Musicology
- Several projects of historical music research are on going and focus on:
• the documentation of New Zealand's music history (Brian Pritchard, Roger Buckton).
• Baroque and Early Music especially the Italian composer, Antonio Caldara 1670-1736 (Brian Pritchard), the French composer, Melchior Franck 1579-1639 (Martin Setchell), 16th- and 17th-century French music and music for lute and related instruments (Jonathan Le Cocq).
• the philosophy and political economy of music (Jonathan Le Cocq)
• the traditional Bohemian music and musicians of Puhoi, New Zealand, and the traditional Bohemian instrument, the dudlesack. -
Edited by Brian Pritchard, the Canterbury Series of Bibliographies, Catalogues and Source Documents in Music continues to be highly sought after. He has also contributed to the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, the New Grove Dictionary of Opera, the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, and the Dictionary of National Biography and produced numerous editions of sacred and secular music of the late baroque for publication and for performance and recording by specialist groups in England, Europe and the United States. Dr. Pritchard has also published the extensive work on Caldara, Antonio Caldara: Essays on his life and times (1987).
Jonathan Le Cocq has recently published 'The Early Air de Cour, the Theorbo, and the Continuo Principle in France' in From Renaissance to Baroque (2004). His doctoral research was in French lute-song, and he has published in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.
Martin Setchell’s major publications include “Post-war choral developments” in The History of Music in New in Zealand (1991) and “Paradisus Musicus by Melchior Franck (1579-1639)” in Recent Researches in the Music of the Baroque (2000).
Roger Buckton's research encompasses the traditional Bohemian music and musicians of Puhoi, New Zealand, and includes performance on the traditional Bohemian instrument, the dudlesack. He has written articles for a range of journals over the past ten years and is currently writing a book on the subject. He also regularly leads educational group tours to central Europe for UC Opportunity under the title of "Bohemian Journey".
Other current research projects include Ph Ds on “Music Publishing in London from 1780 to 1837”, Italian composer “Andrea Zani (1696-1757)”, and “An historical survey of the establishment of an orchestral tradition within Christchurch to 1939” and MA on “George Frederick Tendall (1845-1901) – a professional musician in late-Victorian Christchurch”.