Tim Rutherford-Johnson - The Rambler

Who? What? Why?

Hello there, and welcome. I’m a PhD candidate in musicology, an occasional writer and teacher on music, and in the gaps I work as a freelance editor. A full list of my professional writings appears below.

My PhD is a study of the reception of new Eastern European music in Great Britain, with analyses of four early works by Penderecki and Ligeti (Anaklasis, Passio et mors domini nostri Jesu Christi secundum Lucam, Apparitions and Requiem) that apply that reception history to musical interpretation. It is due for completion in April 2008, under the title New Music from Hungary and Poland and it Reception in Great Britain, 1956–1976. I welcome any correspondence about my work; if you’re interested in further details about what I’m doing, just email me (NB remove SPAMPROOF from the address to send).

On the Internet, no demographically driven executive could suppress, say, a musicology student’s ruminations on György Ligeti’s Requiem on the ground that it had no appeal for twenty-seven-year-old males, even if the blogger in question—Tim Rutherford-Johnson, of The Rambler —was himself twenty-seven. - Alex Ross, New Yorker, 22 Oct 2007

I have maintained The Rambler since August 2003. Although the blog focuses on contemporary classical music, none of my other musical loves are excluded. As a rule, I like drones, thick chords, rich production/orchestration, brashness/poor taste, and a pinch of cultural significance. Imagine my nirvana as a Glenn Branca/Phil Spector reworking of the Turangalîla-Symphonie.

I write regularly for New Notes, Tempo and Bits of News; I also regularly post reviews of new music concerts and recordings to The Rambler. Promoters, performers and composers are welcome to contact me (remove SPAMPROOF from address before sending) with details of any concerts or recordings they would like me to review.

Two ongoing features of the blog are a live list of musician and music-related obituaries and regular listings of cheap new music events (£5 or less) around London and the UK. Once again, promoters, performers and composers are welcome to contact me (remove SPAMPROOF from address before sending) with details of any events to include in these listings.

I also have a perverse, frustrating fascination with the workings of the modern intellectual property industry and its impact on contemporary music making, and The Rambler documents my thoughts on this matter.

Writings and other activities

Articles

”Shiny and New’? Rereading Madonna’s Virgin’, British Postgraduate Musicology, no.6 (2004) <http://www.bpmonline.org.uk/bpm6-shiny.html>

‘Klang.Bilder: Ian Wilson und sein neues Streichquartett “Veer”‘, Musikfreunde, Sept/Oct (2003), 32–5

‘Out of Belfast and Belgrade: the Recent Music of Ian Wilson’, Tempo, no.224 (2003), 2–9

‘Communication and Experience: Some Observations on the Relationship Between Composer and Performer in Játékok‘, Studia Musicologica, xliii (2002), 281–7

‘Rudolf Steiner and Learning Through the Body in Kurtág’s Játékok‘, Piano Journal, no.69 (2002), 19–22

Conference papers

‘The St Luke Passion as Britain’s First Encounter with Sonorism’, 18th Congress of the International Musicological Society, Universität Zürich, 10–15 July 2007

‘“Our sets of values will need radical adjustment”: Penderecki’s St Luke in 1967 and since’, Fifth Biennial International Conference on Music Since 1900, University of York, 5–8 July 2007

‘The Reception of Contemporary Polish Music in 1960s Great Britain’, Russian and East European Music, RMA/BASEES Study Day, Glasgow, 10 February 2007

‘Musical Structure as Theological Declaration in Krzysztof Penderecki’s St Luke Passion‘, Music and Theology: Making Connections, RMA Study Day, Durham, 20 June 2006

”Shiny and New’? Rereading Madonna’s Virgin’, Third Biennial International Conference on 20th-Century Music, Nottingham, 26–9 June 2003

‘Restructuring Reference Works Through Multimedia Content’, poster session, Second International Conference on Web Delivering of Music, Darmstadt, 9–11 December 2002

‘Lendvai Comes to Cologne: György Ligeti in the 1950s and ’60s’, Fifth European Music Analysis Conference, Bristol, 4–7 April 2002

‘Does Size Matter? Kurtág’s Játékok Miniatures’, Second Biennial International Conference on 20th-Century Music, London, 28 June–1 July 2001

‘Communication and Experience: Some Observations on the Relationship Between Composer and Performer in Játékok‘, Hommage à Kurtág, Balatonföldvár, 21–24 June 2001

Reviews

Book review of: Danielle Fosler-Lussier: Music Divided: Bartók’s Legacy in Cold War Culture (University of California Press, 2007) and Rachel Beckles Willson: Ligeti, Kurtág and Hungarian Music during the Cold War (Cambridge University Press, 2007), Tempo, no.243 (2008), 70–72

‘TAGS Day for Music Postgraduates’, Society for Music Analysis Newsletter, July (2007), 4

‘First Performances: Warsaw Autumn Festival 2004′, Tempo, no.232 (2005), 75–7

‘CD Reviews: Ian Wilson: from the Book of Longing, Riverrun RVRCD65′, Tempo, no.230 (2004), 85–6

Regular CD and concert reviews for New Notes online, and at this blog (see reviews tag).

Sleevenotes

Ian Wilson: Works for String Orchestra (forthcoming)

Ian Wilson: Veer: String Quartets, The Callino Quartet (Riverrun RVRCD77, 2007)

Other activities

‘Penderecki’s Eighth Symphony’, pre-concert talk, Barbican Centre, London, 28 February 2008

Information Officer, Society for Music Analysis, 2007–

‘Central and Eastern Europe before and after 1989’, session organised for the Fifth Biennial International Conference on Music Since 1900, University of York, 5–8 July 2007

Editor-in-chief, British Postgraduate Musicology, 2004–8

‘Nationalisms’: series of undergraduate lectures covering nationalism and national identity in 20th-century music. Divided by nation into Hungary, United States, Russia, France and Germany, and Poland. Goldsmiths College, London, 2000–5