Professor Richard Wistreich

MA (Cantab), MA (Music), PhD

Richard Wistreich is a scholar, teacher and singer, with wide-ranging research interests and in particular, vocal and ensemble performance in Europe between 1450 and 1800. He has published on many aspects of the cultural history of singing, and travels widely to talk about his work to both music specialists and at interdisciplinary conferences. Richard was the RCM’s Director of Research from 2014-2020. He is currently Chair of the Advisory Board of the Warburg Institute, London University School of Advanced Studies and was until 2022 Honorary Chair of the Society for Renaissance Studies.

Recent publications include The Cambridge History of Sixteenth Century Music and Voicing Text 1500–1700, a special issue of the Huntington Library Quarterly. Current projects include a monograph on the history of the early modern voice and ‘Materialising Musical Instruments’, together with the RCM’s Professor Gabriele Rossi Rognoni, funded by the British Academy and Leverhulme Trust.

Richard has also had a long and distinguished career as a singer of both early and contemporary music. He has made concert, radio and television appearances in concerts and opera worldwide, and recorded more than 100 CDs. In 1989 he co-founded the ensemble Red Byrd with John Potter, dedicated to performing both old and new music, often side-by-side in the same concerts.

Selected publications

Fenlon I & Wistreich R (eds.) (2018), The Cambridge History of Sixteenth Century Music, Cambridge University Press [ISBN 9780521195942].  Includes three chapters by R Wistreich: ‘Introduction’, ‘Music and war’, and ‘The lives of musicians.’

Wistreich R (2017), ‘Inclosed in this tabernacle of flesh’: body, soul, and the singing voice, Journal of the Northern Renaissance, 8, [LINK].

Richards J & Wistreich R (2016), The anatomy of the Renaissance voice, in A Whitehead & A Woods (eds.), The Edinburgh Companion to the Critical Medical Humanities (pp. 276-293), Edinburgh University Press [ISBN 9781474400046].

Wistreich R (2015), High, middle and low: singing Monteverdi, in D Fabris & M K Murata (eds.) Passaggio in Italia: Music on the Grand tour in the Seventeenth Century, Brepols [ISBN 978-2-503-53568-5].

Wistreich R (2013), Using the music: musical materials and expert singers’ practices in Monteverdi’s time, Basler Jahrbuch für Historische Musikpraxis, Amadeus [ISBN 978-3-905786-16-3].

Wistreich R (2011), Music books and sociability, Il Saggiatore Musicale, 18, 230-246.

Wistreich R (ed.) (2011), The Baroque Composers: Monteverdi, Ashgate [ISBN 9780754629023].

Wistreich R (2007), Warrior, Courtier, Singer: Giulio Cesare Brancaccio and the Performance of Identity in the Late Renaissance, Routledge (reprint 2016) [ISBN 9780754654148].

Faculties / departments: Research

Research

Research areas

Performance

Musicology

 

Research projects

Music, Migration and Mobility

 

Research students

Esteban Marino

 

Latest Publications

Wistreich, R. and Rossi Rognoni, G. (2024) Expanding perspectives: materialising musical instruments. Journal of Musicological Research ISSN 0141-1896 (print) 1547-7304 (online) (In Press)

Wistreich, R. (2023) Performing social relationships: the materialism of collective music-making. In: University of Birmingham Centre for Reformation and Early Modern Studies, 25 October 2023, Shakespeare Institute, Stratford-upon-Avon. (Unpublished)

Wistreich, R. (2023) Colonialism, late capitalism, and the invention of Early Music. In: ‘The Revival of Heritage’: in memoriam Richard Taruskin (1945–2022), 28–29 August 2023, STIMU Symposium, Utrecht Festival Oude Muziek. (Unpublished)

Wistreich, R. (2023) Book review: 'Seachanges: Music in the Mediterranean and Atlantic Worlds, 1550–1800', ed. Kate van Orden. Journal of the American Musicological Society, 76 (2) pp. 513-518. ISSN 0003-0139 (print) 1547-3848 (online)

Wistreich, R. (2023) The elite singing voice. In: The Museum of Renaissance Music: A History in 100 Exhibits. Brepols, Turnhout, pp. 423-425. ISBN 978-2-503-58856-8 (paperback) 978-2-503-58857-5 (e-book)

Wistreich, R. (2022) Music, history, materiality: where we are coming from. In: Materialising Musical Instruments, 8-9 December 2022, Royal College of Music. (Unpublished)

Wistreich, R. (2022) The materiality of Early Modern ensemble music making. In: Royal Musical Association Annual Conference, 7-10 September 2022, Durham. (Unpublished)

Wistreich, R. (2021) Colonialism, capitalism, and the invention of Early Music. In: Forum für Aufführungspraxis, 1 December 2021, Staatliche Hochschule für Musik, Trossingen, Germany. (Unpublished)

Wistreich, R. (2021) ‘Il vero modo di cantar’: the international transmission of the sound of Italian singing in early modern Europe. In: Early Modern Soundscapes, 7 July 2021, Online (Liverpool John Moores University). (Unpublished)

Wistreich, R. (2019) Singing Handel, then and now. Handel News, 76 pp. 5-8. ISSN 2517-7656

Richards, J. and Wistreich, R. (2019) Introduction: voicing text 1500-1700. Huntington Library Quarterly (special issue), 82 (1) pp. 3-16. ISSN 1544-399X (online) 0018-7895 (print)

Fenlon, I. and Wistreich, R. (2019) Introduction. In: The Cambridge History of Sixteenth-Century Music. The Cambridge History of Music . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 1-23. ISBN 9780511675874

Wistreich, R. (2019) Music and war. In: The Cambridge History of Sixteenth-Century Music. The Cambridge History of Music . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 176-205. ISBN 9780511675874

Wistreich, R. (2019) The lives of musicians. In: The Cambridge History of Sixteenth-Century Music. The Cambridge History of Music . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 288-334. ISBN 9780511675874

Wistreich, R. (2018) Historically informed singing: fantasy, reality - or an irrelevance? In: National Early Music Forum, 21 October 2018, Brighton. (Unpublished)

Wistreich, R. (2018) Agricola, Johann Friedrich; Bernhard, Christoph; Brunelli, Antonio; Caccini, Giulio; Conforti, Giovanni Luca; Corri, Domenico; Hiller, Johann Adam; Maffei, Giovanni Camillo; Mancini, Giovanni Battista; Monteverdi, Claudio; Zacconi, Lodovico; Zenobi, Luigi. In: The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Historical Performance in Music. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. ISBN 9781107108080 (hardback) 9781107518476 (paperback) 9781108698573 (e-book)

Wistreich, R. (2018) Performance practice scholarship. In: The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Historical Performance in Music. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 476-482. ISBN 9781107108080 (hardback) 9781107518476 (paperback) 9781108698573 (e-book)

Wistreich, R. (2018) Singing. In: The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Historical Performance in Music. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 576-580. ISBN 9781107108080 (hardback) 9781107518476 (paperback) 9781108698573 (e-book)

Wistreich, R. (2018) Vocal performance. In: The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Historical Performance in Music. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 676-681. ISBN 9781107108080 (hardback) 9781107518476 (paperback) 9781108698573 (e-book)

Wistreich, R. (2017) ‘Inclosed in this tabernacle of flesh’: body, soul, and the singing voice. Journal of the Northern Renaissance, 8 ISSN 1759-3085

Tregear, P. and Johansen, G. and Jorgensen, H. and Sloboda, J. and Tulve, H. and Wistreich, R. (2016) Conservatoires in society: institutional challenges and possibilities for change. Arts & Humanities in Higher Education, 15 (3-4) pp. 276-292. ISSN 14740222

Wistreich, R. and Richards, J. (2016) The anatomy of the Renaissance voice. In: The Edinburgh Companion to the Critical Medical Humanities. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, pp. 276-293. ISBN 9781474400046 (hardback) 9781474414555 (e-book)

Wistreich, R. (2016) Reconstructing historical singing: reality or fantasy? In: Diversity in Historically Informed Performance, 17 May 2016, King's Place, London. (Unpublished)

Wistreich, R. (2015) High, middle, and low: singing Monteverdi. In: Passaggio in Italia: Music on the Grand Tour in the Seventeenth Century. Brepols, Turnhout, pp. 65-83. ISBN 978-2-503-53568-5

Wistreich, R. and Potter, J. (2013) Singing early music: a conversation. Early Music, 41 (1) pp. 22-26. ISSN 0306-1078 (print) 1741-7260 (online)

Wistreich, R. (2013) Ars militaria. In: Die Musik in der Kultur der Renaissance: Kontexte, Disziplinen, Diskurse. Handbuch der Musik der Renaissance (5). Laaber, Lilienthal, Germany. ISBN 9783890077055

Wistreich, R. (2013) 'Nach der jetzig Newen Italienischen Manier zur guten Art im singen sich gewehnen': the trillo and the migration of Italian noble singing. Analecta Musicologica, 49 pp. 138-150. ISSN 0569-9827

Wistreich, R. (2012) Vocal performance in the seventeenth century. In: The Cambridge History of Musical Performance. The Cambridge History of Music . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 398-420. ISBN 9781139025966

Wistreich, R. (2012) Musical materials and cultural spaces. Renaissance Studies, 26 (1) pp. 1-12. ISSN 0269-1213 (print) 1477-4658 (online)

Wistreich, R. (2012) 'Il soprano e veramente l’ornamento di tutte l’altre parti': soprani, castrati, falsettisti and the performance of late Renaissance Italian secular music. In: Der Countertenor: Die männliche Falsettstimme vom Mittelalter zur Gegenwart. Schott Campus . Schott Music, Mainz, pp. 71-85. ISBN 9783795707934

Wistreich, R. (2011) Music books and sociability. Il Saggiatore Musicale: Rivista Semestrale di Musicologia, 18 pp. 230-246. ISSN 1123-8615 (print) 2035-6706 (online)

Wistreich, R. (2011) ‘Thou & Ile sing to make these dull Shades merry’: Herrick’s Charon Dialogues. In: ‘Lords of Wine and Oile’: Community and Conviviality in the Poetry of Robert Herrick. Oxford University Press, Oxford. ISBN 9780199604777

Wistreich, R. (2011) Who sings the cantus? Children as performers of secular music in the early modern period. TroJa. Jahrbuch für Renaissancemusik, 10 pp. 157-176. ISSN 2513-1028

Wistreich, R. (2010) Using the music: musical materials and expert singers’ practices in Monteverdi’s time. Basler Jahrbuch für Historische Musikpraxis, 34 pp. 61-72.

Wistreich, R. (2009) Of mars I sing: Monteverdi voicing virility. In: Masculinity and Western Musical Practice. Ashgate, Farnham, pp. 67-94. ISBN 9780754662396

Wistreich, R. (2007) Monteverdi in performance. In: The Cambridge Companion to Monteverdi. Cambridge Companions to Music . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 261-279. ISBN 9780521875257 (hardback) 9780521697989 (paperback) 9781139798631 (e-book)

Wistreich, R. (2007) Warrior, courtier, singer: Giulio Cesare Brancaccio and the performance of identity in the late Renaissance. Routledge, Abingdon. ISBN 9780754654148 (hardback) 9781138263000 (paperback) 9781315547657 (e-book)

Wistreich, R. (2006) Philippe De Monte: new autobiographical documents. Early Music History, 25 pp. 257-308. ISSN 0261-1279 (print) 1474-0559 (online)

Wistreich, R. (2002) Practising and teaching historically informed singing - who cares? Basler Jahrbuch für Historische Musikpraxis, 26 pp. 17-29.

Wistreich, R. (2002) Real basses, real men: virtù and virtuosity in the construction of noble male identity in late sixteenth-century Italy. TroJa. Jahrbuch für Renaissancemusik, 2 pp. 59-77. ISSN 2513-1028

Wistreich, R. (2000) Reconstructing pre-Romantic singing technique. In: The Cambridge Companion to Singing. Cambridge Companions to Music . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 178-191. ISBN 9780521627092 (print) 9781139002073 (online)

Wistreich, R. (1994) "La voce è grata assai, ma…”: Monteverdi on singing. Early Music, 22 (1) pp. 7-20. ISSN 0306-1078 (print) 1741-7260 (online)

Contact

For enquiries please contact:

Professor Richard Wistreich

Research Professor

research@rcm.ac.uk

richard.wistreich@rcm.ac.uk

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