Staff profile
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Job title: Senior Lecturer
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Dept: Music and Performing Arts
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Tel:
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Campus:
BMus (Hons) (Cardiff), PGCE (UWIC), MA (Bristol), PhD (Cardiff)
Ben Curry completed his first degree in music at Cardiff University in 1996, his MA in Film and TV Composition at Bristol in 2003, and his doctoral studies in Musicology at Cardiff in 2011. His PhD thesis concerns the application of semiotics to music and he has given research papers on this subject in the UK and elsewhere in Europe.
Ben’s musical interests stretch from the eighteenth century to the present day. His research focuses upon twentieth-century popular music and late eighteenth-century music. From 2002-2008, he also worked as a multimedia composer trading under the name Big Ear Productions.
Further areas of interest include music analysis, film music, classical music of the twentieth century, sonic art and the role of twentieth-century technologies in the production and reception of music. Prior to his appointment at Canterbury, Ben taught at Cardiff University and the University of Bristol.
PUBLICATIONS
‘Signs, dicisigns and the dimensions of time in music: towards a semiotic theory of musical subjectivity’ in Lina Navickaite (ed.), Before and after music: proceedings of the Tenth International Congress on Musical Signification (Umweb: 2010).
‘Musical semiotics in action: applying and debating Hatten’s semiotics in a musico-dramatic context’ in Studies in Musical Theatre, 4 (1), (2010).
Review of Sarah Reichardt: Composing the modern subject: four string quartets by Dmitri Shostakovich (2008), twentieth century music, 7 (2), (2010).
‘Time, subjectivity and contested signs: developing Monelle’s application of Peirce’s 1903 typology to music’ in Esti Sheinberg (ed.), Music semiotics: a network of significations (Ashgate: 2012).
‘On the value of Mozart’s Symphony in A K.201’ Music: function and value: proceedings of the Eleventh International Congress on Musical Signification (forthcoming).
CONFERENCE PAPERS
July 2011, ‘(Re)negotiating subjectivity, (re)shaping formal function’ at Lancaster University Music Analysis Conference.
Novemeber 2010, ‘The first aria of Mozart’s Idomeneo: form, reference and resistance’ at International, Interdisciplinary Conference at Rose Bruford College—Music on stage.
October 2010, ‘On the value of Mozart’s Symphony in A K. 201’ at Eleventh International Congress on Musical Signification at The Academy of Music in Krakow—Music: function and value.
September 2010, ‘Meaning and actuality in the music of The Smiths’ at International Association for the Study of Popular Music's Biennial Conference at Cardiff University—Experience - engagement - meaning.
April 2010, ‘Towards a theoretical model for the attribution of meaning to music’ at Society for Music Analysis Study Weekend at Bangor University.
November 2008, ‘Signs, dicisigns and the dimensions of time in music: towards a semiotic theory of musical subjectivity’ at Tenth International Congress on Musical Signification at Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, Vilnius—Before and after music.
November 2008, ‘Towards a theory of musical meaning in opera: an application of Robert Hatten’s semiotics to the opening section of the first duet in Act III of Le nozze di Figaro’ at International, Interdisciplinary Conference at Rose Bruford College—Music on stage.
January 2008, ‘Peircian semiotics in musicology: approaches and limitations’ at RMA Student Conference at Surrey University.
November 2007, ‘Music as object: experience and hegemony: a Peircian perspective on encoding and decocing in popular music’ at SMA Study Day at Liverpool University—Analysing popular music in context.