Senior Lecturer
Taught Postgraduate Tutor

m.allis@leeds.ac.uk

+44 (0)113 343 38219

BMus, MMus, PhD, DipRCM, LTCL, HonARAM

Michael was born in Whitby, North Yorkshire, in 1964. He studied cello and piano at the Royal College of Music with Anna Shuttleworth and Peter Wallfisch, where he also gained a first-class BMus from the University of London. Postgraduate work at King's College, London led to an MMus in Historical Musicology in 1988, and the completion of his PhD thesis ('The Creative Process of Hubert Parry') in 1994. Following a range of teaching and lecturing posts (King's College London, Bedford Modern School, the Oxford Cello School, Charterhouse, Farringdon College), he became a Lecturer in Academic Studies at the Royal Academy of Music in 1994. He remained at the Academy for twelve years; as Senior Postgraduate Tutor, he was responsible for overseeing academic elements of the taught postgraduate programmes. In 2006 he was appointed as Senior Lecturer in the School of Music at Leeds.

• 19th- and early 20th-century British music
• Music in Victorian and Edwardian Britain
• Interdisciplinary studies of music and literature
• Performance
• Reception
• Sketch studies

Michael’s research has focused upon leading British musical figures in the long nineteenth century. Specific studies have explored the working methods and reception of Hubert Parry (whose piano and chamber music he has edited), aspects of narrative in the music of Elgar, and Stanford’s piano music; Michael has also researched aspects of Liszt reception in nineteenth-century Britain (focusing particularly on the pianist Walter Bache), and Handel reception in the writings of Samuel Butler. His interdisciplinary interests include a long-term book project, British Music and Literary Context, which aims to explore links between British music and literature in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century (Parry and Bridges, Stanford and Tennyson, Bantock and Browning, Elgar and travel literature). He is currently working on a study of the private and public performances given by ‘The Working Men’s Society’ (the pianists Karl Klindworth, Edward Dannreuther, Walter Bache, and Frits Hartvigson) in London in the 1860s, and issues of tempo in early Bayreuth performances of Wagner’s Das Rheingold; future projects include aspects of reception and performance in Elgar, literary perspectives on Delius, and a further exploration of the promotion of progressive music in nineteenth-century Britain. Michael is also a member of the editorial boards of Journal of Victorian Culture and Nineteen.

Current Modules

• MUSI 1020 Music in History and Culture (team taught)
• MUSI 1120 Study Skills (team taught)
• MUSI 2721 Texts and Contexts: Elgar’s Orchestral Music
• MUSI 2722 Texts and Contexts: Reassessing Richard Strauss
• MUSI 2320/2340 Performance (team taught)
• MUSI 2020 Analysis of Tonal Music (team taught)
• MUSI 3021 Analysis of Symphonic Repertoire (team taught)
• MUSI 3321 Minor Performance (team taught)
• MUSI 3340 Major Performance (team taught)
• MUSI 3120 Minor Dissertation (team taught)
• MUSI 3140 Major Dissertation (team taught)
• MUSI 5060 Introduction to Musical Scholarship, module leader (team taught)
• MUSI 5430 Editing and Archival Studies (team taught)
• MUSI 5332 Instrumental or Vocal Recital (team taught)
• MUSI 5660 Instrumental or Vocal Recital (team taught)

Module Coordinator for

• MUSI 5060, Introduction to Musical Scholarship

• Taught Postgraduate Tutor - This role involves the overseeing of quality and standards, student recruitment, and programme development in taught postgraduate programmes in the School of Music.

Books (single authored)

• British Music and Literary Context: Essays on artistic juxtaposition in the long nineteenth century (forthcoming).
• Parry’s Creative Process (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2003).

Contributions to books and conference proceedings

• ‘Performance in private and public: “The Working Men’s Society” and the progressive agenda’ (in progress).
• ‘“Remarkable force, finish, intelligence and feeling”; Reassessing the pianism of Walter Bache’, in Susan Wollenberg and Therese Ellsworth (eds.), The Piano in Nineteenth-Century British Culture: Essays on Instruments, Performers and Repertoire (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007), 193-215.
• ‘Challenging the Victorian musical soundscape: progressive repertoire and “The Working Men’s Society”’, in Martin Hewitt (ed.), Victorian Soundscapes, Leeds Working Papers in Victorian Studies IX (Leeds: Leeds Centre for Victorian Studies, 2007), 83-97.
• ‘Promotion through Performance; Liszt’s symphonic poems in the London concerts of Walter Bache’, in Julian Rushton & Rachel Cowgill (eds.), Europe, Empire, and Spectacle in Nineteenth-Century British Music (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006), 55-76.
• ‘Musical reactions to Tennyson; reformulating musical imagery in The Lotos Eaters’, in Phyllis Weliver (ed.), The Figure of Music in Nineteenth-Century British Poetry (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005), 177-213.
• ‘Words and Music: Bridges, Parry and the Invocation’, in Jeremy Dibble and Bennett Zon (eds.), Nineteenth-Century British Music Studies vol.2 (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2002), 295-318.

Periodical articles

• ‘Bax’s Elgar: musical quotation and allusion in the First String Quartet in G’ (in progress)
• ‘Richter’s Wagner: a new source for tempi in Das Rheingold’, Cambridge Opera Journal 20:2 (July 2008), 117-47. [published May 2009]. (http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayIssue?jid=OPR&volumeId=20&seriesId=0&issueId=02)
• ‘Shared Concerns: British Music and Literature in the Long Nineteenth Century’, 19: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century 1 (Autumn 2005), 1-33. (http://www.19.bbk.ac.uk/ Issue1articles/MichaelAllisarticle.pdf)
• ‘Elgar, Lytton, and the Piano Quintet, Op.84’, Music and Letters 85:2 (May 2004), 198-238.
• ‘Promoting the cause; Liszt Reception and Walter Bache’s London Concerts, 1865-87’, Journal of the American Liszt Society 51 (Spring 2002), 1-37. [pub. January 2004; repr. in the Liszt Society Journal 30 (2005), 12-43].
• ‘Elgar and the art of Retrospective Narrative’, Journal of Musicological Research 19 (2000), 289-328.
• ‘Samuel Butler and Handel; a study in obsession’, Handel Jahrbuch 44 (1998), 225-271.
• ‘Another “48”; Stanford and historic sensibility’, Music Review 55: 2 (May 1994), 119-137.
• ‘Parry and solo song composition’, Music Review 52:1 (February 1991), 31-51.
• ‘Parry and Shulbrede’, RCM Magazine 88:1 (Spring 1991), 10-14.
• ‘Forgotten String Music’, European String Teachers Association Journal 15:3 (Autumn 1990), 14-17.

Reviews

• CD review of piano works by Parry, Sterndale Bennett and Best, (Nineteenth-Century Music Review, forthcoming)
• Delia da Sousa Correa (ed.), Phrase and Subject; Studies in Literature and Music (London: MHRA, 2006), in Comparative Critical Studies 5:2-3 (October 2008), 335-39.
  
• Jeremy Dibble, John Stainer; A Life in Music (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2007), in Victorian Studies 51:1 (Autumn 2008), 151-53
• Matthew Riley, Edward Elgar and the Nostalgic Imagination, Music and Letters 89:4 (November 2008), 661-666.
• CD review of Granville Bantock's Orchestral Works, The Elgar Society Journal 15:4 (March 2008), 41-3.
• CD review of York Bowen’s 24 Preludes and Sixth Piano Sonata (Nineteenth-Century Music Review 5:1 (2008), 163-5.)
• Carol Fitzgerald and Brian W. Harvey, Elgar, Vicat Cole and the Ghosts of Brinkwells, Elgar Society Journal The Elgar Society Journal 15:3 (November 2007), 62-6.
• CD review of Somervell and Coleridge-Taylor Violin Concertos (Nineteenth-Century Music Review 4:2 (2007), 172-4.)
• Jeremy Dibble (ed.), Parry Sonatas for Violin and Pianoforte, Nineteenth-Century Music Review 2:1 (2006), 230-33.
• Trevor Hold, Parry to Finzi: Twenty English Song-Composers, Music and Letters 84:4 (November, 2003), 670-71.
• Charles Edward McGuire, Elgar’s Oratorios: The Creation of an Epic Narrative, Music and Letters 84:3 (August, 2003), 509-511.
• CD Reviews in Gramophone Early Music, including Boyce Trio Sonatas (Spring 2000, 78-9), Oswald: Airs for the Seasons/Colin’s Kisses (Winter 1999/2000), 95-6, and additional recordings of music by Boyce and Sances.
• Anthony Boden, The Parrys of the Golden Vale, Ivor Gurney Society Journal 5 (1999), 75-6.
• Michael Hurd, Rutland Boughton and the Glastonbury Festivals, RCM Magazine 92:1 (Spring 1995), 42-3.
• ‘The search for today’s Violin Virtuosos’, Classic CD Magazine 55 (November 1994), 26-8.
• Jeremy Dibble: C.Hubert C.Parry; His Life and Music, RCM Magazine 90:2 (Summer 1993), 55-6.
• ‘The unique technique of Perlman’, Classic CD Magazine 43 (November 1993), 30-32.

Editions (critical & other)

• Hubert Parry: Sonnets and Songs Without Words (Fentone Music, 1996).
• Hubert Parry: Shulbrede Tunes (Fentone Music, 1995).
• Hubert Parry: String Quartet no.3 (Fentone Music, 1995).

Radio / TV broadcasts

• Appearances on BBC2, Radio 3 (CD Review), Radio 4 and Classic FM.

Keynote & invited lectures

• ‘Vaughan Williams and the English Symphony’, Lawrence University, November 2004.
• ‘Bax and his Circle’, British Library (collaborative event with the Royal Academy of Music), March 2002.
• ‘Perspectives on Elgar’, LSO Elgar Study Day, Barbican, December 1998.
• ‘Approaching Vaughan Williams’, LSO Vaughan Williams Study Day, Barbican, October 1997.

Conference papers (oral)

• ‘Elgar abroad: In the South, travel literature, and “imaginative topography”’, 7th Biennial Conference on Music in 19th-Century Britain, University of Bristol, July 2009.
• 'Performance in public and private; "The Working Men's Society" and the progressive agenda', Music in 19th-Century Britain conference, University of Birmingham, July 2007.
• 'Challenging the Victorian musical soundscape; “progressive" repertoire and the "Working Men's Society"', Victorian Soundscapes conference, University of Leeds/Trinity and All Saints College, Leeds, March 2007.
• ‘Hidden Programmes: the case of Elgar, Bulwer Lytton and the Piano Quintet Op.84’, Royal Academy of Music (collaborative event with Birkbeck Centre for 19th-century Studies), February 2005.
• ‘Frederick Corder in Perspective’, Bax in Perspective Research Day, Royal Academy of Music, October 2003.
• ‘Promotion through Performance: Liszt’s Symphonic Poems in the London Concerts of Walter Bache’, Music in Nineteenth-Century Britain Conference, Leeds University, July 2003.
• ‘Elgar and Bulwer Lytton’, Edward Bulwer-Lytton Bicentenary Conference, Knebworth, May 2003.
• ‘Performance and Reception: the promotion of Liszt in Walter Bache’s London Concerts’, inaugural lecture, Music and Performance in 19th-century Britain, Royal Academy of Music, October 2002.
• ‘“Loading the dice”; Parry, Tennyson and The Lotos Eaters’, Study day on Victorian Music and Literature, University of Reading, May 2000.
• ‘Words and Music; Parry, Bridges and the Invocation’, Music in 19th-Century Britain Conference, Durham University, July 1999.
• ‘Parry as choral composer: images and perceptions’, Royal College of Music (Prince Consort Initiative series), June 1998.
• ‘Samuel Butler and Handel; a study in obsession’, Music in 19th-Century Britain Conference, Hull University, July 1997.
• ‘London Musical Life, c.1890’, International Albéniz Association Symposium, London, July 1997.
• ‘Parry the complete composer’, London University Extra-Mural Department, April 1995.
• ‘Parry the composer; revisions and dilemmas’, English Music Study Day, Birmingham University, June 1994.
• ‘Parry and the compositional process’, Royal Holloway & Bedford New College, February 1993.

Other

• Sleeve notes for Hyperion, Dutton and Lantern Productions, including Hurlstone Chamber Works (Dutton laboratories, CDLX7128, 2003), A Choral portrait of Vaughan Williams (Rochester Cathedral Choir, 2000), and Richard Strauss Songs (Hyperion CDA66659, 1995).

• 2005 - 2008: Dublin Conservatory of Music, DIT: MMus Performance programme.
• 2005 – 2006: Imperial College, London: Undergraduate Humanities course ‘Music and Western Civilization’.
• 2004 – 2006: Trinity College of Music, London: MMus Lecture Recitals.

• 2009: University of Melbourne, PhD
• 2007: Durham University, PhD;
  Royal College of Music, DMus (upgrade)
• 2006: Durham University, PhD
• 2005: Birmingham University, MPhil (2)

• Member of Editorial Board
  • Journal of Victorian Studies; Nineteen: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century.

Current Research Students

• Mark Deeks: Norse mythology in rock music
• Duncan Boutwood: The musical criticism of Herbert Thompson
• Georgia Katsiroumpa: The vocal works of Dion Arivas (1928-2000)
• Kathryn Lee Lent: The Life and Influence of Walter Wilson Cobbett (1847-1937)
• Jonathan Tobutt: Leon Goossens and early 20th-century chamber music

Past Research Students

• April Frederick: The songs of Ivor Gurney
• Monta Monique Said: Liszt’s female pupils
• Mariko Ono: John Ireland’s Piano Music and related repertoire (2009)
• Florian Uhlig: Genre and Performance, with specific reference to the barcarolle

Abstract

The Creative Process of C.Hubert H.Parry

The image of Parry perpetuated in secondary literature is often that of a composer who had a great facility, and who displayed an uncritical attitude towards his own compositions. This view of Parry is reappraised by close examination of the extant sketch material, along with evidence from notebooks, letters and the composer’s diaries and published writings. After having examined the early sketchbooks, the variety of paper types present in the Parry manuscripts are identified; this has implications regarding questions of chronology in the manuscripts. Each stage in the compositional process is then defined and explained, from early sketches through to performance and publication. This is followed by a detailed study of Parry’s attitude to the texts that he set, some of which he composed himself. The striking feature at all of these stages is that Parry subjected his work to frequent revision, often of a radical nature, which belies the charge of an uncritical attitude. The overwhelming sense of responsibility to his craft, seen throughout his published writings, also meant that he was aware of the moral and ethical aspects of composing music, and was therefore serious in his approach. Although certain works may have been composed quite quickly, the overall impression from comments in Parry’s diaries and the scope of the alterations in the manuscripts is that the composer often found composition difficult, and that the problems posed by the variety of genres in which he worked were not easily solved. Bearing in mind all of these factors, the image of Parry as facile and uncritical is inappropriate.