The Organ in England to the Death of Elizabeth I

Music, technology, and the wider role

The Betts Fund of the Faculty of Music, University of Oxford, and the British Institute of Organ Studies (www.bios.org.uk) announce the first of a series of four conferences centred on the British organ. Each conference will explore the literature, construction, and significance of the organ in Britain during a particular era.

The first conference is entitled THE ORGAN IN ENGLAND TO THE DEATH OF ELIZABETH I: MUSIC, TECHNOLOGY, AND THE WIDER ROLE.
DATE: 12-15 APRIL, 2007
LOCATION: UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
This conference will be centred around the Early English Organs, reconstructions of two early sixteenth-century organs based on fragments found in recent years in Suffolk (see www.earlyorgans.org.uk)

Proposals of 300 words are invited for 20-minute conference papers on any subject relating to English organs, organ literature, construction, and performance practice up to the beginning of the 17th century. Topics may include (but are not limited to) areas such as the liturgical use of the organ, its greater role in society, relevant technology (including areas such as possible connections with clock-making, bell-casting, the English tin industry, etc.), iconography, music education as it may relate to the organ, music publishing (organ) in the period, and medieval and renaissance scientific inquiry and the organ.

Subsequent conferences, proposed for 2008, 2009, and 2010, will deal with similar issues centred around the British organ in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the nineteenth century, and the twentieth century and beyond.

For more information:
Dr Katharine Pardee
Betts Scholar in Organ Studies
University of Oxford
kfpardee@yahoo.com

A webpage is in development. Keep checking www.music.ox.ac.uk/organconference for updates