School of Music
Professor David Cooper
Professor of Music & Technology,
Dean of the Faculty of Performance, Visual Arts and Communications
+44 (0)113 3433731
BA, Leeds, BA, Open, DPhil, York, FHEA, FRSA
David Cooper was brought up in Belfast where he studied at Belfast Royal Academy and the City of Belfast School of Music. He came to Leeds as an undergraduate student in 1975 and was awarded a first class degree in Music, studying composition with Alexander Goehr and Peter Paul Nash. He subsequently completed his doctorate at the University of York under the supervision of David Blake. He was appointed as a lecturer at the University of Leeds in 1988 and was promoted to a personal chair in Music and Technology in 2003. He was technical Director of the TLTP phase 2 Music Consortium Project (1993-6) and has sat on the AHRC and EPSRC peer-review colleges. His current role gives him responsibility for the management of the innovative multimedia faculty of Performance, Visual Arts and Communications of which Music is one of the five constituent Schools.
- The music of Béla Bartók
- The film music of Bernard Herrmann
- Irish traditional music (particularly George Petrie's collection and the music of Ulster)
- Scientific Research in Music
- Composition
David Cooper's research interests are underpinned by an interest in music's communicative power, whether considered in relation to film scores by composers such as Bernard Herrmann, Seàn Ó'Riada or Trevor Jones, to the art music of Béla Bartók or to the repertoire of traditional Irish music. He is also interested in approaches to music that are influenced by science and technology, whether as analytical tools or critical models, in particular through mathematics and computing. As a composer, he has worked across a range of media, both acoustic and electroacoustic, and his two saxophone quartets have been widely performed. Forthcoming work includes a monograph on Irish traditional music, co-edited collections of essays on film music and opera, and a chapter on Trevor Jones score for In the Name of the Father.
Current Modules
- Postgraduate Research Degrees (In the areas of Musicology, Technology and Composition)
- Dean of the Faculty of Performance, Visual Arts and Communications
Books (single authored)
- Béla Bartók (New Haven: Yale University Press, forthcoming)
- The Musical Traditions of Northern Ireland and its Diaspora: Community and Conflict (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2009).
- Bernard Herrmann's The Ghost and Mrs Muir: A Film Score Guide (opens in a new window) (Lanham: Scarecrow Press, 2005).
- Bernard Herrmann's Vertigo: A Film Score Handbook, Greenwood Press Film Score Guides(opens in a new window) (Westport: Greenwood Press, 2001). Extra section of table 4.1 (page 78). (opens in a new window)
- Béla Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra Cambridge Music Handbook (opens in a new window) (Cambridge: CUP, 1996).
Books (edited)
- Art and Ideology in European Opera: Essays in Honour of Julian Rushton, edited by Rachel Cowgill, David Cooper and Clive Brown (Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer, 2010)
- CineMusic? Constructing the Film Score. Co-editor with Christopher Fox and Ian Sapiro (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2008).
- The Mediterranean in Music: Critical Perspectives, Common Concerns, Cultural Differences. (opens in a new window)Co-editor with Kevin Dawe (Lanham: Scarecrow Press, 2005), ISBN 0-8108-5407-4.
Contributions to books and conference proceedings
- Cooper, D. 'Trevor Jones, Bono and the Musical Construction of In the Name of the Father', Edited Derek Scott, Research Companion to Popular Musicology (Ashgate, forthcoming).
- Cooper, D. 'With Fife and Fiddle: Protestants and Traditional Music in Northern Ireland', in ed John O'Connell and Salwa El-Shawan Castelo-Branco, Music in Conflict: Ethnomusicological Perspectives, (Champaign, University of Illinois Press, forthcoming).
- Cooper, D., ''Twas One of those Dreams that by Music are Brought': The Preservation of Irish Traditional Music and the Development of the Piano', in ed. Jan Smaczny and Michael Murphy, Music in Nineteenth-Century Ireland, Irish Musical Studies Vol 9 (Dublin, Four-Courts Press, 2007), 74-93.
- Cooper, D., 'Béla Bartók's Bluebeard's Castle: A Musicological Perspective', in Victoria Anderson and Griselda Pollock (eds.), Bluebeard's Legacy: Death and Secrets from Bartk to Hitchcock (New Encounters: Arts, Cultures, Concepts) (London: I. B. Tauris, 2009).
- Cooper, D., 'Imagining the Mediterranean' in ed. Cooper and Dawe, The Mediterranean in Music: Critical Perspectives, Common Concerns, Cultural Differences (Lanham: Scarecrow Press, 2005). ISBN 0-8108-5407-4.
- Dawe, K and Cooper, D., 'Introduction' in ed. Cooper and Dawe, The Mediterranean in Music: Critical Perspectives, Common Concerns, Cultural Differences (Lanham: Scarecrow Press, 2005). ISBN 0-8108-5407-4.
- Cooper, D., 'Seán Ó'Riada and Irish Postcolonial Film Music', in ed. Miguel Mera and David Burnand, European Film Music, Ashgate, 2006.
- Ng K.C., Sequeira V., Bovisio E., Johnson N., Cooper D., Gonçalves J.G.M. and Hogg D., 'Playing on a Holo-stage: Towards the Interaction between Real and Virtual Performers' in Ed. Colin Beardon and Lone Malmborg, Digital Creativity: A Reader (Lisse: Swets & Zeitlinger, 2002).
- Cooper, D., 'Film Music Technology', in ed. Franklin, P., and Stilwell, R., The Cambridge Companion to Film Music (Cambridge: CUP, forthcoming).
- Cooper, D., 'Bartók's Orchestral Music and the Modern World' in ed. Bayley, A., The Cambridge Companion to Bartk (opens in a new window)(Cambridge: CUP, 2001), ISBN: 0521660106.
- Cooper, D., 'Béla Bartók and the Question of Race Purity in Music' ed. Murphy M. and White, H., Musical Constructions of Nationalism: Essays on the History and Ideology of European Musical Culture 1800-1945 (opens in a new window)(Cork: Cork University Press, 1999). ISBN 1 85918 153 8.
- Cooper, D., Ng, K. C. and Boyle, R. D., 'MIDI extensions for Musical Notation (2): Expressive MIDI' in Ed. E. Selfridge-Field Beyond MIDI: The Handbook of Musical Codes (opens in a new window) (Boston: MIT Press, 1997).
- Hewlitt, W. B. and Selfridge-Field, E. with Cooper D., Field, B. A., Ng, K. C., and Sitter, P., 'MIDI' , in Ed. E. Selfridge-Field Beyond MIDI: The Handbook of Musical Codes (Boston: MIT Press, 1997).
Periodical articles
- Cooper, D. and Sapiro, I.P, 'Ethnomusicology in the Laboratory: From the Tonmesser to Digital Melography', Ethnomusicology Forum, 15/2 (November 2006), 301-313.
- Cooper, D., 'Film Form and Musical Form in Bernard Herrmann's Score to Vertigo'. Journal of Film Music, (opens in a new window) Vol 1 2/3 (2003), 239-248.
- Cooper, D., 'On the Twelfth of July in the Morning . . . or the Man who Mistook his Sash for a Hat', Folk Music Journal (opens in a new window), Vol. 8, Number 1, 2001, pp. 67-89. ISSN 0531- 9684
- Bailey, N., Cooper, D., 'Perceptually Smooth Timbral Guides by State-space Analysis of Phase Vocoder Parameters' Computer Music Journal (opens in a new window) 24:1, Spring 2000, pp. 32-42.
- Bailey, N. J., Cooper, D. G., 'Sculptor: Exploring Timbral Spaces in Real Time', Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, 48(3) (March 2000), pp. 174-180.
- Ng K.C., Sequeira V., Bovisio E., Johnson N., Cooper D., Gonalves J.G.M. and Hogg D.,'Playing on a Holo-stage: Towards the Interaction between Real and Virtual Performers', Digital Creativity, 11(2): 109-117, 2000.
- Cooper, D., 'The Unfolding of Tonality in the Music of Bla Bartk' Music Analysis (opens in a new window), Vol. 17/1, pp. 21-38 (March 1998)
- Ng, K.C., Boyle, R.D., Cooper, D., 'Automatic Detection of Tonality using Note Distribution', Journal of New Music Research, 25/4, December 1996, pp. 369-381
- Cooper, D. and Ng, K. C., A Monophonic Pitch-Tracking Algorithm Based on Waveform Periodicity Determination Using Landmark Points', Computer Music Journal. 20/3, 1996.
- Cooper, D., Henderson-Sellars,B. 'Has Classical Music Fractal Nature? - A Reanalysis.' Computers and the Humanities. Vol. 27 pp 43-50 (1993).
- Cooper, D. 'Digital Sound on the Silicon Graphics Workstations' Musicus Vol 3, 39-43, 1993
- Cooper, D. 'A computationally non-intensive algorithm for Pitch detection' ARRAY 12/2 6-9 1992.
- Cooper, D. 'Transferring Atari Sequencer files to HB engraver.' Musicus Vol 2, 119-120, 1990.
- Cooper, D. 'Prospero Pascal MIDI library for the Atari ST.' Musicus Vol 1,ii, 185-188, 1989
Contributions to encyclopaedias
- David Cooper, entries on 'Orange Order', 'Beethoven', 'Ancient Irish Music', 'O'Farrell', 'Niel Gow', 'Edward Light' for Professor Barra Boydell and Professor Harry White (General Editors), The Encyclopaedia of Music in Ireland (Dublin: UCD Press, forthcoming).
- Cooper, D., 'George Petrie' in Dictionary of Irish Biography (opens in a new window), Royal Irish Academy (Cambridge: CUP, forthcoming).
- Cooper, D., 'George Petrie' and 'Bernard Herrmann' in New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (opens in a new window) (London: Macmillan, 2001).
- Cooper, D. Goehr (526 -527), Maw (833), Arden muss sterben (46-7), Rising of the Moon. ed. C.S. LaRue. International Dictionary of Opera. St James Press, 1993.
Reviews
- Cooper, D. 'Fintan Vallely, Tuned Out: Traditional Music and Identity in Northern Ireland', Ethnomusicology (forthcoming)
- Cooper, D. 'Jay Beck and Tony Grajeda, eds, Lowering the Boom: Critical Studies in Film Sound', Music, Sound and the Moving Image, 3/1 (2009), 119-124.
- Cooper, D. 'Lillis Ó'Laoire, On a Rock in the Middle of the Ocean: Songs and Singers in Tory Island, Ireland', review, Ethnomusicology Forum, 16/1 (2007), 172-3.
- Cooper, D. 'James Wierzbicki, Louis and Bebe Barron's Forbidden Planet: A Film Score Guide', Journal of Film Music, 2/1 (2007), 79-81.
- Cooper, D. 'Máirtín Pheaits Ó'Cualáin: Traditional Songs from Connemara'. Cló Iar-Chonnachta, 2002, LC 04986. CD review, World of Music, 2006
- Cooper, D. 'Edited by Martin Stokes and Philip V. Bohlman, Celtic Modern: Music at the Global Fringe', review, Ethnomusicology Forum, 13/2 (2004), 290-6.
- Cooper, D. 'Benjamin Suchoff, Bartók's Mikrokosmos: Genesis, Pedagogy and Style', book review, Music and Letters, 84/4 (2003), 673-677.
- Cooper, D. 'Benjamin Suchoff, Béla Bartók: Life and Work', book review, Music and Letters, 84/4 (2003), 673-677.
- Cooper, D. 'Carl Leafstedt: Inside Bluebeard's Castle', book review, Music Analysis, Vol 21, Number 1, March 2002, pp. 105-112.
- Cooper, D. 'Rumsey, F: MIDI systems and Control.'Book review Musicus Vol. 4, 61-64, 1995.
- Cooper, D. 'Paul Wilson: The music of Béla Bartók.' Book review. Music Analysis Vol 13, number 2-3, October 1994.
- Cooper, D. 'Rothstein, J. -- MIDI: A Comprehensive Introduction.' Book review Musicus Vol 3, 71-74, 1993
- Cooper, D. 'Smith et al: Music Education: An Artificial Intelligence Approach', Book review, Journal of New Music Research, vol.24 no.1, pp. 74-79.
Editions (critical & other)
- The Petrie Collection of the Ancient Music of Ireland - (new edition) (Cork: Cork University Press, 2002). Revised softback edition, (2005). Associated website developed by David Cooper and programmed by Ian Sapiro.
Compositions
- Saxophone Quartet No. 2 Written for the Northern Saxophone Quartet (2002). The Venue, Leeds, 16 February 2005; St Helen's Church, Sandal, 19 May, 2006; World Saxophone Congress 2006 (opens in a new window), Ljubljana, July 2006.
- Giacomo Joyce, Music Theatre (1997).
- Metamorphosis for live electronics with WX7 Wind Controller. Leeds (1993). Richard Ingham. Listed under 'MIDI repertoire' in the Cambridge Companion to the Saxophone.
- In Limine Sapientiae (Baritone Saxophone and Piano) British Saxophone Congress. October 17th 1992. Listed under 'Contemporary repertoire' in the Cambridge Companion to the Saxophone Handbook.
- Histories of the Night. 1990 Composer and Deborah Hannah.
- Fractal Mobiles, Orchestra & Electronic Tape. Leeds (1990).
- Dán Leictreonach, Electronic media on PCM encoded Tape. Leeds (1989).
- Trio (fl, ob, cl) Leeds Wind Quintet. Leeds (1989).
- Septet, Northern Sinfonia, 1981; Leeds University 1988.
- Solipsism, Solo Alto Saxophone. Nick Turner. Leeds (1987).Listed under 'Contemporary repertoire' in the Cambridge Companion to the Saxophone.
- Intermezzo, Leeds Wind Quintet (1987).
- Hope's Voice, Song Cycle. Composer and Debbie Brussel Leeds (1987).
- Saxophone Quartet. Commissioned by the Northern Saxophone Quartet (1985). First Performance Washington DC (1986); British premiere Purcell Room Dec 1986.
- Piano Fantasy, Benjamin Frith. Wigmore Hall (1984) with some 40 subsequent performances.
- Belisa, Opera.
- Mes Instantanées, Aulos Ensemble, First Prize 1981 Yorkshire
- Contrasted Landscapes. Joint Prizewinner, 1980 Yorkshire Arts Competition, Gemini, Huddersfield Festival.
- Duo (vln/pno) Julian Clayton and the composer, York University (1981).
- My Love, Aulos Ensemble cond. by John Casken Huddersfield Festival (1978).
- Wind Quintet No. 2 Commissioned by the Northern Sinfonia Wind Ensemble with the aid of the Arts Council (Dio Fund, 1978).
Radio / TV broadcasts
- Cooper, D. 'A Favour Returned' (Prom 42), Twenty Minutes (opens in a new window), BBC Radio 3, 14 August 2006.
Keynote & invited lectures
- Cooper, D., Invited lecture, 'Douglas Gordon's Feature Film', Leeds International Film Festival, 10 October, 2002.
Conference papers (oral)
- David Cooper, 'Northern Identity and the Traditional Music of Ireland', Music and the Idea of the North, Leeds Town Hall, 5-7 September 2008 (6 September).
- David Cooper, The Orphic Moment and Bernard Herrmann's Score to Hitchcock's Vertigo, The Orpheus Myth in Modern Culture, Friday 23 - Sunday 25 November, Opera North Centre.
- David Cooper, position paper, 'Ireland: Celebrating Peace, Embracing Change', 18th November 2007, Leeds Civic Hall.
- Cooper, D. Plenary Roundtable: 'Musical Diasporas', RMA Research Students' Conference 2006, 6 January 2006.
- Cooper, D. 'With Fife and Fiddle: Protestants and Traditional Music in Northern Ireland', invited paper given at the 2004 ICTM Colloquium: 'Discord: Identifying Conflict within Music, Resolving Conflict through Music', 3 September 2004, Limerick.
- Ng, K.C., Cooper D., Ong B., 'Towards an integrated Handwritten Music Manuscript Analysis and Recognition System', in Proceedings of the Conference for Content Integrated Research in Creative User Systems (CIRCUS 2001), New Synergies in Digital Creativity, Glasgow, September 2001.
- Tee, A., Cooper, D., Bailey, N.J., McLernon, D., 'Pattern Matching for the Tracking of Melodic Development'. Paper given at the SBCM 2001, VIII Brazilian Symposium on Computer Music, 31 July to 03 August, 2001.
- Cooper, D., 'Film Form and Musical Structure in Bernard Herrmann's Score to Vertigo'. Paper given at the Film Music conference of the Royal Musical Association, Southampton, 19-21 April 2001.
- Ng K.C., Popat S., Stefani E., Ong B., Cooper D., Smith-Autard, J., Music via Motion: Interactions between Choreography and Music, in Proceedings of the 10th International Symposium on Electronic Art (ISEA2000) Revelation, Paris, France, Dec 2000.
- Ng K.C., Popat S., Popat K., Cooper D., Trans-Domain Mapping: A Real-time Interactive System for Motion Acquisition and Musical Mapping, in Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC2000) - Gateways to Creativity, September 2000.
- Pierce S., Cooper D., and Ng K.C., Toward an Automatic System for Film Music Composition, Proceedings of the XIII CIM 2000 - Colloquium on Musical Informatics, L'Aquila, Italy, September 2000.
- Ng K.C., and Cooper D., Enhancement of Optical Music Recognition using Metric Analysis, Proceedings of the XIII CIM 2000 - Colloquium on Musical Informatics, L'Aquila, Italy, September 2000.
- Ng, K., Cooper, D., Stefani, E., Boyle, R. and Bailey, N., Embracing the Composer: Optical Recognition of Handwritten Manuscripts', Proceedings of the 1999 International Computer Music Conference, Beijing.
- Cooper, D., 'Lámh Dearg: Celtic Minstrels and Orange Songsters', paper given during the Celtic Cultures conference, University of Leeds, May 1, 1999. In Celtic Cultural Studies. An Interdisciplinary Online Journal ISSN 1468-6074 (opens in a new window)
- Cooper, D., Ng, K. C., 'Studio Report of the University of Leeds Department of Music', Proceedings ICMC 98, University of Michigan, USA, 304-307, 1998.
- Cooper, D., 'Bartók and the Encoding of Hungarian National Identity', paper given at the Music and Nationalism Conference of the Royal Irish Academy of Music, Dublin, 17-18 September 1998.
- Cooper, D., 'Lynch's Ear', paper given at the conference of the Royal Musical Association, Oxford, 29 April 1998.
- Cooper, D., Ng, K. C., 'ExpMIDI', paper given at the conference of the International Musicological Society, London, August 20, 1997
- Stefani, E., Ng, K. C. and Cooper, D., 'Leeds University Electronic Studio: Studio Report', Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference, 1996, 155-7.
- Ng, K. C., Boyle, R. D., Cooper, D., 'Handwritten Music Manuscript Recognition', Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference, 1996, 354-7.
- Ng, K. C., Boyle, R. D. and Cooper, D. (1995), 'Automated optical musical score recognition and its enhancement using high-level musical knowledge', in Proceedings of the XI Colloquium on Musical Informatics, Universita' degli Studi di Bologna, Dipartimento di Musica e Spettacolo, via Galliera, 3 - 40126, Bologna, Italia, 9 - 11th November 1995.
- Ng, K. C., Boyle, R. D., Cooper, D.,'Low- and High-Level Approaches to Optical Music Score Recognition', IEE Colloquium on Document Image Processing and Multimedia Environments, 2nd November 1995.
Other
- S. Henze and D. Cooper, 'Fractal Characteristics of the Fourier Spectra of Recordings of Musical Compositions', ESRRS-1997-02, 1997 (opens in a new window)
- K. Ng, R. Boyle and D. Cooper, 'Domain Knowledge Enhancement of Optical Music Score Recognition', ESRRS-1997-01, 1997 (opens in a new window)
- Cooper, D., Programme book for a series of nine works by Bartók played by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in the 1997-8 season (Concerto for Orchestra, Piano Concertos 1-3, Divertimento, Dance Suite, The Miraculous Mandarin, Romanian Dances, Transylvanian Dances).
- Ng, K. C., Boyle, R. D. and Cooper, D. (1995), 'Key signature detection using note distribution', Technical Report 95.23, School of Computer Studies, The University of Leeds, UK.
- Cooper, D & Ng, KC 'A monophonic pitch tracking program.' Report 94.15 (May 94) University of Leeds School of Computer Studies.
- Principal investigator, British Academy Small Research Grant,
- Principal investigator, AHRC: A Digital Archive of Film Music Materials by Trevor Jones (2006)
- Principal investigator, AHRB: Bernard Herrmann's Score for The Ghost and Mrs Muir (2004)
- Principal investigator, AHRB: Joe Holmes - A Consideration of an Irish Protestant Traditional Musician (2000-2001)
- Principal investigator, Humanities Research Board of the British Academy/AHRB: Optical Recognition of Hand-written Manuscripts with Application to Film-Music Scores (Institutional Fellowship 1999-2003)
- University College Cork, BA and BMus
- Royal College of Music, (integrated Masters in Composition)
- Formerly external examiner at Oxford Brookes University, Queen's University Belfast, University of Huddersfield
- Peter Graham (Salford University, 1999): Musical Composition
- Ben Winters (Oxford University, 2006): 'Korngold's Merry Men: Music and Authorship in the Hollywood Studio System'
- Rhoda Dullea (University College, Cork, 2005): 'Race and Religion in Franz Liszt's Des Bohémiens et de leur musique en Hongrie'
- 4th Film and Music Conference, Bradford NMM (2008) co-organiser (keynote Patrick Doyle).
- 3rd Film and Music Conference, Bradford NMM (2007) co-organiser (keynote David Arnold).
- 2nd Film and Music Conference, Bradford NMM (2006) co-organiser (keynote Michael Nyman).
- 1st Film and Music Conference, Bradford NMM (2005) co-organiser (keynote Trevor Jones).
- Associate editor, The Journal of Film Music
- Sound, Music and the Moving Image, Senate House London (2007) member of the programme committee
- 3rd Film and Music Conference, Bradford NMM (2007) co-organiser
- 2nd Film and Music Conference, Bradford NMPFTV (2006) co-organiser
- 1st Film and Music Conference, Bradford NMPFTV (2005) co-organiser
- Music and The Mediterranean, University of Leeds (2001) co-organiser
- RMA Film Music Conference, Southampton University (2001) member of the programme committee
- The Celtic Cultures Conference, University of Leeds (1999), co-organiser
- Has sat on the AHRC and EPSRC peer-review colleges.
Current Research Students
- David Ireland (with Luke Windsor), Film music/psychology.
- Caroline Lucas (with Mic Spencer) composition.
- Catherine Haworth: Music and film noir
- Richard Piatak: Avant-garde film music
- Ian Sapiro: The Film Music of Trevor Jones
- Connie Wallcraft: Theorising the Film Musical
Past Research Students
- 2007, Robert Ellis Geiger, 'Trends in contemporary Hollywood film scoring : a synthesised approach for Hong Kong cinema'.
- 2008, Dale Perkins, Portfolio of original musical compositions and written commentary.
- 2008, Michael Byde, 'The later orchestral works of William Walton: A critical and analytical re-evaluation'.
- MA by research
- 1994, Eileen Guppy, 'The solo piano music of Keith Jarrett and Chick Corea their historical significance and their contribution to the emergence of a new genre of musician'.
- 1996, Anthony Faulkner, 'Thad Jones and the Ellington effect'.
- 2000, Steven Michael Pierce, 'Scorebot theory and design of an automated film scoring application'.
- PhD
- 1998, Martijn Voorvelt, (with Prof Leigh Landy) 'British post-punk experimental pop (1977-1983)'.
- 1999, Rachel Justine Swindells, 'Stylistic fusion in a postmodern context'.
- 1999, Ewan James Stefani, Portfolio of musical compositions.
- 2001, David Fligg, Portfolio of musical compositions.
- 2001, Robert Asmussen, 'Periodicity of sinusoidal frequencies as a basis for the analysis of baroque and classical harmony: a computer based study'
- 2002, Mark Marrington, 'Extra-musical influences and musical style in the works of Denis ApIvor'
- 2003, Rosemary Fitzgerald (with Dr Luke Windsor), 'Performer-dependent dimensions of timbre: identifying acoustic cues for oboe tone discrimination'
- 2004, Adam Tee (with Dr Des McLernon), 'The Computer Representation and Thematic Analysis of Pre-Twentieth Century Western Art Music'
- 2006, John MacKenzie, 'The Guitar Works of Stephen Dodgson'
Abstract
Folio of Musical Compositions
- Technical Director of the TLTP phase 2 Music Consortium Project (1993-6).