Birmingham Conservatoire : Dr Shirley Thompson

• Director of Studies (Postgraduate)
• Birmingham Conservatoire
• Faculty of Performance, Media & English
• Email: shirley.thompson@bcu.ac.uk
• Phone: +44 (0)121 331 7214

Dr Shirley Thompson graduated from the University of Hull in 1987 with a first class BMus degree. Following a PGCE, she spent three years teaching at a Northamptonshire secondary school. She subsequently won a British Academy Major Scholarship to study for a PhD at Hull and was awarded a doctorate in 1998 for a thesis on the music of the French Baroque composer Marc-Antoine Charpentier (‘The Autograph Manuscripts of Marc-Antoine Charpentier: Clues to Performance'). In 1996 Shirley was appointed Lecturer (then Senior Lecturer) in Music at the University of Wolverhampton. She moved to Birmingham Conservatoire in 2001, where she is currently Director of Studies (Postgraduate).

Shirley's research has continued to focus on French Baroque music and Charpentier in particular. Since her PhD she has edited a book on Charpentier and published a number of articles and reviews. She has also prepared numerous editions of Charpentier's music for such well respected performers as Emma Kirkby, Ex Cathedra and the St James' Baroque Players, including music for two BBC Promenade Concerts. In 2004, Shirley organized a conference at the Conservatoire, ‘Charpentier and His World', to mark the tercentenary of the composer's death, an event which attracted scholars from all over the world.

Edited Book

• New Perspectives on Marc-Antoine Charpentier (Farnham: Ashgate, 2010)

Articles

• 2009: ‘Declensions and Debauchery: Exploring Two “New” Charpentier Attributions’, Bulletin Charpentier, 2 (2009), pp. 20–40
• 2004: 'Charpentier and the viol', Early Music, xxxii, pp. 497– 510
• 2002: 'Once more into the void: Marc-Antoine Charpentier's croches blanches reconsidered', Early Music, xxx, pp. 82–92
• 2001: 'Reflections on Four Charpentier Chronologies'. Journal of Seventeenth-Century Music, vii
• 1994: Co-author (with Graham Sadler) of 'Marc-Antoine Charpentier and the basse continue', Basler Jahrbuch für Historische Musikpraxis, xviii, pp. 9–30

Book Chapters

• 2010: ‘Charpentier’s Motets melêz de symphonie: A Nephew’s Offering’ in Shirley Thompson (ed.), New Perspectives on Marc-Antoine Charpentier (Farnham: Ashgate), pp. 287–314
• 2007: 'Colouration in the Mélanges: Purpose and Precedent' in Catherine Cessac (ed.), Les manuscrits autographes de Marc-Antoine Charpentier. Études du Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles. Sprimont: Mardaga, pp. 121–36
• 2005: 'A mute question: Charpentier and the sourdines', in Catherine Cessac (ed.) Marc-Antoine Charpentier, un musicien retrouvé. Études du Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles. Sprimong: Mardaga, pp. 183–97; reprinted from Bulletin de la Société Marc-Antoine Charpentier, xvii (2000): pp. 7–18

Selected Editions

• 2004: Charpentier, Actéon changé en biche, for a public performance by Birmingham Conservatoire students, Adrian Boult Hall, Birmingham
• 2004-5: Charpentier, works for series of five concerts 'Praying for reign: Private music of a king in waiting' supported by the Arts Council (venues: Southampton, Bristol, Tonbridge, York, Hull ). Performers: Emma Kirkby, Sophie Daneman, Julia Gooding, Peter Harvey, David Roblou, Laurence Cummings, Pamela Thorby, Gail Hennessy, Catherine Latham, Elizabeth Kenny, Mark Levy, David Miller, Paula Chateauneuf
• 2003-4: Charpentier, Messe à quatre choeurs and Salve regina à trois choeurs: performed by Ex Cathedra in Birmingham and London, and recorded by Hyperion
• 1999: Charpentier, Extremum Dei judicium, for BBC Promenade Concert, Royal Albert Hall, London, performed by Ex Cathedra
• 1994: Charpentier, Mass: Assumpta est Maria; In obitum; De profundis for Lufthansa Festival, Wigmore Hall, London, performed by St James's Baroque Players
• 1993: Charpentier, Messe pour les trépassés; Dies irae; Motet pour les trépassés, for BBC Promenade Concert, Royal Albert Hall, London, performed by St James's Baroque Players

Recent Conference Papers

• 2010: ‘“La diversité qui fait toute l’essence de la musique”: Establishing the range of vocal specifications in Charpentier’s sacred music’, 14th Biennial International Conference on Baroque Music, Queen’s University Belfast, 30 June–4 July 2010
• 2009: ‘Anticipating Noverre: Louis de Cahusac’s development of the ballet figuré and danse d’action at the Paris Opéra, 1745–1756’, Conference of the European Association of Dance Historians, Schwetzingen, Germany, October 2009 (co-presenter with Graham Sadler)
• 2009: ‘The Enigma of Charpentier’s off-the-stave Dot: Clues to a Multiplicity of Uses’, International Musicological Society Symposium, ‘Music: Notation and Sound’, Amsterdam, July 2009
• 2006: 'Charpentier's Motets melêz de symphonie: A Nephew’s Offering', 14th Annual Conference of the Society for Seventeenth-Century Music, University of Toronto, Canada, April 20–23, 2006
• 2005: 'Choreography in French opera and ballet scores: the example of Rameau and Charpentier' (with Graham Sadler), Conference of the European Society of Dance Historians, Bedern Hall, York, October 28–30, 2005
• 2004: 'Colouration in the Mélanges: Purpose and Precedent' given at the International Conference, 'Les Mélanges de Marc-Antoine Charpentier: La composition, la copie et l'interpretation', Château de Versailles, France, commencing September 30, 2004
• 2004: 'Charpentier and the debauched monks: questions of authenticity in newly-discovered vocal trios', given at 'Charpentier and His World' International Conference at Birmingham Conservatoire, in April 2004

Selected Reviews

• 2009: ‘Charpentier and Mondonville’, Early Music, xxxvii, pp. 487–9
• 2008: ‘French Baroque Chamber Music’, Early Music, xxxvi, pp. 142–4
• 2006: 'Lalande, "le Lully latin"', Early Music, xxxiv, pp. 678–81
• 2006: 'Scandal and Songbirds in the French Baroque', Early Music, xxxiv, pp. 329–31
• 2005: 'French Baroque devotions', Early Music, xxxiii, pp. 337–9
• 2004: 'A Charpentier gallery', Early Music, xxxii, pp. 613– 14
• 2002: 'Charpentier, sacred and secular', Early Music, xxx, pp.645–9
• 2001: 'Charpentier, Clérambault, Mondonville', Early Music, xxix, pp. 140–42

Society for Seventeenth-Century Music