Newcastle University

Introduction

My research interests are in the music of late-medieval and early modern Europe, especially in the sources and contexts of early-Tudor polyphony. I am a keyboard player, and am also an editor of early music (I am currently the General Editor of the British Academy series, Early English Church Music).

My teaching reflects these interests. I teach on several music modules, including Music History and Counterpoint & Voice-Leading. I also offer options based on my research (The Eton Choirbook, Music & Worship in the Middle Ages, for instance).

Background

Magnus Williamson read music at Magdalen College, Oxford. After completing his doctoral thesis he was lecturer in music at Somerville College prior to his appointment as lecturer at Newcastle in 1997. His research is in the late middle ages and early renaissance; he has published on the origins of the Eton choirbook, and on the social context of English music before, during and after the Reformation. He is currently General Editor of the British Academy series, Early English Church Music.

As well as his academic interests, he is active as a performing musician. In 1988 he became a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists, while he was organ scholar at Magdalen College. He won numerous prizes as an improviser, and has given recitals in the UK and abroad. More recently, his collaboration with the Early English Organ Project has brought together his skills as a perfomer and improviser, and his experience as a scholar of late-medieval English music: a CD of Tudor organ music, 'More Sweet to Hear', performed with the choir of Caius College, Cambridge, was issued by OxRecs to critical acclaim in 2007.

Roles and Responsibilities

Currently on Research Leave

Qualifications and Awards

Fellow, Royal College of Organists, with Dixon Prize (1988)
BA Hons in Music (first class), Magdalen College, Oxford (1990)
DPhil (Oxford): 'The Eton choirbook: its institutional and historical background' (1997) 

Previous Positions

Lecturer in Music, Somerville College, Oxford (1995-7)
Director of Music, University Church of St Mary, Oxford (1992-7)
Assisting Organist, Magdalen College, Oxford (1990-1)

Memberships

American Musicological Society
Royal Musical Association
Renaissance Society of America
Plainsong and Mediaeval Music Society

Languages

French
Latin

Research Interests

Medieval and Renaissance music
Liturgy and ritual
Social and political contexts
Reformation studies
Source studies

Other Expertise

Early English organ music
Performance
Improvisation
Editing early music

Current Work

Music and the Reformation in England, Scotland and France

The late-medieval parish and college: soundscapes and resources

Printed liturgical chant books of the sixteenth century

John Sheppard 

Future Research

French music, 1450-1700

Research Roles

General Editor, Early English Church Music

Postgraduate Supervision

Kirsten Gibson (PhD, completed 2005)

Numerous Master of Music candidates

Esteem Indicators

Expert Evaluator, Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (2005)

Assessor, National Heritage Memorial Fund (2005)

Palisca Prize for outstanding edition, American Musicological Society (2011)

Funding

Early English Church Music: the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries (AHRB Resource Enhancement Scheme, February 2004-2007)

Undergraduate Teaching

Music History
Counterpoint

and various historical/cultural options on subjects from the fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries

Postgraduate Teaching

Music Research Training
Performance Practice

• Williamson M. ‘Cuius regno: the Reformation of music in England, France and Scotland’. In: Iain Fenlon & Richard Wistreich, ed. The Cambridge History of Music in the Sixteenth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014. In Preparation.
• Williamson M. ‘Sound, space and movement: the view from the nave’. In: P. S. Barnwell, Sally Harper & Magnus Williamson, ed. The Experience of Late-Medieval Worship. 2013. In Preparation.
• Williamson M. Affordable Splendour: Printing and Marketing the Sarum Antiphoner, 1519-20. Renaissance Studies 2012, 26(1), 60-87.
• Williamson M. The Eton Choirbook Project. Newcastle: ICMuS/CETL4MusicNE, 2012. Available at: http://research.ncl.ac.uk/etonchoirbook/about.html.
• Williamson M (organ), Choir of Caius College, Cambridge, dir. Geoffrey Webber. More Sweet to Hear: organs and voices of Tudor England. . Abingdon: OxRecs Digital, 2007.
• Williamson M. Liturgical Music in the Late Medieval Parish: Organs and Voices, Ways and Means. In: Burgess, C., Duffy, E, ed. The Parish in Late Medieval England: Proceedings of the 2002 Harlaxton Symposium. Donington: Shaun Tyas, 2006, pp.177-242.
• Williamson M. Liturgical polyphony in the pre-reformation English paris church: A provisional list and commentary. Royal Musical Association Research Chronicle 2005, 38, 1-43.
• Williamson M. Evangelicalism at Boston, Oxford, and Windsor under Henry VIII: John Foxe's narratives recontextualized'. In: Loades, D, ed. John Foxe at Home and Abroad. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004, pp.31-45.
• Skeaping L, Harper J, Gwynne D, Williamson M, The Cardinall's Musick, Carwood A. Music Restor'd. BBC Radio 3, 2001.
• Williamson M. The role of religious guilds in the cultivation of ritual polyphony in England: the case of Louth, 1450-1550. In: Kisby, F, ed. Music and Musicians in Renaissance Cities and Towns. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001, pp.82-93.
• Williamson M. Pictura et scriptura - The 'Eton Choirbook' in its iconographical context. Early Music 2000, 28(3), 359-380.
• Williamson M. 'Royal Image-making and Textual Interplay in Gilbert Banaster's O Maria et Elizabeth'. Early Music History 2000, 19, 237-278.
• Magnus Williamson. 'The Early Tudor Court, the Provinces and the Eton Choirbook'. Early Music 1997, 25(2), 229-43.
• Magnus Williamson. The Eton Choirbook: music-making within the collegiate context. In: Benjamin Thompson, ed. The Reign of Henry VII: proceedings of the 1993 Harlaxton Symposium. Stamford: Paul Watkins, 1995, pp.213-28.