OxTalks will soon move to the new Halo platform and will become 'Oxford Events.' There will be a need for an OxTalks freeze. This was previously planned for Friday 14th November – a new date will be shared as soon as it is available (full details will be available on the Staff Gateway).
In the meantime, the OxTalks site will remain active and events will continue to be published.
If staff have any questions about the Oxford Events launch, please contact halo@digital.ox.ac.uk
Our discussion group this term focuses on Soviet influences on music in Britain in the 1930s, focusing particularly on composer and communist Alan Bush (1900-1995) and his work with choirs and working-class organisations. We examine two documents from 1936: firstly, a review of a concert performance of Shostakovich’s opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District which took place on 18 March 1936 at the Queen’s Hall, London; secondly, an unpublished article by Alan Bush outlining his aesthetics and practice of workers’ music. We will discuss the extent to which British artists were properly aware of fast-moving developments in the Soviet Union, and how Soviet influences shaped performance practice as much – if not more – than composition.
