Skip to the search | Skip to the navigation | Skip to the content

RNCM research

Research in music at the RNCM encompasses an enormous and exciting range of activities, and takes a variety of forms, including writing, performing, and composing. We support activities in many strands of music research, and our staff regularly produce CDs, critical editions, books, articles, première performances, pedagogical materials and new compositions.

The RNCM also offers MPhil or PhD degree programmes in Musicology, Music Psychology, Performance, and Composition.

The RNCM aims ‘to educate, train and inspire students to meet the challenges of a professional career in music within an environment informed by research at the highest level’. The development of sustainable research and research-related activities among RNCM staff  is at the heart of this aim. We also work with colleagues in various conservatoires and universities throughout Europe, the USA, and Australia on a variety of collaborative projects.

Projects include:

  • a new complete performing edition for Peters of Haydn’s String Quartets
  • new critical editions for Universal Edition of Berg’s Violin Concerto and Chamber Concerto
  • collaborating with Sir Harrison Birtwistle on the world premiere of his 26 Orpheus Elegies
  • adolescents’ musical role models
  • an arrangement with Louis Andriessen of an orchestral suite from his opera Writing to Vermeer
  • books on Puccini’s musical style, Mozart’s piano concertos, the symphonic poem in nineteenth-century France, and Bach’s 48 Preludes and Fugues
  • studying musicians' health and health-promoting behaviours
  • free re-compositions for the London Sinfonietta of techno tracks by Aphex Twin

The RNCM also hosts a variety of public research events:

  • an annual series of research seminars, given by visiting speakers from around the world
  • presentations and talks during the RNCM's celebrated Chamber Music Festivals and composer weekends, eg: Messiaen and the Piano (2008)
  • the Eleventh Biennial International Conference on Baroque Music (2004)
  • events for the Society for Music Analysis (2005), Royal Musical Association (2005) and PALATINE (2006)
  • the Second International Conference on Music and Gesture (2006)
  • the International Conference on Music, Health and Happiness (2008)
  • Adorno and Performance (2008)

Associated web links

American Musicological Society
Arts and Humanities Research Council
The British Academy
The British Library
HERO
Institute of Musical Research
International Musicological Society
JISC
Library of Congress
PALATINE
Research Assessment Exercise
Royal Holloway, University of London
Royal Musical Association
Society for Musical Analysis