Professor Jonathan Cross

BA (Bristol); PhD (London); MA, DLitt (Oxford); MAE

I joined Christ Church in 2003, having previously held posts at the University of Sussex and the University of Bristol. I write, lecture and broadcast widely on issues in twentieth-century and contemporary music, as well as in theory and analysis. My present work focuses on recent trends in French music, most notably the current known as 'spectralism'. In all my work I am interested in understanding the ways in which modernist music articulates the concerns of the historical, cultural and social contexts within which it is made and received. 

I have been Editor of the journal Music Analysis, and am currently an Associate Editor of Grove Music Online. I am also a Research Associate in the team ‘Analyse des pratiques musicales’ at IRCAM, Paris. Beyond academe, I regularly participate in events with such organizations as the Southbank Centre, the Philharmonia Orchestra and the London Sinfonietta, as well as appearing on BBC Radio 3.

In Christ Church I give tutorials on a range of historical topics since the 18th century, musical analysis, and musical thought and scholarship, as well as supervising dissertations.

20th- and 21st-century music, especially Stravinsky and Birtwistle; spectral music; modernism; theory and analysis.

The Stravinsky Legacy (Cambridge UP, 1998)
Harrison Birtwistle: Man, Mind, Music (Faber & Faber, 2000)
ed. The Cambridge Companion to Stravinsky (Cambridge UP, 2003)
Harrison Birtwistle, The Mask of Orpheus (Ashgate, 2009)
Igor Stravinsky, ‘Critical Lives’ (Reaktion, 2015)

I have published c. 70 articles in a wide range of journals, edited books and other publications. I also write articles in, for example, programme books and CD liners, aimed at a broader readership.