contributors include Sander Bax, Suzanne Bode, Tamar Hager, Maximiliano Jiménez, Jane McVeigh, Anna Menyhért, Manet van Montfrans, Samantha Niederman, Suze van der Poll, Josiane Ranguin, Maria Razumovskaya, Marleen Rensen, Marc Röntsch, Maryam Thirriard, and Christopher Wiley. The table of contents is available here.
This essay collection was developed from a 2018 conference held at the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, at which Dr Wiley, an internationally acknowledged expert on musical biography, gave a Keynote lecture.
Dr Wiley’s chapter in the volume, ‘Ethel Smyth as the composer Edith Staines in E.F. Benson’s Dodo trilogy’ (abstract available here), discusses the depiction of the composer Ethel Smyth as a fictional character in E.F. Benson’s sensational book Dodo and its sequels Dodo Wonders and Dodo’s Daughter.
Dr Rensen and Dr Wiley also co-authored the editorial introduction, ‘Writing Artists’ Lives Across Nations and Cultures: Biography, Biofiction and Transnationality’, which considers issues raised by writing the lives of artists, as well as the significance of transnationality to biography.
This is the second volume that Dr Wiley has published with Palgrave Macmillan this year, the first being on researching and writing about contemporary art and artists.
For further information, and to purchase the book: https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783030451998
Bibliographic citations
Wiley, Christopher. ‘Ethel Smyth as the composer Edith Staines in E.F. Benson’s Dodo trilogy’, in Marleen Rensen and Christopher Wiley eds. Transnational Perspectives on Artists’ Lives. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020, pp. 255–69.
Rensen, Marleen and Christopher Wiley. ‘Writing Artists’ Lives Across Nations and Cultures: Biography, Biofiction and Transnationality’, in Marleen Rensen and Christopher Wiley eds. Transnational Perspectives on Artists’ Lives. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020, pp. 1–24.
Rensen, Marleen and Christopher Wiley eds. Transnational Perspectives on Artists’ Lives. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020. pp. xv, 276. ISBN 978-3-030-45200-1, 978-3-030-45200-1 (eBook)
Full texts
The full text of Dr Wiley’s chapter is available here: https://www.academia.edu/65118145/Ethel_Smyth_as_the_composer_Edith_Staines_in_E_F_Bensons_Dodo_trilogy
And the full text of the co-authored editorial introduction may be downloaded here: https://www.academia.edu/65117588/Writing_Artists_Lives_Across_Nations_and_Cultures_Biography_Biofiction_and_Transnationality
7 August 2020
Christopher Wiley
Publication, Research
anecdote, biography, Chris Wiley, Christopher Wiley, gender studies, intellectual culture, life-writing, literature and music, Michael Allis, Music, music and gender, music and literature, music historiography, music history, musical anecdote, musical biography, musical canon, musicology, OUP, Oxford University Press, Paul Watt, Publication, research, Sarah Collins, Surrey, University, University of Surrey, Wiley, women in music
Dr Christopher Wiley has written a major book chapter on musical biography for a new essay collection published by Oxford University Press, The Oxford Handbook of Music and Intellectual Culture in the Nineteenth Century, edited by Paul Watt, Sarah Collins, and Michael Allis.
Dr Wiley’s 12,000-word chapter, entitled ‘Biography and Life-Writing’ (abstract available here), discusses the advent of musical biography, its proliferation in the long nineteenth century, and its legacy up to the present. It includes two case studies: a compilation of anecdotes, to explore how Victorian values were reflected in contemporaneous life-writing; and a collected biography, to investigate the role of women as characters within musical biographies.
Dr Wiley is an internationally acknowledged expert on musical biography, the subject of his doctoral dissertation, and has previously published widely on the subject.
Bibliographic citation
Wiley, Christopher. ‘Biography and Life-Writing’, in Paul Watt, Sarah Collins, and Michael Allis eds. The Oxford Handbook of Music and Intellectual Culture in the Nineteenth Century. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020, pp. 77–101. doi: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190616922.013.4.
Full text
The full text of Dr Wiley’s chapter is available here: https://www.academia.edu/35186914/Biography_and_Life_Writing_Oxford_Handbook_of_Music_and_Intellectual_Culture_in_the_Nineteenth_Century_
31 July 2020
Christopher Wiley
Publication, Research
Chris Wiley, Christopher Wiley, Delia da Sousa Correa, Edinburgh University Press, EUP, Fanny Burney, Frances Burney, gender studies, Jane Austen, literature and music, Music, music and gender, music and literature, music historiography, music history, musicology, Publication, research, Samuel Richardson, Surrey, University, University of Surrey, Wiley, women in music
Dr Christopher Wiley has contributed an essay to a major 70-chapter anthology, The Edinburgh Companion to Literature and Music, edited by Delia da Sousa Correa and published by Edinburgh University Press.
Dr Wiley’s chapter, entitled ‘The Eighteenth-Century English Novel and Music: Virtuous Performers and Well-Mannered Listeners’, discusses the role of music in selected novels by Samuel Richardson and Frances Burney.
Further information about the volume (including the table of contents) may be found here: https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-the-edinburgh-companion-to-literature-and-music.html
Bibliographic citation
Wiley, Christopher. ‘The Eighteenth-Century English Novel and Music: Virtuous Performers and Well-Mannered Listeners’, in Delia da Sousa Correa ed. The Edinburgh Companion to Literature and Music. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2020, pp. 318–26.
Full text
The full text of Dr Wiley’s chapter is available here: https://www.academia.edu/35119223/The_Eighteenth_Century_English_Novel_and_Music_Virtuous_Performers_and_Well_Mannered_Listeners
9 January 2020
Christopher Wiley
Media, Publication, Research
Australia, Chris Wiley, Christopher Wiley, Composer of the Month, ethel smyth, Limelight, Limelight magazine, magazine, Music, music history, musicology, opera, research, suffragette, Surrey, University, University of Surrey, Wiley
Dr Christopher Wiley has contributed an article on Ethel Smyth for the January/February 2020 issue of Limelight, Australia’s classical music and arts magazine, for its ‘Composer of the Month’ feature.
In the four-page article (pp. 76–79), Dr Wiley, an internationally acknowledged expert on Smyth, introduces the composer to the readers, discussing her life story as well as drawing attention to salient features of her musical works.
The full text of the article may be read here: https://www.academia.edu/65115923/Ethel_Smyth_Composer_of_the_Month
21 November 2019
Christopher Wiley
Presentation, Public Output, Research
Byfleet, Byfleet Heritage Society, Chris Wiley, Christopher Wiley, ethel smyth, Music, music and literature, music history, musicology, presentation, research, suffragette, suffragette movement, Surrey, University, University of Surrey, Wiley, women's suffrage
Dr Christopher Wiley delivered a talk entitled ‘Dame Ethel Smyth (1858–1944), Composer, Author, Suffragette, and Surrey Resident’ for Byfleet Heritage Society at St Mary’s Centre for the Community, Byfleet on Thursday 21 November 2019.
Speaking to an audience of some 50 society members, Dr Wiley introduced Smyth’s life, music, and connections to the local area, in a 50-minute talk illustrated with musical excerpts.
An acknowledged expert on Smyth, Dr Wiley has previously given many public talks on the composer, writer, and suffragette including those for Woking Historical Society, Guildford Hard of Hearing Support Group, and at Smyth’s childhood home in Frimley Green.
27 October 2019
Christopher Wiley
Conference, Publication, Research
Bach, biography, Chris Wiley, Christopher Wiley, conference, historiography, history, J. S. Bach, JMR, Journal of Musicological Research, literature, literature and music, Marchand, Music, music and literature, music history, musical biography, musicology, myth, mythology, Paul Watt, research, Surrey, University, University of Surrey, Wiley
Dr Christopher Wiley has guest-edited a special double-issue of the Journal of Musicological Research together with co-editor Dr Paul Watt (Monash University, Melbourne).
Entitled ‘Musical Biography: Myth, Ideology, and Narrative’, the special issue comprises Vol. 38, Nos. 3–4 of the journal, and developed originally from a conference on musical biography co-organized by the editors in 2015.
The special issue includes articles by a wide range of international scholars: Kirsty Asmussen, Anna Maria Barry, Joanne Cormac, Uri Golomb and Ronit Seter, Markéta Kratochvílová, Emily MacGregor, Richard Parfitt, Paul Watt, and Christopher Wiley.
Dr Wiley’s contribution to the special issue includes his 10,000-word article, ‘Myth-Making and the Politics of Nationality in Narratives of J.S. Bach’s 1717 Contest with Louis Marchand’ (pp. 193–215), which examines the widely divergent writing on a single biographical episode across the countries and centuries (see abstract here).
Dr Wiley and Dr Watt also co-authored an introductory article, ‘Musical Biography in the Musicological Arena’ (pp. 187–92), in which they reflect on the current status of musical biography within the discipline of musicology.
The full table of contents for the special issue is available here: https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/gmur20/38/3-4
Bibliographic citations
Wiley, Christopher and Watt, Paul (eds.). ‘Musical Biography: Myth, Ideology, and Narrative’, Journal of Musicological Research, Special Issue, Vol. 38, Nos. 3–4 (2019).
Wiley, Christopher and Watt, Paul. ‘Musical Biography in the Musicological Arena’, Journal of Musicological Research, Vol. 38, Nos. 3–4 (2019), pp. 187–92. doi: 10.1080/01411896.2019.1644140
Wiley, Christopher. ‘Myth-Making and the Politics of Nationality in Narratives of J.S. Bach’s 1717 Contest with Louis Marchand’, Journal of Musicological Research, Vol. 38, Nos. 3–4 (2019), pp. 193–215. doi: 10.1080/01411896.2019.1644141
6 February 2019
Christopher Wiley
Colloquium, Presentation, Research
Cambridge, Chris Wiley, Christopher Wiley, colloquia, colloquium, colloquium series, Emmeline Pankhurst, ethel smyth, Faculty of Music, feminism, feminist musicology, feminist opera, gender and sexuality, gender studies, Music, music and literature, music history, musicology, opera, presentation, research, suffragette, suffragette movement, Surrey, The Boatswain's Mate, University, University of Cambridge, University of Surrey, W.W. Jacobs, Wiley, women's history, women's suffrage
Dr Christopher Wiley presented a 45-minute version of his paper ‘Reconsidering Ethel Smyth’s The Boatswain’s Mate as Feminist Opera’ in the Faculty of Music Colloquium Series at the University of Cambridge.
Dr Wiley’s talk, given to an audience of some 40 academics and graduate students in the Faculty’s lecture room, was a much extended version of the paper he has delivered at women’s history events at UK universities including Kent, Portsmouth, Surrey, Royal Holloway, and Edge Hill.
Dr Wiley previously gave an unrelated paper in an Oxbridge colloquium series in 2015.
Further information about Dr Wiley’s colloquium may be found here: https://www.mus.cam.ac.uk/events/current-events/Christopher-Wiley
8 December 2018
Christopher Wiley
Conference, Presentation, Research
Chris Wiley, Christopher Wiley, community, community workshop, Emmeline Pankhurst, ethel smyth, feminism, feminist musicology, feminist opera, gender and sexuality, gender studies, Kent, Music, music and literature, music history, musicology, opera, presentation, research, suffragette, suffragette movement, Surrey, The Boatswain's Mate, University, University of Kent, University of Surrey, W.W. Jacobs, Wiley, women's history, women's suffrage, workshop
Dr Christopher Wiley has spoken at the ‘100+ years of the women’s movement in Kent, Sussex, and Surrey’ community workshop held in the Tonbridge Centre at the University of Kent on Saturday 8 December 2018.
Dr Wiley’s paper, entitled ‘Ethel Smyth, Music, and the Suffragette Movement: Reconsidering The Boatswain’s Mate as Feminist Opera’, had previously been presented at UK universities including Portsmouth, Surrey, Royal Holloway, and Edge Hill. The day ended, rather fittingly, with an impromptu rendition of Smyth’s ‘The March of the Women’.
The full programme for the workshop may be found at the following link: https://blogs.kent.ac.uk/womenshistorykent/programme-of-community-workshop-on-8th-december/
25 November 2018
Christopher Wiley
Publication, Research
A Furious Longing, Chris Wiley, Christopher Wiley, Emmeline Pankhurst, ethel smyth, feminism, feminist musicology, Frimley Green, gender and sexuality, gender studies, Grasp The Nettle, Hook Heath, journal, Music, music and literature, music history, musicology, research, suffragette, suffragette movement, Surrey, University, University of Surrey, WCPA, WHN, Wiley, Woking, Woking Community Play Association, women's history, Women's History journal, Women's History Network, women's suffrage
Dr Christopher Wiley has contributed two articles to the latest issue of Women’s History, the journal of the Women’s History Network.
The special double-issue, ‘1918-2018’, was dedicated to the women’s suffrage movement in the centenary year of women gaining the parliamentary vote in the UK, and features essays by a range of leading scholars of women’s history.
Dr Wiley’s first article, ‘Ethel Smyth, Suffrage and Surrey: From Frimley Green to Hook Heath, Woking’, combines women’s history and local history in order to illustrate how the suffragette campaign was highly dependent on rural locations through the example of Ethel Smyth.
His other article is ‘A Fresh Start and Two (More) Portraits: Theatrical Shows on the Life and Work of Ethel Smyth for 2018’, a review-article of Ethel Smyth: Grasp the Nettle and Ethel Smyth: A Furious Longing (the latter having been co-written by Dr Wiley).
Further information on the journal special issue is available here: https://womenshistorynetwork.org/womens-history-autumn-2018/
Bibliographic citations
Wiley, Christopher. ‘Ethel Smyth, Suffrage and Surrey: From Frimley Green to Hook Heath, Woking’, Women’s History: The Journal of the Women’s History Network, Vol. 2, No. 11 (Autumn 2018), pp. 11–18.
Wiley, Christopher. ‘A Fresh Start and Two (More) Portraits: Theatrical Shows on the Life and Work of Ethel Smyth for 2018’, Women’s History: The Journal of the Women’s History Network, Vol. 2, No. 11 (Autumn 2018), pp. 39–40.
Full texts
The full texts are available for free download under licence from Surrey Research Insight Open Access: http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/849970/ and http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/849971/
15 November 2018
Christopher Wiley
Public Output, Publication, Research
Barbican, Barbican Centre, BBC, BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, Chris Wiley, Christopher Wiley, concert, ethel smyth, London, Mass in D, Music, music history, musicology, performance, suffragette, Surrey, The Barbican, University, University of Surrey, Wiley
Dr Christopher Wiley has written programme notes for the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus concert at The Barbican, London (pictured) on Thursday 15 November 2018.
Dr Wiley contributed programme notes for Ethel Smyth’s Mass in D as well as a biographical profile of the composer.
Dr Wiley previously wrote programme notes for a BBC Proms concert featuring Smyth’s music in August of this year.
The concert presented Smyth’s Mass in D alongside Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No.1 (original version).
Further information on the event may be found here: https://www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2018/event/bbc-sobrabbins-ethel-smyth-mass-in-d
3 November 2018
Christopher Wiley
Presentation, Public Output, Research
Chris Wiley, Christopher Wiley, ethel smyth, London, London Oriana Choir, Mass in D, Meridian Sinfonia, Music, music history, Southwark Cathedral, Surrey, University of Surrey, Wiley
Dr Christopher Wiley has given a pre-concert talk on Ethel Smyth for a performance of the composer’s Mass in D in Southwark Cathedral, London (pictured) on Saturday 3 November 2018.
In the 15-minute talk, Dr Wiley addressed some 150 audience members in the Cathedral’s transepts.
The concert, by the London Oriana Choir and Meridian Sinfonia, presented Smyth’s Mass in D alongside J.S. Bach’s Magnificat.
The listing for the concert may be found here: https://www.londonoriana.com/past-performances
Further information on the concert is available here: https://www.planethugill.com/2018/10/ethel-smyths-mass-in-g-at-southwark.html
4 October 2018
Christopher Wiley
Performance, Public Output, Research
A Furious Longing, Chris Wiley, Christopher Wiley, community play, ethel smyth, historical adviser, Music, music history, opera, play, scriptwriting, suffragette, Surrey, The Boatswain's Mate, The Wreckers, University of Surrey, Virginia Woolf, WCPA, Wiley, Woking, Woking Community Play Association
Dr Christopher Wiley has acted as historical adviser as well as one of the team of scriptwriters for the community play Ethel Smyth: A Furious Longing – The Story of Woking’s Composer.
Several years in the planning, the play was performed by Woking Community Play Association from Thursday 4–Saturday 6 October 2018 at the H.G. Wells Centre, Woking.
Dr Wiley was one of five scriptwriters who collaborated on the 90-minute play, as well as advising on its historical and musical elements.
Dr Wiley’s contributions to the script drew directly on his research on Ethel Smyth, including her involvement with the suffragette movement, her operas The Wreckers and The Boatswain’s Mate, and her relationship with the writer Virginia Woolf.
15 September 2018
Christopher Wiley
Media, Presentation, Public Output, Research
ATD Fourth World, blue plaque, Chris Wiley, Christopher Wiley, ethel smyth, Frimhurst, Frimhurst Family House, Frimley Green, Heritage Open Days, HOD, media, Music, music and literature, music history, musicology, presentation, research, suffragette, suffragette movement, Surrey, television, That’s Surrey TV, University, University of Surrey, Wiley, Woking, women's suffrage
Dr Christopher Wiley has given a talk on Ethel Smyth at her childhood home, Frimhurst Family House, Frimley Green, on Saturday 15 September 2018.
The event was organised for Heritage Open Days by Surrey Heath Museum and the charity ATD Fourth World, which now operates at Frimhurst Family House.
It marked the unveiling of blue plaques commemorating both Smyth and the philanthropist Grace Goodman, who transformed the house into its present function as recuperative facility for families in extreme poverty.
An acknowledged expert on Smyth, Dr Wiley previously gave a talk at Frimhurst Family House on the composer and suffragette back in 2016.
Further information on the event is available here: https://www.surreyheath.gov.uk/residents/surrey-heath-museum/museum-events/heritage-open-days-surrey-heath
Update: The following weekend, on Saturday 22 September, Dr Wiley attended a private ceremony (pictured, above) at which a blue plaque was unveiled at Smyth’s former house in Woking.
Dr Wiley’s interview about the event for That’s Surrey TV may be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiBN2ZXVPz0
Media coverage may also be found at the following link: http://surreyresidents.co.uk/2018/09/24/blue-plaque-marks-the-duchess-of-wokings-former-home/
As well as on Woking Borough Council’s website: https://www.woking.gov.uk/news/blue-plaque-marks-duchess-woking%E2%80%99s-former-home
14 September 2018
Christopher Wiley
Presentation, Public Output, Research
Chris Wiley, Christopher Wiley, ethel smyth, Farham, Farnham Maltings, Heritage Open Days, HOD, Music, music and literature, music history, musicology, presentation, research, suffragette, suffragette movement, Surrey, University, University of Surrey, Wiley, women's suffrage
Dr Christopher Wiley delivered a talk on Ethel Smyth in the Cellar Bar at Farnham Maltings as part of the annual programme of Heritage Open Days on Friday 14 September 2018.
Speaking to an audience of over 50 people, Dr Wiley discussed Smyth’s music, literature, and activity as a suffragette, illustrating his presentation with music examples.
Further information about Dr Wiley’s talk may be found at the following link: https://www.heritageopendays.org.uk/visiting/event/dame-ethel-smyth-composer-and-suffragette
Media coverage of the Heritage Open Days activities taking place in the local area may be viewed online here: http://www.farnhamherald.com/article.cfm?id=129364, http://www.farnhamherald.com/article.cfm?id=129629
3 September 2018
Christopher Wiley
Presentation, Public Output, Research
Chris Wiley, Christopher Wiley, ethel smyth, Music, music and literature, music history, musicology, presentation, research, suffragette, suffragette movement, Surrey, University, University of Surrey, Wiley, Woking, Woking History Society, women's suffrage
Dr Christopher Wiley gave a talk on Ethel Smyth for Woking History Society in The Gallery at Christ Church Woking on Monday 3 September 2018.
Addressing over 50 audience members, Dr Wiley’s hour-long presentation discussed Smyth’s activity as composer, author, suffragette, and, for the last several decades of her life, a Woking resident.
Dr Wiley previously spoke about Ethel Smyth at The Lightbox, Woking for International Women’s Day earlier in the year, as well as hosting and performing in a concert of Smyth’s music at Christ Church Woking in 2014, to mark the 70th anniversary of her death.
1 September 2018
Christopher Wiley
Conference, Presentation, Research
annual conference, Chris Wiley, Christopher Wiley, conference, Emmeline Pankhurst, ethel smyth, feminism, feminist musicology, feminist opera, gender and sexuality, gender studies, Music, music and literature, music history, musicology, opera, Portsmouth, presentation, research, suffragette, suffragette movement, Surrey, The Boatswain's Mate, University, University of Portsmouth, University of Surrey, W.W. Jacobs, WHN, Wiley, women's history, Women's History Network, women's suffrage
Dr Christopher Wiley was among the many speakers who presented at the 27th Annual Conference of the Women’s History Network, held at the University of Portsmouth on Friday 31 August–Saturday 1 September 2018.
Entitled ‘The Campaign for Women’s Suffrage: National and International Perspectives’, the conference attracted a large delegation of scholars of women’s history internationally.
Dr Wiley’s paper, ‘Ethel Smyth, Music, and the Suffragette Movement: Reconsidering The Boatswain’s Mate as Feminist Opera’, was presented in one of the conference’s parallel sessions to an audience of some 25 academics.
Dr Wiley considered the extent to which Smyth’s The Boatswain’s Mate might be considered a feminist opera, with reference to the composer’s suffragette activity, the story on which the work was based, and her creative process, including her adaptation of pre-existing music in the score.
Dr Wiley has presented previous versions of his paper at several other UK universities including Surrey, Royal Holloway, and Edge Hill.
The conference website is here: http://www2.port.ac.uk/centre-for-european-and-international-studies-research/events/womens-suffrage-2018/
The complete programme for the event is available for download here: http://www2.port.ac.uk/media/contacts-and-departments/ceisr/events/Suffrage-Conference-2018.pdf
28 August 2018
Christopher Wiley
Media, Public Output, Research
broadcast, Cathrine Winnes, Chris Wiley, Christopher Wiley, ethel smyth, interview, Music, music history, musicology, research, Surrey, Sveriges Television, SVT, Swedish Television, television, University, University of Surrey, Wiley, Woking, women composers
Dr Christopher Wiley has been interviewed for Sveriges Television (SVT) as part of a mini-series of half-hour programmes focusing on orchestral music composed by women.
Talking about Ethel Smyth, Dr Wiley was filmed in conversation with the acclaimed Norwegian conductor, Cathrine Winnes.
Filming took place on Tuesday 28 August 2018 both in Dr Wiley’s office, and on location at Smyth’s former home in Woking.
This television appearance evidences Dr Wiley’s reputation as an internationally leading researcher on Smyth, and follows his previous interviews on Smyth for radio and television earlier in the year.
The television series is due to be broadcast in Sweden in early 2019.
20 June 2018
Christopher Wiley
Conference, Presentation, Research
anecdote, biographical anecdote, biography, Chris Wiley, Christopher Wiley, conference, history, life-writing, Music, music and literature, music history, musical biography, musicology, narrative, Nottingham, presentation, public history, research, Surrey, University, University of Nottingham, University of Surrey, Wiley
Dr Christopher Wiley has presented a paper at the multi-disciplinary conference ‘Biography and Public History: Constructing Historical Narratives through Life-Writing’, held in the Department of Music at the University of Nottingham on Wednesday 20 June 2018.
Dr Wiley’s paper, ‘Anecdote as a Genre in Musical Biography’, drew primarily on his recent research on Victorian life-writing, while also discussing the foundational role of anecdote within musical biography from its advent at the turn of the nineteenth century onwards.
Proposing that biographical anecdote warrants recognition as a genre in its own right given its extraordinary staying power and the sophisticated narratives that developed around specific examples, Dr Wiley demonstrated its potential to contribute to a greater understanding of associated culture through the recounting of stories of its most cherished figures.
The one-day conference was attended by some 50 international delegates. Dr Wiley also chaired the opening session, which featured papers on archaeology, buildings architecture, and literature.
Further information may be found at the conference webpage: https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/conference/fac-arts/humanities/music/biography-and-public-history/biography-and-public-history.aspx
The full conference programme is available online here: https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/humanities/departments/music/documents/2018/final-programme.pdf
15 June 2018
Christopher Wiley
Conference, Presentation, Research
autobiography, Chris Wiley, Christopher Wiley, conference, Edinburgh, Edinburgh Napier University, ethel smyth, history, literature, Master Musicians series, memoirs, Mozart, Music, music and literature, music history, music reception, musical biography, musicology, Napier, presentation, Requiem, research, Scotland, Surrey, University, University of Surrey, Wiley
Dr Christopher Wiley has delivered a paper on musical biography at the ‘Music and Literature: Innovations, Intersections, and Interpretations’ conference hosted at Merchiston Campus, Edinburgh Napier University, Edinburgh, Scotland on 14-15 June 2018.
Entitled ‘Musical biography and the (non-)consonance of music and literature’, Dr Wiley’s paper revealed how biographical narratives might actually contradict the evidence of the music itself, or they may represent an appropriation of specific works for a given time and place, or function to promote them within wider reading communities who may otherwise be unfamiliar with that music.
Dr Wiley drew case studies from his wider research conducted over the years on musical biography, including the apocryphal story of Mozart’s Requiem, the earliest 12 volumes of the ‘Master Musicians’ series, and Ethel Smyth’s autobiographies. The two-day conference was attended by some 50 delegates.
Further information may be found at the conference website: https://musicandliteratureconference.wordpress.com/
The full programme for the event is available online here: https://musicandliteratureconference.wordpress.com/programme/
4 April 2018
Christopher Wiley
Media, Public Output, Research
arts, Chris Wiley, Christopher Wiley, ethel smyth, gender studies, golf, Hook Heath, interview, Music, music and literature, music history, musicology, Pyrford TV, Pyrford TV ARTS, research, suffragette, suffragette movement, Surrey, television, The March of the Women, TV, University, University of Surrey, Wiley, Woking, Woking Golf Club, women's enfranchisement, women's suffrage
Dr Christopher Wiley is featured in an eight-minute segment for the Spring Edition 2018 of Pyrford TV ARTS, on Woking’s famous former resident, Dame Ethel Smyth.
Speaking to presenter Tim Matthews (see picture), Dr Wiley discussed Smyth’s activity as composer, author, and suffragette, as well as her passion for sports including golf.
The eight-minute segment was filmed at Woking Golf Club in Hook Heath, near Woking, of which Smyth was a member for many years. So keen was she on the sport that she had her house built adjacent to the golf course, where she lived from 1910 until her death in 1944.
Pyrford TV ARTS produces 20-minute programmes several times a year, featuring the arts and creative worlds of Pyrford, Woking, and North Surrey. The segment on Smyth was included to tie in with the centenary of women’s enfranchisement in the UK, which falls this year.
The segment on Ethel Smyth is available for viewing online here: https://vimeo.com/262660959
The full 23-minute programme may be viewed here (the segment on Smyth starts at 09:18): https://youtu.be/fFAuVmbmmPw
The programme is also available at the Pyrford TV ARTS website: https://www.pyrfordtvarts.com/
In addition, it is featured on the webpage of the Woking Remembers 2018 programme, part of the Celebrate Woking festival: https://www.celebratewoking.info/woking-remembers
Credits: Pyrford TV (video); Surrey History Centre (images); Retrospect Opera (musical excerpt from Smyth’s opera The Boatswain’s Mate)
8 March 2018
Christopher Wiley
Presentation, Public Output, Research
Celebrate Woking, Chris Wiley, Christopher Wiley, ethel smyth, gender studies, International Women's Day, Music, music and literature, music history, musicology, presentation, research, suffragette, suffragette movement, Surrey, The Lightbox, The March of the Women, University, University of Surrey, Wiley, Woking, women's enfranchisement, women's suffrage
Dr Christopher Wiley has delivered a public talk on Dame Ethel Smyth at The Lightbox, Woking for International Women’s Day (Thursday 8 March) 2018.
Addressing an audience of over 80 members of the public in The Lightbox’s Ambassador Room, Dr Wiley (pictured, left) spoke about Smyth’s life, music, and prose writings, with particular emphasis on her connections to Woking (her town of residence for over 30 years at the end of her life) and the surrounding area.
Dr Wiley also addressed the extent to which Smyth broke new ground for women both within and beyond the field of music composition, discussing her activity as a leading suffragette in the early 1910s as well as her war service, mindful of this year’s centenaries of women’s partial enfranchisement in the UK and of the end of the First World War.
A recognized expert on Smyth, Dr Wiley is frequently invited to give public lectures on the composer and writer, including recent appearances at The Guildford Institute and Frimhurst, Frimley Green (Smyth’s childhood home). This was the first of his several talks in the Surrey area this year, as well as one of a number of events commemorating Smyth for the Celebrate Woking Festival 2018.
Further information on Dr Wiley’s talk may be found here: https://www.thelightbox.org.uk/Event/ethel-smyth-composer-suffragette
The previous day, Dr Wiley had given an interview on Ethel Smyth at Woking Golf Club for an episode of Pyrford TV ARTS due to be released online in April.
26 January 2018
Christopher Wiley
Conference, Presentation, Research
Amsterdam, artist biography, Bach, biography, Chris Wiley, Christopher Wiley, conference, historiography, history, J. S. Bach, keynote, life-writing, literature, Marchand, Music, music and literature, music history, musical biography, musicology, myth, mythology, national, nationality, presentation, research, Surrey, The Master Musicians series, The Netherlands, transnational, transnationality, University, University of Amsterdam, University of Surrey, Wiley, workshop
Dr Christopher W
iley gave a Keynote lecture at the two-day international workshop, ‘Transnational Perspectives on the Writing of Artists’ Lives, 19th-21st centuries’, held at the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands on 25–26 January 2018.
Dr Wiley’s 50-minute paper, entitled ‘Musical Biography as a National and Transnational Genre’, explored the extent to which composer life-writing reflects the preoccupations and concerns of its time and place of origin while simultaneously embodying pan-European values that remain strikingly robust across texts from different countries and centuries.
Addressed to an interdisciplinary audience primarily from The Netherlands, France, the UK, and US, Dr Wiley’s lecture developed research previously presented at the University of Oxford, and generated much productive discussion from delegates.
An internationally acknowledged expert in the field, Dr Wiley has given a number of previous keynotes at conferences on biography, including the four-day ‘(Auto)Biography as a Musicological Discourse’ held at the University of Arts, Belgrade in 2008.
The full schedule for the workshop may be viewed here: http://www.uva.nl/en/shared-content/subsites/amsterdam-institute-for-humanities-research/en/events/events/2018/01/transnational-perspectives-artists-lives.html
The programme is also available online as a PDF: https://www.huizingainstituut.nl/v02/wp-content/uploads/Programme-Workshop-Transnational-Perspectives-on-Artists-Lives-2-Jan-18.pdf
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/
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/
14 June 2013
Christopher Wiley
Media
Chris Wiley, Christopher Wiley, live interview, London, Monocle 24, Music, music history, popular music, radio, Wiley
Dr Christopher Wiley was interviewed live on global radio station Monocle 24, as part of the show ‘The Briefing’, Episode 422, broadcast on 14 June 2013.
‘The Briefing’ is intended to provide an analysis of the day’s major news stories, and is broadcast at 12noon London time on weekdays. It also functions as the station’s ‘drivetime show for the US East Coast’.
The subject of Dr Wiley’s interview was the recently filed lawsuit challenging the copyright to ‘Happy Birthday to You’. Dr Wiley was interviewed in his capacity as a music historian.
The interview may be heard at the following link: http://monocle.com/radio/shows/the-briefing/422/ (listen from 22.55-27.40 for Dr Wiley’s interview). The episode is also available for download in iTunes.
DR CHRISTOPHER WILEY 