RESEARCH
My doctoral thesis examines the relationship between music and nature, both materially and philosophically. Music has been connected to nature from ancient times. Yet contemporary composition faces two significant challenges. Firstly, composers have had a complex relationship with a traditional aesthetics of representation and expression since the early twentieth century. While movements like Futurism revelled in the urban and technological rather than the natural, composers like Messiaen developed new frameworks for the use of natural sounds. Secondly, in the era of climate crisis, many composers are concerned with the role their compositions may play, from articulating voices in nature to protesting human destruction. My research considers these challenges via an analysis of concert music compositions by Kaija Saariaho, Liza Lim, and myself, preceded by an analysis of the aesthetics of music and nature today.
CONFERRENCE PRESENTATIONS
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2020
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Jones, CJ. "Hearing is Believing" Transcriptions and the Compositional Process. RMA/BFE Research Students' Conference, The Open University, 9-11 January 2020.
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TEACHING
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2023-24
2022-23
2021-22
2019-20
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Merton College
Opportunity Oxford Oxford Opera Merton College
St Peter's College; St John's College
Oriel College; Trinity College
Oxford High School GDST |
Composition
Composition Education Project Composition
Women in Music in the Nineteenth Century
Programme Music in the Nineteenth Century
Extended Project Qualification (Feedback) |
TALKS
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2022-23
2021-22
2020-21
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Balliol College
Cardiff University
Purcell School for Young Musicians
St Catherine's College Oxford Music Faculty Graduate Seminar |
"Our Noisy Planet" - Winner of Three Minute Thesis Competition
"Music, Nature and Translation"
"Sounds, Space and Music"
"'the singing tree': Transcriptions from Nature and the Compositional Process" "Hearing is Believing: Transcriptions and the Compositional Process" |
