Kirsten Gibson | Newcastle University (original) (raw)

Edited books by Kirsten Gibson

Music in North-East England provides a wide-ranging exploration of musical life in the North-East... more Music in North-East England provides a wide-ranging exploration of musical life in the North-East of England during the early modern period. It contributes to a growing number of studies concerned with developing a nationwide account of British musical culture. By defining the North-East in its widest sense, the collection illuminates localised differences, distinct musical cultures in urban centres and rural locations, as well as region-wide networks, and situates regional musical life in broader national and international contexts. Music in North-East England affords new insights into aspects of musical life that have been the focus of previous studies of British musical life - such as public concerts - but also draws attention to aspects that have attracted less scholarly attention in histories of early modern British musical culture: the musical activities and tastes of non-elite consumers; interactions between art music and cheap print and popular song; music education beyond London and its satellite environs; the recovery of northern urban soundscapes; and the careers of professional musicians who have not previously been the focus of major published musicological studies.

Cultural Histories of Noise, Sound and Listening in Europe, 1300–1918

How have men used art music? How have they listened to and brandished the musical forms of the We... more How have men used art music? How have they listened to and brandished the musical forms of the Western classical tradition and how has music intervened in their identity formations? This collection of essays addresses these questions by examining some of the ways in which men, music and masculinity have been implicated with each other since the Middle Ages. Feminist musicologies have already dealt extensively with music and gender, from the 'phallocentric' tendencies of the Western tradition, to the explicit marginalization of women from that tradition. This book builds on that work by turning feminist critical approaches towards the production, rhetorical engagement and subversion of masculinities in twelve different musical case studies. In other disciplines within the arts and humanities, 'men's studies' is a well-established field. Musicology has only recently begun to address critically music's engagement with masculinity and as a result has sometimes thereby failed to recognize its own discursive misogyny. This book does not seek to cover the field comprehensively but, rather, to explore in detail some of the ways in which musical practices do the cultural work of masculinity. The book is structured into three thematic sections: effeminate and virile musics and masculinities; national masculinities, national musics; and identities, voices, discourses. Within these themes, the book ranges across a number of specific topics: late medieval masculinities; early modern discourses of music, masculinity and medicine; Renaissance Italian masculinities; eighteenth-, nineteenth- and early twentieth-century ideas of creativity, gender and canonicity; masculinity, imperialist and nationalist ideologies in the nineteenth century, and constructions of the masculine voice in late nineteenth- and twentieth-century opera and song. While the case studies are methodologically disparate and located in different historical and geographical locations, they all share a common concern for a critical revaluation of the role of masculinity (in all its varied representations) in art music practices.

Articles and chapters by Kirsten Gibson

Music in North-East England, 1500-1800, 2020

The Library, 2017

London was the unrivalled centre of the English print trade in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century... more London was the unrivalled centre of the English print trade in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England, with sporadic pieces of evidence revealing an extensive book trade in regional urban centres. Previous documentation of the specialist market of printed music circulating beyond the capital has tended to be focused on contexts closely connected with London. In 1657, William London, a bookseller on the Tyne Bridge in Newcastle upon Tyne, published A Catalogue of The Most Vendible Books in England, comprising over 3,000 titles that London was able to provide for customers across Northumberland, Durham, Westmorland and Cumberland. The catalogue includes a selection of contemporary printed music books along with a detailed introduction written by London that was commemorated as late as 1808 as ‘an excellent treatise [that] has never since accompanied any bookseller’s catalogue’. London places a high value on music and music-making, and the catalogue includes, among other music items, recently published music books by John Playford. This article evaluates London’s Catalogue as new evidence for the sale of printed music outside the capital in the seventeenth century, and sets it in the wider context of patterns of musical circulation during this period.

Early Music History, 2007

Dowland's printed books are significant, though to an extent perhaps exceptional, as exemplar of ... more Dowland's printed books are significant, though to an extent perhaps exceptional, as exemplar of the forms authorial self-fashioning could take in early English printed music books, an issue that has received relatively little attention in early English music studies in comparison to the abundance of articles and books devoted to the topic in English literature studies focused on the same period. While the amount of music disseminated in print in early modern England was small when compared to that circulated in manuscript and, perhaps, in relation to the number of early modern literary texts that found their way into print, Dowland was a significant, and somewhat unusual, figure in early English music print culture since he actively chose to disseminate a relatively large quantity of his work in print. Unlike other significant contributors to early English musical print culture - William Byrd, Thomas Tallis, and Thomas Morley, for instance - Dowland never held, nor was involved in, the royal monopoly for music printing, and his role in London music print culture has to date been overlooked by scholars interested in late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century music publishing. This article explores the ways in which a non-monopoly-holding composer such as Dowland could use print dissemination to fashion and promote a distinct authorial persona and to aggrandise his status as a composer.

Journal of the Royal Musical Association, 2007

Figurations of woods as sites of solitude, political exile and authenticity are drawn upon in a n... more Figurations of woods as sites of solitude, political exile and authenticity are drawn upon in a number of John Dowland’s songs. ‘Can she excuse’ references the ballad tune ‘Woods so wilde’, while ‘O Sweet woods’ makes reference to Wanstead woods, associated both with Philip Sidney and Robert Devereux during their lifetimes. This article examines how courtly experiences of political withdrawal and exile are articulated through musical and literary references to woods in these songs.

Renaissance Studies, 2012

In 1597 John Dowland made his self-authorised print debut with The First Booke of Songes or Ayres... more In 1597 John Dowland made his self-authorised print debut with The First Booke of Songes or Ayres. Many of the songs in the collection were, as Dowland indicates, ‘ripe inough by their age’, having ‘already grac’t’ the two universities. The songs, and their poetic texts independent of musical setting, had had various pre-print histories and would have invited specific contextually-situated interpretations. Gathered together, set and ordered by Dowland in his printed collection the songs might attract alternative, though perhaps complimentary, readings informed by their new configuration and materiality. This article seeks to explore the ways in which the inclusion and positioning of these songs in a printed book might have impinged on the ways in which they were read and understood by contemporaneous readers, singers and listeners. The songs will be considered, firstly, through their framing by the prefatory pages of the book, and the various agendas these pages express – not least, that of the named author – and, secondly, from the perspective of their ordering and the overarching narrative it implies, the musical and textual interrelationships they evoke and their musical, poetic and political references to the world outside the pages of the book that might have also have informed interpretations of the songs as part of a printed collection.

Masculinity and Western Musical Practice, 2009

In the past decade early modern masculinity has received critical attention from a range of schol... more In the past decade early modern masculinity has received critical attention from a range of scholars whose work has focused on constructions of masculinity in both public and private spheres and has covered a range of topics including the body, medical discourse, fashion, courtship, marriage, education, literature and the theatre. These explorations of sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century masculinity have shown that, contrary to some second wave feminist writings, constructions of masculinity were wracked with insecurities, anxieties and contradictions. Within the late renaissance patriarchal paradigm masculinity was defined in opposition to ‘effeminacy’, a state that in childhood boys had to overcome to achieve the status of adult manhood but to which men were considered in danger of reverting without the careful application of moderation and reason. Melancholy and music were both perceived as having effeminizing agency in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England, and the discourses attached to them became sites at which anxieties about achieving and maintaining a normative masculine identity were played out. At those points where the two discourses intersected this anxiety was at once complicated and made most explicit. These points of intersection provide useful materials through which to consider the ways in which music became entangled in discourses of the body, gender hierarchy, effeminacy and masculine anxiety. This paper will explore the ways in which both melancholy and music were figured and understood independently as potential effeminizing agents, the ways in which these two discourses interacted with and reinforced one another, and how together, as discursive practices, they helped to channel, shape and determine constructions of ‘normative’ masculine identities for literate, socially elite men in early modern England

Early Music, 2013

In the address to the reader of The First Booke of Songes or Ayres (1597), John Dowland publicise... more In the address to the reader of The First Booke of Songes or Ayres (1597), John Dowland publicises his hopes that ‘The Courtly iudgement ... will not be seuere against them [the songs], being it selfe a party’. This was an ostensibly tacit acknowledgement of the socio-political context in which at least some of the lyrics had been conceived, and of the social calibre of the otherwise anonymous versifiers. The lyric poetry set by Dowland in his four single-composer songbooks appeared, following convention, without attribution. While the vast majority of lyrics Dowland set remain, as they originally appeared in print, anonymous, work by both musicologists and literary scholars since at least the final third of the twentieth century has begun to illuminate the contexts in which a number of these lyrics were generated and, in some cases, to identify the authors. Most of the verses with secure attributions are by amateur versifiers, men identified by Steven W. May as ‘Elizabethan courtier poets’: Robert Devereux, second earl of Essex, Sir Edward Dyer, Sir Fulke Greville, Sir Henry Lee and Sir Philip Sidney. Drawing together work by musicologists, literary scholars and historians over the last 45 years, this article focuses on lyrics set by Dowland for which the ‘Courtly iudgement’ was ‘it selfe a party’. Building on critical editions by Stephen W. May and Edward Doughtie in particular, this study surveys those lyrics set by Dowland that can be firmly attributed to courtier poets, and will especially examine the place of Essex, and the circle of poets associated with his politico-cultural predecessor, Philip Sidney, in Dowland’s song output. The themes and functions of these lyrics will be explored, alongside the social, political, literary and musical milieu that connects them as they are brought together in Dowland’s printed songbooks.

Concepts of Creativity in Seventeenth-Century England, 2013

Literary criticism has highlighted the ‘appropriation’ of print technology by early modern writer... more Literary criticism has highlighted the ‘appropriation’ of print technology by early modern writers such as Edmund Spenser and Ben Jonson in acts of ‘textual self-monumentalization’ (Montrose, 1996). The publication of Jonson’s Workes (1616) has especially elicited much attention as, in Joseph Loewenstein’s words, ‘a major event in the history of what one might call the bibliographic ego’. The figure of the author was not, of course, entirely new with the dawning of the Renaissance, or with the establishment of print culture, and a longer cultural trajectory of various manifestations of what we might understand as ‘authorial self-awareness’ can be found in a number of earlier textual traditions. Yet, the particular circumstances engendered by early modern print culture - the relatively large public audience for which it was becoming available, and the social ‘stigma’ of appearing in print - all contributed to historically and materially specific articulations of a sense of ‘authorship’.
Although in early seventeenth-century England composers such as John Dowland, William Byrd and Thomas Morley also clearly employed print as a means of authorising their works, and as aggrandising their socio-cultural status as musicians, the focus on interpreting figurations of early seventeenth-century English authorship within the printed book has remained predominantly literary. This paper considers how such concepts as ‘musician’, ‘composer’ and ‘author’ were mediated by musicians and printers in the prefatory materials of their printed music books, and how, in the words of Thomas Campion, ‘capturing the ephemeral sounds in type’ might have impinged on the seventeenth-century imagination of musical creativity.

Gender, Age and Musical Creativity, 2015

Age, alongside gender, however, played a role in determining received norms about appropriate musical practice, especially for the social elite; as Castiglione’s Book of the Courtier reminds us, there was an appropriate ‘time and season’ – that is life stage – when particular ‘sortes of musike are to be practised’. Drawing upon a range of literature – autobiographical writing, conduct books, medical treatises, music publications – this chapter explores the ways in which age intersected with gender and status in debates about masculine identity and idealised modes of musical practice and consumption for socially elite men. Focusing, in particular, on gentrified amateurs and professional musicians, this study will also examine the differences in what was deemed appropriate for particular socially-determined groups of men, and will go on to consider the relationship between the idealised practices represented in literature and the realities of everyday musical practice.

Is there a twentieth-century masculinity? The question no doubt seems strange when posed 'raw' in... more Is there a twentieth-century masculinity? The question no doubt seems strange when posed 'raw' in this manner, but it is a question that this book clearly wants to ask. Whenever gender and history are brought into a critical relation such as here, we are always, implicitly, forced to ask a question of this nature. Is it subject to epochs, places, tendencies, trends? Can it be thought in the same way as, for example, 'harder' cultural productions like art, film, literature and, in particular, music? And, how, we must therefore ask, might gender and this broader culture in which it operates interact? How, for instance, might such cultural productions and practices shape, reflect or reify contemporaneous understandings and constructions of gender?

Reviews by Kirsten Gibson

Papers by Kirsten Gibson

Music and Letters, Nov 27, 2023

Literary criticism has highlighted the ‘appropriation’ of print technology by early modern writer... more Literary criticism has highlighted the ‘appropriation’ of print technology by early modern writers such as Edmund Spenser and Ben Jonson in acts of ‘textual self-monumentalization’ (Montrose, 1996). The publication of Jonson’s Workes (1616) has especially elicited much attention as, in Joseph Loewenstein’s words, ‘a major event in the history of what one might call the bibliographic ego’. The figure of the author was not, of course, entirely new with the dawning of the Renaissance, or with the establishment of print culture, and a longer cultural trajectory of various manifestations of what we might understand as ‘authorial self-awareness’ can be found in a number of earlier textual traditions. Yet, the particular circumstances engendered by early modern print culture - the relatively large public audience for which it was becoming available, and the social ‘stigma’ of appearing in print - all contributed to historically and materially specific articulations of a sense of ‘authorship’. Although in early seventeenth-century England composers such as John Dowland, William Byrd and Thomas Morley also clearly employed print as a means of authorising their works, and as aggrandising their socio-cultural status as musicians, the focus on interpreting figurations of early seventeenth-century English authorship within the printed book has remained predominantly literary. This paper considers how such concepts as ‘musician’, ‘composer’ and ‘author’ were mediated by musicians and printers in the prefatory materials of their printed music books, and how, in the words of Thomas Campion, ‘capturing the ephemeral sounds in type’ might have impinged on the seventeenth-century imagination of musical creativity.

Cultural Histories of Noise, Sound and Listening in Europe, 1300–1918

Music in North-East England, 1500-1800, 2020

The Library, 2017

Early Music History, 2007

Journal of the Royal Musical Association, 2007

Renaissance Studies, 2012

Masculinity and Western Musical Practice, 2009

Early Music, 2013

Concepts of Creativity in Seventeenth-Century England, 2013

Gender, Age and Musical Creativity, 2015

Music and Letters, Nov 27, 2023

Literary criticism has highlighted the ‘appropriation’ of print technology by early modern writer... more Literary criticism has highlighted the ‘appropriation’ of print technology by early modern writers such as Edmund Spenser and Ben Jonson in acts of ‘textual self-monumentalization’ (Montrose, 1996). The publication of Jonson’s Workes (1616) has especially elicited much attention as, in Joseph Loewenstein’s words, ‘a major event in the history of what one might call the bibliographic ego’. The figure of the author was not, of course, entirely new with the dawning of the Renaissance, or with the establishment of print culture, and a longer cultural trajectory of various manifestations of what we might understand as ‘authorial self-awareness’ can be found in a number of earlier textual traditions. Yet, the particular circumstances engendered by early modern print culture - the relatively large public audience for which it was becoming available, and the social ‘stigma’ of appearing in print - all contributed to historically and materially specific articulations of a sense of ‘authorship’. Although in early seventeenth-century England composers such as John Dowland, William Byrd and Thomas Morley also clearly employed print as a means of authorising their works, and as aggrandising their socio-cultural status as musicians, the focus on interpreting figurations of early seventeenth-century English authorship within the printed book has remained predominantly literary. This paper considers how such concepts as ‘musician’, ‘composer’ and ‘author’ were mediated by musicians and printers in the prefatory materials of their printed music books, and how, in the words of Thomas Campion, ‘capturing the ephemeral sounds in type’ might have impinged on the seventeenth-century imagination of musical creativity.

Over the last two decades various aspects of early modern masculine identity – focused on the mal... more Over the last two decades various aspects of early modern masculine identity – focused on the male body, medical discourse, sexuality, fashion, courtship, marriage, education and literary representation – have come under scrutiny. Much of this scholarship has been rooted in literary and historical studies, but a handful of musicological studies too have turned their critical gaze on early modern men and the ways in which music – as a creative and auditory practice and as a cultural idea – was used to mediate, shape or define their masculine identities. Age, another significant identity marker, has attracted far less attention in such explorations. Age, alongside gender, however, played a role in determining received norms about appropriate musical practice, especially for the social elite; as Castiglione’s Book of the Courtier reminds us, there was an appropriate ‘time and season’ – that is life stage – when particular ‘sortes of musike are to be practised’. Drawing upon a range of literature – autobiographical writing, conduct books, medical treatises, music publications – this chapter explores the ways in which age intersected with gender and status in debates about masculine identity and idealised modes of musical practice and consumption for socially elite men. Focusing, in particular, on gentrified amateurs and professional musicians, this study will also examine the differences in what was deemed appropriate for particular socially-determined groups of men, and will go on to consider the relationship between the idealised practices represented in literature and the realities of everyday musical practice.