Kingston University, London

Faculty Member, Music

Senior Lecturer in Music

Coombehurst, Kingston Hill

Thesis Title: Reassessing Paul Dukas's La Peri in its cultural, historical and interdisciplinary contexts

About

Helen Julia Minors is a senior lecturer in music at Kingston University where she has worked since September 2010. She contributes to both the undergraduate and postgraduate programmes (both taught MA and doctoral students). She acts as associate chair for the Practice Research Unit, and sits on the academic board. Prior to this Helen was a Lecturer in Music at Roehampton University for four years where she was also the programme convenor for B.Mus/BA/MA programmes. She joined the music department at Roehampton in September 2006. Helen was the director for the Centre for Interdisciplinary Music Research.

Helen is a musicologist with interests in music at the turn of the twentieth century, especially music theatre, music and the other arts and criticism in France. Her research outlook is interdisciplinary, confronting cultural musicology, historical musicology and analysis. She is increasingly interested in music/theatre criticism within this context. Helen completed her PhD, in which she reassesses the music of Paul Dukas via cultural and interdisciplinary means, under the supervision of Dr. Deborah Mawer at Lancaster University.

Helen will sit on the committee of NAMHE (the National Association for Music in Higher Education) from January 2012 for a three year term. Helen also sits on the executive committee of the Society for Dance Research, acting as Administrative Secretary 2006- December 2011.

In 2012 Helen will be contributing guest session to a Music and Dance MA module at Roehampton University.

Teaching Status:
Helen is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Helen teaches a range of undergraduate courses:

At Kingston: Aural and Analysis; Music in Context; Collaborative Project 1; Major Project Dissertation; Research Skills; Reseach Seminar; Music in Theory; Writing Music Criticism; Applied Musical Skills.

At Roehampton: 'Harmony A', 'Analysis and Listening', 'Critical Perspectives', 'Ensemble 1' and 'Ensemble 2', 'Group Performance 1 and 2', 'Group Performance 2', 'Historical Studies' nineteenth century programme music, 'Style and Tonality', 'Composer Study', 'Experimental Music', 'Dissertation 1 and 2' for both second and third years as well as contributing alongside the other staff to 'Music in History and Culture'. Helen contributed some guest sessions to 'Translation Concepts and Strategies', working with translation students to explore surtitles and musical translation issues.

At Kingston Helen contributes to the MA pathways, teaching Researching Music, Major Project, and Aesthetics of Performance, as well as dissertation supervisions.

At Roehampton Helen convened and contributed to the MA in Music and Culture, on the modules 'Music and the Other Arts', 'Critical Approaches', 'Audio-Visual Criticism and Musical Multimedia', 'Dance and the Other Arts in the Age of Globalisation' and contributing to 'Music and Dance'.

Her courses, as far as possible, link to her current research areas, including 'Exploring Musical Multimedia' and 'Music in Motion' which is a collaborative course combining both music and dance students. This teaching-research connection has born fruit in conference papers in (see below, Edinburgh University, Bayreuth, Montreal, Philadelphia).

At Lancaster University (2002-2006), she taught on the UG pathway: Counterpoint, Tonal Music, an Analytical case study on Debussy's Prelude to An Afternoon of a Faune, Music in Context exploring issues of canon, sponsorship, gender and so forth, Film Music, and music in the Twentieth Century.

She has also taught music at  Casterton Girls' School, ranging from year 7 through to GCSE. She contributed also to NAGTY (National Academy for Gifted and Talent Youth). More broadly she has contributed sessions on Twentieth Century Music and Film Music dedicated to specific seasons for mature students at Lancaster University, including intensive course will explore Film Music/Soundtracks, specifically considering charcaterisation and narrativity.

Dissertation, UG/PG Supervision:
Helen has supervised a number of undergraduate dissertation topics and postgraduate work. She has also examined a PhD as an internal examiner. Supervised topics range from and include:

UG
• Claude Debussy: including topics on Nature; the analysis of 'La Mer' and 'Prelude to an Afternoon of a Faune'; contextual studies.
• Broadway / West End Musicals
• Film Musicals
• Gender and opera in the nineteenth century
• William Byrd's masses: recusancy; Mass versus the Great Service
• Brass Band Music in the UK and America: contests; performance practice; origins
• Salvation Army Music; a Ethnographic Study, incorporating interviews with current editors and composers
• The Choral Music of John Rutter
• Musical Meaning; Music and Identity
• Choir Management and Choral Development
• Russian/Baltic Opera
• Music Education: orivate versus state education; primary curriculum; observation; movtivating students at key stage 4.
• Stravinsky: style and identity.
• TV in Music (Frith): X factor / Pop Idol format
• Music and the Everyday / TV adverts
• Saint-Seans: Samson and Dalia / exotic influences
• Harry Potter: characterisation and narrative
• Music Therapy
• Improvisation in the classroom
• Genuis in Schumann and Beethoven
• Musical Intellegence
• Music therapy and treatment of brain injury
• Musical Savants
• Jazz perfromance gestures
• Popular music criticism
• Cultural context of Reggae

PG - Masters
• Musical Ekphrasis
• Mark Fish, 'Pictures of Miro' (2004)
• Andre Caplet, 'Conte Fantastique' (1924)
• Arvo Part, 'LamenTate' (2003)
• Greyworld's 'Soundscape' (2006)
• Petr Eben's 'Shagall Windows' (1976)
• Takashi Kako's 'Twittering Machine'
• Rachmaninov's 'Isle of the Dead' Op. 29
• Xenakis's 'Concrete PH'
• Cage, 4'33'' (1952)
• Multimedia Contexts: music and the visual
• Musical Identity in North American Native Music, Japanese Music, Celtic Music.
• Musical Depictions of British Society in British Film 1980s-1990s.
• Drum and Bass: authenticy / ethnographic study
• Rachmaninov's piano music
• Chopin's piano music
• The Classical composer-performer guitarists
• The baroque flute - interpreting Telemann
• Musicals: performance approaches

PG - PhD supervision
• (current, main supervisor) John Martin, Salvation Army: Music and Mission, fully funded by the Salvation Army
•  (current, main supervisor) Debbie Moss: Interart dialogue and composer communication
• (current, second supervisor), Keith Ford: The pianist in the classroom: creating new pianistic models for linking recital and animateur practice, funded by the AHRC
•  (current, main supervisor), Serge Hailivich O'Farrell: The Songs of Rachmaninov: Identity and Reception
•  William Summers (main supervisor), Hanovian Court, audience reception of early music at Hampton Court Palace

As well as the above Helen contributed a guest lecture to the MA Applied Music Education Programme and to the Research Training Methods Seminars for the School of Arts at Roehampton University. During 2012 Helen will return to Roehampton to offer guest sessions to a module, Music and Dance, supporting Prof. Stephanie Jordan.

Publications:

Edited Books:
•  (forthcoming 2012), Music, Text and Translation (Continuum), ed. Helen Julia Minors

Book Chapters, Peer Reviewed:
• (forthcoming book chapter, 2012) 'Music Translating Visual Images: Erik Satie’s compositional approach', Music, Text and Translation (Continuum), ed. Helen Julia Minors.
• (forthcoming chapter, 2012): ‘Experiencing inter-art dialogue in Erik Satie’s Sports et divertissements (1914 / 1922)’, title tbc, edited by Dr. Caroline Potter.
• (In press, forthcoming 2011): ‘In Collaboration: toward a gestural analysis of music and dance, Movements between Hearing and Seeing: Music, Dance, Theatre, Performance and Film (Forschingsinstitut für Musiktheater des Universität Bayreuth), ed. Dr. Stephanie Schroedter.
• (In press, forthcoming 2011), 'Paul Dukas et Claude Debussy: Identité dans l'opéra français', La musique française : esthétique et identité dans le processus de transformation 1892-1992, Université Catholique de l’ouest, Angers, Pays de la Loire, France (Editions Delateur), ed. Dr. Pascal Terrien.

Articles, Peer Reviewed:
• (forthcoming 2012) 'Music-Movement Dialogues: Exploring Live Composition', Dance and Music: Moving Dialogues Conference, University of Montreal, McGill University, Société de recherché en musique, Concordia University and the Observatoire international de la création et des cultures musicales (peer reviewed)
• Article: ‘Paul Dukas’s La Péri (1911–12): A Problematic Creative–Collaborative Journey’, Dance Research: Ballets russes special edition part 2 (November 2009), 227–52.
• Article: ‘Paul Dukas’s La Péri as interpreted by two balletic collaborators’, Opera Quarterly: Performance, History, Theory, 22/1 (Oxford University Press, winter, 2006), 117–135.

Score Prefaces:
• (2011) Lili Boulanger, Psaume 30 "Du fond de l'abime", for orchestra, organ, choir and voice, Musikproduktion Hoflich, Munich. http://www.musikmph.de/musical_scores/vorworte/1001.html
• (2011) Lili Boulanger, Psaume 129, for bariton, choir and orchestra, Musikproduktion Hoflich, Munich. http://www.musikmph.de/musical_scores/vorworte/1100.html
• (2011) Lili Boulanger, Psaume 24, for soprano, alto, tenor, baa, horns, trumpets, trombones, tuba, cymbals, harp and organ, Musikproduktion Hoflich, Munich. http://www.musikmph.de/musical_scores/vorworte/1146.html

Conference Proceedings:
• Conference Proceeding Compilation (in press, forthcoming June 2010): ‘Dance History Scholars: Politics, Perspectives and Practices’, Society of Dance Research, compiled and edited by Dr. Helen Julia Minors.
• Editing: ‘Conference Proceedings: Dance Research Conference March 2008, in collaboration with the Society for Dance Research and the Centre for Interdisciplinary Music Research. Co-edited with Dr. Geraldine Morris. Published on the website of The Society for Dance Research UK and the centre for Interdisciplinary Music Research Roehampton (November 2009).
• Conference Proceedings: ‘Paul Dukas and Serge Diaghilev: A Problematic Creative–Collaborative Journey’, in ‘Conference Proceedings: Dance Research Conference (March 2008), in collaboration with the Society for Dance Research and the Centre for Interdisciplinary Music Research. Ed. Dr. Helen Julia Minors and Dr. Geraldine Morris. Published on the website of Dance Research UK (November 2009), 15–22.

Essay:
•  Sound Moves International Conference on Music and Dance Proceedings, ‘Paul Dukas’s La Péri as interpreted by two balletic collaborators’. Conference proceedings, http://www.roehampton.ac.uk/soundmoves/ (Published January 2006).

Book Reviews:
•  (forthcoming 2011) 'Peter Dayan, 'Art as Music, Music as Poetry, Poetry as Art, From Whistler to Stravinsky and Beyond (Farnham: Ashgate, 2011'), Ars Lyrica.
•  Invited Book Review: ‘Paul-André Bempéchat, Jean Cras, Polymath of Music and Letters (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2009), xxviii, 569 p.’, Notes, The Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association (December 2010), 348-350.
• Book Review, ‘Musical Encounters at the 1889 Paris World's Fair by Annegret Fauser’, Nineteenth Century Music Review (Ashgate, July 2007), 135–9.

Conference Reports:
• Conference Report, 'Practice-Based and Practice-Led Doctorates: Supervision and Success' Bath Spa University (2nd June 2011), UK Council for Graduate Education Newsletter (2011). http://www.ukcge.ac.uk/news/Newsletter/
• Invited Conference Report: ‘Music Iconography Study Group, Open Session and AGM’, Courtauld Institute of Art, The Royal Musical Association, 26 July 2010, RMA Newsletter (Autumn 2010).
• Conference Report: ‘Interdisciplinary Nineteenth Century Studies International Conference. Interdisciplinary Nineteenth–Century Studies (INCS), The Centre for Nineteenth–Century Music & St Chad's College, Durham University, UK 6–9 July 2006’, RMA Newsletter (Autumn 2006).

Filmed Video Recording:
• DVD: Invited to present an ‘Artist Interview’ with Walter Thompson, artist in residence, Soundpainting (October 2008, Centre for Interdisciplinary Music research, Roehampton), filmed on 30th October 2008, edited by Prof. Michael Chanan. The film includes a concert performance and the 45 minute interview discussing issues surrounding compositional authority and cultural associations in Soundpainting. Directed by Helen McKlee and Prof. Michael Chanan. (The interview will be broadcast during Walter Thompson’s International Workshops. The Concert will be used within my forthcoming invited lecture-demonstration at the University of Montreal, February 2011).

Future book plans include an analytical appraisal of Paul Dukas’s critical writings written in partnership with Laura Watson (TCD, Ireland).

Conference Papers/Seminars/Invited Talks:
• 'Gesturing across the divide: unities and disunities in creating music-dance pieces', CORD-SEM 2011: Moving Music / Sounding Dance: Intersections, Disconnections, and Alignments between Dance and Music, Philadelphia USA (17-20th November 2011).
• Respondent to John Irving,'Recording Mozart on a 1763 clavichord', Capturing Process? Practice Research in the Arts, Practice Research Unit, Kingston University, organised by Prof. John Mullarkey and Dr. Helen Julia Minors www.practiceresearchunit.co.uk 29th June 2011
•  (invite)  'Cultural and Religious Contexts behind the Deliberately Ambiguous Mythological, Religious (and arguably Feminist) Sources of Paul Dukas’s La Péri (1911/1912) and Ariane et Barbe-Bleue (1907)', in "France the Lewd, France the Prude", Lyrica Society's 5th annual Dialogues at Harvard University (8 April 2011).
•  (forthcoming) 'Improvisation, Guided Improvisation or Real-time Composition: a workshop in Soundpainting', Iprovisation Day, Kingston University (6 April 2011). http://fass.kingston.ac.uk/activities/item.php?updatenum=1709
•  ‘A gestural analysis of music and dance through live composition’, Dance and Music: Moving Dialogues Conference, University of Montreal, McGill University, Société de recherché en musique, Concordia University and the Observatoire international de la création et des cultures musicales (February 2011), full funding awarded.
• 'Composers as Translators:
intersemiotic transference, adaptation and interpretation', Portsmouth Tenth International Trnaslation Conference (November 2010).
• Invited to chair, ‘Music and Image’, Royal Musical Association Annual Conference: Boundaries (15 July 2010).
• Invited ‘Gesture as a tool for analysing music and dance’, Movements between Hearing and Seeing: Music, Dance, Theatre, Performance and Film / Bewegungen zwischen Hören und Sehen: Musik, Tanz, Theater, Performance und Film, Symposion auf Schloss Thurnau (19–21 November 2009). Fully funded by the German Research Council.
• 'Paul Dukas's Critical Response of Richard Wagner', McGill University, Montréal, Canada (November 2009). Funded.
• 'Erik Satie: responding to images', Sixth Biennial Conference on Music Since 1900, Keele University (July 2009). Chairing 'French Transformations'.
• 'Erik Satie's fashion milieu: Sports et divertissements', Nostalgia and Innovation in Twentieth Century French Music, Lancaster University, 8-9 May 2009.
• Invited to chair 'Remembering Debussy: Dukas and pupils', Nostalgia and Innovation in Twentieth Century French Music, Lancaster University, 8-9 May 2009.
• 'In Collaboration: teaching performing arts', Centre for Dance Research, Roehampton University (November 2008).
• Invited to chair 'Meaning in Art and Music', Centre of International Research on Creativity and Learning in Education', Roehampton University (25th November 2008).
• Panel statement, 'Translating words, translating worlds', Research Festival, Roehampton University (10th June 2008).
• 'In Collaboration: practical learning through gesture', Dance, Timing and Musical Gesture, 13-15th June 2008, Institute for Music in Human and Social Development, University of Edinburgh, Scotland.
• 'Paul Dukas and Claude Debussy: A French Operatic Identity', French Music, Aesthetic and Identity in the Process of Transformation 1892-1992, 29-30th April, Angers, France.
• 'Paul Dukas: A Creative Collaborative Journey', Dance Research Conference, Society for Dance Research, in collaboration with Centre for Interdisciplinary Music Research (15th March 2008).
• Chairing a seminar for IMR Directions in Musical Research Seminar Series: Alexandra Wilson, Thursday 6 March 2008, 5-6.30pm, Senate House, London.
• 'Paul Dukas: Music, Criticism and the Other Arts'. An invited research lecture for the Department of Continuing Education, Lancaster University, 22nd February 2008, Dukes Gallery, Central Lancaster, 12.30-1.15pm.
• 'Disappointment and Imagination: Paul Dukas’s French Theatre Criticisms', Research seminar for the Centre for Interdisciplinary Music Research, 30th January 2008.
• 'The Criticisms of Paul Dukas (1865–1935): Interpreting French Theatre Performance', French Music: Performance and Analysis (16 November 2007), Brigham Young University, Laie, Hawaii.
• Music in Interwar France 1918-1939: A Study Day, 9th November 2007, Keele University, chairing a session.
• Plenary statement address and chairing for the Interdisciplinary Music Research Conference, Roehampton University, 13th October 2007 on a panel with Prof. Stephanie Jordan and Dr. Maria Paraskevopoulou.
• Lecture-Recital (Lecture and Trumpet), Stravinsky's 'Histoire du Soldat'. 'Stravinsky’s Mobile Theatre: The Dichotomy of Voice'. Under the direction of Leslie Anne Lewis. School of Arts, Roehampton University, 22nd-24th October 2007: Barnes Methodist Church (22nd), Chapman Hall, School of Arts (24th). Open rehearsal (23rd) Whitelands Chapel.
• 'The Problems of Interdisciplinary Research', an invited talk given at Roehampton University, to Prof. Stephanie Jordan and her MA group 'Music and Dance' (27 March 2007).
• ‘Perpetual malleability: Paul Dukas’s La Péri (1911) — the phoenix’. Invitation to speak in the Research Forum, University of Huddersfield (14th November 2006).
• ‘Paul Dukas’s Critical Writings: A Concept of Drama’, Interdisciplinary Nineteenth-Century Studies International Conference, The University of Durham (6–9 July 2006). 
• ‘Paul Dukas’s Concept of Drama in Music’, RMA Research Students’ Conference, Leeds University (5 January 2006).
• ‘Le musicien-sorcier: Paul Dukas, un musicien français’, Le Cercle Français, Leigh (November 2005).
• ‘Paul Dukas’s La Péri as interpreted by two balletic collaborators’, Sound Moves International Conference on Music and Dance, Roehampton University (6 November 2005). Also presented in Music, Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts, Lancaster University (2 November 2005).
• ‘The Visual Dimension in Paul Dukas’s La Péri’, Musical Iconography, RMA Study Day, Sheffield University (30 July 2005). Invited to give a paper on musical iconography.
• ‘“Music necessarily has to express something”: Paul Dukas’s approach to balletic orchestration’, RMA Research Students’ Conference, International Centre for Music Studies, University of Newcastle Upon Tyne (30 March 2005).
• ‘“I will destroy it”: Paul Dukas’s La Péri and variation form’ International Symposium on Music in France 1830–1940, University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia (17 July 2004).
• ‘Active Listening in the Learning Process’, CiLTHE Conference, Lancaster University (1 July 2004).
• ‘Variation Form and an Exotic Ballet’, Departmental Research Seminar, Lancaster University (12 May 2004).
• ‘Reassessing Paul Dukas’s La Péri (1911)’, RMA Research Students’ Conference, Royal Holloway University of London (9 January 2004).
• ‘Paul Dukas’, Departmental Research Seminar, Lancaster University (3 December 2004). 

Events Organised: selection
•  Dancis History Scholars Conference, March 2010, Roehampton University.
• Early Music Workshop Day, 29th November tbc, Chapman Hall, CIMR Roehampton University.
• Lecture-recital, Songs for Mary, All Saint's Day, Digby Chapel, CIMR Roehampton University, 6th November 2008.
• Walter Thompson Artist in Residency, Soundpainting, October 2008, CIMR Roehampton University.
• Soundpainting Workshop Day 24th October 2008, CIMR Roehampton University.
• Established Scholars Conference for the Society of Dance Research (15th March 2008). Conference committee.
• The first research seminar series for CIMR, Spring 2008, comprising 8 interdisciplinary papers on diverse topics representative of the centre aims.
• An opening event, Interdisciplinary Music Research Conference, for the Centre for Interdisciplinary Music Research (CIMR) at Roehampton University (13th October 2007). With key note addresses by Dr. Caroline Rae and Prof. Michael Chanan.
• New Scholars Conference, hosted by the Society of Dance Research (30th June 2007), London College of Fashion. Helen has been supporting the conference committee in organising this event.
• Exploring Musical Sources, A Study Day in collaboration with the Royal Musical Association (Saturday 12th February 2005). This event had guest speakers, personally selected and invited, to present recent work on tackling the issues and problems of source study. The event idea drew on Helen's own research areas. Speakers included: Richard Langham Smith (Arnold Kettle Distinguished Scholar of Music, Open University); Rebecca Herrisone (The University of Manchester); Edward Venn (Lancaster University); and John Byran (The University of Huddersfield). This event was reviewed in the RMA newsletter by Philip Taylor (Lancaster University).

Currently Helen is maintaining her performing interests, alongside her musicological research, by playing in the Aldworth Philharmonic Orchestra, occasionally with the Isleworth Baroque Orchestra and has recently played with Reading Symphony Orchestra and Slough Philharmonic.


Membership of professional bodies:

Royal Musical Association
American Musicological Association
Society for Dance Research
National Academy for Music in Higher Education
Universities and Colleges Union
Francophone Music Criticism Network: member
Institute of Musical Research: associate
Lyrica Society: individual member

Contact Information