Biography
Christopher Dingle is Research Degrees Co-ordinator, Reader in Music and Assistant Course Director (BMus). He is a specialist in French Music, notably Messiaen, and the history and practice of music criticism. He is currently working on a project charting developments in music criticism in British newspapers since 1945, and, with Chris Morley, is preparing The Cambridge Introduction to Music Criticism.
He is author of The Life of Messiaen (Cambridge University Press) and Messiaen’s Final Works (Ashgate, forthcoming 2012). He is also co-editing two volumes of essays, Messiaen Perspectives 1: Sources and Influences and Messiaen Perspectives 2: Techniques, Influence and Reception (both Ashgate, forthcoming 2013). He was the organiser of the Messiaen 2008 Centenary Conference hosted by Birmingham Conservatoire in June 2008, having previously conceived and organised the Messiaen 2002 International Conference in Sheffield. He was much in demand during the composer’s centenary year, giving numerous talks in the UK and abroad, notably at The Proms, the RNCM, the RAM, on BBC Radio 3 and as part of the Southbank’s From the canyons to the stars festival.
He is a member of the review panel for BBC Music Magazine, contributes regularly to Tempo, has broadcast for BBC Radio 3, and has written for Music and Letters, The Guardian, The Independent, The Herald and Organists’ Review. He is a member of the jury for the BBC Music Magazine Awards 2011, having also served on the jury for the 2008 awards, and he was one of the contributors to 1001 Classical Recordings you must hear before your die, Matthew Rye (ed.), Quarto Press (2007).
Originally from Ilford, prior to joining the Conservatoire he was a British Academy Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Sheffield, having previously been Associate Senior Lecturer and Course Leader in Music at the University of Northumbria at Newcastle. His graduate and postdoctoral research was all funded by the British Academy. In 1994 he was awarded ‘The Chancellor’s Medal’ for his research into Messiaen and his contribution to the musical life of the University of Sheffield. He is also a keen performer, appearing as conductor, percussionist, pianist and bass guitarist, while it is rumoured that he is also a lapsed oboist.
Publications
Books
- 2007: The Life of Messiaen , Cambridge University Press. [Hardback and Paperback].
"Christopher Dingle’s masterly and insightful The life of Messiaen, deeply pondered over a lengthy gestation period, clearly possesses its own independent identity and perspectives, and his wide ranging researches have thrown up some significant new information." - from Andrew Thomson’s review ‘Beyond the birds’, published in The Musical Times (Spring 2008), pp91-98
- 2007: Christopher Dingle and Nigel Simeone (eds), Olivier Messiaen: Music, Art and Literature, Aldershot: Ashgate.
"Dingle & Simeone have collated an invaluable in-depth collection of 16 essays entitled Olivier Messiaen: music, art and literature, arising from the Messiaen 2002 International Conference at Sheffield. ... In short, this volume represents a huge advance in Messiaen scholarship." - from Andrew Thomson’s review ‘Beyond the birds’, published in The Musical Times (Spring 2008), pp91-98
Book Chapters
- 2007: ‘Frescoes and Legends: the sources and background to Saint François d’Assise’ in Olivier Messiaen: Music, Art and Literature, Christopher Dingle and Nigel Simeone (eds), Aldershot: Ashgate, pp. 301-322.
- 1995: ‘Catalogue of works and Discography’ in The Messiaen Companion, Peter Hill (ed.), London: Faber, pp. 536 - 565.
Journal articles
- July 2007: ‘Forgotten offerings: Messiaen’s first orchestral works’ Tempo, no.241, pp2-21.
- April 2000 : ‘La statue reste sur son piédestal: Messiaen’s La Transfiguration and Vatican II’. Tempo, no.212, pp.8 -11.
- April 1995: ‘Charm and Simplicity - the works of Olivier Messiaen's final years'. Tempo, no.192, pp. 2 - 7.
Theses
Understated charm: style and technique in the last works of Olivier Messiaen, 2 volumes (PhD; Sheffield, February 2000).
Mystery and light: Olivier Messiaen's La Transfiguration de Notre-Seigneur, Jésus-Christ , 2 volumes (MPhil; Sheffield, September 1994).
Recent review articles
‘Messiaen’s Contemplations of Covenant and Incarnation: Musical Symbols of Faith in the Two Great Piano Cycles of the 1940s. By Siglind Bruhn; Messiaen’s Explorations of Love and Death: Musical Signification in the ‘‘Tristan Trilogy’’ and Three Related Song Cycles. By Siglind Bruhn; Messiaen’s Interpretations of Holiness and Trinity: Echoes of Medieval Theology in the Oratorio, Organ Meditations and Opera. By Siglind Bruhn’ in Music and Letters 91 (3) (August, 2010), 457-62.
October 2008: ‘Messiaen Studies edited by Robert Scholl; Olivier Messiaen: A Research and Information Guide by Vincent P. Benitez’, in Tempo no.246 pp.70-72.
January 2008: ‘Peter Hill & Nigel Simeone: Olivier Messiaen: Oiseaux exotiques’, in Tempo no.243 pp.65-70.
January 2005: ‘Ravel: Analyses des Œuvres pour Piano de Maurice Ravel [in French] by Olivier Messiaen and Yvonne Loriod-Messiaen. Durand (United Music Publishers); Technique of my Musical Language by Olivier Messiaen, English translation by John Satterfield, Alphonse Leduc (United Music Publishers).’ in Tempo no.231 pp.61-2.
January 2004: ‘Traité du rythme, ornithologie et couleur, Tome V, volumes 1 & 2, Tome VI & Tome VII by Olivier Messiaen’ in Tempo no.227, pp.41-45.
Invited Papers
‘Prophets of doom and the doom of profit: Music Criticism in the 21st Century’, - SMA Study Day on Performance Criticism, IMR, London, December 2009.
‘Not nice, but truthful: faith and the faithful in Messiaen’s music’ – keynote speech, Messiaen Symposium, Stavanger, November 2008.
‘Messiaen’s Late Organ Music’, co-presentation with David Titterington, Research Forum, Royal Academy of Music, October 2008.
Participation in round table – Symposium: Interpreting Messiaen's Piano Music, Royal Academy of Music, October 2008.
Participation in round table – Messiaen Weekend, Royal Northern College of Music, May 2008.
Selected Conference Papers
July 2011: Christopher Dingle and Laura Hamer, 'Ambassadors, Battlelines and the Progressive Canon: the evolving reception of New Music in The Times since World War Two', – Seventh International Conference on Music Since 1900, Lancaster.
July 2011: Christopher Dingle and Laura Hamer, ‘Evolutions and Revolutions: A New Methodology for the Application of Digital Resources to Music Criticism’, – RMA ‘Horizons’ Conference, Sussex.
‘Éclairs sur l’Au-Delà…: Messiaen’s music after his final work’, – Colloque International: Le grand âge et ses œuvres ultimes, Université de Poitiers – GERHICO, December 2009.
‘Messiaen as pianist: a Romantic in a modernist world’, – Symposium: Interpreting Messiaen's Piano Music, Royal Academy of Music, October 2008.
June 2008: ‘A love without influence? Messiaen and Mozart’ – Messiaen 2008 International Centenary Conference, Birmingham Conservatoire.
November 2007: ‘Recording Messiaen: a Romantic in a modernist world’ – French Analysis and Performance, BYU Hawaii.
September 2007: ‘Recording Messiaen: a Romantic in a modernist world’ - CHARM/RMA conference, Royal Holloway.
March 2007: ‘Symbols, Tam Tams and Wisdom: The Influence of Vatican II and Transcendence in Messiaen‘s La Transfiguration de Notre-Seigneur, Jésus-Christ’ – FMCS Meeting 2007, Yale.
August 2005: ‘The Mysterious Workings of Liberty: Mechanical Procedures in Messiaen’s Natural and Theological Works’ – Fourth Biennial International Conference on Twentieth-Century Music, Sussex.
June 2003: ‘Natural selection: understanding the distribution of material in Messiaen’s birdsong choruses’ – Third Biennial International Conference on Twentieth-Century Music, Nottingham.