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Richard Gillies
Teaching Associate in Music(Nineteenth-Century Focus), Faculty of Arts
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Biography
I got my BA in Music and MA in piano performance from the University of Bristol before completing my PhD in music at the University of Manchester. I have worked as a Teaching Associate at the University of Manchester (2015-20), and as a Lecturer in Music at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance (2020-21) and the University of Glasgow (2021-23).
Expertise Summary
Russian and East-European Music & Culture; 19th-Century Music; 20th-Century Music; Songs & Vocal Cycles; Opera; Music and Nationalism; Soviet Culture & Politics; Analysis; Dmitri Shostakovich; Georgy Sviridov; Valentin Silvestrov;
Teaching Summary
My teaching covers the history of European and Russian musical culture during the Long 19th Century. I focus on the way music is embedded in society and explore the links between musical culture and… read more
Research Summary
I am currently writing up an analysis of Valentin Silvestrov's Symphony No. 5 (1980-1982) for the RMA Short Monograph Series. The monograph focusses on what Silvestrov described to me in 2019 as an… read more
My teaching covers the history of European and Russian musical culture during the Long 19th Century. I focus on the way music is embedded in society and explore the links between musical culture and class, politics, gender, and national identity, with a particular focus on vocal genres, e.g., song traditions (mélodie, Lieder, romance) and opera. I also regularly teach on music historiography and criticism. At Nottingham I teach the Revolutionary Opera course.
Current Research
I am currently writing up an analysis of Valentin Silvestrov's Symphony No. 5 (1980-1982) for the RMA Short Monograph Series. The monograph focusses on what Silvestrov described to me in 2019 as an 'immediate kinship' that he felt between this symphony and Andrei Tarkovsky's 1979 film Stalker, which he saw shortly before completing his symphony.
Past Research
My first book explores the intersection between music, poetry, and cultural identity in the post-Stalinist period of Soviet history through close readings of three vocal cycles by Dmitri Shostakovich, Georgy Sviridov, and Valentin Silvestrov. My most recent article explores the evolution of Valentin Silvestrov's musical aesthetics and his international reputation in the wake of Russia's full-scale military invasion of Ukraine in 2022.