
Dr Kate Guthrie
BA hons (Cantab.), MPhil (Cantab.), PhD
Expertise
My research interests lie broadly in the cultural, political and social history of music in twentieth-century Britain.
Current positions
Senior Lecturer in Music
Department of Music
Contact
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Biography
I have recently finished my first book, The Art of Appreciation: Music and Middlebrow Culture in Modern Britain, which explores why and how “music appreciation” came to have such a pervasive presence in twentieth-century musical life. Examining a wide range of initiatives to promote classical music to a broader audience – from children’s concerts to university outreach programs – it reveals how the act of listening became embroiled in a nexus of modern problems around citizenship, leisure and education.
This book grew out of research conducted during a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship. Titled "Democratizing Art: Music, Leisure and Education in Interwar Britain," I began my post-doctoral project prior to joining Bristol at the University of Southampton.
My interests in music and war date from my post-graduate years: my PhD, which I completed at King's College London, investigated musical culture in World War Two Britain; and my MPhil thesis, which I wrote while studying at the University of Cambridge, concerned emigre composer Arthur Willner, specifically exploring how his flight from Nazi-occupied Austria impacted his music.
Research interests
Twentieth-century music, middlebrow culture, history of listening, history of education, British history.
Projects and supervisions
Research projects
Kate Guthrie - BA Postdoctoral Fellowship transfer from Southampton
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
Department of MusicDates
01/09/2016 to 13/09/2017
Publications
Recent publications
01/03/2022New Books Network: The Art of Appreciation: Music and Middlebrow Culture in Modern Britain
The Art of Appreciation: Music and Middlebrow Culture in Modern Britain
The Art of Appreciation: Music and Middlebrow Culture in Modern Britain
Colloquy: Musicology and the Middlebrow
Journal of the American Musicological Society
Propaganda Music in Second World War Britain
Journal of the Royal Musical Association
Why We Can’t All Just Get Along
Journal of the Royal Musical Association
Teaching
I enjoy teaching on a variety of twentieth-century topics. At present, my specialist historical units include "Music, Technology and Cultural Change from the Gramophone to the iPod" and "Music in Times of War," which explores how music has been used in conflicts from the French Revolution through to the War on Terror. I also contribute to our core under-graduate units, as well as supervising BA and MA dissertations on a range of popular and classical subjects.