The Queen's College Record 2020

Reports and College Activities
Daniel Walden (Music)
This was my first year as a Junior Research Fellow
in Music at Queen’s. After receiving my PhD in Music
Theory from Harvard University this past November,
I began work on my book manuscript, focused on
the political entanglements of European and Asian
theories of musical tuning and temperament. I spent
February in India, scouring archives for primary sources
on Hindustani tuning theory and interviewing singers
and harmonium players on the post-colonial politics of Indian musical research.
I am scheduled to present my findings at the 2020 annual meetings of the Royal
Musicological Association, Society for Music Theory, and the Group for Analytical
Approaches to World Music.
My Fellowship has also provided me with the opportunity to pursue other projects in
research and performance. My chapter ‘Pitch vs. Timbre’ was published last October
in the Oxford Handbook to Timbre, and my review of new publications on François-
Joseph Fétis and the global music theories of nineteenth-century France will be
published in the next edition of Journal of Music Theory. I also gave a lecture-recital on
the music of Frédéric Chopin and Johanna Kinkel at the Cobbe Collection in Surrey on
Chopin’s own Pleyel, and the world premiere of Clara Iannotta’s ‘Eclipse Plumage’ for
harpsichord and electronics at Gaudeamus Festival.
I greatly enjoyed the opportunity before lockdown began to meet the talented
musicians at Queen’s and Oxford while giving tutorials and collaborating in recitals. I
look forward to our return to campus and to making chamber music together again.
28 The Queen’s College | College Record 2020