Denis Collins
Denis Collins studied Music and Classical History at University College Dublin and Piano and Organ at the Royal Irish Academy of Music. He was a Fulbright Scholar at Stanford University where he completed a PhD degree in musicology with the dissertation "Canon in Music Theory from ca.1550 to ca.1800." He is Associate Professor of Musicology at the University of Queensland, Australia.
His published work has been mainly on canon and related contrapuntal procedures in Renaissance music and the music of J.S. Bach. His research interests also include digital applications to musicology and emotions research and music. His critical edition of Elway Bevin's "A Briefe and Short Instruction of the Art of Musicke" was published by Ashgate in 2007 as part of the series Music Theory in Britain, 1500-1700. He is the author of the article on Counterpoint in Oxford Bibliographies in Music Online. He is a regular presenter at musicology conferences worldwide.
Together with Jason Stoessel (University of New England, Australia), he was awarded two three-year Discovery Projects from the Australian Research Council. The first was "Canonic Techniques and Musical Change c.1330-c.1530" (DP150102135, 2015–17). The second is "The Art and Science of Canon in the Music of Early 17th-century Rome" (DP180100680, 2018-2020). The aims of both projects include developing computational tools for analysing contrapuntal repertoire and interrogating the roles of canon and counterpoint in the cultural milieux that produced them. An interactive web page for musical canons from the late medieval period onwards is scheduled for release in 2018.
Denis was also an Associate Investigator (2013–17) at the Australian Research Council's Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions in Europe 1100–1800. Publications arising from this work will appear in 2018, including the section on music in the Bloomsbury Cultural History of the Emotions vol. 3, 1300–1600 and an article on Dürer and music in an edited volume of essays ("The Persistence of Melancholia, 1514-2014," ed. Andrea Bubenik, Routledge).
His published work has been mainly on canon and related contrapuntal procedures in Renaissance music and the music of J.S. Bach. His research interests also include digital applications to musicology and emotions research and music. His critical edition of Elway Bevin's "A Briefe and Short Instruction of the Art of Musicke" was published by Ashgate in 2007 as part of the series Music Theory in Britain, 1500-1700. He is the author of the article on Counterpoint in Oxford Bibliographies in Music Online. He is a regular presenter at musicology conferences worldwide.
Together with Jason Stoessel (University of New England, Australia), he was awarded two three-year Discovery Projects from the Australian Research Council. The first was "Canonic Techniques and Musical Change c.1330-c.1530" (DP150102135, 2015–17). The second is "The Art and Science of Canon in the Music of Early 17th-century Rome" (DP180100680, 2018-2020). The aims of both projects include developing computational tools for analysing contrapuntal repertoire and interrogating the roles of canon and counterpoint in the cultural milieux that produced them. An interactive web page for musical canons from the late medieval period onwards is scheduled for release in 2018.
Denis was also an Associate Investigator (2013–17) at the Australian Research Council's Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions in Europe 1100–1800. Publications arising from this work will appear in 2018, including the section on music in the Bloomsbury Cultural History of the Emotions vol. 3, 1300–1600 and an article on Dürer and music in an edited volume of essays ("The Persistence of Melancholia, 1514-2014," ed. Andrea Bubenik, Routledge).
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Journal Articles by Denis Collins
This article is published by Brepols Publishers as a Gold Open Access article under a Creative Commons CC 4.0: BY-NC license.
The article is also freely available on the website of Brepols Publishers: https://www.brepolsonline.net/toc/jaf/2022/14/2 under this same license.
A PDF version of this article is available upon request - send me a message denis.collins@uq.edu.au
Abstract: The contents of the Cantiones sacrae, published by Thomas Tallis and William Byrd in 1575, have been edited, performed and recorded numerous times, yet John Milsom’s contribution to the Early English Church Music series is the first attempt to bring all of the works of this volume together in a single edition. Unlike other studies of this music, Milsom employs a system of parallel scores whereby variant states of each work, where they exist, are placed side by side in the edition with the version published in 1575. An introductory essay and detailed critical notes to each work and its variants preclude the need for detailed commentaries and notes at the end of the book, while footnotes to the musical editions are kept to a minimum. In the general introduction to the volume, Milsom takes issue with several tenacious views about the circumstances surrounding the publication of the Cantiones sacrae. Most contentious are his arguments that it was a book intended for a primarily Continental readership and that it was not necessarily a financial failure. The present essay assesses the merits of Milsom’s editorial approach and contextual discussions and their likely impact on the field of early music scholarship.
with a modified version of the canon in which the harmonies were altered in order to make the upward phrase repetitions more apparent. We found that subjects recognized the ascending pattern in the modified canon with greater ease than they recognized the ascending pattern in Bach’s canon. We also consider briefly why Bach may have wished to cause such an effect.
This article is published by Brepols Publishers as a Gold Open Access article under a Creative Commons CC 4.0: BY-NC license.
The article is also freely available on the website of Brepols Publishers: https://www.brepolsonline.net/toc/jaf/2022/14/2 under this same license.
A PDF version of this article is available upon request - send me a message denis.collins@uq.edu.au
Abstract: The contents of the Cantiones sacrae, published by Thomas Tallis and William Byrd in 1575, have been edited, performed and recorded numerous times, yet John Milsom’s contribution to the Early English Church Music series is the first attempt to bring all of the works of this volume together in a single edition. Unlike other studies of this music, Milsom employs a system of parallel scores whereby variant states of each work, where they exist, are placed side by side in the edition with the version published in 1575. An introductory essay and detailed critical notes to each work and its variants preclude the need for detailed commentaries and notes at the end of the book, while footnotes to the musical editions are kept to a minimum. In the general introduction to the volume, Milsom takes issue with several tenacious views about the circumstances surrounding the publication of the Cantiones sacrae. Most contentious are his arguments that it was a book intended for a primarily Continental readership and that it was not necessarily a financial failure. The present essay assesses the merits of Milsom’s editorial approach and contextual discussions and their likely impact on the field of early music scholarship.
with a modified version of the canon in which the harmonies were altered in order to make the upward phrase repetitions more apparent. We found that subjects recognized the ascending pattern in the modified canon with greater ease than they recognized the ascending pattern in Bach’s canon. We also consider briefly why Bach may have wished to cause such an effect.