Final Report Summary - BFM (Brahms and the Fabric of Modernist Culture) BFM 274448, BRAHMS AND THE FABRIC OF MODERNIST CULTUREDR NICOLE GRIMESMARIE CURIE INTERNATIONAL OUTGOING FELLOWSHIP, 2011–2014THE 7TH FRAMEWORK PROGRAMME OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSIONPROJECT TEAM AND OVERVIEW• Professor David Brodbeck, Mentor, University of California, Irvine, 2011–13;• Professor Julian Horton, Scientist in Charge, University College Dublin, 2011–13;• Professor Harry White, Scientist in Charge, University College Dublin, 2013–14;• Dr Nicole Grimes, International Outgoing Fellow, 2011–14. This large-scale project, carried out at the University of California, Irvine (outgoing phase) and University College Dublin (return phase) has allowed the expert researcher reach a level of professional maturity in the areas of research and teaching in the field of musicology, with a focus on German music criticism and aesthetics of the late-nineteenth and twentieth centuries; the expert researcher has researched a monograph in her field called Brahms’s Elegies: The Poetics of Loss in German Culture. This monograph traces Brahms’s changing conceptions of death as manifest in a number of his choral and vocal works, through a rich intertextual study that considers the relationship between literature and music in Brahms’s output, and the relationship of these elegiac works to the Austro-German intellectual tradition from the late-eighteenth to the mid-twentieth century. The book is currently in the final stages of preparation. The fellow has established international collaborative relationships, has organized a highly successful international, interdisciplinary conference, and secured a prominent lecturing post on her return to Europe at the Department of Music, Royal Holloway, University of London.The research proposal, “Brahms and the Fabric of Modernist Culture” was designed to explore Modernism in relation to Brahms, and Brahms’s critics in relation to Modernism. It is an interdisciplinary project that focuses on the intersection between musicology, aesthetics, German studies, and philosophy. It plots Brahms’s compositional output along the continuum of the aesthetics of modernity from the end of the eighteenth century up to the Frankfurt School.This research has established a model for uncovering how we shape perceptions of composers. It explores the shaping of the subject that takes place while the composer is alive and for a period of approximately fifty years after their death. It has examined how the aesthetic persona is created, how linear chains of causal relationships are constructed in music criticism and music history, and has assessed the criteria by which a certain view of a composer obtains a dominant position. In its inter-disciplinary approach, this research, therefore, provides a valuable model that can be applied to other composers. The work performed throughout the duration of this fellowship includes the following categories: MONOGRAPHBrahms’s Elegies: The Poetics of Loss in German Culture was researched and written during this Fellowship. It is now in the final stages of preparation. DISSEMINATION OF RESEARCH RESULTSSince the commencement of the Fellowship, the Fellow has:➢ Published four peer-review articles;➢ Published four book chapters or contributions to edited books;➢ Published an edited volume (the work on which had commenced before the fellowship, but which is intricately linked to the fellowship and was concluded during its tenure), containing two of her own chapters; this has already been positively reviewed in six high profile scholarly journals.➢ Presented two invited guest lectures;➢ Presented twelve international conference papers;➢ Participated in three high-profile outreach activities;➢ Acted as convenor for a reading session on her recently published edited volume at an international conference.INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ORGANIZATIONThe Fellow has organized an international, interdisciplinary scholarly conference as one of the main research outputs of this fellowship. “Music, Marxism, and the Frankfurt School” took place at the School of Music, University College Dublin on 2–4 July 2014. This collaborative project between University College Dublin and the University of California, Irvine involved an Opening Address delivered by the Scientist in Charge, Professor Harry White, three days of conference papers, and a Keynote Address delivered by Professor Max Paddison (Durham University). The conference website contains all of the information pertaining to the international delegation, and the programme of events: www.musicandthefrankfurtschool.com. FELLOWSHIP WEBSITEAll of the fellow’s scholarly activities were recorded and kept up to date throughout the duration of the project on the academia.edu website, available here in its most recent form: https://royalholloway.academia.edu/NicoleGrimes TRAININGThe fellow engaged in training through teaching senior undergraduate students and Masters students at both the away and home institutions. She enrolled in an advanced German language course at the Goethe Institut to improve her German skills in the translation of primary sources for the project. This was passed successfully. She enrolled in and gained the qualification of “Professional Certificate in University Teaching” at UCD during the return phase of the project.ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Throughout this Fellowship, the Fellow benefited inestimably from her close collaboration with all three of the mentors associated with this project: Professor David Brocbeck (mentor at University of California, Irvine), Professor Julian Horton (Scientist in Charge, 2011–13), and Professor Harry White (Scientist in Charge, 2013–14). This publishable summary serves as a grateful acknowledgement of the generosity they have shown in sharing their time, wisdom, advice, and guidance. Related documents final1-publishable-summary.pdf
