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Staff Profile

Professor Paul Fleet

Dean of Infrastructure for HaSS & Professor of Authentic Music Theory

Background

Who am I?

My Chair recognises the work I have contributed and continue to contribute to the discovery and impact in Authentic Music Education as a global educator, author, and speaker. Authentic Music Theory supports a discipline which places education into vocational and practical contexts, while protecting those contexts’ critical and theoretical dimensions. I am an experienced leader across Higher Education with professional recognition as an Advance HE National Teaching Fellow (2021) and a Senior Fellow of the HEA. I am also a Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) Reviewer, an Advance HE qualified trainer for their professional development course for External Examiners, and a mentor/coach for colleagues in their professional educational development across the various disciplines. I am also husband to Nathalie, and father to two amazing kids (Belle and Evan).

 

What are my beliefs and values for Higher Education?

As a student-focused educator I believe in a whole University approach to leadership, pastoral care, and management so that students and colleagues feel safe, supported, and included in a research-active learning environment that ultimately benefits undergraduates, post-graduates, PhD candidates, colleagues, employers, and the wider community.

 

What is my current role?

My role as Dean of Infrastructure for Humanities and Social Sciences is to devise the Faculty’s strategic priorities for the digital and physical infrastructure of Education for All, Research for Discovery and Impact, Engagement and Place, and Global strategies. I chair the Faculty Infrastructure Strategy Group and the Faculty Health and Safety Committee. I have also been appointed the Chair of the Estates Portfolio Board for the University and authored the Strategic Framework for the Estate 2023-2030. I am working with home and international students, colleagues, external partners, PVCs, Deans, and Heads of Academic Units to enable a Campus for the Future; consider issues such as inclusive hybrid learning, research, and encounters; promote sustainability across all of our projects; and identify opportunities for synergies and efficiencies across the Estate for the benefit of all stakeholders.

 

 

Recent Roles and Responsibilities

Associate Dean of Strategic Project, HaSS (2021 - 2023)

  • Devise and lead the Faculty's estates and space priorities;
  • Prepare the HaSS Estate for a fourth-industrial revolution of hybridised higher-education which recognises the need of increased climate action;
  • Lead Strategic Projects across the faculty, and provide leadership, advice and guidance to Heads of Units and Wider Teams across the Faculty.

 

Academic Head of Newcastle University London (2020-2021)

  • Provided leadership and stability during the closing years of the branch-campus for the staff whilst maintaining academic excellence for the students.

 

Acting Deputy Director of NCL-UNI Business School (2019-2020)

  • Provided guidance and direction on educational quality assurance to staff during restructuring of UG, PG and accredited programmes.

 

Deputy Head of NCL-UNI School of Arts and Cultures (2017-2019)

  • Created and supported digital/remote working environments, and led on wellbeing initiatives for staff and students.

 

Dean of Academic Affairs (Newcastle University London, 2016–2017)

  • Established and led on quality assurance pathways, and built research and education links between campuses.

 

Research Profile

 

Prior Roles and Responsibilities:

  • Director of Excellence in Learning and Teaching for the School of Arts and Cultures
  • Chair of the Newcastle University London Academic Procedures and Policy Committee
  • External Examiner for Edinburgh Napier University BA (hons) Popular Music programme
  • Advisor to the Cross-Faculty Board of Studies for Global Partnerships
  • Academic Lead for ReCap (Lecture Capture)
  • Chair of the Single Recognition Panel (HEA UKPSF Framework)
  • Chair of Board of Examiners for Music
  • Senior Tutor for Music
  • Chair of PEC for the School of Arts and Cultures
  • Senior Tutor for Music
  • Chair of Board of Examiners for the FdA in Music Production and the FdA in Popular Music for Newcastle College

 

External Activities:

  • Keynote at the Ferruccio Busoni 100 Conference hosted at Conservatory of Music "Cesare Pollini" Padua, Italy (22nd October 2024)
  • Keynote at the Busoni Centenary Symposium hosted at City Univeristy, London (16th July 2024)
  • Develop the Developer Training for External Examining (HEA) following a successful PDC course to become a recognised External Examiner (HEA, 2021) I am now working with three colleagues and have trained ~280 External Examiners.
  • Lecture on 'I've heard there was a secret chord' given to final-year degree students at Edinburgh College (13th January 2021)
  • Speaker at the 'Technician Partnership Conference 2020' regarding Fellowship of the HEA (24th June 2020)
  • External Examiner for Canterbury Christ Church University MMus Programme (2019 - to present)
  • Lecture on 'Rethinking the Guidonian Hand' given to final year degree students at Edinburgh College (21st October 2019)
  • Panel Member at the APME Conference (New York) on 'Discussing Diversity in Musical Literacy' (13th June 2019)
  • External Advisor (Subject Specialist) for Canterbury Christ Church University (2019)
  • Delegate at the Royal Academy of Music Aural Skills Pedagogy Symposium (2017)
  • Academic Representative at Dame Allan's Bridging the Gap between Curriculum and Careers (2017)
  • Academic Representative at the CPA Australia Future Leaders' Luncheon (2016)
  • Speaker at the RSA Regional Showcase Conference (2015)
  • Academic Advisor to the NCFE (from 2015)
  • Delegate at IASPM/APME/NAMHE Research in Popular Music Education Symposium (2015)
  • External Examiner for Edinburgh Napier University BA (hons) Popular Music programme (from 2014 - 2018)
  • Delegate at Westminster Higher Education Forum on Innovative Approaches to curriculum design and delivery in Higher Education (27th November 2014)
  • Validation Panel Member for QAA Access to HE Diploma (Music) for Gateshead College and Middlesborough College (13th May 2014)
  • Delegate at Popular Music and Pedagogy Conference sponsored by the Higher Education Academy and IASPM (24th January 2014)
  • Lecture on Ferruccio Busoni and Time-Consciousness given to Master's Students at Université Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée (25th March 2013)
  • Chair of Board of Examiners for the Foundation Degrees in Music Production and Popular Music at Newcastle College (2011 - 2017).
  • External Academic Representative for the revalidation of Foundation Degree in Popular Music Performance and Production at City College Norwich (2011).
  • External Academic Representative for the validation of the BA in Creative Practice at City College Norwich (2011).

 

Memberships:

  • Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
  • Association for Popular Music Education
  • Society for Music Analysis
  • Performing Right Society for Music

 

 

Research

I welcome PhD Applications in the areas of:

  • Authentic Music Theory.
  • Music Analysis
  • Metatonality: Music that is both with and after tonality.
  • The music and aesthetics of Ferruccio Busoni.
  • Phenomenology and Time-Consciousness.
  • Embodied Learning.
  • Popular Music Education.
  • Learning and Teaching.

 

Scholarship Projects


Recognising the Centenary of Ferruccio Busoni

Following a string of keynotes and papers given at conferences in London and Italy during 2024 (the centenary of Busoni's death) I have created a JISCmail for the scholars who presented and attended these conferences: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/wa-jisc.exe?A0=FERRUCCIOBUSONI&t=&X=738459591CFC3D05F6&Y Bringing these scholars into a community we have begun discussions on potential publications and disseminations of critical thinking about Busoni's life, work, music, and aesthetics. This also includes an invitation from the General Editor of Nineteenth-Century Music Review with an invitation to consider guest editing a themed issue of the journal which is in process.


Music Theory Video Shorts

Content Creator with Julia Partington (Newcastle University, UK)

We are in the early stages of this project which will use content mapped against the UK Music Curriculum to support pupils and teachers with a series of video shorts freely available through a social media channel. It will incorporate training and materials for less musically confident classroom teacher to learn ahead of their pupils. This project will seek external funding.


Understanding Musical Timbre: A Pedagogical Approach (submission to Routledge 2026)

Editor with Kent Cleland (Baldwin Wallace, USA), Liz Pipe (University of West London, UK), and Fred Hollingsworth (Newcastle University, UK).

Timbre is often regarded as one of the most subjective and elusive aspects of music. This collaborative work offers new ways of exploring and considering musical timbre. The authors aim to offer a comprehensive framework for its comprehension and application in both educational and professional contexts. The book is divided into two main sections, with the first laying the theoretical groundwork. It begins by dissecting the physical and psychological dimensions of timbre, providing readers with a clear understanding of the acoustic properties that shape this complex concept. After defining the physical properties of Timbre, the authors explore the issues which arise when using language to define and communicate Timbre. These are addressed with three new frameworks for considering timbral analysis. These frameworks aim to redefine and enhance the way timbre is taught and discussed. The second section of the book explores the practical implications of timbre. From pedagogical approaches to performance and studio engineering, it provides invaluable insights into how timbre can be effectively conveyed and manipulated in real-world musical scenarios. The book also underscores the potential of timbre as a vehicle for creating musical narratives, paving the way for composers and arrangers to use it as a powerful tool in their creative endeavours.


'Creating a formative-feedback trialogue for the undergraduate by embedding an e-learning theory package into their music education.', in Formative Assessment and Feedback in Post-Digital Environments: Disciplinary Case Studies in Higher Education (in press, 2025)

This music higher education case study proposes a post-digital formative feedback trialogue that recognises the value of embedding e-learning into the learning journey and making the digital voice an equal voice between the student and educator. The activity and responsibility of the learning gain is set within the recognised pedagogical framework of TPACK and encourages human judgements within digital platforms, increases engagement and motivation in a safe space without any unhelpful comparison to a peer group, and provides real-time information and guidance right from the beginning of the programme to best prepare for summative assessments and the student’s move into professional skills based employment. The author draws upon his scholarship, pedagogical principles, and prior experience and uses the guidance of authentic education to show how he has designed a course that enables undergraduates to remember, understand, apply, analyse, evaluate, and ultimately create materials from theoretical principles. The case study concludes with reflective questions concerning the transparency of connections between technology, pedagogy, content, and knowledge in e-learning design; equality and ownership of a digital voice during human interactions; whether such a model could offer reassurance to UK OfS Regulatory conditions; and humanising judgements from digital assessments.

 

'Parental Adivsory: Making Explicit the Content and Applicability of a Music Degree', in The Routledge Companion to Applied Musicology (2023)

A recent discussion (‘Is a music degree useless?’) on The Student Room, one of the UK’s largest student chat rooms, makes for bleak reading for musicologists and music educators alike. Responses to the thread starter, who believed they had just ‘wasted three years of [their] life’, included words of support but none of the 41 replies countered with the fact that a third of music graduates become music educators while most of the remainder enter other graduate-level employment (Comunian/Faggian/Jewell, 2014). How is it, then, that the tangibility of musicological skills is not more widely recognised and valued? As Music continues to be squeezed at pre-tertiary levels, why are messages about the benefits of a Music degree ‘still frustratingly unsuccessful in reaching politicians and other educational decision-makers’ (Pitts, 2017). This chapter investigates ways in which the applicability of musicology can be made more explicit within and beyond Higher Education Provider settings, so that those undertaking the academic journey can ably demonstrate such skills not only to those invested in the process but importantly to the array of potential employers for the benefit of both parties. Drawing upon examples of best, research-driven practice (such as assessment tasks that transparently map against professional activities in the work place) the chapter will conclude by considering challenges and opportunities in the teaching of (Applied) Music in Higher Education with particular reference to government and industry reports such as the ‘Review of Post-18 Education and Funding (Augar, 2019) and ‘Measuring Music’ (UK Music, 2018).


Musics with and after tonality: Mining the Gap. Editor and Author. Routledge (2021)

Mining the Gap is a journey through the musics that emerged at the turn of the 20th century and were neither exclusively tonal nor serial. They fall between these labels as they are metatonal, being both with and after tonality, in their reconstruction of external codes and gestures of Common Practice music in new and idiosyncratic ways. The composers and works being considered in this volume are approached from analytic, cultural, creative, and performance angles by musicologists, performers and composers to enable a deeper reading of these musics by readers, scholars, and students alike. For example, an educated reader of musicology may know some of the works of Busoni, Grainger, Nielsen and Skryabin but may not have encountered their works in the manner in which they will be discussed; and they may not know of the pieces by Beach, Carillo, Čiurlionis, Clarke, Foulds, Hába, Howe, Ives, Schulhoff, Sorabji or Stein. In the process of engaging with this book the reader will find an enrichment to their own understanding of music at the turn of the 20th Century.

 

The Routledge Companion to Aural Skills Pedagogy: Before, In, and Beyond Higher Education. Author and Co-Editor with Prof. Kent Cleland (Baldwin Wallace Conservatory, Ohio) Routledge (2021)

The Companion to Aural Training in Music Education speaks to musicians, musicologists, and music educators in recognising the place and value of aural training in academic studies. It is a survey of the current landscape, a voice for the shared concerns by those involved in Further, Higher, and Conservatoire music education on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, and importantly it is a guide to a future of aural training that recognises its place within the study of music. The companion regards aural training as a life-long skill that is prepared for during studies and continued to be practiced into the life of profession musician. It does not see barriers in the different genres of music but recognises the similarities and differences of investigation needed to explore these musics. The authors offer perspectives from emic and etic positions and go on to propose models and methods that can be integrated into the artistic training of professional musicians through their formal aural skills courses.


Key Stage 1 & 2 Teaching Pack: North East Women in Science through Artistic Encounters

This pack is FREE to all School Teachers and can be requested by email.


Following the success of the British Academy Funded Project: #forgetting2remember, Prof. Kaner (FMS), Dr Blake (SAgE), Katie Chappell (Freelance Illustrator), Helen Allis (PhD Candidate in Education, Communication and Language Sciences at NCL), and myself are creating a Key Stage 1 and 2 teaching pack that brings the national curriculum themes of Animals including humans, Everyday materials, Seasonal changes, Living things and their habitats, and Plants together with scientists and artists who have a North Eastern connection to create a synthesis of art and science in the past and present, and ultimately offer primary school teachers a ready-to-use pack of materials that opens young minds to an idea that science is an option open to anyone, has a home across a range of subjects, and can be expressed and discovered through the arts.

 

'Mind your Language: Talking to Independent Professionals', author and editor or a journal article following the Creative FUSE North East funded: NEone Creative, Driving Freelancer Fusion.

The authors of this paper - myself, Mark Bailey (Northumbria University), Nate Sterling (Freelance) and Laura McKay (Freelance), Gretel Dixon (Newcastle University) and Claire Adamson (Newcastle University) were contributors to an innovation pilot under the Creative Fuse North East partnership with the North East of England’s five universities (Newcastle, Durham, Northumbria, Sunderland and Teeside) alongside industry, cultural organisation, charities and public sector organisations. The project’s task was to develop an online platform to facilitate collaboration and support between independent professional in the region. As part of the process of this project we uncovered the need for descriptors of behaviour for the independent professional and ultimately this led to the nine behaviour archetypes we propose in this paper. 


 

 

Prior Scholarship Projects

 

British Academy Funded Project: #forgetting2remember

I was the PI on a British Academy funded project that considered the role of women in science through creative responses. Drawing from colleagues across the three faculties of medicine (Prof. Eileen Kaner), science (Dr Lynsay Blake) and humanities (myself) at Newcastle University and in partnership with the Electric Voice Theatre, the public and school focussed event showcased science ‘being done’ in an active environment at the Northern Rock Foundation Hall at the Sage Gateshead, UK on September 2017. A short video of the event can be found at https://youtu.be/zQsZpH0x-iE

 

I've heard there was a secret chord: Do we need to teach music notation in UK Popular Music Studies? in The Routledge Research Companion to Popular Music Education (2017).

 ‘…teachers as enablers of knowledge have a duty of care to their students to ensure that when their student leaves their degree awarding institution nothing is left out of the provision that is tangible and/or part of their potential wider practice. Instead, the student who elects to study their chosen discipline within a UK HEI is empowered, their skills are enriched, and they leave as musicians who are able to engage with the wealth of opportunities available to the 21st Century musician.’ [closing statement]

 

Rethinking the Guidonian Hand for twenty-first century Musicians in the Journal of Popular Music Education (2017).

 ‘The immediate recognition and description of the thirteen enharmonic intervals within an octave is a quest upon which students on popular music degree programmes frequently embark, but which they rarely complete. The problem often lies in a disconnect between the sound heard and the sound recognized when the task is undertaken without recourse to an instrument. During the eleventh century, Guido d’Arezzo used the joints on the hand (phalanges) to help music students recognize and sing intervals from hexachords. This article considers rethinking this tool with regard to recent investigations into corporeal intentionality. The approach is developed across three short incremental exercises that are designed for the twenty-first century musician. It begins by connecting the familiar singing of a major scale whilst pointing to the phalanges of the hand, moving towards inflecting the scale by singing and pointing to non-sequential intervals.’ [abstract]

 

GILES First Exercise: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Xyq6sLkj10 

GILES Second Exercise: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77VBWP9zWKk 

GILES Third Exercise: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMIOO5bE7Cw 

 

Newcastle Institute for Social Renewal Funded Project: Hearing History

The ‘Hearing History’ workshops actively engaged the public to confront the processes of committing sound to a medium to be stored and what it means to capture the sounds of the past to be then reheard in a future present. It was interesting to hear the fascination in the simplicity of the early technologies and then watch them instinctively reach for their mobile phones to record the recordings that had just been made and were playing back on the wax cylinders and the vinyl lathe. The attendees at the workshops were mixed in age, gender and social class and all had an interest in the idea of not only seeing and hearing but also using these technologies. Many of the attendees were taken by seeing the technologies in action, the cutting of the sound onto the surface and then its tracing in playback. Attendees also came to reconsider the ambient sound of these early recordings as something separate from the sound object itself. A short video of the event can be found at https://vimeo.com/125725020

 

Ferruccio Busoni: A Phenomenological Approach to his Music and Aesthetics. Lambert Academic Publishing (2009).

This book explores the various reconstructions of Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924) as a musician and an aesthetician, and then demonstrates how Husserlian Phenomenology can act as a complementary structure to Busoni’s music and aesthetic beliefs. Prior models of phenomenological analysis are discussed, and a fresh methodology is introduced alongside a new form of analysis: Temporal Intentionality Graphs. Further, a new term is created, metatonal, which reflects music like Busoni’s that is both with and after tonality but is not free atonal in the manner of the Second Viennese School nor just a matter of tonal harmony with chromatic colouration. Five analyses are presented that employ this new methodology and which uncover the inner workings of Busoni’s compositions: Nach der Wendung (1907), Fantasia nach J.S. Bach (1909), Berceuse Élégiaque (1909), Sonatina Seconda (1912) and Nocturne Symphonique (1913). The book concludes with a critical appraisal of the method and its application, and an outline for how the analysis can be used by music theorists to explore similarly woven compositions.


Teaching

I welcome PhD Applications in the areas of:

  • Authentic Music Theory.
  • Music Analysis
  • Metatonality: Music that is both with and after tonality.
  • The music and aesthetics of Ferruccio Busoni.
  • Phenomenology and Time-Consciousness.
  • Embodied Learning.
  • Popular Music Education.
  • Learning and Teaching.


Undergraduate Teaching:

  • Music Theory 
  • Music Analysis
  • Specialist Study


Postgraduate Teaching:

  • Music Theory
  • Music Pedagogy and Technology
  • Music Analysis
  • Metatonal Compositions
  • Embodied Learning
  • Popular Music Education
  • Phenomenology and Time Consciousness


Publications