Professor Peter Johnson

Research Supervisor (part-time)

DPhil (Oxford)
MA (Cantab)
MusB (Cantab)
FRCO

email Peter Johnson

Professor of Music Peter Johnson is Head of Research at Birmingham Conservatoire, personally establishing its research department in 1993. His DPhil was on early atonality in Webern and Schoenberg, and he has lectured on most areas of music history and musicianship, with specialisms in twentieth century history and analysis, improvisation and the philosophy and aesthetics of music. He has pioneered research on the practice and aesthetics of musical performance, drawing on his considerable earlier experience as keyboard player, choir training and conductor. He has published on several aspects of performance, including intonation in string quartet playing, recordings and the relationship between performer and listener. He has designed a comprehensive performance analysis tool named Span in which processes of spectral and spectrographic analysis are integrated and combined with methods such as tapping in a user-friendly framework designed for musicians.

 

He reviews regularly for several journals and is in the peer review college for the AHRB. He is a widely experienced examiner to PhD level, and has to date successfully supervised thirteen PhDs at Birmingham Conservatoire.

 

Research & Teaching Specialisms
  • The study of Performance in the art-music tradition
  • Music aesthetics, contemporary philosophy and critical theory
  • Twentieth-century music, especially Second Viennese School
Current Projects
  • Performance as Embodied Knowledge
  • Individuality and voice in instrumental performance
  • ‘Audio Recording in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’, in Bayley, Amanda, Recorded Music: Processes, Products and Practices, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (forthcoming).

Publications & other public output

DPhil Thesis: Studies in Atonality: non-thematic structural processes in the early music of Schoenberg and Webern, Oxford 1978.

Book (co-authored)

1999: Cook, N., Johnson, P. & Zender, H., Theory into Practice: Composition, Performance and the Listening Experience. Leuven: Leuven University Press.

Book chapters

2004: “Expressive Intonation’ in string performance: problems of analysis and interpretation’ in Davison, Jane (ed.) The Music Practitioner: Research for the Music Performer, Teacher and Listener. Aldershot UK and Burlington VT: Ashgate, pp.79 - 90.

2002: ‘The Legacy of Recordings' in Rink, John (ed.) Musical Performance: A Guide to Study and Practice. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, pp.197 - 212.

1999: ‘Performance and the Listening Experience: Bach's “Erbarme dich” in performance', in Cook, Johnson & Zender, Theory into Practice. Leuven: Leuven University Press, pp. 55 - 101.

Journal Articles
Nov. 1997: ‘Performance as Experience: the problem of assessment criteria’. British Journal of Music Education 14:3, pp. 271 - 282.

August 1997: ‘Musical Works, Musical Performances' in Musical Times , Vol. 138, pp. 4 - 11.

June 1995: ‘ Play School : Peter Johnson examines the relationship between performer and analyst', Musical Times , pp. 275 - 277 .

Fall - Winter 1978: ‘Inversional Symmetry in Webern's Op.10 No.4' in Perspectives of New Music , Ann Arbour, USA .

Review Articles

March 2005: ‘The Science and Psychology of Music Performance Creative Strategies for Teaching and Learning’, (edited by Richard Parcutt and Gary E. McPherson, Oxford University Press, 2002) in Musicae Scientiae, pp. 196 - 202 (3,500 words).

Published Conference Papers

‘Prelude to Debussy's Pélléas et Mélisande: timbre and performance’ in Analyse et Création Musicales, Actes du Troisième Congrès Européen d’Analyse Musicale, Montpellier 1995. Paris, Montreal, Hungary and Italy: L’Harmatan, 2001.

‘Intonation and Interpretation in String Quartet Performance: The Case of the Flat Leading Note' in 6 th International Conference of Music Psychology, Keele, August 2000. Keele (CD ROM).

Recent Conference Papers

‘Artistic prerogatives in the performance of Western art-music’, keynote paper, SMA Study Day Accounting for Performance, RNCM 5th February 2005.

‘The Legacy of Art-Music Recordings: Performance as Recorded Knowledge', invited paper at CHARM Symposium, Royal Holloway College , London University , 14 -16 April 2005.

‘Adorno on Performance: problems of interpretation', keynote paper, RMA Study Day on Aesthetics, Birmingham Conservatoire, 2004.

‘Audio Recording in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction', keynote paper, SMT Study day, Birmingham Conservatoire, March 2003.

Software

1999: SPAN: Dedicated Software for the Analysis of Music in Performance, for the Matlab environment, Birmingham Conservatoire.

Performance Experience

Extensive choral work includes regular visits to Canterbury Cathedral and many other cathedrals including Liverpool, Christ Church Oxford, St.George's Windsor. Concert venues include St.John's Smith Square, Royal Albert Hall and Kingston Parish Church. Repertoire includes many first or rare performances including Jonathan Harvey Magnificant and Lauds, Giles Swayne Magnificant. J.C.Kerll Missa a tre cori (probably the first modern performance of this 17th century work in 24 instrumental & vocal parts), Lassus Masses a8, Carver O bone Jesu a 19 (my arrangement for modern choir).

Conductor, The Clerkes of Old Sarum (1992-4, Glastonbury , St.Albans etc)

Founder and Director The Orlando Singers ( London , Canterbury , Winchester , Gloucester , etc (1990 - 1994).

Also experienced accompanist ( La Bonne Chanson, Poèmes pour Mi etc) and organ recitalist.