PGR Session

This event has now finished.
  • Date and time: Wednesday 8 June 2022, 4pm to 5.30pm
  • Location: D003, Sally Baldwin Buildings, Campus West, University of York (Map)
  • Booking:

Event details

This week's seminar will feature presentations on fascinating projects from two of our doctoral students, Rachel Adie-Rhodes and Ioanna Koullepou.

Rachel Adie-Rhodes: The Cardinal, the Pope, and the Libretto - research findings after a chance discovery at York Minster Library

During recent research into cantatas performed at the Palazzo Apostolico, Rome, between 1676 and 1740, I found an unsigned inscription on folio 1 of a libretto held at York Minster Library. ‘Dato mi dalla mano di Cardinale Norfolk nel Palazzo Apostolico del Vaticano essendo vi presente a la musica la notte del Natale, 25 Deb e : 1681’. [Given to me by the hand of Cardinal Norfolk in the Palazzo Apostolico of the Vatican being there present at the music on Christmas Night 25 th December 1681].

In this talk, I will share some of the steps taken during my three-month investigation of this document, which addressed four important questions: Who was Cardinal Norfolk? Who wrote this short body of text? How and when did this libretto find its way from Rome to York Minster Library? And what might be the significance of the choice of subject within the libretto with reference to these findings?

Ioanna Koullepou: Performing narrative in Carl Loewe's ballads

This talk will seek to examine the ballad’s value and offer insight into its implications for performance - in particular, as regards the accompaniment. My aim is to evaluate some of Carl Loewe’s ballads, which results in the general principle of interpretation, the narrative; examining the various narrative twists and turns and how those are highlighted in the piano part. This in turn will help me to clarify the implications for my performance, which are suggesting ways the accompanist can grasp those narrative twists and turns for dramatic purposes.

Rachel Adie-Rhodes and Ioanna Koullepou

Rachel Adie-Rhodes

I am a third-year PhD researcher in performance practice in early music, in particular that of the Neapolitan composer Nicolà Porpora (1686-1768) in his Oratorio per la nascita di Gesù Cristo (1748). I transferred from the University of Huddersfield (working in both Music and Drama) to the Department of Music in York late in 2019. As a qualified Alexander Technique teacher, piano and voice tutor, and practitioner of Yoga, I bring a strong awareness of the physicality of performance to my research, although actual physical experimentation has been curtailed in recent past. My non-research interests (suffering neglect at the moment, sadly) are Jazz improvisation, arranging ‘standards’ for acapella vocal groups, and garden design (see Yeoman’s Course Lodge, Easingwold – one of my designs). I have conducted choral ensembles of various sizes, producing concerts in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and subsequently, charity concerts in Edinburgh, and remain hopeful that my time at York will enable me to return to the dynamic and inspirational experience of shared musical performance.

Ioanna Koullepou

Ioanna Koullepou is a practice-based doctoral researcher at the University of York. Her research is focused on Carl Loewe’s ballads and the underlying role of the accompanist in these pieces, and in particular their ability to convey the narratives of the songs through attention to details of the score, in conjunction with the singer. Ioanna’s objective is to integrate her performance into her broader research strategy effectively and find ways to bring together historical information and subjective performance.