Christopher Dromey took his PhD at King's College London and is now Senior Lecturer in Music at Middlesex University. In addition to music theory and analysis, he teaches musicology and copyright law. He has published on Benjamin Britten, Alexander Zemlinsky and Peter Maxwell Davies. A synopsis of his book on The Pierrot Ensembles: Chronicle and Catalogue, 1912-2012 (London: Plumbago, 2013), the first of its kind, is available to read here. He also writes for the London Chamber Music Society. For several years Chris worked for the copyright collection society PRS for Music. An active organist and pianist, he has also taught at the Open University, King's College London, the Royal Opera House and Birkbeck College, University of London.

Besides email (c.dromey@mdx.ac.uk), you can find Chris on Twitter or Facebook, where he oversees a dedicated forum for students of the programme he leads, BA Music Business and Arts Management. He also organises Music's weekly "Concerts and Colloquia", a series of talks and masterclasses featuring musicologists, figures from the music industry, performers and composers.

BMus in Music at Goldsmith's College, London

Specialist studies in music analysis, performance (violin, piano), twentieth-century music, dissertation on tonal structure in Bartók.

MMus in Music Theory and Analysis at King's College, London

Music analysis, historical musicology, dissertation on Second-generation Serialism versus Post-tonality? Ernst Krenek’s Third Piano Sonata, Op. 92, No. 4.

PhD on The Pierrot Ensembles at King's College, London

The ‘Pierrot’ ensemble of mixed single strings, winds and piano has become standard in contemporary music: yet it is a genre that had neither been categorised nor explored historically. This novel line-up, derived from Arnold Schoenberg’s Pierrot lunaire, Op. 21 (1912), inspired a new, British-led repertory that influenced composition as much as concert life. I chronicled this lineage of Pierrot ensembles to offer an alternative reading of twentieth-century music and culture. The thesis included analysis of salient works by Peter Maxwell Davies, Elisabeth Lutyens and Humphrey Searle, and drew on research in the Paul Sacher Stiftung (Basel) and Britten-Pears Archive (Aldeburgh), rediscovering previously unpublished works by Harrison Birtwistle and Benjamin Britten.

GCAP (Academic Practice) at King's College, London

Qualification in the theory and practice of teaching and communication, including extended reflective critique of my teaching at Middlesex, self-designed learning materials and teaching observations by: Dr Peter Fribbins, Director of Programmes for Music, Middlesex University; Dr François Evans, Principal Lecturer in Music, Middlesex University; Dr Stylianos Hatzipanagos, King’s Institute of Learning and Teaching, King’s College London.

 

  • Tonal and post-tonal analysis
  • Contemporary music
  • Concerts history
  • Arts management
  • Intellectual property rights

Research Projects

The Pierrot Ensembles: Chronicle and Catalogue, 1912-2012 (London: Plumbago, 2013).

‘Edwin Burdis’s Sound Art for 18 Happenings in 6 Parts (2010)’, in Re-inventing the Past: Rosemary Butcher encounters Allan Kaprow’s 18 Happenings in 6 Parts, ed. Rosemary Butcher, Ramsay Burt and Steffi Sachsenmaier (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2013 - forthcoming).

'The Pierrot Ensembles, 1912-2012', paper given for “Concerts and Colloquia” series, Middlesex University, 24 January 2013.

‘A Snapshot of the Pierrot Ensemble Today’, Proceedings of the Third International Meeting for Chamber Music, http://paulinyi.com/anexos/textos/MeetingJanuary2013.pdf, revision of a paper given at  a conference of the same name organised by Dr Zoltan Paulinyi at the University of Évora, Portugal, 8-10 January 2013.

‘Prospects for a British “Second Modernity” in the Music of Matthew Taylor and Peter Fribbins’, paper for IMR/SMA-sponsored conference organised by Dr Eva Mantzourani on “New Music in Britain”, Canterbury Christ Church University, 10-12 May 2012.

‘Peter Fribbins: Chamber and Orchestral Works’, sleeve-notes to The Moving Finger Writes... (Guild, 2011; GMCD 7381), pp. 3-7.

‘Peter Fribbins: Chamber Music for Strings’, sleeve-notes to I Have the Serpent Brought: Peter Fribbins - Chamber Music (Guild, 2010; GMCD 7343), pp. 3-6.

The Pierrot Ensembles (Ph.D. diss., King's College, University of London, 2010).

'Benjamin Britten's "Pierrot" Ensembles', in British Music and Modernism, 1895-1960, ed. Matthew Riley (Farnham: Ashgate, 2009), 219-47.

'Zemlinsky's Surface Structures: Maiblumen blühten überall and the String Sextet Genre', in Zemlinsky Studies, ed. Michael Frith (London: Middlesex University Press, 2007), 77-89.

'Peter Maxwell Davies', in New Makers of Modern Culture, vol. 1, ed. Justin Wintle (New York: Routledge, 2007), 357-59.

'The 'Pierrot' Ensemble before the Pierrot Players', paper for AHRB-sponsored conference organised by Dr Jane Manning and Dr Caroline Potter on "Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire and Its Legacy", Kingston University, 2 March 2006.

‘The ‘Pierrot’ Ensemble in London: The Birth of a Genre?’, paper given at conference organised by Dr Vanessa Hawes, Society for Music Analysis TAGS Day, University of East Anglia, 23 April 2005.

  • SUM0043 Music Access
  • SUM0046 Music Industry Management
  • SUM0071 Popular Music
  • MUS1071 Introduction to Arts Administration and Management
  • MUS2092 Music Theory and Analysis
  • MUS3055 Independent Project
  • MUS3071 Music Contracts and Copyrights
  • MUS4010 Musicology

Current work

Senior Lecturer in Music

Programme Leader, BA Music Business and Arts Management

Admissions Tutor for Music

Module Leader in various areas (see Teaching Interests) at foundation, undergraduate and postgraduate levels, including three Summer School courses (SUM0043 Music Access, SUM0046 Music Industry Management and SUM0071 Popular Music: see www.mdx.ac.uk/summer for further details), each designed as pathways to undergraduate study for successful students.

Middlesex University Link Tutor for Open University Hong Kong's Middlesex-franchised BMus Popular Music programme.

Professional Membership

Society for Music Analysis: 2001 - present

Sound and Music (formerly the Society for the Promotion of New Music): 2004 - present

Royal Musicological Association: 2006 - present

Royal School for Church Music: 2008 - present