Research at the International Centre for Music Studies
Welcome to the research pages for the International Centre for Music Studies (ICMuS).
Ten key facts about staff research and research facilities at ICMuS
- ICMuS is pleased to have consolidated its position as a leading centre for research into music, with the overwhelming majority of our research (80%) being classed as world-leading or internationally excellent in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise.
- World-leading and internationally excellent research in all areas
- International dissemination of outputs through printed publication, commercial recording, live performance and online publication
- Full online access to over 100 music journals
- An extensive library collection (books, scores and recordings)
- Outstanding research and performance facilities (our new building opens 2009)
- Over 30 research students undertaking research across the full spectrum of our research interests
- Weekly research forum given by visiting international scholars
- Research-intensive links with The Sage Gateshead, major national and international research institutions, a range of British and international venues, ensembles and performing artists
- ICMuS hosts the online journal Radical Musicology
Research at ICMuS: a brief overview
Research in ICMuS centres on two areas: musicology and creative practice and we are particularly interested in the relationship between reflective and creative practices. These two areas of research include a number of key areas of activity which gives research at ICMuS its unique character.
In musicology, for example, staff are working on topics that include historiography and cultural theory from aesthetics to interpretation and analysis; within creative practice, furthermore, staff are actively engaged in composition, performance and improvisation in ‘art’ and ‘vernacular’ musics and work through written scores, oral transmission, technologically mediated resources and improvisation with both 'acoustic' (i.e. not amplified) media and live electronics.