Bob Gilmore

Bob is a musicologist and performer and currently Head of Music in Brunel’s School of Arts. His primary interests are in the music of our own time. Bob studied at York University, Queens University Belfast (PhD 1992) and, on a Fulbright Scholarship, at the University of California, San Diego. He twice received New York’s ASCAP-Deems Taylor award, for his books on American experimental musicians Harry Partch and Ben Johnston. Bob's articles on contemporary music have appeared in Perspectives of New Music, Contemporary Music Review, The Musical Quarterly, Music Analysis, Tempo, Circuit, The Journal of Music and, in German translation, in MusikTexte. He has also written a large number of liner notes for CDs of new music for a variety of labels in the UK, Ireland, continental Europe and north America. As a keyboard player he is active with the Amsterdam-based ensemble Trio Scordatura, which he founded in 2006 to explore music using microtonal tuning systems.

Research Overview

Bob' s publications centre around recent contemporary music in western and central Europe and north America. His work falls into the categories of composer biography, music theory and analysis, and the critical historiography of music. Bob' s areas of specialism include American experimental music; microtonal and spectral music; and the new music scene in Ireland. He has published many articles on the theory and analysis of music based on alternative tuning systems, some of it following from the legacy of the American composer and instrument builder Harry Partch, about whom he published the first full-scale biography (Yale University Press, 1998).

Bob has also written widely on spectral music, particularly on the work of James Tenney, Horatiu Radulescu and Claude Vivier and is currently completing a book on Vivier. He is interested generally in composer biography and in a “history of ideas” approach to the writing of contemporary music history. Bob is also deeply involved in the new music scene in his native country, Ireland, and has published many articles and CD booklet texts on the work of the younger generation of composers there. His recent research has been supported by grants from the British Academy and the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

Bob is also active in exploring experimental tuning systems in a practical sense through his work with the Amsterdam-based Trio Scordatura. Bob has released recordings of new music from Ireland (dubh, 2010), and portrait discs of the music of Phill Niblock

Teaching Activity

Bob teaches at undergraduate, Masters and PhD level. As Brunel’s only self-confessed musicologist he leads the teaching of contemporary music history at undergraduate level, as well as other topics such as music and perception and music journalism. He enjoys introducing students to new areas of today’s music that they may not have previously encountered, both through his lectures and seminars and through practical music-making in concerts both on and off campus. At Masters level Bob teaches modules on contemporary musicology and critical theory. He has supervised a number of PhD completions, both in musicology and, increasingly, in areas of composition and performance relevant to his research interests.

Publications

Journal Papers

(Forthcoming) Gilmore, B., Spectral techniques in Horatiu Radulescu’s Second Piano Sonata “being and non-being create each other” op.82, Tempo Forthcoming

(2010) Gilmore, B., SPECTRAL TECHNIQUES IN HORATIU RADULESCU'S SECOND PIANO SONATA, TEMPO 252 66- 78

(2009) Gilmore, B., Claude Vivier and Karlheinz Stockhausen: moments from a double portrait, Circuit 19 (2) : 35- 49

(2009) Gilmore, B., He’s just not that into you, The Journal of Music 1 (2) : 20- 21

(2009) Gilmore, B., Music by Committee, The Journal of Music 1 (1)

(2009) Gilmore, B., Remembering Horatiu, The Journal of Music 1 (2) : 20- 21

(2008) Gilmore, B., All Collisions End in Static: the music of Linda Buckley, The Journal of Music in Ireland 8 (5) : 28- 32

(2008) Gilmore, B., James Tenney and the poetics of homage, Contemporary Music Review 27 (1) : 7- 21

(2008) Gilmore, B., Resonant Air: the music of Michael Alcorn, The Journal of Music in Ireland 8 (1) : 28- 32

(2007) Gilmore, B., An interview with Phill Niblock, Paris Transatlantic Magazine

(2007) Gilmore, B., don’t do PERMISSION ISN’T: the music of Jennifer Walshe, The Journal of Music in Ireland 7 (4) : 20- 24

(2007) Gilmore, B., On Claude Vivier’s Lonely Child, Tempo (61) : 2- 17

(2007) Gilmore, B., On Claude Vivier's 'Lonely child', Tempo 61 (239) : 2- 17

(2006) Gilmore, B., Minimalism Schminimalism, The Journal of Music in Ireland 6 (1) : 6- 9

(2006) Gilmore, B., Missing Persons: the voices of Ailís Ní Ríain, The Journal of Music in Ireland 6 (3) : 20- 24

(2006) Gilmore, B., Wild Air: the music of Kevin Volans, The Journal of Music in Ireland 6 (6) : 22- 29

(2005) Gilmore, B., Composition as vandalism: The music of Donnacha Dennehy, The Journal of Music in Ireland 5 (6) : 29- 33

(2005) Gilmore, B., Donnacha Dennehy: composition as vandalism, The Journal of Music in Ireland 5 (3) : 26- 29

(2005) Gilmore, B., Donnacha Dennehy: composition as vandalism, The Journal of Music in Ireland 5 (6) : 29- 33

(2003) Gilmore, B., The climate since Harry Partch, Contemporary Music Review 22 (1 and 2) : 15- 33

Books

(2009) Gilmore, B. and Rozalie, H., Contemporary Compositional Techniques And Openmusic. Editions Delatour France/Ircam-Centre Pompidou

(2006) Gilmore, B., Maximum clarity and other writings on music. Urbana: University of Illinois Press

(1998) Gilmore, B., Harry Partch: a biography. New Haven and London: Yale University Press