Variations on a Theme: Modernism in Art and Music
Online
Spring School Online
Dr Charlotte de Mille and Benedict Collins Rice
5 pre-recorded lectures with 3 live Zoom seminars at 14:00, and where necessary, also at 16:00 [London time], from Wednesday 15 to Friday 17 April 2026
瞿245
Course Description
To continue in one path is to go backward Igor Stravinsky
What is modernism and how does it manifest itself in art and music? An art historian and a musician join forces to gain a more varied perspective of the cultural transformations produced during the turbulent period from the European revolutions of 1848-1849 to the aftermath of the Second World War. This course looks outward at the plurality of ways in which artists and composers responded to and reflected this shared context of artistic and socio-political upheaval.泭 What was Wagners musical revolution and how did it draw on, and affect, the visual arts? What subjective novel forms of art and music did Vienna and its new psychology produce around the turn of the twentieth century? Are there musical equivalents to Cubist and Abstract art? What role do spontaneity and chance play in the paintings of Piet Mondrian and in John Cages musical compositions?
Over the course of five pre-recorded lectures and three live seminars, we shall encounter exciting and challenging images and sounds from this dynamic period. Our live discussions will address the relationships between creator and audience, the role of the artist in a post-patronage society, and the perceived austerity and elitism of modern art and music. The course will feature contributions from The Facade Ensemble a group founded to perform the repertoire of musical modernism, challenge its reputation as difficult, delight in its thrilling sound worlds, and promote it to a wider audience.
Please note that in 2025 new VAT rules for online courses came into effect in the EU. This means that we are now required to charge EU participants their local VAT rate.泭 VAT-inclusive prices for EU students will be displayed at check-out.
If you have any questions please email us at泭short.courses@courtauld.ac.uk
Lecturer's Biographies
Dr Charlotte de Mille curates the Courtauld Gallerys music programme. With the Gallery she co-authored Animating Art History, a joint initiative with Central St. Martins and the University for the Creative Arts, which was long-listed for a Clore Award in Museum Learning. She was Visiting Scholar at Lingnan University, Hong Kong in 2018, and Mid-Career Fellow at the Paul Mellon Centre for British Art 2019-20. She is Associate Lecturer at the Courtauld teaching the MA Music and the Visual Arts. She edited泭Music and Modernism泭(2011) and is co-editor of泭The Bloomsbury Handbook to Music and Art泭(2023). Her book泭Bergson in Britain: Modern Art and Philosophy泭was published by EUP in the autumn of 2023. She is co-director of the project泭Intersections of Music and Art in Europe 1950-2000,泭with the Fondazione Cini, Venice.
泭has performed throughout Europe and America (from The Royal Albert Hall to Carnegie Hall); recorded for several record labels, for BBC and NBC Television, the BFI, and broadcast on Radio 3 and 4.泭 He follows Holst and Tippett as Lecturer at Morley College. Recent conducting highlights include working with the Berlin Sinfonietta, CBSO Chorus, BBC Concert Orchestra, Southbank Sinfonia and British Youth Opera.
Championing the ensemble music of twentieth-century modernism,泭 was founded by its conductor and artistic director, Benedict Collins Rice, and drew its members originally from the finest singers and instrumentalists at Cambridge University. Already with pedigrees including National Youth Orchestra principal seats and BBC Young Musician Finalists, the ensemble has continued developing as a dynamic collective of young professionals. It contains Radio 3 New Generation Artists, members of vocal groups such as The Sixteen, Voces 8, and Tenebrae, who come together to advocate for this thrilling but under-represented repertoire. Their debut album is due for release next year.
on YouTube.