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Staff Profile

Professor David Clarke

Background


I retired from Newcastle University in Sept. 2024, but remain research active as Emeritus Professor. I joined the University in 1991, having previously lectured at Dartington College of Arts and the University of Liverpool. I was appointed to the established Chair of Music at Newcastle in 2006. During my time in the Music Department (which became the International Centre for Music Studies in the early 2000s), I held various leadership roles, including Head of Music, Head of Research, Head of Undergraduate Studies and Head of Postgraduate Studies. Between 2005 and 2010, I was the Director of the CETL (Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning) for Music and Inclusivity - a major partnership between the Universities for the North East and The Sage Gateshead, led by Newcastle University and funded to the value of c. £5M by the Higher Education Funding Council for England.


My research interests include music analysis and theory, Hindustani classical music, music and philosophy, and music and critical and cultural theory. I'm also an acknowledged authority on the music of British composer Michael Tippett. As conductor, violinist, and vocalist in both western and North Indian khayāl traditions, I remain active as a musical practitioner. I'm a graduate of Royal Holloway College (University of London), read for my PhD under Jim Samson at Exeter University, and also studied as an exchange student at the University of Massachusetts and the Free University, Berlin.

Research

 

Across a period of some 40 years as a music researcher, my interests have morphed considerably. My PhD was an in-depth analytical study of the music of British composer, Michael Tippett, on whom I went on to publish three books and numerous articles. My most recent project is a book (in press) on Indian classical music, with accompanying albums by khayāl vocalist Vijay Rajput. In between, I have written work in the fields of cultural and critical musicology, with a particular concern for issues of cultural pluralism – prompted by the major culture shift which our Music Department at Newcastle underwent in the early 2000s, radically expanding and diversifying our curriculum (well ahead of the curve). These writings - which include essays an extended article, 'Elvis and Darmstadt', a critical account of Radio 3's Late Junction, and a book chapter on Eminem - are in effect also a critique of postmodernism. Another longstanding project has been research into music and consciousness, with collaborators Eric Clarke and Ruth Herbert, with whom I have directed two international conferences and edited two books on the topic. See Publications for work arising from this constellation of concerns.


While this may seem an idiosyncratic line-up of interests, I’ve experienced this research trajectory as an ever-widening (and hopefully deepening) preoccupation with a single question, What makes music meaningful? I don’t see any contradiction between investigating music as a phenomenon with its own ontology, and music as culturally and historically situated. To put it in a more speculative way, How might music be a window onto Being – intrinsically, socially, culturally, and even spiritually? Hence, I’m a music theorist in the broadest sense, interested in analytical, philosophical, critical, cultural, psychological, linguistic and semiotic applications to questions of musical meaning.


Postgraduate supervision

I have supervised some 20 doctoral students across a range of areas, including music analysis, music aesthetics and philosophy, music and cultural theory. I've also examined many PhDs, as external or internal examiner, across a range of topics.


Externally


I was awarded a visiting research fellowship at the Centre for Research in the Arts Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH), University of Cambridge in 2012, as part of their programme 'The Future University'. I've served on the editorial boards of the journals Twentieth-Century Music, Radical Musicology; and Music Analysis. I've acted as a reviewer of books and articles for numerous academic presses and journals, and as an external adviser for degree reviews and professorial appointments and promotions at various universities.

Teaching

Having moved from full-time to part-time status in 2019, my principal undergraduate teaching is in the field of Indian classical music, where I lead the second-year and final-year modules Indian Music in Practice 1 & 2, in collaboration with khayal vocalist VIjay Rajput and tabla maestro Shahbaz Hussain. In previous years I also led the teaching of music analysis at undergraduate and Masters levels, as well as contributing to the teaching of historical musicology (18th-21st centuries) and cultural and critical theory. I have also supervised some 20 PhD candidates across a wide range of topics.




Publications