Music@Cambridge school edition, Michaelmas 2015

“There’s a freedom of thought in

Cambridge which makes it unlike

anywhere else in the world”

Robin Ticciati, Conductor

The magazine of the Faculty of Music, University of Cambridge

SCHOOLS EDITION - MICHAELMAS TERM 2015

Contents

on the cover

Robin Ticciati©Marco Borggreve

Music@CambridgeMichaelmas 2015

Published by Faculty of Music11 West Road, Cambridge CB3 9DP

Commissioning Editors: Martin Ennis, Sarah Williams

Editor: E. Jane Dickson

Graphic design: Matt Bilton, Pageworks

Printed by The Lavenham Press Ltd Arbons House47 Water StreetLavenhamSuffolk CO10 9RN

facebook.com/cambridge.universitymusic

www.mus.cam.ac.uk

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@camunimusic

“Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe,

wings to the mind, flight to

the imagination , and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.”

Plato

Primed for success 4Alumni share their stories

The low-down 10Applying to Cambridge

A place to call your own 14Choosing a college

Tradition and innovation 16The Cambridge Music course

Performance in the Music Faculty 20The broader context

Best of both worlds 21The CAMRAM scheme explained

Calling all composers… 22New music in Cambridge

Composing to connect 23Music to change the world

Glittering prizes 24Music awards at Cambridge

A society for all seasons 32 A year in the life of CUMS

Joining Forces 33Britten’s War Requiem remembered

Bringing the experts on-side 34Creative collaboration with the AAM

Different Strokes 35Learning through lectures

Beyond the ivory tower 38The Cambridge outreach programme

They shoot, he scores 39Music for film and screen

Careers 40Life beyond Cambridge

Meet the staff 42

But what’s so special about studying Music at Cambridge? The following pages will attempt to provide a comprehensive answer.

The Cambridge Music course is one that opens doors. One of the professors at the Royal Academy of Music in London recently remarked that Cambridge is the place where the next generation of musicians is forged.

Could you be part of this? Each university applicant has five choices on his or her UCAS form. Why not take a punt, if you’ll excuse the pun, at Cambridge? It could pay dividends for life.

Dusty folios, fusty dons. If that’s what ‘Cambridge’ means to you, please read on. The University certainly has history and tradition

in abundance, but it’s very far from a conservative institution. The Faculty of Music now has one of the richest and most up-to-date undergraduate curricula in the world, and the opportunities offered to students in areas such as composition and performance are second to none. This magazine is designed to give you a sense of these opportunities. You’ll find details about course options, about the sort of teaching you might expect and, crucially, information about how to apply. If you have further queries, we’re always happy to hear from you. Just call the Faculty office on 01223 761309, and they will put you in touch with the right person to deal with your enquiry.

Cambridge is alive with music: during term-time, there are more concerts than in any other educational institution in the UK. And at the heart of all this activity lies the Music Faculty, which has almost 30 lecturers and affiliated lecturers, and around 200 undergraduates and 75 postgraduates. The Faculty has an outstanding research record, with special areas of expertise in nineteenth-century music, composition and contemporary music, music and science, analysis, performance studies, ethnomusicology and popular music.

The Music Faculty also has exceptional facilities, including a fully professional concert hall (easily the best in Cambridge), a very well stocked library, and a Centre for Music and Science, with a recording studio and state-of-the-art equipment. Specialist instruments, from Baroque bassoons to a Javanese gamelan, are also available for student use. And there’s lots going on in the colleges: many have very active chapel choirs, as well as music societies that put on performances of all types. There are also University-wide arrangements for choral and organ scholars and a flourishing Instrumental Awards Scheme.

Welcome

Martin EnnisChairman, Faculty Board of Music

What can Cambridge offer?

• an exceptionally wide range of subject areas, with much of the teaching led by experts in their field

• a unique performance environment• an unusually thorough training in basic musical literacy, skills

that serve our graduates well in a wide range of careers• a deep concern for the individual; this takes the form of close

pastoral care – each student has both a Director of Studies and a Tutor – as well as a high proportion of individual and small-group teaching

• a supportive collegiate system; as well as providing a vibrant social environment, Cambridge colleges offer unparalleled practical opportunities for its students (conducting is a case in point)

• value for money; compared to most UK universities, Cambridge provides a very high number of contact hours; also, Cambridge spends much more on each undergraduate than it receives in fees

MICHAELMAS TERM 2015 3

Primed for successThe Music Tripos paves the way for a wide range of musical careers. Here, five distinguished alumni share their views on the value of Cambridge.

Robin Ticciati (Clare, 2001) is Principal Conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Music Director of Glyndebourne Festival Opera. Recent freelance projects include Eugene Onegin at the Royal Opera House, Hänsel und Gretel at the Metropolitan Opera, New York and Peter Grimes at La Scala, Milan.

“I knew I wanted to be a conductor at the age of 13. I was playing violin with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, Colin Davis was conducting, and I remember sitting there right at the back of the seconds, and thinking ‘I’m desperate to be up there, telling those stories!’”

Of course, I had no idea what that really meant, but by the time I left school I knew that conducting was going to be about more than spending nine hours a day in a room, studying scores – it was going to be about drinking up life! I was lucky enough to be offered a place at Cambridge and it seemed to me then – and still seems to me now – that there was a magic about what was possible there. If you want to do something special in music – or in any field – there’s a freedom of thought in Cambridge which makes it unlike anywhere else in the world.

As a conductor, you must learn to think. You must learn what the score is, who these composers were, how they wrote, why they wrote, and everything that goes with that. My music degree didn’t teach me to be a musicologist, but it made a little space in my analytical brain which is still developing now, over time, and there were certain things about the course that really, really chimed with me; hearing Martin Ennis talk academically, and emotionally, about Sibelius and Schoenberg and the Expressionist movement in the wonderful nineteenth-century course was a fundamental moment. As I carry on, all the seeds sown in Cambridge, musicologically speaking, are the things that fire my work now.

You can live in your dream world at Cambridge or you can make music and make people stand up and listen. In my first year, someone approached me to conduct Così fan tutte; I just about knew it was an opera, but there was the opportunity to gather together like-minded, or not at all like-minded musicians and basically throw the paint at the wall. There’s just something about Cambridge that allows one to be musically free to the point where it’s not about image, it’s not about status, or about industry, it’s about giving rein to your intuitive, often unformed, impulse. I think I understand the value of that more now, in retrospect, and in relation to what I do as a conductor. I see the Music Tripos as a wonderful meal; perhaps I didn’t always know what I was eating back then, but the flavours have stayed with me and I want, so often, to return to that food source.”

“The seeds sown in Cambridge, musicologically speaking, are the

things that fire my work now.”

© M

arco Borggreve

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Sara Mohr-Pietsch (Newnham 2001) is a Radio 3 broadcaster. She hosts The Choir, Hear and Now and Composers’ Rooms, as well as presenting live events from Wigmore Hall, the Southbank Centre and the Royal Opera House.

“I always knew I wanted to study Music academically, rather than as a performer. At school, I sang and played piano and I liked performing – but only up to a point; I’m not a practiser, and I lack a great deal of discipline. Yet I always felt like a musician. I remember thinking very clearly, aged 18, ‘Music touches me, and moves me, and changes who I am, and I want the science behind it, I want to really understand how it works’.

I’d have to come clean and say that I spent quite a lot of my first two years in the pub, but in Cambridge the bare minimum of work you need to do is still pretty high: every week I had an essay, a piece of harmony and counterpoint, and lectures, and by the third year, I’d really got my teeth into critical theory, which I loved.

I’d say, too, that a good 50% of my musical development at Cambridge happened not through the university courses, but through being a chorister. I was the first Newnham choral scholar; there was a long tradition of Newnham students singing in Selwyn choir, because we shared a chapel, but I was the first to be awarded a scholarship. The Anglican choral tradition was a total mystery to me when I arrived, but it was a wonderful thing to discover. I

feel tremendously grateful to have had that kind of practical training alongside the academic, and I still sing on Sundays in a London church.

A lot of the friends I made at Cambridge are now colleagues or they’re singers, conductors, répétiteurs etc, who I see around in my work. I worry slightly about the whole Oxbridge privilege thing, it concerns me when I see too many of my contemporaries in my world. On the other hand, I look back and there were just so many incredibly talented musicians there at the same time, so it’s great to see those talents flourishing.

Although I grew up listening to Radio 3, it never crossed my mind that I might become a radio presenter, or that my degree would facilitate a particular job. What I do now doesn’t feel at all like being a music academic. It’s important for me to know about music, to understand it, and if it excites me, to communicate that excitement to listeners; but I don’t think it’s my job to reel off facts, because nowadays, by and large, you can find those facts on Wikipedia. All the same, while I could do what I do without the degree, I regularly use and am grateful for skills I learned at Cambridge – there’s a level of working musicianship that has never left me.

Studying music felt to me like a chance to do something I loved passionately, to expand my mind and my horizons. I did it because I loved it and because it was what I did best. I’ve followed the same principle throughout my career and it has always taken me to a good place.”


highlights of the Cambridge course for me, and if they haven’t made me a better player, they have certainly allowed me to enjoy music more. I’m afraid I was hopeless at keyboard harmony and writing fugues and chorales, but last year I was commissioned to write a piece for CBS, and oddly enough, a lot of those skills came back to me. I must have absorbed them by a process of osmosis!

Of course, the crucial thing for your development as a performer is the opportunity to perform. I’d say there is considerably more scope for performance as a soloist at Cambridge than at a conservatoire where you have lots of people competing for the same spot. As well as the big university concerts, all the different college music societies have their own concert series; I could find myself giving a performance every week, and it’s the most wonderful luxury, just to have that time to broaden your base and prepare the ground before launching yourself in the outside world. I’m so grateful that I didn’t start playing lots of professional concerts any earlier than I did. There’s the danger, too, that as a young performer you could end up in a bit of a bubble, just studying your violin, with very little alternative influence. But in the collegiate system – and this was certainly my experience at Girton – your friends are studying all kinds of subjects at a very high level, and that can only be inspiring.

I’m now Visiting Professor at Leeds College of Music and that’s been the most fascinating thing; I never thought of becoming a teacher, but I’ve found out so much more about the violin from having to explain aspects of it to students. It’s another kind of challenge, and a lovely way of keeping one foot in academia.”

Charlie Siem (Girton, 2005) has an international career as solo violinist and recording artist, specialising in virtuosic Romantic repertoire. He has appeared with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Czech National Symphony and the Moscow Philharmonic, and has performed variations on popular music alongside Bryan Adams, Jamie Cullum and The Who. His first composition for strings, Canopy, was recorded with the English Chamber Orchestra in 2013 and features on his latest CD, Under the Stars (Sony Classical).

“There isn’t really a huge tradition of instrumental soloists going to Cambridge. A lot of great conductors came out of Cambridge, and there’s the choral tradition with lots of great singers, but there aren’t so many solo violinists who go on to develop careers after university. It’s generally accepted that if you’re going to be a soloist, you can’t do much else, but I think there’s a balance to be found. During my time at Cambridge I was able to carry on my studies with Shlomo Mintz – I travelled round Europe to visit him once a month for my lessons – and, obviously, I had to practise a lot, but I think I benefited hugely from the broader-based musical education which Cambridge offers.

I always used to argue that having some sort of historical context, or being able to analyse the music in the rigorous way you are taught at Cambridge, gives you an insight that perhaps makes your interpretation more profound. I’m no longer sure that is the case; I’ve worked with many brilliant players who have an intuitive response and they are able to be musically very convincing. But I love the historical side of music; the nineteenth- and twentieth-century courses were definitely the

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Anne Denholm (Newnham, 2013) is part of the Hermes Experiment, a group of four Cambridge graduates specialising in contemporary and experimental music. Winners of Nonclassical’s Battle of the Bands 2014, the Hermes Experiment regularly commissions new music and has worked with organisations such as Kammerklang, Listenpony and Bastard Assignments. Anne also has a flourishing solo career and is official harpist to the Prince of Wales.

“There’s a ‘let’s make things happen’ atmosphere at Cambridge that is fantastically conducive to experimental music; the range of musical interests is so wide and the standard of playing is so high that you can make just about anything fly.

I’m a harpist, and the harp is generally seen as quite a traditional instrument, but I’m hugely interested in the experimental side of things, and I found plenty of options for studying new music within the Music Tripos. Our second-year analysis course was centred around more recent pieces, and in the third year you have complete control over which courses you want to choose. I did courses in World Music, Popular Music and Performance, as well as some more traditional options.

All of us in the Hermes Experiment [Denholm, Heloïse Werner, Oliver Pashley and Marianne Schofield] were in the same year, all but one of us reading Music. We played together in extracurricular projects, but the ensemble didn’t start until the September after we left. As a student, I played with the Cambridge University New Music Ensemble; we gave a concert which was a mixture of pieces by lecturers and students in the Music Faculty, and the music was very, very challenging but also inspiring. A lot of my friends were composers or did composition as part of their degree, but the community of music-making in Cambridge extends far beyond the people who are studying Music; it’s a real hub of different artistic talents, all sparking off and supporting each other. It’s a wonderful training ground for experimental artists, where you can always be sure of an interested and supportive audience.

As well as working with the Hermes Experiment, I’m pursuing lots of my own projects. I’ve been doing some work with the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, and this summer I will be playing with John Eliot Gardiner’s Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique. I’ve also done a bit of work with Sinfonia d’Amici, directed by Harry Ogg, who was a student at Cambridge while I was there. The ‘Cambridge Connection’ remains strong, but for me the value of doing music at Cambridge is, above all, the confidence it gives you to get out there and immerse yourself in all different types of music.“

“Cambridge is a real hub of different artistic talents, all

sparking off and supporting each other.”


Jen Hartley (Magdalene, 1998) is Head of Music at Queen Elizabeth School in Kirkby Lonsdale, Lancashire.

“I think one of the things that makes studying Music at Cambridge unique is the sheer pace of everything; the pace of learning, the pace of conversation. There’s a new piece to analyse every week; if you’re in a choir, you’ll be learning new repertoire twice a week, so the speed at which you’re required to think is exceptionally exhilarating.

Analysis was always my favourite thing, and the advanced analysis course in my third year was amazing. I also really loved learning how to write fugue. I’d say these have been the two things most useful to me in my career. As Head of Music, I’m often required to write stuff that has a specific mood, or a certain length or structure – stuff that 15- and 16-year-olds can play and dance to. Fugue teaches you how to handle harmony and modulation in a really structured context, and having been well-taught at analysis is invaluable when it comes to composition. You also learn how to work efficiently! (It’s fair to point out that teachers have a huge amount of admin.) Being able to understand what you’re expected to do and then get on with it is really important; otherwise it can become incredibly onerous. If, as an undergraduate, you’ve always had to set aside an hour to practise, or sit down for three hours and write a piece of music, then sitting down for three hours to write reports doesn’t seem so difficult.

My time at Magdalene went so quickly. After graduation I applied for a PGCE, partly because I thought teaching would be a natural thing for me to go into, and partly because I wanted to stay on at Cambridge for another year, but I absolutely loved the way it changed my character. I stopped being quite reticent in public and came out of myself a lot more. I really enjoy watching people ‘get it’, watching the penny drop, and sharing what I know.

I teach in a large, comprehensive school with a wide range of ability. We have 20 extra-curricular groups ranging from a turn-up-and-play percussion ensemble to choirs who sing a cappella, and the school orchestra, which last term performed the Scherzo from Shostakovich 5. I’ve had two pupils go on to study Music at Cambridge recently and another applying next year. If it were a toss-up for an A-level student between going to Cambridge and going to a conservatoire, I would advise them to try for Cambridge, because the standard of performance is as high as you’ll get anywhere, but you’ll also have that academic stimulus you wouldn’t perhaps get at a conservatoire. I was always more on the academic side, but I ran the college music society, sang in Chapel Choir and still managed to do a lot of concerts and solo playing. I look back now at my time at Magdalene, and at some of the people I used to play with, and think ‘What a privilege!’”

“If it were a toss-up for an A-level student between going

to Cambridge and going to a conservatoire, I would advise

them to try for Cambridge, because the standard of

performance is as high as you’ll get anywhere, but you’ll also have that academic stimulus

you wouldn’t perhaps get at a conservatoire.”

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The low-down: applying to CambridgeWhat grades will I need?It’s a myth that you need an unbroken run of A*s to get into Cambridge. One of the strengths of our interview-based admissions system is its ability to assess all applicants individually. While GCSE results are certainly looked at as a performance indicator, our research shows that post-16 examination performance is a much better predictor of degree success at Cambridge, and a strong performance in Years 12 and 13 can make up for a less stellar performance at GCSE.

At A level, the standard offer is A*AA. The A* doesn’t need to be in Music, though on rare occasions a college may make this a condition of entry (if, for example, they feel they need more information about your performance in certain aspects of the subject). Most Music students will have taken A level Music, but it’s possible to read Music at Cambridge without having studied the subject at A level; however, if you don’t have A level Music, you will normally need to have achieved a Merit or above at Grade 8 ABRSM Theory to be eligible for a place. A level Music Technology is not normally a substitute for A level Music or Grade 8 Theory. If you have obtained other qualifications, such as the IB, you can find information on entry requirements on the Undergraduate Study website; see: www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/applying/entrance-requirements/other-qualifications

Do I need to have learned piano?The undergraduate Music course has only a small keyboard component. However, progress in subjects such as composition is certainly easier if you are able to try out ideas on the piano. For this reason, it is important that you have some keyboard ability – a minimum of Grade 6 is generally thought desirable.

Where do I apply?All Music students attend lectures and sit examinations in the Faculty of Music. However, admissions are organized by the colleges. Most candidates apply to a particular college, but you can also submit an open application (see p. 14).

When do I apply?The deadline for applications to Cambridge is mid October, which is much earlier than for most other universities. You can check the precise dates on the Undergraduate Study website; see: www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/applying/dates-and-deadlines

If you are intending to apply for an Organ Award, please note that you need to submit both your academic application and a special Organ Awards form (the COPA, or Cambridge Online Preliminary Application form) by the very early deadline of 1 September. Choral Award applicants apply in mid February, i.e. only after they have been awarded an

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academic place (see p. 27). Those who are interested in applying to the Instrumental Awards Scheme should submit the relevant form to their college by the end of February, again after they have secured an academic place.

When and where do interviews take place?The majority of interviews take place in Cambridge in the first three weeks of December (some may be a little earlier). Interviews are usually held in the college to which you have applied. Should you need to travel a long distance, your college will usually be able to accommodate you for at least one night; this is normally free of charge.

Will I have to sit a test?The Music course at Cambridge is academically rigorous, and you will need to prove that you are capable of working at a high level. All colleges include some kind of testing at interview. Most will ask you to discuss or write about a musical extract that you are given to study for a short period before the interview; others may conduct simple aural or harmony tests. Some may ask you to do some elementary keyboard tests as well. You should check with each college individually about the exact requirements. In addition, colleges will ask you to

supply samples of written work prior to interview; this usually consists of two essays and either an original composition or a harmony and counterpoint exercise.

How will I know if I’ve got a place?You will be informed in writing of the college’s decision before the end of January. If you have already taken your A levels, you may be offered an unconditional place; if, like the majority of applicants, you are still studying, you will probably be offered a place conditional on achieving grades A*AA at A level, as described above.

What happens if I don’t get into my first-preference college?If your application is strong but your preferred college is not able to take you, you are likely to be put in the Winter Pool for other colleges to consider. Approximately 30% of all Music undergraduates gain their place via this mechanism; pooled students often go on to perform at the very top of their year-group.

Saskia Bunschoten-Binet, 2nd-year Music student, Girton College

I really knew nothing about Cambridge colleges when I applied – I didn’t have family who went to Oxbridge – so I applied to Pembroke pretty much on a whim. My school, a comprehensive, didn’t think my AS grades were good enough, but my heart was set on Cambridge and I was prepared to give it a go and, if necessary, reapply after A levels (Geography, History and Music) with my grades in hand. I didn’t apply for any other universities or conservatoires at that stage, but that’s not something I’d necessarily recommend.

I was interviewed at Pembroke and didn’t get in, but I was pooled to Robinson and called for a second interview there. That just felt like such an amazing hour of my life; I felt a real connection with the college. Robinson offered me a place, and I asked for a deferred place and got it. Then in the summer, when the results

came out, I was told I hadn’t met my offer from Robinson; however, Girton stepped in and agreed to take me straightaway.

I felt very quickly that Girton was the perfect place for me. I really love to cycle, so I don’t mind at all that it’s not in the centre of town, and I have a bay window overlooking the orchard. Also, there’s a really strong musical community here – there tends to be about four Music students per year – and I have the most amazing Director of Studies.

In retrospect, I completely disagree with my school’s advice not to apply to Cambridge. Schools often think that they ‘know the system’ and know what’s best for you, but if you want to apply, you should just go ahead – there’s nothing to lose.

Can I afford to study at Cambridge?Tuition costs at Cambridge are in line with most other UK universities; however, living costs can work out substantially cheaper. College accommodation represents excellent value for money, college catering is flexible and well subsidised, and transport costs are negligible (most students walk or cycle).

An extensive programme of financial support ensures our students can meet the cost of their Cambridge education, regardless of background. The Cambridge Bursary Scheme offers UK and EU students non-repayable bursaries of up to £10,500 spread over three years to help with living costs; please note that awards are dependent on household income. Your college may offer additional sources of funding for specific costs or to help in particular circumstances, and you may also consider applying for a Choral, Organ, or Instrumental Award (see pp. 24–31).

Take a look at the finance section of the Undergraduate Study website to find out more about financing your studies at Cambridge: www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/finance

What if I have a disability?Your disability will not affect your application to Cambridge and, should you be offered a place, every effort will be made to provide a suitable and supportive learning environment. The Disability Resource Centre – www.disability.admin.cam.ac.uk/students/prospective-students – is an essential

first point of contact. They can provide you with advice on the accessibility of colleges in relation to the Music Faculty, and information on the support available to you; they may even be able to put you in touch with a student who has a disability similar to yours, so that you can find out about their experiences here. We recommend that you disclose your disability in your UCAS application so that you can be contacted to arrange any special requirements for interviews.

Will extenuating circumstances be taken into consideration?The Extenuating Circumstances Form (ECF) has been designed to ensure that the Cambridge colleges have the information they need for accurate assessment of any applicant who has experienced particular personal or educational disadvantage. The information provided on the form – which is available at www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/applying/decisions/extenuating-circumstances-form – will help Admissions Tutors by giving context against which they can judge the academic record of an applicant; it will indicate whether the student has excelled in spite of, or been hindered because of their personal/educational circumstances. The ECF will also provide information that is useful when assessing their performance at interview, should they be called for interview. The ECF should only be used where an applicant’s education has been significantly disrupted or disadvantaged through health or personal problems, disability or difficulties with schooling.

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I had my interview on my eighteenth birthday, which wasn’t ideal! I came from a public school where the Director of Music was an Oxbridge graduate, so there was some understanding of what was expected. We were given ‘mock interviews’ which, frankly, were a bit ridiculous. I’m pretty sure the people who got in from my school would have got in without the practice interviews, and those who didn’t could have had all the practice they wanted and it wouldn’t really have helped.

Before my main interview at Trinity Hall I had a one-hour test; we were given the whole melody and quite a lot of the bass-line of a Bach chorale and asked to fill in what we could – tricky enough, but it wasn’t very long, just about eight bars. Then we had the first eight bars of a fugal exposition with some of the parts taken out, and we had to fill those in too. That’s something I had no experience in at all – there’s really no preparation for counterpoint at A level – but being a keyboard player, I had played fugues before, so that kind of got me through it. The last exercise was a five- or six-bar piano passage, where we had to explain the function of certain chords, and that was fine.

My academic interview was with the Director of Studies in Music, Andrew Arthur; because Andrew is by himself at Trinity Hall, he always likes to bring in a colleague from another college, and I had Ben Walton. Before the interview I’d been given a passage of text to read (Carl Dahlhaus on musical value) and an extract of music to look at (from a middle-period Beethoven sonata). For the first part of the interview, I had to summarise Dahlhaus’s argument and talk through the extract – what were the characteristic features, what was strange about it, which period was it from and who might have composed it? I happened to identify it correctly, but I don’t think it would have mattered very much if I hadn’t. A friend who was interviewed at King’s was given a similar piece by Beethoven and he said it was by Strauss, but the reasoning behind his answer was quite sensible and, in a way, that says as

much about a candidate as ‘getting it right’.

I was apprehensive, but Andrew and Ben are such great guys and – bizarre as it sounds – they really made the interview enjoyable. I’d submitted two essays from my A level course in advance – one was on Byrd’s Mass for Four Voices and the other on Schubert’s ‘Unfinished’ Symphony. We discussed a few things from my essays and some points from my Personal Statement. Each question began with something I was familiar with, then Andrew and Ben took it farther. I had a chance to argue some points that I felt warranted more discussion, but more than anything else, it felt like a chance to learn a lot from two great musicians who obviously approached these issues in a way that was beyond me.

My second, non-academic interview was with the Dean and the Senior Tutor. They asked me ‘If you had a minute to convince someone it was worth studying Music at university, how would you go about it?’, which I found quite challenging; but I think that anyone who comes for an interview here has to relish the challenge. You have to be prepared to think quite freely about things, and be daring, be willing to ‘go wrong’. When you come for a supervision at Cambridge, you’re not shouted at for getting the wrong answers; you’re helped along in the right direction. It’s the same thing at interview; if it’s not going very well, they’ll give you the stepping stones to get back on the right path, and then see where you go. They’re absolutely not out to trip you up. They want to see you in your best light.

When my offer came through, about a month after the interview, I felt absolute joy and massive relief. The funny thing is, though, that even after I got my offer, I still thought ‘Is Cambridge actually the right thing for me?’ But it certainly turned out to be the right thing, and that’s something I’ve really come to trust about this place. They don’t make mistakes very often.

Keval Shah, 3rd-year Music student, Trinity Hall


A place to call your ownDr Ben Walton demystifies the Cambridge college system

Choosing a college when you first apply to Cambridge might seem quite a challenge. There are lots of them (31!), and reading all their websites can leave you wondering how to measure

one up against another. At the same time, making the right choice feels crucial, since the college is where you’ll spend a good amount of your time as an undergraduate, eating, sleeping, socialising and learning. Your time as a Music student at Cambridge, in other words, will probably be significantly shaped by your college experiences.

With a bit of background information, though, the choice is by no means as daunting as it looks. In the first place, two of those 31 colleges (Clare Hall and Darwin) are for postgraduates, and of the remainder, several fall into a particular category: some take mature students (defined as 21 or over in the year you start your course; these include Hughes Hall, St Edmund’s and Wolfson), while others (Murray Edwards and Newnham) only take female students, and Lucy Cavendish only takes female mature students. And if you have no specific preference, you don’t have to choose a college at all, but can submit an open application, so that a college will be chosen for you.

In academic terms, meanwhile, almost all aspects of the application process and the degree course in Music are the same across the colleges. If you are invited for interview, all colleges will normally ask you to submit work in advance (see The Low-down on pp. 10–13). On the interview day itself, there will typically be two interviews; for one of them, you will usually be given a piece of prose about music and/or a piece of music to discuss in the interview, and there will also be some short musical tests (more details can be found on individual college websites).

If you receive an offer of a place, it will come from a college, either the one that interviewed you, or from another following the Pool process – see: www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/applying/decisions

After admission, all students, regardless of college, follow the same degree course, and all attend the same lectures and seminars in the Faculty. In a relatively small subject such as Music (with an intake of around 65 students each year), the small-group supervisions that supplement the lectures will typically be organised by your college Director of Studies, but they will frequently take place outside

the college, and with a mix of students from various colleges. In terms of facilities, almost all colleges are well equipped for musical activities, and most have music societies, as well as spaces for performance and rehearsal and practice rooms.

So what are the differences? Location, obviously enough, though in a town as small as Cambridge, it rarely takes long to get from one place to another. History, too, with the oldest college founded in 1284 and the youngest in 1977. Teaching arrangements can have a defining influence on a student’s experience of studying Music – you can clarify these with individual colleges – and colleges differ in size, both in terms of physical space, numbers of students, and accommodation arrangements, as well as accommodation costs – see: www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/finance/living-costs

Numbers of Music students also differ, with a few colleges taking as many as five each year, while others might take only one or two. Full information about numbers of Music students at each college, by college and year, as well as number of applications to each college, can be generated here: www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/apply/statistics

At the same time, while music societies tend to vary only in levels of activity and ambition, there are some significant disparities between college choirs and organ scholarships in terms of level, expectations and commitment – see: www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/files/publications/choral_booklet_2015.pdf

That leaves the less definable aspects, to do with the people, surroundings and the general atmosphere. While each college has its own distinct character, it’s the college experience in general that works, both socially and academically. In fact, it works so well that whichever college you go to, you’ll almost certainly end up feeling it was the right choice!

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The choir was a big part of my applying to Trinity. Anyone applying to Cambridge will know that there are a number of choirs around, all of which come in slightly different flavours – King’s and St John’s have boy trebles, Trinity and Clare have sopranos – and really the best way to find out what is right for you is to come and hear them. Choose five or six that you might like, and go to services there. That’s what I did, and I was just blown away by the atmosphere and by the sound at Trinity. The choir performed amazingly, and I thought ‘This is something I’d really like to be a part of’, but I also really liked the general musical scene within the college.

Trinity’s a very friendly college, and it’s also a very academic college. I think over the past ten years or so we’ve often come near the top in terms of final exam grades, so there’s a degree of pressure that I think might not be true of other places. I’d also say that with a community of around 1500, we’re a lot less cloistered and tightly knit than some other colleges, but we’re very, very accommodating; with so many different subjects and nationalities – and we really have absolutely all sorts of people – you have to be. It’s a traditional college, but it’s not particularly formal. There’s formal Hall three times a week, which costs a tenner for a very

good meal, but you can do that as little or as often as you like.

There are generally between twelve and fifteen Music students at any one time; we’ve got two full-time music staff – a Director of Music and a Director of Studies in Music – and the Music Society is very active. The Chapel is the second biggest concert venue within the University – I think only West Road Concert Hall can hold more people – and there are at least three events per week.

I’m quite involved with the Music Society, and I ran an outreach day at Trinity where we had about 75 kids from the local community and about 30 students all up on the stage, playing away together. It was probably my favourite day at the University! Everyone talks about Trinity’s huge investment fund and how wealthy the college is. That really doesn’t permeate the culture, but it’s clearly a great resource. And it means that if I say ‘Can we try something we’ve never done before?’, everyone from the Master and the Bursar down to the support staff is happy to say ‘Yes; we’ll give it a go’. There’s a degree of trust because you’re known personally by the college authorities. That ‘can do’ philosophy is, for me, one of the very best things about the collegiate system.

Jack Butterworth, 2nd-year Music student, Trinity College

Phoebe McFarlane, 2nd-year Music student, Murray Edwards College

I’d heard of King’s Carol Service, so I thought ‘Right, I’ll apply there’. I looked it up, and they have about five students a year, which was another point in its favour. I went for an interview at King’s, but got pooled to Murray Edwards. At first, when I found out it was an all-girls college, I thought ‘Oh, no!’, because I had been at a girls’ school for seven years. I think it’s fair to say that because of the all-girls thing, most people at Murray Edwards have been pooled, and they really don’t know anything about the college when they get the offer. The really lovely thing about Murray Edwards, though, is that they do an offer-holders’ overnight stay in March. That really helped because, just walking in, you can tell how laid-back and welcoming the college is, and it also means that when you turn up in October you’ll see some familiar faces.

I’m the only Music student in my year at Murray Edwards, which means I get loads of attention from my fantastic Director of Studies. And because Music is such a small subject – there’s something like 55 of us in my year – it’s quite usual to have supervisions at other colleges. At one point last year, I had four in

one day, involving a forty-minute cycle ride from Homerton to Girton, which was a bit of a stretch, but actually it’s a really nice way of dipping into other colleges.

People are always bringing up the question of whether or not girls’ colleges are outdated. I’m not sure where I stand on that, but it’s certainly not the kind of horrendous thing I first envisaged; it’s nice to be able to walk around in your pyjamas, but it’s not in the least like school. It’s not like there are ‘no boys allowed’; the college is very happy for you to have friends round at any time.

I wouldn’t say your college completely defines your experience at Cambridge, but there’s definitely such a thing as ‘college spirit’. For example – and maybe because it’s a newer college – it seems to me that there is much less pressure, exam-wise, at Murray Edwards and more emphasis on your general well-being. I do feel that without a collegiate system, if people were having problems, they could easily be overlooked. In a college, you really feel like people know you and care about you as an individual; it’s an added level of security.


Cambridge uses the word ‘Tripos’ to refer to an undergraduate course taken in a specific subject. The word’s etymology is far from clear, but it’s thought to refer to the three-legged stools on which

candidates once sat to be examined.

The Music Tripos, like other Cambridge undergraduate courses, has two Parts, of which the first is sub-divided: Parts IA and IB are taken in years 1 and 2, with Part II completed in the final year. In earlier days, examinations were undertaken orally, but today’s students are assessed through a mixture of coursework submissions, practical examinations and written papers. A particular strength of the teaching methods at Cambridge nowadays is the combination of lectures (which can involve a whole year-group, or be in smaller classes for more specialised topics) together with small-group sessions, called supervisions, provided by the student’s college. In these, students are given further support in each of their particular courses. For composition and portfolio work, teaching is mostly one-to-one – but even so-called ‘discussion’ supervisions rarely involve more than three or four students.

Many important areas of study run through all three years of the Music Tripos – these include historical studies, performance, analysis, and composition. By the end of Part IB, most of the major periods of music history, from medieval music to the twenty-first century, will have been covered in three large courses – currently, early music, the (very) long nineteenth century, and music since 1914. During the first year, in a course called Music and Musicology Today, you will be given an overview of many present-day areas of the discipline; these include ethnomusicology, music as performance, composition, popular and world music, music and science, and music and education. Within this paper, you will also be required to choose between giving a short recital, submitting a composition, and writing an extended essay on a subject of your choice. During the first year you will also learn about various approaches to music analysis (focussing on Baroque and Classical repertoire), study basic elements of harmony and counterpoint, and have your aural, practical and keyboard abilities boosted in special smaller classes.

There are six papers in Part IA, all obligatory apart from the options mentioned above.

In the second year, you continue with your studies of history and analysis, looking at later nineteenth- and twentieth-century repertoire in the case of the latter. The tonal skills developed in the first year now broaden out to include options in orchestration and scoring for film. These – history, analysis, and tonal skills – are the three compulsory papers in Part IB; in addition, you are asked to choose three courses from a wide range of more specialised papers. These include a dissertation (on a subject of your choice), a portfolio of (free) compositions, a recital, notation (of early music), and keyboard skills. Alternatively, you can choose to investigate further such topics as music and science or ethnomusicology. Finally, there are a number of optional history courses. These change regularly to keep them fresh; recent options include Soviet Music and Power in the 1920s, Middle-Eastern Music, The Birth of the Orchestra, Carmen in Context, and Schubert’s Winterreise.

The range of choice increases further in the third year, where there are no compulsory papers. All the major strands such as analysis, composition, performance, tonal skills, music and science, and dissertation can be taken on to an advanced level, and a wide range of specialisms, historical and otherwise, is also on offer. Parisian Polyphony, The Keyboard Music of J.S. Bach, Boris Godunov, Latin American Music, Sibelius, Miles Davis, and North Indian Classical Music are just some of the subjects offered in the last couple of years. As with the second-year courses, these papers change frequently to keep them lively and up-to-date, but a wide representation of history, genre and style is always available. Part II students take six papers in total, in this case from no fewer than 17 options.

Overall, the Music Tripos is designed to give the best possible grounding in all areas of the subject. And as the amount of choice increases from year to year, Music students at Cambridge have an unmatched opportunity to tailor the course to personal strengths and enthusiasms.

Tradition and innovationDr John Hopkins details the structure and content of the Music courses at Cambridge

Image, above: A postgraduate at work in the Centre for Music and Science.

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Emma Kavanagh,2nd-year Music student, Jesus College

First and foremost, Part IB Music – as with all years of all degrees at Cambridge! – requires a real passion and interest in your subject. After all, you’ll be studying music full-time for three years – you have to really love it! The Cambridge music course is very academic, and it has not only been a fantastic learning experience, but has also inspired me to explore new areas of music, while also further refining my existing interests. In addition to the compulsory modules of Historical Studies, Analysis and Applied Tonal Skills, I chose optional modules on Soviet Music and Power in the 1920s and Carmen in Context, while also writing a 7,000-word dissertation on Britten’s opera Peter Grimes. The compulsory modules seek to build upon your understanding gained in Part IA, and their breadth has really complemented the more specific focus of my options.

After the broad (and somewhat stretching!) scope of Part IA, it was good to be able to specialise; some students will look to refine their skills in one area, such as history or composition, while others will prefer to keep it broad. The choice of options in Part IB is substantial, allowing you to select modules that suit your tastes, interests and skills. Having greater control not only over the modules you take, but also over the kind of assessment that you encounter means that you can tailor the course to suit you – it feels like it has been a good preparation for my final year.

I’m really involved with the music scene both within my college and in the University as a whole, and while it can sometimes be tricky to juggle deadlines with choir rehearsals and so on, I’ve never found it too much to handle. Cambridge is an intense learning environment, but also an inspiring one. I’ve loved my time here so far, and the opportunities open to you here are unparalleled.

Part IA throws you in at the deep end. We get about two essays a week, as well as harmony work – which might include string-quartet writing, sixteenth-century counterpoint, piano variations, or fugal exposition. We get a lot of contact time in the week – which I think is great – but it’s certainly a heavy workload.

In first-year Music, we have six papers, of which two are History papers. History 1 covers the Medieval and Renaissance; History 2 deals with the later eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but it goes up to the beginning of the twentieth century. So, you get a very broad and comprehensive view of the history of Western Music, which I think is really important; often at school you get bits and pieces of music history, but you don’t really have the chance to join the dots.

There’s also an Analysis paper, divided into two parts. This year we’ve been studying roughly the first half of the Beethoven piano sonatas, which for me, as a pianist, has been fantastic – it’s such an important set of works, and it works really well in relation to the history course; you can start drawing your own links, in a closer manner, and that’s really exciting. For the other half of the Analysis exam, you have to write about an unseen extract; in preparation for that, we’ve looked at a lot of Bach, but also some Handel, Scarlatti, Couperin and Vivaldi,

so you get a sense of the forms of the period and the various developments in compositional technique.

There are another two papers, in Harmony and Counterpoint and Practical Skills, and the sixth paper is made up of lectures on Music and Musicology Today, plus an option for composition, performance or an extended essay. So, we have a tiny bit of choice in Music and Musicology Today, in which we also write two essays about any of the topics covered in the lecture series. Personally, I think it might be nice to have a little bit more choice in Part IA; on the other hand , it’s important to have a thorough grounding, and the fact that you cover so much material in the first year means that you’re better informed when you come to make your choices in Part IB and Part II. Because if you’re never exposed to something, how can you possibly know whether you like it or not? I know people, for example, who had never really looked at early music before, but now they’re really into it and will probably continue with it.

You can be a more dedicated or a less dedicated student, you can spend endless time reading for your essays, or not spend much time at all, but Part IA does encourage a lot of work. It’s very, very demanding, but I think the best way to learn is to be completely immersed.

Marianne Schönle,1st-year Music student, Girton College


Rebecca Whiteman,3rd-year Music student, Selwyn College

Part II of the Music Tripos is massively varied. I had a list of 17 options, and while some papers such as Analysis, Performance and Keyboard Skills build directly on what you’ve done in previous years, I chose areas that were mostly completely new to me.

I did a course on Parisian Polyphony, looking at sources from the thirteenth century. That was very different to anything I’d done before because it was focused on codicology – looking at the actual manuscripts. I also did North Indian Classical Music (which was an introduction to the music, but also a social history paper), Latin American Music and the Politics of Representation, as well as The Shadow of Sibelius.

Perception and Performance was really interesting, because you learn how to use statistical programmes and run your own experiments, which is great in terms of transferable skills. My experiment was on how different genres of music affect what you might be prepared to pay for things in a shop. I think that, in general, you can tailor Part II options to your particular interests – you can stick closely to [musical] techniques or you can branch off into politics and psychology. This was particularly helpful for me, as I’m going on to do a Psychology conversion course (MSc) at Nottingham next year.

I also chose to do a dissertation on a contemporary composer called Ivan Moody, who’s a priest in the Orthodox Christian Church, so I was looking at Orthodox theology and iconography. I had a great supervisor who has been very encouraging about potential PhD topics; I’m very tempted by some kind of PhD combining Music and Psychology.

I think you approach Part II with some trepidation; it’s quite scary knowing it’s your marks from third year that count the most towards your degree. Having said that, I enjoyed third year most, and it’s the year I did best in, because I chose options which really interested me, and I didn’t have to do all the technical things, such as tonal skills, which were not my strong point. I also found that I had more confidence in my own opinions than in previous years: even in exams, I was disagreeing with things and bringing in my own ideas, and I think that really helped in terms of my marks.

It’s a good idea to spread the work-load. I read around a lot for my dissertation in the summer, decided on my topic before Michaelmas Term, and completed a first draft in the Christmas holidays. There’s a temptation, of course, to choose all the Lent Term courses and have a wonderful time in Michaelmas doing absolutely no work, but working steadily means you have time for other commitments. My main instrument is cello, and this year I did the Instrumental Awards Scheme. I also took up Chapel Choir for the first time. You can’t work all the time, and actually I found doing something other than academic work helped to focus me, especially during Easter Term, when I had no lectures or supervisions and could easily have spent all of my time in the library.

The courses I took this year have really broadened my taste, and I’ve come out loving music even more than I did before. Whether music leads to a job for me, or remains a hobby, it has been wonderful to study it like this.

Postgraduate CoursesIn addition to the PhD, there are two postgraduate courses in the Music Faculty, each with a range of options.

MPhil in Music StudiesThis is a one-year course combining structured teaching with supervised independent study, leading to an extended coursework submission. There are common elements in the programme, but you specialise in one of seven areas: Musicology; Theory, Analysis and Criticism; Ethnomusicology; Jazz, Popular and Media Music; Performance Studies; Music and Science; Composition. Many students on this course go on to a PhD, either in Cambridge or elsewhere.

MMus in Choral StudiesThis course is for training in the art of choral conducting. Its primary role is to enable students to acquire the technical skills necessary for working with choral groups of all types; however, there are also opportunities for concentrating on specific historical repertoires and for learning about the history and practice of choral music more generally. Cambridge is unique in the number of international-level choirs it supports; this makes the University the ideal situation for a course such as this. MMus students are offered a placement with a leading chapel choir as part of the course, and in this context they have the chance to observe the choir’s work and, occasionally, to direct services. The basic elements of the course are: Choral Conducting; Seminar Course; Options (two from the following list: Extended Essay, Editing Project, Performance); College Placement.

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Lark Insurance Group is one of the UK’s Top10 independent insurance brokers andspecialist in musical instrument insurance.We insure over 10,000 musical instruments

worldwide and are proud to be sponsors of the Endellion StringQuartet’s concert series in Cambridge and London. www.larkinsurance.co.uk

The Endellion String Quartet is represented by:Hazard Chase Ltd., 25 City Road, Cambridge CB1 1DPTel: 01223 312400 Email: [email protected]

The Endellion String Quartet is grateful to Nigel Brown OBE and The Stradivari Trust for their continuing support of the Quartet and its recordings. The Stradivari Trust

www.endellionquartet.com(@hazardchaseltd)

The Endellion String Quartet celebrates its 36th anniversary in 2015. Overthe years, the quartet’s schedule has included regular tours of North andSouth America and concerts in Australasia, the Far and Middle East, SouthAfrica and Western Europe. Recent and future highlights includeappearances at Carnegie Hall in New York, Queen Elizabeth Hall inLondon, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Zentrum Paul Klee in Bern,International Festival of Music in Tarragona, Tchaikovsky Concert Hall inMoscow, Montreal’s Pollack Hall and a tour of Mexico, includingperformances at the Festival Internacional Cervantino and the Festival deMusica da Camara de Aguascalientes.

In Britain, the Endellion String Quartet has appeared at many major seriesand festivals, and has frequently broadcast on BBC radio and television. Itspresence in London has been marked by several series both at theSouthbank Centre and Wigmore Hall in addition to its prestigious residencyat Cambridge University and its ongoing series at The Venue Leeds.

Advocates of education, the quartet has undertaken three short-termresidencies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the USAand, from 2001 to 2010, was Associate Quartet of the Royal Northern Collegeof Music. Since 2011 the quartet has been the ‘Visiting Quartet in Association’with the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in addition to providing studentcoaching as part of its ‘Quartet in Residence’ at the University of Cambridge.

Each season, the Endellion String Quartet gives six concerts at West Road Concert Hall in Cambridge. For full details, please see:www.cambridgelivetickets.co.uk. Tickets (2015-16 season): £27 (standard),£6 (students and under 16s). Group discount: 20% for groups of 10+. TheEndellion String Quartet thanks Lark Insurance for its sponsorship of theirconcert series in Cambridge and London.

Ralph de Souza violin Andrew Watkinson violin Garfield Jackson viola David Waterman cello

Phot

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Eric

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The Endellion String Quartet ‘sets the audience ablaze’ (Daily

Telegraph) everywhere they play, ‘captivating concertgoers with a

remarkable rapport, playing to each other with a sense almost of discovery,

communicating to the audience on a level of unusual intimacy’ (Guardian).

‘There’s always a feeling when listening to the Endellion Quartet that you’re

listening to the Urtext method of quartet playing. Maybe 35 years of playing

together has brought to them as a group a uniformity of thought and

instinct that allows them to play as a single entity.’ Gramophone

‘The Endellion is arguably the finest quartet in Britain, playing with poise, trueintonation, excellent balance and a beautiful tone.’ New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians

esqad_a4_fom_Layout 1 25/08/2015 15:04 Page 1

‘The performer, for all his intolerable arrogance, is totally unnecessary except as his interpretations make the music understandable to an audience unfortunate enough

not to be able to read it in print.’ These startling comments – allegedly made by the composer Arnold Schoenberg1 – are characteristic of a tendency in musicology over many generations to regard performers as ‘second-class citizens’. Their primary task was to reproduce faithfully what was in the score and to obey the intentions of composers, who were deemed to have the upper hand.

Fortunately, a quite different way of conceiving what performers do has been gaining momentum during the past twenty years or so. For example, it is now possible to study music not only in terms of the great composers and the works they produced, but also on the basis of the creative practices in which performers are engaged, and the contributions they make to our understanding of what music is and how it affects us. This is true not only of popular music and world music, but also of classical repertoire by great composers such as Schoenberg. Think how different an approach to music history would be if it focused not solely on composers and works, but on changing performance styles, on how performance has been experienced over the ages by performers and listeners, and on how performances have been produced on different instruments and variably captured in recording media. As for analysis, many would now argue that, however enlightening it is to look at music in the score, one also needs to consider its unique properties on particular performance occasions.

In recent decades Cambridge has become a major centre for the study of performance. It is widely renowned for its exceptionally rich and vibrant performance culture: on any day of the week, there might be ten or more concerts taking place in the Music Faculty and a range of colleges, not to mention the wider community. An astonishing number of ensembles – featuring professional and student musicians – make up a performance scene that is unrivalled in the UK, if not internationally. Within

1 The comments were attributed to Schoenberg by his niece, Dika Newlin, in Schoenberg Remembered: Diaries and Recollections (1938–76) (London: Pendragon, 1980), 164. There is reason to doubt the attribution, however.

the Faculty, students have the opportunity to take performance for credit at every level, and one of the courses on offer – Introduction to Performance Studies – brings together practical music-making and scholarly enquiry into performance, embracing historical, analytical and psychological perspectives. This interface between ‘thinking’ and ‘doing’ – to cite Joseph Kerman’s2 tongue-in-cheek distinction between scholars and practitioners – is avidly pursued in many contexts outside the classroom. For example, the recently launched Centre for Musical Performance Studies,3 which plays a leading role in musical performance studies close to home and across the globe, supports a programme of masterclasses, workshops, side-by-side events (in which student musicians play alongside high-calibre professionals from Britten Sinfonia and the Academy of Ancient Music; see pp. 33 and 34), and other ‘talk-and-play events’ such as the lecture-recitals and open rehearsals led by Alfred Brendel, Robert Levin, Angela Hewitt and Murray Perahia during their residencies as Humanitas Visiting Professors in Chamber Music. Events like these shed light on the knowledge that is created and conveyed in performance, and on how musical performance takes shape over time.

The opportunities described here, along with the successful CAMRAM scheme (details of which are explained on p. 21), are one reason for the ‘performance buzz’ in the Faculty and across the University, which benefits hugely from the ambitious musical activities pursued at the 31 colleges. There is almost too much on offer! But if there is an excess, it is one with huge benefits for student performers at all levels and in all subjects. The world-class standards achieved by the best of our musicians, coupled with the depth of knowledge and understanding engendered by the academic study of performance on offer within our curricula, knock on the head any claim that performers are ‘totally unnecessary’ in one or more ways. Indeed, the musical environment here is living proof that music cannot exist without performance, whether real or imagined, and that there is much more to performance than people have often been led to believe.

2 Joseph Kerman, Musicology (London: Fontana, 1985), 196.3 See www.mus.cam.ac.uk/about-us/music-environment/cmps

Performance in the Music FacultyProf John Rink explains the central role of performance within the Music Tripos

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Michael Buchanan (trombone) Conservatoire or university? This is the perennial question for music students. Like so many applicants, I was torn between the two throughout my sixth-form days. The CAMRAM scheme, introduced in my final year, would certainly have made the decision easier. The opportunity to study at Cambridge while reaping the benefits of a connection to the Academy was, for me, extremely rewarding; it enhanced enormously the already rich musical experiences enjoyed at Cambridge.

One of the greatest (and perhaps unexpected) benefits I found was the exceptional – and sometimes daunting – amount of musical freedom the University allows you. Outside the degree course itself, Cambridge brims with opportunities for ‘stage-time’, and these opportunities come at rapid pace. The vibrancy of this student-led musical life calls not just for self-sufficiency, but for ever more inventive and self-critical ways of rising to creative and technical challenges.

While such a set-up is both exciting and effective, external and professional advice remains vital. Regular access to the Academy’s ‘world’, with the peer-support and camaraderie of students and the guidance of knowledgeable professors, was, I found, the ideal complement to my university education. The more self-explorative aspects of performing at Cambridge and the clear, sometimes hard-line guidance I received while studying as an instrumentalist at the conservatoire turned out, for me, to be the perfect combination.

Raphael Colman (cello)Extra-curricular music at Cambridge is nothing short of astonishing. The quantity and variety of productions and concerts offer opportunities to every sort of performer, and it is particularly amazing that students maintain such a high level of playing on top of their very demanding degrees.

For a Music student who wants to take performance seriously, it can be tempting to take part in everything, possibly at the expense of practice and music lessons. When I started, that was certainly my experience. Music lessons are expensive and time-consuming, and on top of concerts and essays they seemed an untenable option. I had come to Cambridge from the Royal Academy of Music, having finished the first year of the undergraduate course on the cello and, for me, the real benefit of the CAMRAM scheme was the stability it offered; that guarantee of music lessons – I was able to keep my teacher from the previous year – imposed necessary structure on an otherwise chaotic musical year. The scheme has allowed me to progress as a cellist, and it puts musicians at Cambridge in an excellent position if, after graduating, they intend to apply to conservatoire.

Eleanor Kornas (piano)I was thrilled when, in my second year at Cambridge, the opportunity came to study piano with Rustem Hayroudinoff as part of the CAMRAM scheme. My teacher was very flexible, and I was really pleased that we managed to arrange lessons around my full Cambridge schedule of lectures, rehearsals and choir commitments (amongst other things!). I found it extremely useful to get different and even conflicting opinions on pieces I had studied before with other teachers, as it helped me to think more about my own ideas and what I wanted to do with the music. It was also simply very exciting and fun to go into the Academy and feel the ‘vibes’ of such a place and to feel myself a part of that. I would certainly recommend the scheme if only because the experience encourages Music undergraduates to consider options that may never have crossed their mind before.

Best of both worldsIn 2013, Director of Performance Margaret Faultless set up CAMRAM, a scheme that allows Cambridge Music undergraduates access to instrumental lessons and workshops at the Royal Academy of Music in London. Here, three participants share their experience of this ground-breaking collaboration.

The CAMRAM scheme was set up in 2013 and enables Cambridge Music students to take lessons at the Royal Academy of Music in London alongside their studies at university. The second- and third-year instrumentalists on the scheme are assigned a teacher at the Royal Academy, and in addition to receiving individual tuition on their principal instrument, they are invited to attend a number of departmental performance classes.

INFORMATION


Calling all composers…Richard Causton, Reader in Composition, looks forward to a new generation of composers in Cambridge

The creation of new music has always been part of Cambridge’s DNA. Five hundred years ago, Robert Fayrfax studied at the University. He was followed, about a century later, by

Orlando Gibbons, whose music still resounds in virtually every Cambridge college chapel. More recently, Judith Weir (currently Master of the Queen’s Music), Thomas Adès, Errollyn Wallen and George Benjamin have all studied here.

In view of this overwhelming creative heritage, you might think you have to be a genius to come

to Cambridge as a composer, or to flourish as one once you’ve arrived here. That would be quite wrong: I have lost count of the students who arrived a little unsure of themselves, or uncertain as to whether composition was for them, and who left, after three years, with their own confident, secure and original musical voice. Every year, our third-year undergraduates go on to take postgraduate composition courses, to work on commissions for performers and groups of all kinds, and to have their music broadcast and recorded at the highest level. Very often it is those who were least confident when they first arrived who do the best in the long run.

This is partly to do with the unrivalled wealth of opportunities that Cambridge offers to student composers. The best composition lesson you can have is to hear your music performed live, and thanks to Cambridge’s extraordinary level of student music-making, even the most ambitious of pieces (including orchestral works and operas) regularly receive professional-level performances here. There are also fantastic opportunities to work with visiting professional musicians of the highest calibre: in the last year alone, our students have had their pieces performed by ensembles such as the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group (conducted by Oliver Knussen), Britten Sinfonia, and the Arditti String Quartet. These opportunities are complemented by weekly Composers’ Workshops given by leading figures in the musical world, such as Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Mark-Anthony Turnage, Cheryl Frances-Hoad, Julian Anderson, Trevor Wishart, and George Benjamin. But perhaps most important of all is the specialised one-to-one tuition in composition that Cambridge offers its students; this allows you to work over an extended period with a professional composer on developing your ideas and honing your own original compositional style.

Our students’ creative work is remarkably diverse; it includes concert music written within the Western classical tradition, electronica, jazz, and film music – the latter often composed under the guidance of Xiaotian Shi, who is Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Screen and Media Composition (see p. 39).

Above all, Cambridge is a place where you can experiment and explore your musical own ideas, surrounded by stimulating and like-minded people. We pride ourselves on how friendly, welcoming and inclusive our new music community is here, and we look forward to meeting our next wave of young composers!

© Katie Vandyck

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It’s been over a year since I graduated with a degree in Music from Robinson College, and I’m currently renting a shared house in North Cambridge. I made the

decision to live in Cambridge since, despite being expensive to live in, it’s a pretty unbeatable place for pursuing a musical career. The amateur choirs here are as skilled as professional ones elsewhere, and I’m hoping to write for a large variety of ensembles in the city. I also look forward to collaborating with artists from other disciplines: in particular, I hope to collaborate with a computer game designer on a new rhythm-action game, and with a playwright on a ‘play with music’ about fracking.

I also hope to develop my compositional technique through further study. Following the release of my Free Composition portfolio results, I was awarded the Arthur Bliss Prize for Composition. I am using the prize money towards funding further composition study at the University of Winchester.

Many of my current and recent projects were a direct result of my time at the Music Faculty. Last year I was supported by members of the Music Faculty in applying

for a grant from the Performing Rights Society’s ‘Women Make Music’ fund: this resulted in a new work for violin and piano – Stay Together, Learn the Flowers, Go Light – which was premiered at Kettle’s Yard by Peter Sheppard Skaerved and Roderick Chadwick. I have also been collaborating with the Lucy Cavendish Singers, and hope to work with them again through the ‘Adopt a Composer’ scheme.

My time at the Music Faculty was wonderfully nourishing for me as a composer. The courses in Post-1945 Italian Music, Britten, and Music and Science were constantly fascinating and introduced me to some of my favourite pieces of music. I was also very fortunate to be supervised by three outstanding composers: Jeremy Thurlow, Giles Swayne and Richard Causton.

Even more inspiring than the courses was witnessing the music-making of other students. Various fellow composers excelled in putting on rather crazy but brilliant new music events at the last minute: Joe Bates and Anthony Friend’s Filthy Lucre nights; Gregor Forbes’s Nae Balls; Kate Whitley’s chamber operas.

I’m delighted, post-graduation, to see these initiatives continue, and inspired to

observe my contemporaries working out for themselves how to compose (and make a living) in the 21st century.

For myself, I continue to explore the question of contemporary engaged music. When not writing or playing music, my other passion is exploring the question of how to live sustainably and tread lightly on the earth. I believe climate change to be an issue of enormous moral significance and one that raises profound political and economic questions. My own calling is to explore in my compositional work the questions that climate change raises.

Drawing on contemporary eco-philosophy and psychology, I hope to create works of art (both purely musical and in partnership with other art-forms) that are ‘engaged’ in a new way. George Monbiot theorizes, in the context of environmental journalism, that language which creates a sense of threat and induces fear is counter-productive; such emotions can cause people to cling tightly to what they own. My own preference, in a world where isolation and individualism are the norm, would be to use music to reconnect people to what they value and love.

Kate Honey explains how Cambridge influenced her quest for a new music of engagement

Composing to connect

Kate Honey at Kettle’s Yard


Organ Scholarships Open Day

The annual Organ Awards Open Day is held in early spring and extends over a 24-hour period, beginning and ending in the late afternoon. Meals and overnight accommodation are provided for all prospective applicants in various colleges. After an initial welcome and registration over coffee, the activities begin with an opportunity to observe either a rehearsal or an evensong sung by one of the University’s college choirs. Supper is then taken at one of the colleges, followed by an organ workshop led by the Director of the Organ Awards Scheme. Prospective applicants start bright and early the following morning in order to attend the choristers’ rehearsal at either King’s or St John’s College. This is followed by a presentation (at which parents are welcome) given by an Admissions Tutor and the Director of the Organ Awards Scheme. The presentation covers general points about admissions, the

various steps involved in applying for an Organ Award, and the nature of the various academic interviews, musical tests and auditions that take place during the Organ Trials. A panel of current organ scholars is in attendance in order to share their experiences as both organ scholars and academic students. After an opportunity to ask questions, lunch is taken in groups at different colleges. Everyone then has the chance to meet two chapel choir directors of their choice in the relevant colleges. This is a good opportunity to find out more about the timetable and activities of specific chapel choirs, and will help candidates choose which colleges to apply to for an Organ Award. Finally, tea is provided in one of the central colleges. Although this marks the end to the formal programme of the Open Day, several choirs then hold rehearsals and services which you may like to attend. You can move from college to college, as desired, during the rehearsals, and it’s a great way to hear more choirs and organists in action.

Glittering prizesThe University offers a range of awards for exceptional musicians. Could one of them be yours?

There is no doubt that winning a Cambridge Choral or Organ Scholarship holds a certain cachet. On Google, images of candle-lit Gothic arches with cassocked choristers singing directly from mediaeval manuscripts are juxtaposed with reports of first-class flights to exotic tour destinations and nationally televised liturgical feasts. In reality, there is rather less glamour and rather more ‘Wet Tuesday in February’ commitment involved in being a Choral or Organ Scholar, but the prestige of these awards is significant, and the experiences on offer – the transferable skills, the discipline, the musical techniques and the close, social community – are well worth those treks to Chapel on dark, fenland nights.

Which college?

Choral and Organ Scholarships come in all shapes and sizes: some college choirs sing seven services every week, requiring a weekly commitment of up to 20 hours; others ask for just two hours on a Sunday afternoon. Every permutation imaginable exists between those two extremes. You need to consider the subject you wish to read, how much time you want to devote to singing/playing, individual practice, and whether you also wish to pursue other extra-curricular activities (drama, sport, etc.). Academic work must always, of course, be your first priority. On average,

humanities students, such as those reading Music, tend to devote about 40 hours per week to their degree studies; for scientists (Engineers, Medics, etc.), that number can be more like 60. If you are a Choral or Organ Scholarship applicant who is also keen to play on the college tiddlywinks team, you need to consider time-management when deciding where to apply. Cambridge offers several ways to help you choose the best college for you, and we hope that the information provided over the next couple of pages will be useful.

Open days and visits

Organ Scholarships Open DayThis two-day event takes place in late February or early March. Most participants for this come during Year 12 (i.e., the academic year before you apply), but you’re welcome to come during your GCSE year as well. Activities include observing various choirs in action, trying out a number of different instruments, meeting several Directors of Music, discussing the application procedure with an Admissions Tutor, and generally getting a glimpse into life as an Organ Scholar. Participation is free, but booking in advance is required. You can find more information about the next round of open days from the Organ Scholarships website at www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/finance/music-awards/organ

Choral awards and organ scholarships Sarah MacDonald

Andrew Arthur,Director of Music, Trinity Hall

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Choral Awards Open DayThis one-day event takes place in late April or early May, and again, most participants come when they are in Year 12 (the academic year before applying); however, Year 11 participants are welcome too. An Admissions Tutor and the Director of the Choral Awards Scheme lead a plenary session. This is followed by a brief singing workshop, which gives a taste of the audition process. Participants are encouraged to visit colleges in small groups, meet Directors of Music, and ask lots of questions. Participation is free, but booking online in advance is required; see www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/finance/music-awards/choral-awards for more information.

University/College/Departmental Open DaysThere are also plenty of centrally organised Open Days throughout the year; these provide you with the opportunity to look around lots of colleges, and many of the University departments. Just search the University website for ‘Open Days’.

Individual VisitsIt can also be helpful for potential Choral and Organ Scholars to visit Cambridge independently. On an individual visit, Directors of Music can make time to hear you sing or play, and then offer specific guidance on what you might need to work on in preparation for the audition. You should also try to hear one or more choirs in rehearsals and/or services. We don’t have a half-term in Cambridge, so that provides an

excellent opportunity for you to observe musicians in action without missing lessons at school or college. Setting up a timetable of meetings is easy – simply email the Directors of Music that you would like to meet.

The application process – choral awards

There are three main stages to applying for a Choral Scholarship.

1. September Vocal Assessment DaysPotential Choral Scholars are encouraged to attend the Vocal Assessment Days (though those who do not attend will not be penalised in any way). This event is designed to ensure that candidates make a sensible and realistic musical choice when deciding which college to apply to academically. You can list up to eight colleges, in order of preference, on the online booking form for this event. Your college of first preference will give you a mock audition lasting about 15 minutes; other colleges on your list may

Choral Awards Open Day

One of the best ways of finding out about Choral Awards at Cambridge is to attend the annual Open Day held each year in the spring. The day begins with a presentation given by an Admissions Tutor and the Director of the Choral Awards Scheme. This covers general points about admissions, the various steps involved in applying for a Choral Award, and the nature of the audition itself, which normally comprises a prepared piece, ear tests and some sight-reading. After an opportunity to ask questions, everyone moves to a college chapel where one of the Directors of Music leads a sing-through of a short choral work and demonstrates the type of aural tests applicants should expect at the

auditions. Lunch is taken in groups at different colleges, and then everyone has an opportunity to meet up to three different choir directors of their choice in the relevant colleges. This is a good opportunity to find out more about the timetable and activities of specific choirs, and will help you choose which colleges to apply to for a Choral Award. After this, tea is provided in one of the central colleges. Several choirs then hold rehearsals and services which you may attend, moving from one to another as desired during the rehearsals. This allows you to hear one or more of the choirs in action. Parents are welcome to attend all events other than the meetings with the choir directors.

Dr Geoffrey Webber,Director of Music, Gonville and Caius College


I did my audition three years ago, and it’s probably the most nervous I’ve ever been in my life. Coming from a part of the world that doesn’t send many people to Cambridge and that doesn’t have a great musical tradition of this sort, I was very intimidated by the place, and the people, and by how different it all it was. Also, horrible rumours are spread about, such as young tenors being forced to sing top Cs at nine in the morning. Really, nothing could be further from the truth.

If you’re applying to, say, King’s or St John’s or Trinity, you’ll most likely be singing to representatives from other colleges, too, because they’re interested in people who are applying to the top colleges for choral singing. You can expect to have maybe fifteen people coming to hear your audition, and that’s very much in your favour.

I had fifteen minutes to warm up in the room next door; and that’s when it hits you that you really have no idea how to sing in the way that these people are used to. But that’s fine, because they don’t have those expectations of you. It’s important to remember that at this stage, they’re not looking for more than good musicality and vocal potential. They know that the progression of a choral singer, from the first year through to the end of the third year, is all a period of training. Everyone is considered equally, and it’s very much a case of helping people achieve their potential, rather than looking to discard the people who don’t show enough.

I think it’s very important to choose audition pieces that don’t overstretch you, but that show your instrument in the state it’s in. You have to be realistic: ‘Do I feel confident singing this piece? Does it show me in a good light?’ It’s a good idea to choose a piece that’s a few degrees below the top of the range of your ability, so that you can do it well, rather than singing something hard that doesn’t show you off as well as possible.

Don’t think of the first audition as your only chance to impress, or that you’ve blown it if it doesn’t go well. Even if you’ve sung badly, you’ll nearly always get called back for a second sing by your first-choice college and, normally, by your second- and third-choice college too. My second audition at King’s was with Richard Lloyd Morgan, the college Chaplain, who’s a former opera singer, and instead of it being a ‘stand up and sing without the copy’ experience, it was effectively Richard giving me a singing lesson. At the end of the day, I got a very good indication from Stephen [Cleobury] and Richard as to how I had done. They said ‘Well, just make sure you get your grades’.

It’s worth knowing that you can always go for an informal sing to your Director of Music before the Choral Trials takes place, and they’ll give you frank advice. They might say ‘I think you have a good chance of getting in this year’ or ‘Maybe you need to think about a gap year’. The main thing to remember is that they’re not out to get you, they’re out to help. There’s nothing to lose – and the most wonderful experience to gain – by giving it a go.

Toby Ward, 3rd-year Music student, King’s College

I came from a state school, and got most of my choral training in a parish choir. I applied initially to Selwyn, had my interview and got an offer. I then auditioned for a choral scholarship and was successful; but when the A level results came out, I discovered I’d missed my offer by about one mark, and I was summer-pooled to Homerton.

It was disappointing, because I wanted a college that was quite busy musically, and the choir was one of the reasons I had applied to

Selwyn. However, I got in touch with Sarah Macdonald, the Director of Music at Selwyn, and she said I could still sing at Selwyn as a volunteer choir member.

I’ve got good friends at Homerton, and I’m Treasurer of the College Music Society. Then, four nights a week, I’m singing at Selwyn, so I can enjoy the whole musical tradition there as well. It’s a lot of travelling, but it’s definitely worth it to sing with the choir of my choice.

Esther Nye, 2nd-year Music student, Homerton College

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also attend. After the event, and well in advance of the 15 October UCAS deadline, the Director of the Choral Awards Scheme will write to you, indicating the college highest on your preference list which would be willing to consider you for a Choral Award, were you to receive an academic offer from them in January. You are not obliged to apply to that college, but we do encourage you to use this guidance when making your choice.

2. Academic ApplicationPotential Choral Scholars make a normal academic application to their chosen college through UCAS, by the deadline of 15 October. Information about this process can be found on the University website – www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/applying – and you should read these pages carefully. In brief, we are looking for students who have the most academic ability and potential, who are motivated, independent, critical thinkers, who are best suited to the course they have applied for, and who will most benefit from studying here. The bulk of your UCAS personal statement should be geared towards discussion of your academic subject, and extra-curricular activities should be kept to a minimum. Even if you are applying to read Music, your interest in choral singing should only be mentioned briefly in your Personal Statement, as invitations to interviews and offers of places are based solely on academic

potential. Interviews for invited candidates (about 80% of applicants) take place in December, and results are announced in the second week of January.

3. Choral TrialsIf you are successful in gaining an academic offer from a college, you will be invited to apply for a Choral Award by the 15 February deadline. Only academic offer-holders may apply for a Choral Award (NB: this change in the Choral Awards process was introduced in 2013). Your first-choice college for your Choral Award application must be the college at which you hold an academic offer. You can also list other colleges on your application, in an order of preference. In some cases, if you are successful chorally at a college other than your offer-college, you might be able to transfer your academic offer to another college on your preference list, in order to take up a Choral Scholarship there (since you can hold a Choral Scholarship only at the college at which you are a student).

About 20% of academic offers at Cambridge are made through the Winter Pool (see p. 11 for more details). If you find yourself in that 20%, this may complicate your Choral Award application a little, especially if you had particularly hoped to sing in the choir of the college to which you originally applied.

Choir isn’t a massive time commitment at Christ’s. We rehearse on Wednesday evenings from 6.00 to 7.30; on Thursdays we rehearse from 5.45 with Evensong at 6.15; and then on Sundays we rehearse from 4.15 until Evensong at 6.00. So, it’s three blocks a week, which I’d say was mid-range for Cambridge choirs. The repertoire is mainly sacred music; for Evensong we have the Mag and Nunc, responses, introit and anthem; for concerts, and in the Easter Term when we start rehearsing the repertoire we’re going to take on tour, we’ll do bigger pieces.

It’s quite a lot to fit around your academic work, particularly in the first few terms when we have lectures every day and lots of supervisions. You have to keep your diary in quite good order. You have weekly deadlines that you can’t do anything about, but with longer-term deadlines you learn to prioritise and organise your work around choir rehearsals. Supervisors allow a

little bit of flexibility; they understand that for a Music student, the best way to get the most out of your course is to do extra-curricular activities. Equally, if you’re really snowed under you can ask for a week off choir, but that doesn’t happen often. You get a lot of perks from being in the choir – you get the singing lessons, and the formal dinners, and the tours – so it wouldn’t be fair to just not turn up.

Some choirs in Cambridge are very cliquey, and if you’re in that choir, then that’s your social group. Christ’s is a bit different. It’s definitely a ready-made community, and that can be really nice, especially in the first term, but we don’t spend ridiculous amounts of time with each other. I have really good friends from choir, but they’re not the only people I see. Also, it would be so easy in Cambridge just to sit in your room and work all day. Being in the choir is a lovely way of knowing that you have to get out there and do something you enjoy.

Maisie Hulbert, 1st-year Choral Scholar and Music student, Christ’s College


There is a variety of scenarios, some of which are illustrated in current students’ contributions on these pages. Firstly, you might well find that the college which has made you an offer has a similar sort of choir to the one in which you had originally hoped to sing; in this case, you can confidently carry on with your application, listing the new college as your first choice. If you find yourself at a college which doesn’t offer Choral Awards, or whose choir sings either much less frequently or much more frequently than you had hoped, then you are advised to contact the Director of Music at your original college, to seek advice about possible ‘volunteer’ places.

The Choral Trials now take place in Cambridge in the third week of March every year. At your formal audition, you will be asked to sing a solo piece of your own choosing (lasting no more than four minutes, and for which an accompanist will be provided), and you will be tested in sight-reading and aural skills. Sample tests are available on the University website so that you can practise in advance. Results will be communicated to candidates

within about six weeks of the audition process. If it’s good news, then congratulations! If it isn’t, don’t worry: many college choirs will be looking for new volunteer members at the start of the academic year: choirs are full of people who didn’t apply for Choral Awards in the first place, or who applied but were unsuccessful at one college, but successful in finding a volunteer place elsewhere.

The application process – organ scholarships

This is entirely different from the Choral Award application process. Organ Scholarship applicants need to fill in the COPA (Cambridge Online Preliminary Application form), and make a full academic and musical application by the early deadline of 1 September; please note that this is before the UCAS deadline for academic applications. Academically qualified candidates will be called for both audition and academic interview at the end of September, and results will be announced within a

I’d characterise an organ scholarship at John’s as high effort, high reward. The time commitment is colossal. I do seven services a week – every day except Monday from 5.15 to 7.15 pm, and two services on a Sunday. On top of that, there are morning rehearsals with the choristers from 8.00 to 9.00 on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays – John’s and King’s are unique in that the Organ Scholar gets to teach and work with the choristers in their choir-schools. Then there’s all the practising. So, in total the commitment probably equates to about three or four hours a day in term-time. At John’s, services continue after the end of the summer term; there are often CD recordings to be done in the vacation, and the Organ Scholar has to be back in September – that’s actually a nice thing as you get to spend a few weeks in Cambridge not doing so much, but it means that I end up with one month’s summer holiday instead of the usual three.

It’s a huge amount to fit around academic work. It used to be pretty much accepted that organ scholars at John’s and King’s didn’t really do any academic work, but that’s no longer the case. So, it’s pretty much ‘candle at both ends’. It can be hard on your social life, but it gets easier. And you get to do some very high-profile stuff. I’ve done lots of radio broadcasts and performed in lots of the major European concert halls. On the seventieth anniversary of the D-Day landings I played the organ in Bayeux Cathedral in front of the Queen, Obama, Putin and Merkel. It’s exciting, and the opportunities are amazing; you’re working at a high level of professionalism and it’s enormously prestigious. If you want to go on to a post in cathedral music, there’s no doubt John’s is the right place for you, but I’d advise anyone applying to think very carefully about the responsibilities you’ll be taking on.

Edward Picton-Turbervill, 3rd-year Organ Scholar and Music student, St John’s College

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We have two main services a week at Emmanuel: a Eucharist on Thursday and then Evensong on Sunday. There’s also a rehearsal on Tuesday evening, and every other Wednesday we have a service of Compline with just two short anthems sung by the choir. Then there are cathedral visits and the annual tour. In terms of time commitment, it’s probably middle-of-the-range for Cambridge.

The Director of Chapel Music, Richard Latham, is in charge of running the choir in conjunction with me and the Junior Organ Scholar, and he’s very relaxed; there’s a lot of scope at Emmanuel to do as much or as little conducting as you want. I’m quite keen to do as much as I can, and I conduct a service at least once a week. I’ve also been organising the international tours and cathedral visits, but if I didn’t want to do that, Richard or any other person involved in Chapel music could step in. It really is shaped to what individual organ scholars want to get out of the experience.

I had a gap year before I came to Emmanuel, and I was the Organ Scholar at St George’s Chapel, Windsor. I’ve brought the choir there two years in a row; we’ve also had a cathedral visit to Norwich, and we’re going to

Westminster Abbey in August. It’s fantastically exciting to visit all these different buildings and try out their amazing organs. I’ve also had the opportunity to do recitals around Cambridge and London.

I’m a third-year Music student, and what I’m doing as Organ Scholar ties in with some of the papers I’m doing for my finals. Performance is one option in the final year, and for my Keyboard Skills exam, I do gruesome tests in sight-reading, transposition and orchestral score-reading, which really plays to the stuff I do in Chapel. But the people skills and the organisational skills you learn as Organ Scholar stand you in good stead for any course. Last year, my Senior Organ Scholar was a Natural Scientist, and he still managed to make it work with his very different academic responsibilities.

I’ve had an amazing three years at Emmanuel, and I‘d recommend anyone applying for an organ scholarship, to any college, to email the Organ Scholar directly for advice and information; contact details are on the various college websites, and you’ll almost always find a friendly response.

Adam Mathias, 3rd-year Organ Scholar and Music student, Emmanuel College

Tours are one of the highlights of being in a Cambridge choir. At Jesus they’re completely free. You’re never asked to make any contribution towards travel or accommodation, so it’s a brilliant deal.

I’m a fourth-year Languages student and I’d say that our choir tours have grown exponentially in scale and ambition since I arrived. In the first few years, we went to Russia, Germany and America, where we were singing to broadly rich audiences. Then in 2013 we went to India, which was completely different. Our first workshop was in the slums of Mumbai, singing with the children of sex workers. These kids didn’t even speak any English, but it’s funny how far you can get in half an hour when you’ve got music to sing and songs to learn. That was a watershed moment. Since India, we’ve tried to make outreach work a particular feature of Jesus choir tours.

We have two college choirs, one with male and female undergraduates and a second one with male undergraduates and boy choristers. Each year we try to have two tours – one where we can safely take the boys, and one that is more

far-flung. We’re going to Lille, in France, in the summer, and last December we had two weeks in Sri Lanka. One of our tenors is from Sri Lanka, so having that connection we were incredibly well looked after. We were taken round the entire island in about ten days, and it really was the most amazing experience. One of our concerts was attended by the President’s wife, and another was held in an outdoor chapel up in the hills near Kandy. There was the most spectacular thunderstorm, and I’ll never forget doing a concert with rain lashing down on all sides. We also visited an absolutely brilliant elephant sanctuary, where we got to walk with wild elephants down to the river where they bathe. It was the most idyllic place and a lovely way to relax amongst all the music we were singing.

When you’re getting on well and are relaxed together, you will make better music. It’s not just a matter of building esprit de corps; touring, I really believe, makes you a better choir. And when else in your life are you going to chalk up experiences like these?

Thomas Rothwell, 4th-year Medieval and Modern Languages student, Jesus College


week or so of the Trials (and well before the UCAS deadline of 15 October, so that if you are successful in gaining an Organ Scholarship, you can put that college on your UCAS form). This process remains unchanged from past years, and full details and audition requirements can be found on the University website: www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/finance/music-awards/organ-scholarships

Conclusion

Although the application process may feel a little complicated, the rewards that a Choral or Organ Scholarship gives make it all worthwhile. If you are successful, when you arrive in Cambridge, you will come straight into a fully-formed community

of musicians. The skills that you will acquire as a member of a Cambridge choir are many and varied: you will learn everything from where to put your final consonants to how to interact with an ambassador. Although you might not be guaranteed first-class seats, you will get to travel to some exotic destinations, and although more often than not, the proverbial ‘Wet Tuesday in February’ will feature Stanford in B flat, there’ll also be plenty of opportunities for Herbert Howells’s Gloucester Service as well. So, if you’re someone who loves to sing or play the organ, and who is a high-achiever academically, please consider applying for a scholarship; it will undoubtedly shape your experience at Cambridge and possibly your life thereafter.

Recordings and broadcasts are a chance to explore repertoire away from liturgy and evensong. I’ve done two CDs and several broadcasts for radio and television, and we’ve covered everything from Celtic chants to a Brazilian jazz mass and John Tavener.

It’s a different way of working, too. Broadcasts are done all in one take; you prepare as much as you possibly can, but at the end of the day, you’ve just got to get it right first time. There’s much more perfectionism with recordings. Our

director, Geoffrey Webber, has such an amazing set of ears that he can hear the tiniest tuning issue. You could be spending an hour on a couple of bars, but then you have a CD that you can keep for the rest of your life. I had a couple of solos on the last CD, which was really exciting. I do History, so for me it’s a very big deal to be involved in music-making on such a professional level, an opportunity I may never have again!

Katie Braithwaite, 3rd-year Choral Scholar and History student, Gonville and Caius College

Concerts have a very different dynamic from the services we sing in Chapel. We sing different material, usually harder material, and we work on it for much longer. And of course you’re not standing in stalls; you’re standing facing the audience, engaging with the audience, so it’s a very different atmosphere from Chapel, where people come to pray.

There will usually be one proper choir concert a term, and every year we sing at one or two special dinners. Our choir director is particularly interested in the kind of sexism that exists in the

choral world – we’re the only college at either Oxford or Cambridge that has a little girls’ choir rather than a little boys’ choir – and this year we did a concert of 20th- and 21st-century music featuring women composers, with a special piece commissioned for National Women’s Day.

There’s also the summer concert tour – I’ve been to Ireland, France and Croatia, and this year we’re going to Venice. The concerts are the focal point of the tour, but it’s also a chance just to hang out and bond with other choir members.

Faith Barker, 4th-year Asian and Middle Eastern Studies student, St Catharine’s College

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The Instrumental Awards Scheme for Chamber Music (IAS) was founded with the simple idea of gathering the best chamber music players from across the University in order to make music together. It also provides the opportunity to receive year-round coaching and masterclasses from established professional chamber musicians. The opportunity to mix high-level ensemble tuition with full-time academic study in this way is unique to Cambridge. For many, it is the beginning of a pathway to a lifetime of chamber music playing – several of our coaches started their careers as IAS award-holders.

Anyone who plays a chamber music instrument is eligible to apply. It perhaps comes as no surprise, given the nature of the standard repertory, that string and wind (including horn) players, as well as pianists, form the majority of award-holders. The Scheme is also open to other instrumentalists, who are on occasion invited to collaborate in specific projects, e.g. double bassists in Schubert’s ‘Trout’ Quintet or harpists in Ravel’s Introduction and Allegro for harp, flute, clarinet and string quartet. The IAS has also recently expanded its scope to include an elite brass ensemble, whose members enjoy similar opportunities under the title of the Cambridge University Brass Ensemble.

Ensemble-playing lies at the heart of the Scheme. Groups learn through playing together on a regular basis, rehearsing for at least six hours per week during term. Such an extensive commitment means that award-holders usually do not have time to be choral scholars at the major choral institutions – there are simply not enough hours in the day! Regular coaching is provided through sessions directed by invited professionals held three times per term (except in exam term). IAS coaches are leading specialist chamber musicians; many also teach at the Royal Academy of Music. The current roster includes, among others, James Boyd (strings), Celia Nicklin (woodwinds) and Andrew West (piano). Masterclasses are also a regular feature of the scheme. Award-holders have recently participated in masterclasses with the Endellion String Quartet, the New London Chamber Ensemble (winds), Ian Brown (pianist with the Nash Ensemble), Paul Archibald

and John Wallace. The progress of each group is monitored by the IAS’s Director of Performance, Margaret Faultless, who works with the coaches to ensure that all groups perform to the best of their ability.

The Scheme provides free high-level coaching, but award-holders also receive financial assistance of up to £200 per annum towards individual instrumental lessons. Regular performances are important ways for our students to develop musically, and groups are supported in giving recitals throughout the year. The best groups are selected through audition to perform at our annual Showcase Concert in West Road Concert Hall.

Entrance to the Scheme is highly competitive. Award-holders are selected through annual auditions open to instrumentalists at all colleges. The standards are inevitably high. All those who audition are required to be at least Grade 8 ABRSM Distinction or equivalent standard, but the emphasis at audition is not solely on individual achievement. What is important is a commitment to chamber music and the ability to inspire other members of a group to reach the highest musical standards. Auditions are divided into two rounds: first, a solo audition with an accompanist; second, an ensemble round in which individuals are placed in groups to work together. The demands of the Scheme are high, but the rewards are extensive and for many last a lifetime.

Instrumental awardsDr Sam Barrett

Further details about the Scheme are available on our website:

www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/finance/mu-sic-awards/instrumental-awards-chamber-music

Enquiries are always welcome and are best directed to the Administrative Assistant, Chloe Davidson ([email protected]).

INFORMATION


In 2013, for the first time in its distinguished history, the Cambridge University Musical Society (CUMS) decided to appoint a student to the role of President. I

was delighted to fill this new role and was very excited about what the Society – run by students, for the students – is now able to achieve. Our aim is to provide a world-class, extra-curricular musical education for all members of Cambridge University, regardless of their academic discipline.

Within CUMS there are several different ensembles, each run by a dedicated committee of students supported by industry professionals; these teams govern everything from the programming for the year (very exciting), to the nitty-gritty of budgeting (less exciting, but a great skill to develop). The ensembles provide something for everyone, whether you want the high-intensity professionalism of CUCO (our flagship chamber orchestra) or the more relaxed, weekly commitment

of the Concert Orchestra. Some ensembles are directed by our top student conductors, whilst others (notably CUCO and the Symphony Orchestra) regularly welcome world-renowned visiting conductors. Recent guest artists have included conductors Sir Mark Elder and Sir Richard Armstrong and pianist Peter Donohoe.

The 2013/14 season was one of the most successful and creative in CUMS’ history. November saw a DVD recording of The Epic of Everest, a reconstruction of the original film score to the 1924 black-and-white epic. A screening was held in West Road Concert Hall and CUCO, conducted by Andrew Gourlay, performed the soundtrack live. They then recorded the score, which has since been released by the British Film Institute. It was certainly a unique challenge for the musicians. In December, we were joined by Cambridge alumnus Sir Roger Norrington for a performance at Kings

A society for all seasons

Ben Glassberg reflects on an extraordinary year as CUMS president

“The ensembles provide something for everyone, whether you

want high-intensity professionalism

or a more relaxed commitment.”

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Place, London. The flagship event of our year, however, remains the January concert in King’s College Chapel. Last year, the combined forces of CUCO, the Symphony Orchestra and some of Cambridge’s top college choirs were joined by conductor Nicholas Collon and top professional soloists, including Sophie Bevan, to perform Tippett’s astonishing A Child of Our Time, alongside Vaughan Williams’s emotionally devastating Sixth Symphony.

My personal highlight of the year, however, was the CUMS May Week concert, which marked the end of my tenure as CUMS Conducting Scholar. Conducting Elgar’s Enigma Variations with the Symphony Orchestra, in the glorious setting of King’s Chapel, was something I shall never forget. The performance of Janáček's Glagolitic Mass (with the CUMS Chorus, Stephen Cleobury and four top soloists) was another masterful event to witness.

The season ended with two overseas tours. CUCO travelled to Bordeaux for the Orpheus and Bacchus Festival to perform Beethoven’s third and fifth symphonies, and the Symphony Orchestra took part in the celebrated Ghent Festival in Belgium.

The 2014/15 season was equally exciting. We were incredibly lucky to perform the Requiems of Britten, Brahms and Verdi over the course of the year. In November, our very own Stephen Cleobury conducted CUCO (side-by-side with the Britten Sinfonia) in Britten’s War Requiem, at Ely Cathedral In January, combined choirs and orchestral forces performed Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem under the baton of Howard Shelley. And in June, the great David Hill joined us for a performance of Verdi’s magnificent Requiem, rounding off what proved to be a phenomenal season of music-making.

www.cums.org.uk

Joining forcesCUCO President Harry Hickmore recalls a landmark performance of Britten’s War Requiem

In November 2014, the Cambridge University Chamber Orchestra (CUCO) took part in a unique collaboration with Britten Sinfonia and over 150 singers, drawn from CUMS Chorus and the choirs of Girton and Jesus Colleges, to perform Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem in Ely Cathedral. The Requiem, a spectacular finale to the ten-day-long

Cambridge Music Festival, was conducted by Stephen Cleobury and featured internationally renowned soloists Evelina Dobračeva (soprano), John Mark Ainsley (tenor) and Neal Davies (bass-baritone).

Whilst members of CUCO are no strangers to working with professional musicians – their raison d’être is to give five or six concerts with world-class conductors and soloists during the academic year – the War Requiem project was unique insofar as the orchestra would also be playing side-by-side with some of the country’s leading instrumentalists.

The War Requiem was first performed in 1962 to mark the consecration of the new Coventry Cathedral (the earlier structure was destroyed in World War II). The music is difficult and, with only two three-hour rehearsals with full orchestra, the rehearsal period was intense. For many, this was the first time they had played directly alongside professionals; indeed, very few such opportunities exist for students. The performance drew a standing ovation, and the experience was both enjoyable and beneficial, providing insight into the professional orchestral world – a world which many members of CUCO aim to inhabit in the future.


Q. What is AAMplify?A. The AAMplify programme was introduced by the Academy of Ancient Music (AAM) in 2010 to help young musicians – and their future audiences – further their study in Baroque music and historically informed playing.

Q. What is your previous experience and involvement with AAMplify?A. In my first year after graduating from Selwyn College I worked as an administrator for the Cambridge University Collegium Musicum (CUCM) and was closely involved with the organisation and development of the inaugural side-by-side workshop at the University. It was a very exciting project to be involved with, and I remember being very impressed by the enthusiasm and dedication of the members of the Academy of Ancient Music team who helped to make the dream become a reality. The day itself was a storming success, and a very experienced colleague of mine described it as ‘absolutely the best musical experience of my life’. Now in its fourth year, the side-by-side workshop has rapidly become the most exciting event of the year for CUCM!

Q. How is the event structured?A. Our annual workshop showcased Handel’s wonderful Concerti Grossi, Op. 3 No. 4 and Op. 6 No. 10. The afternoon began with sectional workshops with principal players of the AAM, before a full tutti rehearsal with Richard Egarr. We rounded off the day with a performance of both Concerti, followed by a drinks reception in the Faculty where we were able to meet and talk to members of the orchestra.

Q. How do AAMplify side-by-side workshops develop your playing?A. The side-by-side workshops offer an unparalleled opportunity to learn first-hand from the best period instrumentalists in the profession, and to gain insight into the life and work of a professional orchestral musician. It is inspiring to be able to play alongside some of the players my generation of young performers have been watching in concerts for years, and it is also a powerful way to absorb and internalise a playing style. I should also point out here that the benefits of the workshops are not only directed at performers: the participation of the audience was also a crucial ingredient in the original conception of the workshop. Audience members are included in the rehearsal process and are able to sit and move about on stage, giving them a unique opportunity to observe the inner workings of the group at first hand.

Q. How was this workshop different from previous side-by-sides?A. A fantastic development in the structure of the most recent side-by-side workshop was the inclusion of sectional rehearsals. This enabled us to approach the repertoire

in greater detail, and we benefited from the more personal and specific advice from the section principals in a smaller setting. The focus on sectional rehearsal also changed the emphasis of the workshop. For example, the previous year’s workshop was a ‘crash course’ in the French school of baroque playing: this style was completely new for many participants, and a lot of new information had to be learned and absorbed. This time, by playing more familiar repertoire, the focus was more on achieving the highest standard of performance possible. It was an experience I would recommend to any young period performer.

Bringing the experts on-side

AAM works in partnership with the Uni-versity of Cambridge, Guildhall School of Music & Drama, and Royal Northern Col-lege of Music to provide opportunities for their students, ranging from master classes with AAM Music Director, Richard Egarr, and guest artists such as Richard Tognetti to side-by-side ensemble workshops with AAM musicians.

AAMplify members are eligible for £3 tickets for AAM concerts in London and Cambridge.

Rachel Stroud is studying for an MPhil in Music Studies at Christ’s College. After graduating from Cambridge with first-class honours in Music, she studied Baroque violin at the Royal Conservatory of the Hague. A member of the Council of the Academy of Ancient Music, Rachel took part in AAMplify’s side-by-side workshop with Cambridge University’s Collegium Musicum. Music@Cambridge asked for her impressions of the event.

INFORMATION

Performers from The Academcy of Ancient Music perform alongside Cambridge musicians

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Different strokesThe Faculty’s lecture programme is designed to open and expand undergraduates’ critical perspective. Here, as a taster of the approaches that new students might encounter in Cambridge, three lecturers consider one of the most famous twentieth-century chamber works from very different angles.

Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 8

An historical perspective

Many years ago, still in Soviet times, when I was a student in Moscow, I gave a talk about Shostakovich’s Eighth Quartet (1960). I spoke about the genesis of the work, which was allegedly conceived in Dresden, a city still rising from the rubble after Allied bombing during World War II, and I spoke about the work’s dedication ‘to the victims of fascism and war’. I took this dedication as a programme for the Quartet, and it seemed to fit beautifully, turning it into a kind of war memorial. The arch-like five-movement construction seemed almost architectural, while echoes of Beethoven’s late string quartets (in the beginning and in the final fugue) provided the specifically German context. The terrifying moto perpetuo of the second movement, featuring a ‘Jewish’ theme, seemed to paint scenes of Nazi concentration camps; the sinister waltz of the third movement, based on Saint-Saëns’s Danse macabre, a dance of death, also seemed to fit with the dedication, and so on. I commented on the fact that the Quartet was tied together by the four-note D-(e)S-C-H motif (D-E- -C-B in English spelling), which was Shostakovich’s musical monogram, and I chose to interpret this motif as playing a structural, rather than a meaningful role – a kind of cement for the musical edifice. I was aware that Shostakovich quoted some of his earlier works in the Quartet – but since this would have contributed nothing to the programme, I didn't have much to say about it.

Imagine my embarrassment – which I carry with me to this day – when a few years later, a letter was published, in which Shostakovich spoke frankly

of the genesis and meaning (for him) of his Eighth Quartet. There was no mention of ‘fascism’ or ‘war’. The Quartet, Shostakovich claimed , was entirely autobiographical, a kind of ‘memorial to himself’. He created it at a low point of his life, suffering pangs of conscience after agreeing to join the Communist Party – some say he was even haunted by suicidal thoughts. The process of composing this Quartet, however, cheered him up, and he was able to retell the story to a friend with a great deal of self-mockery, even referring to the Quartet as a ‘pseudo-tragedy’. Reading this, I realised that the autobiographical programme could easily be matched to the music: even without the composer’s letter, there are clear signposts: the obsessive use of the DSCH monogram and the multiple self-quotations from Shostakovich’s landmark works – namely, the First Symphony, the Fifth Symphony and the opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk.

The autobiographical evidence was compelling, but this interpretation of the Eighth Quartet would not have gone down well in the Soviet Union of the mid-1980s. Instead of a great anti-Fascist work by a civic-minded composer, we would have had self-obsessed outpourings hiding behind a fraudulent dedication. This would have amounted to an abuse of the ‘war theme’, which was a sacred subject in a country that had lost 26 million people in the Second World War.

I’ve shared this story to highlight the hazards of ‘definitive’ history. How do we find meaning in an instrumental work? How do we interpret pieces of intra- and extra-musical evidence that may fit together badly, or even contradict each other? How is our listening affected by our own experiences, our outlook, our social conditioning? Can we establish any ‘absolute’ truths, or are such hopes simply deluded? These are all questions my students have enjoyed debating, and you shouldn't be surprised to discover that the answers can’t be found at the back of the book.

Prof Marina Frolova-Walker

Above: Caricature of Shostakovich and Stalin by Nathan Jensen


An analytical perspective

‘A motive,’ wrote Schoenberg, ‘is incomplete and depends on continuations: explanations, clarifications, conclusions, consequences, etc.’1 It is a provocative thought, and one which, if taken as advice to the analyst rather than the composer, warns us that worthwhile motivic analysis needs to do more than simply list the appearances and various transformations of a given motive across the course of a composition: the question ‘what is happening here?’ is less interesting than ‘why is this happening?’ or ‘how is this happening?’.

The point is all the more significant in the case of a work such as the Shostakovich’s Eighth Quartet, whose ‘basic theme’, as we have seen, has strict autobiographical reference, spelling out his initials D-S[E-]-C-H[B] (in scale-degree terms, 2-3-8-#7). Of course, a perfectly worthwhile analysis might well result from the pursuit of the composer and his own and others’ music (again, Shostakovich pointed the way) throughout the score; equally, there is much to ponder in considering the Quartet in the context of its forerunners, not least some of Beethoven’s late quartets: Op. 131 in C# minor, with its opening fugal movement and semitonally rich subject (G# -B# -C# -A, or 5-#7-8-6), which reappears transformed in the finale, is especially relevant.2

But to return to Schoenberg: one ‘consequence’ flowing from the ‘basic theme’ can be seen in some harmonic shifts: the striking reharmonisation of the final B in the context of an E-minor chord at Figure 1 (the moment is ‘marked for consciousness’ by the dynamic indications) is a local example which will have further longer-term consequences (the E naturals from Figure 4 onward, or the long E-based passage at Figure 44 in the third movement, for example). Meanwhile, the outer limits, B-E-, of the motto theme are ‘rethought’ enharmonically to yield the upper third of the G# minor triad of the second movement.

A different, non-motivic explanation of Shostakovich’s harmony could be adopted from the work of Richard Cohn on parsimonious voice-leading:3

Major and minor triads of C, E, and A- /G# – keys which appear distant from one another if plotted around the circle of fifths – emerge as closely related through semitonal shifting (itself a feature

1 Arnold Schoenberg, ‘Folkloristic Symphonies’, in Style and Idea: Selected Writings of Arnold Schoenberg, ed. Leonard Stein (London: Faber, 1975), 164.2 For an exhaustive study of the Quartet from multiple perspectives, see David Fanning, Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 8 (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004).3 The example is adapted from Richard Cohn, ‘Maximally Smooth Cycles, Hexatonic Systems, and the Analysis of Late-Romantic Triadic Progressions’, Music Analysis 15 (1996), 9–40.

of Shostakovich’s ‘basic theme’). Admittedly, this approach leaves the G minor and C# minor of Movements 3 and 4 unaccounted for; but both pitches are themselves semitonally related to C and G# /A- ...

The G-G# shift is something else that is highlighted at Figure 4 (viola); and its reverse, A- -G (exactly the same pitches, but now in Violin 1), will be the last pitch motion we hear in the Quartet. The conjoining (Figure 72 onward) of the end of the ‘basic theme’ with the C-G-A- -G motive first heard at Figure 3+5 perhaps hints at a suppressed motivic ‘answer’, B-C-A- -G, to the ‘basic theme’ itself, while the recomposition here of the end of the first movement, so that this material now appears in Violin 1 and not Violin 2, might prompt an analysis in terms of narrative and instrumental personae or agencies; but that is for another day ...

Prof Nicholas Marston

A performance-related perspective

A search of the literature on Shostakovich’s Eighth Quartet reveals relatively little material on its performance history, and even less on the performance issues confronting ensembles keen to play the music. It goes without saying that performances do not come out of the blue; nor are they confined to the time it takes to give them. Instead, a typical performance reflects many hours of preparation, not to mention years of more general training during which one’s musical abilities are developed and refined.

The Shostakovich Quartet poses innumerable performance challenges. First of all, the fact that the five movements are played without interruption requires an ensemble to decide how they should relate in terms of character, length, and so forth. This is especially important given that the first, fourth and fifth movements are marked ‘Largo’. The last thing one would want is for the music to sag and cause listeners to lose interest.

But decisions about such matters as character and length are by no means straightforward: the information in the score about these and other musical features is incomplete at best. Among other things, this explains the wide disparities in the lengths of recordings of Shostakovich’s Eighth Quartet – length obviously being determined by the tempo at which individual movements are taken. For example, the premiere performance4 by the Beethoven Quartet in Leningrad on 2 October 1960 lasted 18’50”, which is about the same as a live performance by the Borodin Quartet in 1962 (18’37”)5 but a good deal faster than many recordings, including others by the

4 A recording of this performance is available on YouTube at www.youtube.com/watch?v=YS0MVtC6wZ4 (accessed 8 June 2015).5 Available at www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwostsHeRdw (accessed 8 June 2015).

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Borodins. David Fanning has described the tempos taken at the premiere in 1960 as ‘among the swiftest’; he also refers to the Beethoven Quartet’s ‘remarkably romantic’ phrasing and ‘lush’ colour.6 It is not clear whether these characteristics reflected Shostakovich’s preferences or the ensemble’s. Fanning does note that the edition prepared by the quartet’s first violinist Tsïganov states, ‘dynamic marks and nuances approved by Shostakovich during rehearsals’,7 but this may not be accurate.

It is fascinating to study individual performances of this piece – and indeed others – ‘on their own terms’, by which I mean not as projections of the composer’s intentions or as more or less faithful reproductions of what is in the score, but rather as a reflection of the decisions taken by the musicians responsible for them. For example, some recently developed analytical tools and techniques help one drill down into a performance

6 David Fanning, Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 8 (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004), 161.7 Ibid., 161.

to determine how tempo and dynamics change as the music is unfolding; it is also possible to reveal the distinctive acoustic properties of, say, a violinist’s vibrato or a cellist’s portamento. One such tool is Sonic Visualiser, which is freely available online. By using this ingenious software, you can discover how different elements of particular performances have been shaped. Of course, you then have to decide what the data you’ve collected mean. This is not easy: studies have shown that what listeners perceive may or may not match ‘the facts’ of a performance. So, any conclusions that you reach after studying recordings of Shostakovich’s Quartet with Sonic Visualiser would have to be weighed up very carefully. On the other hand, the potential insights on offer are enormous: you may end up with a better sense of what is happening in the performances than your ears alone could achieve.

Prof John Rink

Below: D. Shostakovich, String Quartet No. 8, Op. 110. I. Largo, bb. 124–26 and II. Allegro molto, bb. 1–5. Spectrogram, waveform, and tempo curve in the performance by the Beethoven Quartet (1960). The waveform shows fluctuations in loudness over time. By depicting the changing frequencies, the spectrogram provides information about overtones (and the intensity thereof), articulation, vibrato, etc. (Diagram prepared by Ana Llorens using Sonic Visualiser, based on a measurement unit of one minim.)


I have a background in jazz and orchestral youth outreach projects, through school and my local music service in Devon, and Cambridge Music Education Outreach

(CaMEO) was an important factor in my choosing Cambridge over other universities. In an institution so often criticised for being insular, it is refreshing to know that the Faculty of Music has such a commitment to taking its musicians to work with the community in ‘the real world’. As rewarding as it is to strive for technical excellence in performance, I have found that it is very often music-making at grassroots level which touches people most deeply.

My first involvement with CaMEO took place a few weeks into my first term as part of the 2012 Festival of Ideas. Upright pianos were decorated by various local organisations and placed in public areas throughout the city centre. The project, replicated around the world, encouraged anyone who walked by to engage with

the instruments, whether performing, observing or listening. A number of Cambridge music students were filmed improvising on the pianos for a video which synthesised performances from all over the city. Other recent CaMEO initiatives include the staging of interactive musical theatre and opera as well as visits to local schools, care homes and hospitals.

The striking thing about CaMEO is that it’s so open to new ideas. Students here are imaginative and, when a department is as keen as the Music Faculty to support its students, nothing is beyond the realms of possibility. The main CaMEO event I’ve been involved with has been the choral singing project in HMP Bedford. The initial idea of performing at a prison carol service has developed into a series of workshops in which the prisoners themselves form a choir and perform to other residents and prison staff. A team of music students led a morning workshop, beginning with gentle vocal exercises and teaching familiar pop and folk

songs before tackling more challenging repertoire. By the end of the workshop, two participants had stepped forward and volunteered to sing solos in the afternoon concert performance. There was a real sense of togetherness as singers from Cambridge chapel choirs stood alongside prisoners and made music together, and the experience has had a long-lasting impact on all involved.

I feel that there’s only so much one can learn from slaving away in the library without actually going out and engaging with people on a musical level; my involvement with CaMEO has contributed just as much to my development as a musician as my studies have. I can honestly say that teaching a room full of prisoners how to sing Lady Gaga was one of the most memorable, surreal, and transformative experiences of my life.

More information is available on the CaMEO website: www.outreach.mus.cam.ac.uk

Beyond the ivory towerRecent graduate, Jonathan Schranz, describes the work of the Music Faculty’s outreach programme

Pianos in the streets of Cambridge as part of the Play Me, I’m Yours project in 2012

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My background is in classical music and the crossover to writing for film was gradual. As a teenager, I was

captivated by John Barry’s scores for films such as Somewhere in Time, Out of Africa and Dances with Wolves. I was training to be a concert pianist at the time, and I was given the very good advice that if you want to be a film composer, you first need to learn to compose! As a film composer, you will be composing in very many different styles, so you really need that secure grounding in harmony and counterpoint and all the traditional tools of a classical composer at your disposal.

I have always been a very tonal composer and I love the power and drama of film. There are so many subtle and creative ways in which the score can support a film. You can either go along with the flow of images, or you can work against that to create an ‘underscore’ hinting at different scenarios; the ‘action’ may not be telling the truth, and it is the film composer’s job to keep the audience abreast of these narrative shadings.

Writing for film is like writing a symphonic suite. You have to consider the whole structure, leave room for the music to grow organically throughout the film. Of course it’s lovely to write wonderful, rich, lush themes, but the challenge is not simply to write the most beautiful and complicated music you are capable of, but to work towards a shared creative vision with the director, producer and director of photography. You need to be flexible and develop your people-management skills. You need to know how to deal with the fact that your writing is just not ‘clicking’ with the people who hired you. At the same time, your music must have its own integrity and stand the test of time. So it’s not the job for a composer with a raging ego!

For TV series and programmes, over 75 per cent of the music you hear comes from production music libraries. It’s something that has changed over the last five or six years and, speaking from a personal, professional point of view, I don’t think it’s a change for the better; it can be frustrating when you spend all this time writing a piece of music which will just go

into a sea of a million different tracks. On the other hand, production libraries have tens of thousands of composers working for them, so it’s something that opens a lot of doors for many people.

Recent advances in technology have made writing for media much more accessible, and the lines between music and ‘sound design’ are becoming increasingly blurred. Music for video games is a huge growth market. And it can be interesting work, because the music for games is not linear – there’s a lot of looping and layering. Gamers play at different levels; one may be stuck on a level for hours, another will go through it in five minutes, and you need to write music that deals with both of these eventualities and everything in between.

During my fellowship at Cambridge, I hope to establish a flourishing screen and media department in the Faculty. I have set up a series of talks, running every two weeks, with professionals in the industry, from Hollywood orchestrators to music librarians and commercial producers, and I am always pleased to share my own experience. There are so many opportunities for young musicians in media music, and I hope to inspire students to step into this thrilling area of composition.

They shoot, he scores…Xiaotian Shi, Postdoctoral Fellow in Screen and Media Music Composition, welcomes students to the Faculty’s newest initiative

Xiotian studied composition at the Royal Academy of Music, London. He won First Prize at the 2008 International Composition for Orchestra Competition in Los Angeles and at the Transatlantyk International Film Music Competition, held in Poznan, Poland in 2013.

In early 2014, Xiaotian scored the British film Unhallowed Ground, starring Poppy Drayton, Morgane Polanski and Tom Law. He is current-ly completing an LA-produced sci-fi adven-ture film, Synkhole. Xiaotian’s recent work includes original music for NBA, Branston, Fox, Destination America and National Geographic. His music was also recently used in the inter-national trailers for FX Channel’s Tyrant and the TV series Houdini starring Adrien Brody.

INFORMATION


In 2011 the Confederation for British Industry (CBI) pinpointed seven key skills that define employability. A University of Nottingham study concluded that Music students develop all seven of these skills in the course of their studies and related musical activities; this helps explain why they are so successful in the employment market. The seven skills are:

• communication• self-management• teamwork• problem-solving• application of IT• business and customer awareness• application of numeracy

Additionally, Music students develop skills such as:

• performing under pressure• planning• technological skills• critical reflection• powers of memory and concentration• physical dexterity

30% of Music graduates decide to continue their studies at postgraduate level, some choosing to study an area related to their first degree such as composition or musicology, with a significant number going on to a music college or conservatoire, where they specialize in areas such as music performance or conducting. Of those starting their careers, 25% become teaching or educational professionals, and 25% find employment in artistic, literary and media occupations. Perhaps surprising, though, is the 50% who go on to careers in completely different fields – science, IT, welfare, business, administration or public service.

The list below shows the wide variety of employment found by recent Cambridge University Music graduates.

Non-Music careers

• Goldman Sachs: Analyst• Foreign & Commonwealth Office: Diplomat• Baker Tilly: Chartered Accountant• Lloyds TSB: Credit Analyst• Self-employed: Barrister (family law)• Procter & Gamble: Brand Manager• Barclays Capital: Analyst• Department of Work and Pensions: Strategy

Team Leader• Church of England: Vicar• Sport England: Head of Growth• University of Cambridge: Development and

Alumni Relations Officer• IBM UK Limited: Publishing Specialist• MC2 (Manchester): PR Consultant• Children’s Society: Trustee• MP (specializing in Human Rights and

International Development)• Self-employed: Conference and Exhibition

Producer• King’s College London: Programme Director in

Child Studies• Clon Communications: Technical Leader

(software development)• Hammersmith & Fulham Borough Council:

Team Support Officer• Dorling Kindersley: Editor• Naxos Audio Books: Publisher• Jack Wills Graduate Scheme: Retail Manager

CareersMusic graduates are a lot more employable that you might think. The skills developed in the course of a Music degree are varied and extremely attractive to employers. A Music degree doesn’t tie you to a career in music, and it might just give you the edge in an increasingly competitive employment market.

94% of Cambridge Music graduates are in work or further study six months after completing their degree. This is a higher figure than for English, Maths, History, Classics and Philosophy, and more, even, than for vocational courses such as Architecture, Engineering and Computer Science.

80% of those Music graduates in employment are in a professional or managerial job.

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Music-related careers

• North London Collegiate School: Director of Music

• EMI: Audio Restoration Engineer• Glyndebourne: General Manager• Philharmonia Orchestra: Concerts and Tours

Assistant• Imagen: Music Producer• Aldeburgh Productions: Director of Artist

Development• Cheltenham College: Director of Music• Lichfield Festival: Festival Director• Opera North: Music Director• BBC: Radio 3 Presenter• BBC: Producer• British Library: Curator of Music Collections• Royal Opera House: Opera Director• Academy of Ancient Music: Tour Manager and

Administrator• Hazard Chase: Artist Manager• Gabrieli Consort and Players: General Manager• South Bank Centre: Artistic Programmer• Askonas Holt: Artist Manager

Unsurprisingly, many Cambridge Music graduates go on to perform as soloists or conductors at the highest level. There are too many of these to list individually, but they include:

• Sir Roger Norrington, conductor• Sir Mark Elder, conductor• Sir Andrew Davis, conductor• Robin Ticciati, conductor• Thomas Adès, composer• George Benjamin, composer• Judith Weir, composer• Simon Keenleyside, baritone• Robert Tear, tenor• Mark Padmore, tenor• John Butt, organist, conductor and academic• Joanna MacGregor, pianist• Tom Poster, pianist• David Pountney, opera and theatre director


Meet the StaffThe Music Faculty’s ‘establishment’ is made up of lecturers with different titles – Professors, Readers, College Teaching Officers, University Teaching Officers etc. Some of the lecturers hold permanent appointments; some are in Cambridge on short-term contracts. Together, they are responsible for delivering the lectures and seminars that all Music undergraduates attend, and they cover an extraordinarily diverse range of sub-disciplines and historical areas; this exceptional reach means almost any specialism or area of interest can be accommodated. Furthermore, as much of the teaching, especially in the second and third years of the Music Tripos, is ‘research-led’, Cambridge students are exposed to cutting-edge teaching in most of the courses they take.

Dr Sam Barrett (Pembroke)Reader in Early Medieval MusicMedieval Latin song; transmission of early medieval music; jazz

Dr Stefano Castelvecchi (St John’s)Lecturer in Music; Director of Undergraduate Education18th- and 19th-century opera; textual criticism

Richard Causton (King’s)Reader in CompositionComposition; Italian contemporary music

Prof Nicholas Cook (Darwin)1684 Professor of MusicMultimedia; performance studies; music and cross-cultural interaction

Prof Ian Cross (Wolfson)Professor of Music and Science; Secretary of the Degree CommitteeMusic and science; music cognition; psychoacoustics; music and computing

Dr Ruth Davis (Corpus Christi)Reader in EthnomusicologyEthnomusicology, especially the Mediterranean and Middle East

Dr Martin Ennis (Girton)Senior Lecturer in Music, Chairman of the Faculty Board of MusicAnalysis and history, especially of 19th-century German music; tonal skills; keyboard skills

Prof Iain Fenlon (King’s)Professor of Historical MusicologyEuropean music, 1450–1650; Monteverdi; codicology

Prof Marina Frolova-Walker (Clare)Professor of Music History19th- and 20th-century Russian music; music and politics

Dr Kariann Goldschmitt (Girton)Lecturer in MusicPopular music, especially from Brazil; world music

Prof Sarah HawkinsDirector of Research, Speech and Music ScienceHuman communication via speech and music; perception; acoustic phonetics; phonetics

Dr John Hopkins (Homerton)Director of Practice-Based StudiesComposition; 20th- and 21st-century music

Prof Nicholas Marston (King’s)Professor of Music Theory and AnalysisTheory and analysis, especially Schenkerian; Beethoven; Schumann

Prof Susan Rankin (Emmanuel)Professor of Medieval MusicChant; early polyphony; medieval source studies

Prof John Rink (St John’s)Professor of Musical Performance StudiesPerformance studies; 19th-century piano music; digital musicology

Xiaotian ShiMellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Screen and Media CompositionComposing for film and TV

Dr Benjamin Walton (Jesus)Senior Lecturer in Music, Director of Graduate Education19th- and 20th-century opera; opera in South America; cultural history

University Teaching Officers

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Andrew Arthur (Trinity Hall)English music of the Restoration period; 17th- and 18th-century North German music

Prof Jeremy Begbie (Wolfson)Theology and the arts, especially music

Margaret Faultless (Girton and St John’s)Director of PerformanceHistorical performance practice; performance studies

Dr Matthew Pritchard (Jesus)19th- and early 20th-century cultural history and philosophy of music theory; aesthetics

Dr David Skinner (Sidney Sussex)Early music research and performance

Dr Jeremy Thurlow (Robinson)Composition; analysis

Tim Watts (St John’s)Composition; analysis

Dr Geoffrey Webber (Gonville and Caius)17th- and 18th-century German music; church music of the English Restoration period; choral studies

Dr Edward Wickham (St Catharine’s)15th- and 16th-century music; history of musical notation; choral studies

Dr Silas WollstonEnglish music of the Restoration period; choral music

Directors of Studies are responsible for overseeing the studies of all undergraduates studying Music at their college(s). They arrange supervisions (small-group teaching) in the various papers that students take, and they advise their pupils on everything to do with their academic progress and, often, a lot more besides.

Arrangements at individual colleges change quite frequently, as Directors of Studies take on new responsibilities or go on academic leave. Accordingly, the list below does not represent the position at any one point in time; rather, it is intended to provide prospective students with a first point of contact in a given college. Should the person listed below be unavailable for whatever reason, they will normally pass your enquiry to someone better able to respond.

Christ’s: Prof David Rowland; [email protected]: Dr Delphine Mordey; [email protected]: Prof Marina Frolova-Walker; [email protected] Christi: Dr Ruth Davis; [email protected]: Dr Chloe Valenti; [email protected] (ext.)Downing: Dr Chloe Valenti; [email protected] (ext.)Emmanuel: Prof Susan Rankin; [email protected]: Francis Knights; [email protected]: Dr Martin Ennis; [email protected] and Caius: Dr Geoffrey Webber; [email protected]: Dr John Hopkins; [email protected] Hall: Dr Nigel Yandell; [email protected]: Dr Benjamin Walton; [email protected]’s: Prof Nicholas Marston; [email protected] Cavendish: Dr Jeremy Thurlow; [email protected] (ext.) Magdalene: Dr Daniel Trocmé-Latter; [email protected] (ext.)Murray Edwards: Dr Chloe Valenti; [email protected]: Dr Delphine Mordey; [email protected] (ext.)Pembroke: Dr Sam Barrett; [email protected]: Dr Jeremy Thurlow; [email protected] (ext.)Queens’: Dr Alan Howard; [email protected] (ext.)Robinson: Dr Jeremy Thurlow; [email protected]: Dr Alan Howard; [email protected] Sussex: Dr David Skinner; [email protected] Catharine’s: Dr Edward Wickham; [email protected] Edmund’s: Matthew Schellhorn; [email protected] John’s: Prof John Rink; [email protected]: Dr Paul Wingfield; [email protected] Hall: Andrew Arthur; [email protected]: Dr Delphine Mordey; [email protected] (ext.)

NB: ‘ext.’ indicates that the lecturer in question is an external Director of Studies – in other words, the lecturer’s principal base is in another college.

Affiliated Lecturers Directors of Studies


“Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy.”

Beethoven

“Music doesn’t lie . If there is something to be changed in this world, then it can only

happen through music.”Jimi Hendrix

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Music@Cambridge school edition, Michaelmas 2015

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