Ernest Berk: An Expressionist 'Outsider'

Ernest Berk was one of the most prolific composers of electronic music in England, completing over 200 significant works between 1957-1984. These works, often substantial and expertly crafted, were composed to be performed alongside Berk's choreography for his dance company. Since his death, his work has fallen into obscurity - only two works were released during his lifetime, and the archive that he donated to the National Archive in Cologne remains uncatalogued and was significantly damaged when part of the building in which it was housed collapsed. This project will work with audio materials digitised by Martin Kohler made before the collapse of the archive, as well as new digitisations of the remaining extant materials, to produce the first English language book on Berk's work. We will examine his life, work, aesthetic and working methods not only from the perspective of his work as a choreographer, but also as an exile from Nazi Germany, and as someone who resolutely worked outside of the large cultural institutions of the time and academia. In addition, we will create a digital archive of Ernest Berk's electronic music and an accompanying website that contextualises his works through interviews with those who worked with him, archival documents, analyses of works as well as the studio equipment he used to realise his works. To situate Berk's work in a wider context, we will host two study days examining the 'lost voices' of electronic music in England, as well as examining the role that the cultural institutions of the time played in facilitating and promoting a particular approach to electronic music. Through examining Berk's work, and the wider scene in England from a geopolitical perspective, we aim to understand how Berk's work in autonomous electronic music to be played alongside dance was very much against the prevailing aesthetic of the time and the 'functional music' promoted by the BBC. We examine how Berk's works have a stronger kinship with the electronic music of Western Europe - whereas the 'functional electronic music' promoted by the BBC was an aesthetic promoted by Eastern European Radio stations - and the implications arising from this. The research outcomes will comprise two books, one about Ernest Berk and his electronic music, and an edited collection of essays arising from the Study Days looking at electronic music more widely within a post-World War 2 institutional and geopolitical setting and the artists involved in its creation. In addition to the digital archive and website, a 5-CD set of selected works by Berk will be released by Huddersfield Contemporary Records.