Philip Taylor, PhD (University of Lancaster)
Teaching Fellow in British Studies
ptaylor@harlaxton.ac.uk

Dr Taylor is a graduate of the University of Lancaster (BA, MMus, PhD), where he worked under the supervision of Professor Roger Bray. He is a member of the Royal Musical Association and the Society for Renaissance Studies, and an Associate of the UK Higher Education Academy. He is also currently an Associate Lecturer for The Open University.

 

Research Interests

My research interests focus on the interpretation of music from late 16th and early 17th century England, particularly the cultural milieu surrounding the composer William Byrd (c.1540–1623). The enduring value of Byrd’s compositions together with his complex religious identity as a Catholic recusant raises fascinating questions for musicologists concerning how best to understand music in relation to its historical context.

My AHRC-funded doctoral research approached this question through the manuscript circulation of William Byrd’s secular songs, in particular a large collection of music books compiled by the Norfolk gentleman Edward Paston (1550–1630). In this thesis I demonstrated how Paston’s religious, literary and musical interests can help to explain the significance of these sources, and shed light on the origins and meanings of Byrd’s songs. I have presented this research at several international musicological conferences, and am currently preparing articles for publication. More broadly I am interested in the role that Renaissance music plays in conceptions of British history, as part of an Elizabethan ‘Golden Age’, and will seek to incorporate this into the new Honours component of the British Studies course at Harlaxton.

Selected Publications

Article

‘‘O Worthy Queen’: Byrd’s elegy for Mary I’, The Viol: Journal of the Viola da Gamba Society of Great Britain, 5 (2006-7), 13–17.

Book Reviews & Reports

William Byrd: A Guide to Research (2nd ed.), Richard Turbet, Library Review, 58 (2009), 391–2.

‘Celebrating Byrd’, A Byrd Celebration: lectures at the William Byrd Festival, Portland, Oregon 1998–2008, ed. Richard Turbet, Early Music, 37 (2009), 664–6.

‘William Byrd at Duke’, International William Byrd Conference, Duke University, North Carolina, U.S., 17-19 Nov 2005, Early Music, 34 (2005), 341–2.