Stephen Muir
University of Leeds, School of Music, Faculty Member
- Music History, Jewish Studies, Russian Studies, Opera, Musical Theatre, Russian Nationalism, and 35 moreMusic And Religion, Nineteenth-Century Music, Choral Music, Russian Music, Russian Orthodox Church, Jewish Music, Music editing, Czech music, Jewish liturgical music, South African music, Hasidic Music, african Jews, black Jews, jazz, Music, Rimsky-Korsakov, Music and Holocaust, Holocaust Music, Modern War and Music, Music and Theology, Music and philosophy, Music Therapy, Psychological Functions of Musc, World War II, Viktor Ullmann, Gideon Klein, Alice Herz Sommer, Hans Krasa, Theresienstadt (Terezin), Ethnography, Ethnomusicology, Russia, Reception Studies, Nineteenth-Century Russian Music, Choir, Russian Opera, and Musicologyedit
- Stephen Muir is a Senior Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Music at the University of Leeds, UK. His research focuses... moreStephen Muir is a Senior Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Music at the University of Leeds, UK. His research focuses on the music of Russia and Eastern Europe, particularly Rimsky-Korsakov and Dvořák, the critical editing of music, Jewish liturgical music, and music related to the Holocaust. He is Assistant Director of The Clothworkers Consort of Leeds, and a member of Leeds Baroque Choir.edit
A project funded under the AHRC's 'Care for the Future' Theme (£1.8m). This project's objective is to bring recently rediscovered musical, theatrical and literary works by Jewish artists back to the attention of scholars and the... more
A project funded under the AHRC's 'Care for the Future' Theme (£1.8m).
This project's objective is to bring recently rediscovered musical, theatrical and literary works by Jewish artists back to the attention of scholars and the public, and to stimulate the creation of new works based on archives. This scholarly work and artistic practice will engage with and re-theorise traditional archives, ethnographic archives, and artistic works themselves. The multi-disciplinary team will focus on the years 1880-1950, an intense period of Jewish displacement, in order to illuminate the role of art in displacement.
This project's objective is to bring recently rediscovered musical, theatrical and literary works by Jewish artists back to the attention of scholars and the public, and to stimulate the creation of new works based on archives. This scholarly work and artistic practice will engage with and re-theorise traditional archives, ethnographic archives, and artistic works themselves. The multi-disciplinary team will focus on the years 1880-1950, an intense period of Jewish displacement, in order to illuminate the role of art in displacement.
Research Interests: Archival Studies, Education, Performing Arts, Archives, Performance, and 15 moreJewish liturgical music, Holocaust Studies, Holocaust education, Jewish Music, Jewish Theatre, Jewish heritage, Polish-Jewish / German-Jewish Relations, klezmer revival, Jewish heritage tourism, Holocaust commemoration, antisemitism, social identity, oral history, South Africa, Archival Theory, Terezin, Holocaust and theatre, Theatre and holocaust education, Theresienstadt (Terezín), Jewish theatre and the Holocaust, Gideon Klein, and Theresienstadt (Terezin)
"During a research visit to Cape Town in February 2012, investigating questions of South African Jewish identity as projected through music (to be published in 2013), I gained privileged access to several manuscript collections, held... more
"During a research visit to Cape Town in February 2012, investigating questions of South African Jewish identity as projected through music (to be published in 2013), I gained privileged access to several manuscript collections, held privately by members of the Jewish community. Among this material, all of it fascinating and valuable in its own right, were manuscripts of Yiddish songs and Jewish choral/cantorial works, dating from before the Holocaust.
Some of this music was transported from Lithuania and Poland by composers who emigrated; other music was smuggled out by family/friends after the composers were killed by the Nazi regime. Much of the music is previously unknown, though some of it has been spoken of but long considered lost. In this project, I will publish one major work from these collections, and contextualise it in the scholarly and public press, thereby enhancing our knowledge of the composers and the circumstances within which they worked both before and during the war. I will also thereby lay the ground for future collaborative work on this important material."
Some of this music was transported from Lithuania and Poland by composers who emigrated; other music was smuggled out by family/friends after the composers were killed by the Nazi regime. Much of the music is previously unknown, though some of it has been spoken of but long considered lost. In this project, I will publish one major work from these collections, and contextualise it in the scholarly and public press, thereby enhancing our knowledge of the composers and the circumstances within which they worked both before and during the war. I will also thereby lay the ground for future collaborative work on this important material."
Research Interests:
Music, Memory and Migration in the Post-Holocaust Jewish Experience is an international collaborative project funded by the Worldwide Universities Network (WUN). It brings together the expertise and experience of scholars and... more
Music, Memory and Migration in the Post-Holocaust Jewish Experience is an international collaborative project funded by the Worldwide Universities Network (WUN). It brings together the expertise and experience of scholars and practitioners based at the following institutions:
- University of Leeds
- Leeds College of Music
- University of York
- Royal Northern College of Music
- New York University
- Sydney Conservatorium, University of Sydney
- The Isaac and Jessie Kaplan Centre for Jewish Studies and Research, University of Cape Town
- US Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington DC
- The South African Holocaust and Genocide Foundation
Project aims
- preserving, performing, and bringing new life to Jewish music and related works created during or thought lost in the Holocaust;
- exploring the impact of migration on music and memory/memorialization, with specific emphasis on the Holocaust’s impact;
- stimulating the creation of new works and adaptations from contemporary scholars and practitioners, based on these works and experiences;
- disseminating research outcomes to the wider community, particularly beyond academia;
- engaging students and early-career researchers;
- developing high-quality sustainable partnerships and further funding applications.
- University of Leeds
- Leeds College of Music
- University of York
- Royal Northern College of Music
- New York University
- Sydney Conservatorium, University of Sydney
- The Isaac and Jessie Kaplan Centre for Jewish Studies and Research, University of Cape Town
- US Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington DC
- The South African Holocaust and Genocide Foundation
Project aims
- preserving, performing, and bringing new life to Jewish music and related works created during or thought lost in the Holocaust;
- exploring the impact of migration on music and memory/memorialization, with specific emphasis on the Holocaust’s impact;
- stimulating the creation of new works and adaptations from contemporary scholars and practitioners, based on these works and experiences;
- disseminating research outcomes to the wider community, particularly beyond academia;
- engaging students and early-career researchers;
- developing high-quality sustainable partnerships and further funding applications.
Research Interests: Jewish Studies, Archives, Cultural Memory, Holocaust Studies, World War II, and 14 moreMusic Therapy, memoralization, Jewish Music, South African music, Music and philosophy, Holocaust Music, Modern War and Music, Music and Theology, Psychological Functions of Musc, Viktor Ullmann, Gideon Klein, Alice Herz Sommer, Hans Krasa, and Theresienstadt (Terezin)
Research Interests:
By the end of the nineteenth century Rimsky-Korsakov was the most frequently performed and well-known Russian composer in England after Tchaikovsky and Rubinstein. However, the favourable reception that Tchaikovsky, in particular, had... more
By the end of the nineteenth century Rimsky-Korsakov was the most frequently performed and well-known Russian composer in England after Tchaikovsky and Rubinstein. However, the favourable reception that Tchaikovsky, in particular, had enjoyed in the English press was a sharp contrast to the attacks that were levelled from many sides against Rimsky-Korsakov and other composers viewed at the time as ‘Nationalist’. In this article, which builds upon recent work by Gareth Thomas, Philip Bullock and others, I examine English critical attitudes towards Rimsky-Korsakov, extending my assessment much earlier than previously attempted. In doing so, I expose and evaluate the critical environment that led to the determined advocacy of Russian music by such authors as Rosa Newmarch and her successors. I propose sources for the disputes that coloured later English interest in Russian music, at the same time suggesting that critical reception did not always shape, nor indeed reflect, audience responses.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
... The passage in question, which corresponds to the passages pasted over by Wassmann described briefly above, is given wider consideration later in this article (see Figure 15). 22 DÖGE, Klaus: Antonín Dvořák, in: The New Grove... more
... The passage in question, which corresponds to the passages pasted over by Wassmann described briefly above, is given wider consideration later in this article (see Figure 15). 22 DÖGE, Klaus: Antonín Dvořák, in: The New Grove Dictionary of Music Online, ed. L. Macy ...
Introduction Displacement has been an integral part of the twentieth-century Jewish experience. Whether forced due to Nazi persecution, compelled by other oppressive factors, or entered into voluntarily in the hope of a new start,... more
Introduction
Displacement has been an integral part of the twentieth-century Jewish experience. Whether forced due to Nazi persecution, compelled by other oppressive factors, or entered into voluntarily in the hope of a new start, migration, internment and exile have affected musical, theatrical and literary output by Jewish artists in myriad ways. For example, members of the conference committee are currently researching topics including the music of Jewish immigrants to South Africa; the works of composers, playwrights and authors before, during and after incarceration in the Terezin/Theresienstadt ghetto; Holocaust songbooks; and Jewish artistic expression in the Soviet Union. They are also investigating the question: what does it mean to perform these works today, or even create new artistic works stimulated by them?
Displacement has been an integral part of the twentieth-century Jewish experience. Whether forced due to Nazi persecution, compelled by other oppressive factors, or entered into voluntarily in the hope of a new start, migration, internment and exile have affected musical, theatrical and literary output by Jewish artists in myriad ways. For example, members of the conference committee are currently researching topics including the music of Jewish immigrants to South Africa; the works of composers, playwrights and authors before, during and after incarceration in the Terezin/Theresienstadt ghetto; Holocaust songbooks; and Jewish artistic expression in the Soviet Union. They are also investigating the question: what does it mean to perform these works today, or even create new artistic works stimulated by them?