Nothing New Under the Sun with Dr. Cecilia Livingston

Nothing New Under the Sun: Composition as Adaptation with Dr. Cecilia Livingston

She shared her chapter-in-progress, forthcoming in The Cambridge Companion to Composition, in which she uses Linda Hutcheon's Theory of Adaptation (2006, rev. 2013) as a framework for considering how composers approach adaptation into musical forms. Her chapter moves from pragmatic exploration of how composers adapt - looking at Christopher Cerrone's Invisible Cities (2013), Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes, and touching on 'boundary cases' - to ask why adaptation continues to appeal to composers, what opportunities and challenges it presents, and why a clearer understanding of adaptation in music is helpful to academics, producers, lawyers, audiences, teachers and students of composition, and everyone who enjoys adaptations but isn't quite sure why. She's focused on adaptations into classical music; and was keen for feedback and discussion with students and colleagues in musical theater and drama.

Cecilia Livingston joined the DAN School this year, teaching composition and theory. She is composer-in-residence at Glyndebourne Opera in the UK, and just finished a two-year SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellowship in Music at King's College London. She is Vice-President of the Canadian League of Composers, and holds a DMA in Composition from the University of Toronto. She is represented by Stratagem Artists in New York. https://cecilialivingston.com

Presented at the DAN School of Drama and Music, Kingston, ON.