Current Students

Carmela Barbaro

Renaissance Music Theory in Practice: This research investigates sixteenth-century sources as witnesses to Renaissance music pedagogy and as resources for the teaching of counterpoint today. It examines Thomas Morley’s A Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practicall Musicke as a classic example of music pedagogy, and the implications of its use today. One of the focuses of this study is Renaissance-style improvisation, and how to embed it as pedagogical resource in contemporary music classrooms. The other focal point of the research is the Reconstruction of lost polyphonies, and its pedagogical implications. RCM 2037, The Ferrara Partbooks, and its unica of Maistre Jhan, is the case study for this purpose. One of the results of the study will be a suite of pedagogical resources (textual, online, enacted etc.) that will be produced with the aim to facilitate the use of primary sources in the learning of counterpoint today.

Supervisory Team: Prof. Magnus Williamson, Arts and Cultures (Newcastle), Dr Kirsten Gibson, Arts and Cultures (Newcastle).

Start Date: September 2017.