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School of Music

School of Music Research Groups

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The Centre for Research in Early Music (CREaM)

Director: Professor Thomas Schmidt-Beste

The Centre for Research in Early Music at the University of Wales, founded in 2006, serves as a focal point for the activities of the extraordinarily high number of scholars at this institution who are leaders in research on music before 1700 – a concentration of specific excellence unequalled in any other institution in the UK and recently increased through the appointment of a new lecturer (Dr Christian Leitmeir) and one honorary research fellow (Dr Barbara Eichner). Particular strengths are found in the areas of source studies, editing, musical institutions and sacred music/music and liturgy.

The foundation of the Centre comes at an especially auspicious moment in the development of Bangor as a world-class research institution in the humanities as it coincides with the foundation of the HEFCW-funded Institute of Medieval and Early Modern Studies (IMEMS) which in turn is a part of the Research & Enterprise Collaboration of Bangor and Aberystwyth Universities. Within it and within the Bangor University Centre for Medieval Studies, Early Music research will be embedded into a wide context of cross-disciplinary approaches.

The broad range of specialities makes CREaM particularly attractive for postgraduate study in the field of Early Music; PG bursaries are available from the School of Music and the College of Arts and Humanities. Furthermore, IMEMS plans to introduce a dedicated MA course in Medieval and Early Modern Studies in the near future in which Music and CREaM in particular will play an active role.