Digital Delius: Interpretation, Performance, and Analysis
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Oxford
Department Name: Music Faculty
Abstract
'Digital Delius: Interpretation, Performance, and Analysis' will allow anyone with an internet connection, at any time and without cost, to access items from the extraordinarily rich collections of the British Library and the Delius Trust. Not only will users be able to view items (such as the original version of the String Quartet and Beecham's annotated scores) that have previously only been available to those able to visit the British Library or the Delius Trust in London, but they will also benefit from a wealth of expert commentary drawing on research conducted during the original AHRC project. Moreover, the project will develop new functionalities to allow non-expert listeners to understand and engage with the digital items, as well as presenting accompanying multimedia content such as recordings and photographs. The collections will thus gain new significance for users who lack specialist expertise in music or the use of manuscripts. By developing teaching resources and presenting a programme of workshops alongside the exhibition, we will enhance the impact of our original research by targeting a specific demographic: students aged 16-21. Our focus on i) editing, performance, and interpretation and ii) nationalism and programme music will render the exhibition of value to music students beyond those interested in Delius, enabling learning about issues at the core of the study of music.
The British Library possesses outstanding holdings of internationally significant music material and is keen to explore ways both to present these holdings to the public, and to attract new deposits based on the opportunities for digital curation, access, and education. The Delius exhibition will be the first music exhibition of its kind for the British Library. It will thus enable scoping of the possibilities of further digital music projects, and establish a platform which may be expanded to create other exhibitions and digital collections in the future.
The British Library possesses outstanding holdings of internationally significant music material and is keen to explore ways both to present these holdings to the public, and to attract new deposits based on the opportunities for digital curation, access, and education. The Delius exhibition will be the first music exhibition of its kind for the British Library. It will thus enable scoping of the possibilities of further digital music projects, and establish a platform which may be expanded to create other exhibitions and digital collections in the future.
Planned Impact
Music encoding technology will enable us to bring the life-cycle of the musical work to life for the first time, available to anybody with an internet connection. Students, amateur and professional musicians, scholars and the general public will be able to access a range of rare material, supported by informational, critical and educational content provided by experts. These users will benefit from the knowledge of computer scientists and musicologists, combined with British Library expertise in mounting virtual exhibitions.
While the concept of the virtual exhibition is established, the notion of developing unique interactive functionalities for musical exhibitions is a new concept, only now able to be supported by music encoding technology. Moreover, it is only with the proliferation of tablets, with their screen rotation feature, that exhibitions and resources featuring large scores (orchestral scores for example) have become feasible. Such devices will also permit tactile zooming, tapping on different objects, and other forms of tactile interaction only recently made possible. After the end of the funding period, the digitized items from the Delius Trust and the British Library will be stored permanently, and the exhibition will remain available on the British Library website as per the organisation's digital preservation strategy. Code and software developed to create new functionalities will be deposited for long-term preservation in the Bodleian Library's ORA-Data system and made freely available using Github. These measures will enable other projects to mount similar ventures in the future.
While the concept of the virtual exhibition is established, the notion of developing unique interactive functionalities for musical exhibitions is a new concept, only now able to be supported by music encoding technology. Moreover, it is only with the proliferation of tablets, with their screen rotation feature, that exhibitions and resources featuring large scores (orchestral scores for example) have become feasible. Such devices will also permit tactile zooming, tapping on different objects, and other forms of tactile interaction only recently made possible. After the end of the funding period, the digitized items from the Delius Trust and the British Library will be stored permanently, and the exhibition will remain available on the British Library website as per the organisation's digital preservation strategy. Code and software developed to create new functionalities will be deposited for long-term preservation in the Bodleian Library's ORA-Data system and made freely available using Github. These measures will enable other projects to mount similar ventures in the future.
Publications
Grimley
(2018)
Delius and the Sound of Place
Lewis D
(2018)
Publishing musicology using multimedia digital libraries
Title | CD recording of Delius premiere |
Description | A commercial recording by the Villiers String Quartet, released on Naxos, which is the world premiere recording of two new pieces by Frederick Delius, transcribed and edited from the ms by Daniel Grimley. |
Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
Year Produced | 2022 |
Impact | Enhanced public understanding of Delius's life and work. A new and hitherto unknown work. Deepening of professional collaboration with the Villiers Quartet. |
URL | https://www.naxos.com/CatalogueDetail/?id=8.574376 |
Description | Engaging student audiences with Delius's music has significantly transformed their understanding of identity and musical value. It has prompted particularly vital discussions both in the context of debates about Englishness following the Brexit referendum, and by focusing on the role of female performers on International Womens' Day. Youth Orchestra students have been equally engaged by issues of style and harmonic language. This has helped to bring a greater understanding and appreciation of Delius's work to a new audience. |
Exploitation Route | A video of the Quartet workshop will be uploaded to the web. We are developing teaching materials in conjunction with our BL hosted website that is now available at https://www.bl.uk/teaching-resources/20th-century-music-composition. Teachers already report having used aspects of my lectures in their class discussions. |
Sectors | Creative Economy Education Leisure Activities including Sports Recreation and Tourism Culture Heritage Museums and Collections |
URL | https://delius.music.ox.ac.uk/catalogue/ |
Description | Yes, the outputs have enhanced public understanding of a significant creative figure and his work. The outputs have also supported a deep and longstanding research-led collaboration with a professional musical ensemble. |
First Year Of Impact | 2020 |
Sector | Creative Economy,Education,Leisure Activities, including Sports, Recreation and Tourism,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
Impact Types | Cultural |
Title | A Delius Catalogue of Works |
Description | A freely-available online annotated thematic catalogue of the works of Frederick Delius |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2018 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | The first fully collated freely available catalogue of works has led to a revised chronology of Delius's output, and wider recognition of his corpus. |
URL | https://delius.music.ox.ac.uk/catalogue/welcome.html |
Title | Teaching Resources for Delius |
Description | A pack of teaching resources hosted as part of the British Library Discovering music site |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2019 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | The preparation of teaching resources for class use in schools supports ongoing developments in music education and facilitates outreach and access to further advanced study. |
URL | https://www.bl.uk/teaching-resources/20th-century-music-composition |
Description | Engaging Students with Delius |
Organisation | Oxfordshire County Youth Orchestra |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | I have worked with the Oxfordshire County Youth Orchestra on two events: firstly, a concert for primary school children at the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford, in which I introduced a piece of Delius to a new audience with appropriate contextual and historical material; and secondly, a rehearsal on Delius's work with conductor John Traill, addressing issues of performance, realisation, and interpretation. The rehearsal included interactive question-and-answer sessions, and a reflective interview discussion with selected small groups of students. |
Collaborator Contribution | The Youth Orchestra provided the physical and musical resources for the project, including rehearsal time, venue, and equipment. |
Impact | There are no physical outputs from this activity. |
Start Year | 2018 |
Description | Carice Singers Pre-concert talk |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Pre-concert talks for Carice Singers concert |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Consultancy activity for Sotheby's and Delius Trust |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | I provided specialist consultancy services to the Delius Trust and Sotheby's auctioneers regarding the identity and historical value of newly discovered musical manuscript materials. This has resulted in the purchase of valuable historical documents that will lead to new insights and findings about the work of Frederick Delius. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Delius pre-concert talk |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
Results and Impact | A pre-concert talk at Duke University, North Carolina, before a performance of the Delius String Quartet by the Villiers Quartet. The performance included the original version of 'Late Swallows', which the Villiers have recorded as part of their ongoing collaboration with the PI. The concert was held in conjunction with a public seminar, British Music in the Age of Brexit, organised by Prof Phillip Rupprecht, and hosted at the university. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
URL | https://music.duke.edu/news/brexit |
Description | Discovering Music: Delius Launch Event |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | A study day and workshop held at the British Library on 1 October 2018. In the morning, a group of c. 12 school students worked through structured essays on music by Delius and Elgar led by PI Grimley, RA Bullivant and the composer Anthony Payne. In the afternoon, a series of talks and panel sessions introduced the new Delius Online Catalogue and the relevant pages of the British Library's new Discovering Music site, which was supported by the Digital Delius research. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | http://www.oerc.ox.ac.uk/Digital-Delius |
Description | Engaging Students with Delius |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | A talk on Delius, Elgar, and Beatrice Harrison for International Womens' Day, held at Rugby School. The audience were Rugby students and students from local state schools. The lecture discussed the Cello Concertos by Delius and Elgar, and focused on the contribution of Beatrice Harrison, who was closely associated with both works. The lecture stressed the significance of gender and canonicity in music historiography. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Interview for BBC Radio 3 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | A special themed edition of BBC Radio 3's flagship Music Matters programme, based on my monograph Delius and the Sound of Place, including extensive material in conversation with Tom Service and recorded in Delius's village (Grez-sur-Loing, Seine-et-Marne). |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0001hll |
Description | Preconcert talk for Greek premiere of Delius Requiem |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | I gave a preconcert talk to an audience of c. 300 people at the Maria Callas Concert Hall in Athens before the Greek premiere performance of Delius's Requiem. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | World premiere of Delius String Quartet |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | In October 2020, I introduced the world premiere of two newly discovered movements from an early string quartet by Frederick Delius. The research for this performance followed from my previous work on Delius sources and my ongoing collaboration with the Villiers String Quartet. The performance was livestreamed from St Mary's Church in Oxford and was viewed over 1500 times within the first month. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
URL | https://www.torch.ox.ac.uk/event/live-event-discovering-delius |