Becoming a national composer: critical reception to c.1925

The centrality of Vaughan Williams to British music in the first half of the twentieth century is now a commonplace in musicology, but this has not always been so. Prior to 1914 Vaughan Williams was regarded by a number of British critics as a figure of considerable potential, but of less interest than composers like Granville Bantock, Cyril Scott, and Joseph Holbrooke: a reflection, in part, of the many different strands that existed in musical modernism in pre-war Britain, as well as scepticism that Vaughan Williams's engagement with English folksong offered anything original. In this chapter, I consider this inauspicious early period of Vaughan Williams reception, when even works considered seminal today like the Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis were received by some critics with bewilderment, and the changes that took place in the years after World War One after which Vaughan Williams became the leader of British musical modernism. I argue that Vaughan Williams's emergence reflects a change in attitude by British critics to modernism in general, to their approach to musical criticism, and to Vaughan Williams's musical language; in particular I note the distinction increasingly drawn by critics between folksong arrangements and a musical language derived from folksong.

Determination of the Physical Properties of Room Temperature Ionic Liquids Using a Love Wave Device

In this work, we have shown that a 100 MHz Love wave device can be used to determine whether room temperature ionic liquids (RTILs) are Newtonian fluids and have developed a technique that allows the determination of the density-viscosity product, rho eta of a Newtonian RTIL. In addition, a test for a Newtonian response was established by relating the phase change to insertion loss change. Five concentrations of a water-miscible RTIL and seven pure RTILs were measured. The changes in phase and insertion loss were found to vary linearly with the square root of the density-viscosity product for values up to (rho eta)(1/2) similar to 10 kg m(-2) s(-1/2). The square root of the density-viscosity product was deduced from the changes in either phase or insertion loss using glycerol as a calibration liquid. In both cases, the deduced values of rho eta agree well with those measured using viscosity and density meters. Miniaturization of the device, beyond that achievable with the lower-frequency quartz crystal microbalance approach, to measure smaller volumes is possible. The ability to fabricate Love wave and other surface acoustic wave sensors using planar metallization technologies gives potential for future integration into lab-on-a-chip analytical systems for characterizing ionic liquids.

Re-Stor(y)ing social change

New understandings arise as we encounter the emergent integration of both rational and emotional, physical and spiritual, masculine and feminine through imagination, myth, and storytelling. This expanded space fosters an iterative spiraling process whereby new personal and collective futures emerge from transformative possibilities. Contemplating love and the situatedness of our being creates a space for seeing differently, more inclusively. Thought Woman tells a story of encounters arising from contemplation, framing an emancipatory path toward wholeness and unity, being shaped through becoming, recognizing the interrelated web of life wherein humankind can flourish. Flourishing represents the central focus of the critical accounting project.

Rising incidence of Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia suggests iatrogenic exposure of immune compromised patients may be becoming a significant problem.

Against a background of point-source outbreaks of Pneumocystis pneumonia (PCP) in renal transplant units in Europe, we undertook a retrospective 3 year observational review of PCP in Northern Ireland. This showed an unexpected increase in incidence, with a mortality rate of 30%. Fifty-one cases were confirmed compared to 10 in the preceding 7 years. Where undiagnosed HIV infection had previously been the main risk factor for PCP, this was now equally matched by chemotherapy for haematological and non-haematological malignancy and immune suppression for a range of autoimmune conditions. Congenital immunodeficiency and transplantation were less common pre-disposing factors, but renal grafts also showed a rising incidence. Asymptomatic carriage was uncommon. At presentation both upper and lower respiratory samples were of equal use in establishing the diagnosis and treatment resulted in rapid clearance. The data suggests the need for considering PCP in at risk patients, reviewing its mode of acquisition and whether iatrogenic colonization is a treatable pre-condition. [Epub ahead of print]

The Sound of Becoming: Moving Towards a Virtual Music

In 1985 Jacques Attali proposed a new modality for music. He suggests that there be “not a new music, but a new way of making music... a radically new form of the insertion of music into communication” (Attali 134). What Attali foretold has become a firm reality in contemporary musical practice. One has only to look at any current musical activity to encounter work that relies heavily on real-time interaction and dynamic generation and/or modification of materials. But why is this ontologically different ‘mode of essentially interactive and transformative existence’ (Ziarek 195), this ‘new way of making music’, so attractive to contemporary artists? What is motivating artists to abandon a production model in favor of a model of real-time interactive exploration? I will argue that at the foundation of this new artistic ontology lies Deleuze’s concept of the virtual. It is a recognition of the virtual power of music, that music making can be an act of invention, a process where one can discover something never before experienced.

The Family of Love in English Society, 1550-1630

A detailed investigation of an outlawed mystical religious fellowship in early modern England.