Professor Keith Potter
Staff details
Keith Potter is a Professor of Music at Goldsmiths, where he was Head of Department in 2004-07. He studied at the University of Birmingham, University College Cardiff and the University of York. Dissertations on Roberto Gerhard and Morton Feldman, plus several published articles on these composers, have been followed by a range of research and publications covering many different areas of contemporary music, with a particular emphasis on British and American work. Active as both musicologist and music journalist, he was the co-founder and, for seventeen years, Chief Editor of Contact: a Journal of Contemporary Music, the 34 issues of which will be republished online in 2018. For a decade, he was a regular music critic on The Independent daily newspaper; he currently writes programme notes and profiles for the BBC and reviews for Opera and Tempo magazines.
Keith Potter’s book, Four Musical Minimalists: La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, Philip Glass (Cambridge University Press), was published in 2000, with a paperback edition in 2002; The Ashgate Research Companion to Minimalist and Postminimalist Music, co-edited with Kyle Gann and Pwyll ap Sion (Ashgate Publishing), appeared in 2013. Recent research on the American composer, Steve Reich (arising in particular from his extensive work in the Reich collection at the Paul Sacher Stiftung in Basel, Switzerland), has appeared in Tonality Since 1950 (Franz Steiner Verlag) and the journal, Contemporary Music Review.
In 2010-13, he collaborated with colleagues from the Departments of Computing and Psychology at Goldsmiths, and from the Department of Electronic Engineering at Queen Mary College, University of London, on a project on information and neural dynamics in the perception of musical structure, including particular reference to minimalist musical compositions. Outcomes of this collaborative project, involving music by Glass as well as Reich, have recently been published in Music and/as Process (Cambridge Scholars Publishing) and the journal, Time and Time Perception. Papers and articles from this project are still appearing in various journals: see also Publications, below.
Keith Potter’s own recent conference and seminar papers have focused mainly on Reich. These include presentations on Drumming (Paul Sacher Stiftung, Basel, Switzerland, 2010); on It’s Gonna Rain, with John Pymm (Fifth Biennial International Conference on Music Since 1900 at the University of Lancaster, and the Third Biennial International Conference on Music and Minimalism at the University of Leuven, Belgium, both 2011; Cardiff University, Wales, 2013; and Goldsmiths, 2014); on Triple Quartet (Fourth Biennial International Conference on Music and Minimalism at California State University at Long Beach, 2013; and at the conference, “Tonality Since 1950”, at the University of Basel, Switzerland, 2014); a keynote lecture on Reich reception (for a Study Day at King’s Place, London organised by the Society for Minimalist Music, 2015); Music for 18 Musicians (Fifth Biennial International Conference on Music and Minimalism at the University of Turku and the Sibelius Academy, Helsinki, Finland, 2015; the 52nd Annual Conference of the Royal Musical Association, at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London, 2016; and at the conference, “Ligeti: a portrait with Reich and Riley”, at the University of Cluj, Romania, 2018); on Come Out and Three Tales (the opening keynote lecture at the conference, “Minimalism: Location, Aspect, Moment”, at Winchester School of Art/University of Southampton, 2016); and on Tehillim (“What You Need To Know – Steve Reich”, a Study Day at the South Bank Centre, London, 2017).
Other invited lectures and appearances since 2005 include a paper on aspects of musical minimalism at the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, and two lectures on the music of Steve Reich and participation in a roundtable discussion at Carnegie Hall, New York (both 2006); the opening keynote lecture at the First Biennial International Conference on Music and Minimalism at the University of Bangor, Wales, and a pre-concert talk (with Robert Worby) on Philip Glass's Music in Twelve Parts at the Barbican Centre, London (both 2007); a pre-performance interview with the conductor Dennis Russell Davies, at the Barbican Centre, London (2009); papers on Phill Niblock as well as Steve Reich at all the Biennial International Conferences on Music and Minimalism during 2009-15; and a pre-concert talk on John Adams’ music at the Vale of Glamorgan Festival, Wales (2017).
In 1989 Keith Potter taught at the University of Redlands, California. He developed the pioneering MMus (later MA) in Contemporary Music Studies, which has been offered at Goldsmiths since 1998. He was organiser of the Second Biennial International Conference on Twentieth-Century Music (Goldsmiths, 2001) and co-organiser of several other conferences at Goldsmiths, including a one-day event to celebrate and commemorate the British composer Cornelius Cardew (2006), and a one-day conference focusing on the performance of minimalist music (2008).
From 2004 to 2007, he was a member of Goldsmiths Council. In 2006-10, he was on the Advisory Council of the Institute of Musical Research in the School of Advanced Study, University of London. In 2007-13, he served on the Goldsmiths Honorary Degrees and Fellowships Committee; and in 2011-17, on the Academic Progress Committee.
Since 1982, he has been a trustee of the Hinrichsen Foundation, also serving on several of its sub-committees, and acting as its Chair (2014-16). A founding committee member of the Society for Minimalist Music in 2007, he was its Chair during 2011-13.
Areas of supervision
British and American contemporary music; American minimalist music, especially Steve Reich.
Current and recently completed PhD Students
Paul Gilgunn: Distillation and synthesis: aesthetics and practice in Rhys Chatham’s music for electric guitar
Paul Kean (Performance Pathway): Virtuosity in the art of minimalism (American minimalist and postminimalist music for solo piano)
Anastasios Mavroudis (Performance Pathway): Yorgos Sicilianos: performing his chamber music and Violin Concerto
Maria Yerosimou: Jani Christou's music-theatre work, Strychnine Lady: contexts, aesthetics and analysis
Research Interests
Keith Potter’s present projects include a book and further journal articles on Steve Reich, arising in particular from his research in the archive of Steve Reich’s materials at the Paul Sacher Stiftung in Basel, Switzerland. He is also currently participating in several collaborative research projects, including two at Goldsmiths: one on musical indeterminacy in performance (initiated by David Cline, a Visiting Research Fellow); the other involving the acquisition and preservation for scholarly purposes of various archival materials from British composers and musical organisations (working with James Bulley).
Publications
Book
Philip Glass: First Classics, 1968-1969
Potter, Keith. 2010. Philip Glass: First Classics, 1968-1969. London and New York: Chester Music. ISBN 0-521-48250
Four Musical Minimalists: La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, Philip Glass
Potter, Keith. 2002. Four Musical Minimalists: La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, Philip Glass. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521015011
Edited Book
The Ashgate Research Companion on Minimalist and Postminimalist Music
Potter, Keith S.; ap Sion, Pwyll and Gann, Kyle, eds. 2013. The Ashgate Research Companion on Minimalist and Postminimalist Music. Aldershot: Ashgate. ISBN 9781472402783
Book Section
Harmonic Progressions as a Gradual Process: towards an understanding of the development of tonality in the music of Steve Reich.
Potter, Keith. 2017. Harmonic Progressions as a Gradual Process: towards an understanding of the development of tonality in the music of Steve Reich. In: Felix Woerner and Philip Rupprecht, eds. Tonality Since 1950. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, pp. 189-207. ISBN 978-3-515-11582-7
Sketching a New Tonality: a preliminary assessment of Steve Reich’s sketches for Music for 18 Musicians in telling the story of this work’s approach to tonality
Potter, Keith. 2017. Sketching a New Tonality: a preliminary assessment of Steve Reich’s sketches for Music for 18 Musicians in telling the story of this work’s approach to tonality. In: Pwyll ap Sion and Sumanth Gopinath, eds. Rethinking Reich. New York: Oxford University Press.
On the Nature of Subjectivity in Music Analysis: some observations on analysing an early score by Philip Glass
Potter, Keith; Wilkins, Suzie and Wiggins, Geraint. 2016. On the Nature of Subjectivity in Music Analysis: some observations on analysing an early score by Philip Glass. In: Lauren Redhead and Vanessa Hawes, eds. Music and/as Process. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 34-55. ISBN 978-1-4438-9491-3
Mapping Early Minimalism
Potter, Keith. 2013. Mapping Early Minimalism. In: Keith S. Potter; Kyle Gann and Pwyll ap Siôn, eds. The Ashgate Research Companion to Minimalist and Postminimalist Music. Farnham, UK: Ashgate, pp. 19-37. ISBN 9781409435495
Introduction: experimental, minimalist, postminimalist? Origins, definitions, communities
Potter, Keith; Gann, Kyle and ap Sion, Pwyll. 2013. Introduction: experimental, minimalist, postminimalist? Origins, definitions, communities. In: Keith S. Potter; Kyle Gann and Pwyll ap Sion, eds. The Ashgate Research Companion to Minimalist and Postminimalist Music. Farnham: Ashgate, pp. 1-16. ISBN 9781 409435495
Le Minimalisme
Potter, Keith. 2013. Le Minimalisme. In: Nicolas Donin and Laurent Feneyrou, eds. Théories de la composition musicale au xxe siècle. 2 Lyon, France: Symétrie, pp. 775-800. ISBN 978-2-914373-60-9
A Conversation with James Dillon
Potter, Keith. 2003. A Conversation with James Dillon. In: P. O'Hagan, ed. Aspects of British Music of the 1990's. Ashgate, pp. 131-140. ISBN 0004707729
Entry on David Bedford
Potter, Keith. 2001. Entry on David Bedford. In: L. Finscher, ed. Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart. Kassel: Barenreiter.
Entries on 20th-century British composers and other subjects: 'Minimalism'; 'Bedford, David', 'Bryars, Gavin', 'Fitkin, Graham', 'Martland, Steve', 'Montague Stephen', 'Skempton, Howard'
Potter, Keith. 2001. Entries on 20th-century British composers and other subjects: 'Minimalism'; 'Bedford, David', 'Bryars, Gavin', 'Fitkin, Graham', 'Martland, Steve', 'Montague Stephen', 'Skempton, Howard'. In: Stanley Sadie and John Tyrell, eds. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. London: Macmillan.
Four revised articles on contemporary American composers: 'Adams, John', 'Glass, Philip', 'Monk, Meredith' and 'Reich, Steve'; also versions of previously published entries on 'Kagel, Mauricio' and 'Schnittke, Alfred'
Potter, Keith. 2001. Four revised articles on contemporary American composers: 'Adams, John', 'Glass, Philip', 'Monk, Meredith' and 'Reich, Steve'; also versions of previously published entries on 'Kagel, Mauricio' and 'Schnittke, Alfred'. In: Amanda Holden, ed. The New Penguin Opera Guide. London: Penguin Books.
'Cornelius Cardew: some (Postmodern?) reflections on Experimental Music and political music
Potter, Keith. 1995. 'Cornelius Cardew: some (Postmodern?) reflections on Experimental Music and political music. In: Mark Delaere, ed. New Music, Aesthetics and Ideology/Neue Musik, Asthetik und Ideologie. Wilhelshaven: Germany: Florian Noetzel, pp. 152-169.
The Current Musical Scene
Potter, Keith. 1993. The Current Musical Scene. In: Robert P. Morgan, ed. Modern Times: from World War I to the present. Englewood Cliffs, NJ/Basingstoke: Prentice Hall/Macmillan, pp. 349-387. ISBN 0 13 590159 6
Article
‘New Chaconnes for Old?’: Steve Reich’s Sketches for Variations for Winds, Strings and Keyboards, with some thoughts on their significance for the analysis of the composer’s harmonic language in the late 1970s
Potter, Keith. 2018. ‘New Chaconnes for Old?’: Steve Reich’s Sketches for Variations for Winds, Strings and Keyboards, with some thoughts on their significance for the analysis of the composer’s harmonic language in the late 1970s. Contemporary Music Review, 36(5), pp. 436-439. ISSN 0749-4467
Perception of Rhythmic Similarity is Asymmetrical, and is Influenced by Musical Training, Expressive Performance, and Musical Context
Cameron, Daniel; Potter, Keith; Wiggins, Geraint and Pearce, Marcus. 2017. Perception of Rhythmic Similarity is Asymmetrical, and is Influenced by Musical Training, Expressive Performance, and Musical Context. Timing & Time Perception, ISSN 2213-445X
Obituary: 'Roger Smalley; Composer, pianist and pupil of Karlheinz Stockhausen who became a leading figure of the European avant-garde'
Potter, Keith. 2015. Obituary: 'Roger Smalley; Composer, pianist and pupil of Karlheinz Stockhausen who became a leading figure of the European avant-garde'. The Independent,
Philip Glass: the compositions and some contexts
Potter, Keith. 2008. Philip Glass: the compositions and some contexts. Glass: a Nonesuch Retrospective Box, pp. 49-72. ISSN Nonesuch 424508-2
Programme Notes
Potter, Keith. 2008. Programme Notes. BBC Symphony Orchestra/Mikhail Agrest,
An Objective Basis for Music Theory: Information-Dynamic Analysis of Minimalist Music
Potter, Keith; Wiggins, Geraint and Pearce, Marcus T.. 2007. An Objective Basis for Music Theory: Information-Dynamic Analysis of Minimalist Music. Musicae Scientiae, 11(2), pp. 295-324. ISSN 1029 8649
Programme notes for works by Steve Reich (Los Angeles Master Chorale/Grant Gershon)
Potter, Keith. 2006. Programme notes for works by Steve Reich (Los Angeles Master Chorale/Grant Gershon). Lincoln Center, New York,
Obituary: 'James Tenney; Musical Maverick'
Potter, Keith. 2006. Obituary: 'James Tenney; Musical Maverick'. The Independent,
Programme notes for works by Steve Reich (London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus/Xian Zhang)
Potter, Keith. 2006. Programme notes for works by Steve Reich (London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus/Xian Zhang). Barbican Centre,
Obituary: 'Carla Hinrichsen; Music Publisher at Peters Music'
Potter, Keith. 2005. Obituary: 'Carla Hinrichsen; Music Publisher at Peters Music'. The Independent,
Obituary: 'Hugh Davies; Iconoclastic innovator in electronic music'
Potter, Keith. 2005. Obituary: 'Hugh Davies; Iconoclastic innovator in electronic music'. The Independent,
What's The Score?
Potter, Keith. 2004. What's The Score? The Independent,
Obituary: 'Earle Brown: Innovative and Influential Composer.'
Potter, Keith. 2002. Obituary: 'Earle Brown: Innovative and Influential Composer.'. The Independent,
'Hi-tech tales for a weird, wired world'
Potter, Keith. 2002. 'Hi-tech tales for a weird, wired world'. The Independent,
Programme notes for the British premieres of Philip Glass's Second and Third Symphonies (BBC Symphony Orchestra/Marin Alsop)
Potter, Keith. 2001. Programme notes for the British premieres of Philip Glass's Second and Third Symphonies (BBC Symphony Orchestra/Marin Alsop). Barbican Centre,
'Klinghoffer Resurrected' (Concert Review)
Potter, Keith. 2001. 'Klinghoffer Resurrected' (Concert Review). The Independent,
A ripe harvest of Eastern promise
Potter, Keith. 2000. A ripe harvest of Eastern promise. The Independent, p. 16.
Booklet essay for Philip Glass: Violin Concerto, Prelude and Dance from Akhnaten and Company (Naxos 8 554568)
Potter, Keith. 2000. Booklet essay for Philip Glass: Violin Concerto, Prelude and Dance from Akhnaten and Company (Naxos 8 554568). Philip Glass: Violin Concerto, Prelude and Dance from Akhnaten and Company, p. 1.
'Notes on Cage'
Potter, Keith. 2000. 'Notes on Cage'. 'John Cage: The Seasons' (ECM New Series 1696),
The pursuit of the unimaginable by the unnarratable, or some potentially telling developments in non-developmental music
Potter, Keith. 1996. The pursuit of the unimaginable by the unnarratable, or some potentially telling developments in non-developmental music. Contemporary Music Review, 3-4, pp. 3-11.
Conference or Workshop Item
Perception of Rhythmic Similarity in Reich’s Clapping Music: Factors and Models
Cameron, Daniel; Potter, Keith; Wiggins, Geraint and Pearce, Marcus T.. 2012. 'Perception of Rhythmic Similarity in Reich’s Clapping Music: Factors and Models'. In: Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition and the 8th Triennial Conference of the European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music. Thessaloniki, Greece July 23-28.
Entrainment of Premotor Cortex Activity by Ambiguity in Musical Metre
Cameron, Daniel; Lindsen, Job P.; Pearce, Marcus; Wiggins, Geraint; Potter, Keith and Bhattacharya, Joydeep. 2012. 'Entrainment of Premotor Cortex Activity by Ambiguity in Musical Metre'. In: Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition and the 8th Triennial Conference of the European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music. Thessaloniki, Greece July 23-28.
1976 and All That: Minimalism and Postminimalism, Analysis and Listening Strategies.
Potter, Keith. 2007. '1976 and All That: Minimalism and Postminimalism, Analysis and Listening Strategies.'. In: Proceedings of the First International Conference on Music and Minimalism. Bangor, United Kingdom 11/1/2007.
Digital
Profile of John Adams for BBC Proms
Potter, Keith. 2010. Profile of John Adams for BBC Proms.