CHOMBEC

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CHOMBEC stands for the Centre for the History of Music in Britain, the Empire and the Commonwealth. It was a part of the music department at the University of Bristol (UK) until the summer of 2017. It was founded in 2006 by Professor Stephen Banfield. CHOMBEC's aims were to encourage and provide a focal point for research into the history of music in the British Empire, in Britain, and within the West Country. [1]

CHOMBEC, in association with the University of Bristol, ran an MA (Master of Arts) degree in British music. The programme offered the opportunity to specialise in music of the British Empire and music in the West Country.

CHOMBEC also ran seminars and conferences on various aspects of British music. These have included 'Vaughan Williams, Hardy and the Ninth Symphony' (spring 2008), 'Rubbra Revived: Sinfonia Sacra and Beyond' (Spring 2008), 'The Sounds of Stonehenge' (autumn 2008), 'Celebrating George Dyson' (spring 2007), and 'Robert Pearsall - Bristol's Forgotten Composer' (autumn 2006). [2] The most recent, 'The Sounds of Stonehenge' explored the multiple soundscapes of the ancient stone's 5,000-year history. The cultural history of the stones, their acoustics, and Neolithic England's musical instruments were presented in a one-day workshop that brought Stonehenge's legend up-to-date with its depiction and importance in film and rock music.

CHOMBEC still hosts a number of academic archives that have been donated to the Centre since it was founded. Archives are held at the university's Special Collections section of the Arts and Social Sciences Library and can include manuscript scores, audio recordings, and personal papers relating to the composers and their lives. In 2008 archives for Edgar Hunt, Sir Michael Tippett, a combined archive for Frank Merrick and Hope Squire, and one for John Raynor were all acquired by the university. These archives join the Stanley Godman archive donated in 2007.

CHOMBEC published a twice-yearly newsletter, CHOMBEC News, with articles on composers, performers, and research projects around the world: archive copies of older editions of CHOMBEC News can be downloaded from their website as PDF files.

Related Research Articles

Stonehenge Neolithic henge monument in Wiltshire, England

Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, two miles (3 km) west of Amesbury. It consists of an outer ring of vertical sarsen standing stones, each around 13 feet (4.0 m) high, seven feet (2.1 m) wide, and weighing around 25 tons, topped by connecting horizontal lintel stones. Inside is a ring of smaller bluestones. Inside these are free-standing trilithons, two bulkier vertical Sarsens joined by one lintel. The whole monument, now ruinous, is orientated towards the sunrise on the summer solstice. The stones are set within earthworks in the middle of the most dense complex of Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments in England, including several hundred tumuli.

Daphne Oram British composer and electronic musician

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Bluestone Cultural or commercial name for a number of dimension or building stone varieties

Bluestone is a cultural or commercial name for a number of dimension or building stone varieties, including:

Bath Spa University Public university in Bath, England

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Robert Lucas de Pearsall English composer, 1795–1856

Robert Lucas Pearsall was an English composer mainly of vocal music, including an elaborate setting of "In dulci jubilo" often heard today. He spent the last 31 years of his life abroad, at first in Germany, then at a castle he bought in Switzerland.

John Wood, the Elder English architect (1704–1754)

John Wood, the Elder was an English architect, working mainly in Bath.

British Empire and Commonwealth Museum

The British Empire and Commonwealth Museum was a museum in Bristol, England exploring the history of the British Empire and the effect of British colonial rule on the rest of the world. The museum opened in 2002 and entered voluntary liquidation in 2013.

This is a list of Stonehenge replicas and derivatives that seeks to collect all the non-ephemeral examples together. The fame of the prehistoric monument of Stonehenge in England has led to many efforts to recreate it, using a variety of different materials, around the world. Some have been carefully built as astronomically aligned models whilst others have been examples of artistic expression or tourist attractions.

Archaeoacoustics is a sub-field of archaeology and acoustics which studies the relationship between people and sound throughout history. It is an interdisciplinary field with methodological contributions from acoustics, archaeology, and computer simulation, and is broadly related to topics within cultural anthropology such as experimental archaeology, ethnomusicology, and music archaeology. Since many cultures explored through archaeology were focused on the oral and therefore the aural, researchers believe that studying the sonic nature of archaeological sites and artifacts may reveal new information on the civilizations scrutinized.

Frank Merrick (1886-1981) was an English pianist and composer in the early 20th century.

Thomas Greatorex was an English composer, astronomer and mathematician. As well as being organist of Westminster Abbey, he was a Fellow of the Royal Society.

Alice Roberts English physician, anatomist, physical anthropologist, television presenter, author

Alice May Roberts is an English biological anthropologist, biologist, television presenter and author. Since 2012 she has been Professor of the Public Engagement in Science at the University of Birmingham. Since 2019, she has been President of the charity Humanists UK, which campaigns for state secularism and for "a tolerant world where rational thinking and kindness prevail".

The Stonehenge Riverside Project was a major Arts and Humanities Research Council-funded archaeological research study of the development of the Stonehenge landscape in Neolithic and Bronze Age Britain. In particular, the project examined the relationship between the Stones and surrounding monuments and features, including the River Avon, Durrington Walls, the Cursus, the Avenue, Woodhenge, burial mounds, and nearby standing stones. The project involved a substantial amount of fieldwork and ran from 2003 to 2009. It found that Stonehenge was built 500 years earlier than previously thought. The monument is believed to have been built to unify the peoples of Britain. It also found a previously unknown stone circle, Bluestonehenge.

Kuljit Bhamra British musician

Kuljit Bhamra MBE Hon DMus is a British composer, record producer and musician whose main instrument is the tabla. He is best known as one of the record producers who pioneered the British Bhangra sound and for his many collaborations with musicians from different genres and continents. His MBE was awarded in the Queen's Birthday Honour's List 2009 with the citation For services to Bhangra and British Asian Music. In July 2010 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Exeter.

Bob Pritchard is a composer and teacher. His creative work includes experimental concert music, interactive music and video pieces, sound installations, direct synthesis, video/film, radiophonic works, and software development. His music is represented by AMP.

Ann Valentine was an English organist and composer, part of a talented family of Leicester musicians.

Edgar Hunt Musical artist

Edgar Hubert Hunt was a British musician and musicologist. He was a key figure in the early music revival in Britain in general, and in the revival of the recorder in particular. He was a founding member of the Society of Recorder Players, of which he was musical director for more than fifty years, and of the Galpin Society, of which he was later president. He was head of the early music department at Trinity College of Music, which was the first conservatory in the world to introduce a diploma in recorder.

Stephen David Banfield is a musicologist, music historian and retired academic. He was Elgar Professor of Music at the University of Birmingham from 1992 to 2003, and then Stanley Hugh Badock Professor of Music at the University of Bristol from 2003 to his retirement at the end of 2012; he has since been an emeritus professor at Bristol.

Peter G. Stone Archaeologist and academic

Peter G. Stone is the current United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) chair in Cultural Property Protection and Peace at Newcastle University. He was the Vice-President of Blue Shield International from 2017 - 2020, and was elected President at the 2020 General Assembly. He is also a founding member and the chair of the UK Committee of that organisation. For his long career and merits in the field of heritage education, in 2011 Stone was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (Civil).

References

  1. "North American British Music Studies Association, Vol.2, No.2 (Autumn 2006)". Archived from the original on 2011-07-27. Retrieved 2009-07-17.
  2. 2006 - The Anniversary of Robert Lucas Pearsall [ permanent dead link ]

Links: CHOMBEC homepage
University of Bristol