Dr David Bretherton
Associate Professor of Music
Dr David Bretherton is an Associate Professor in Music at the University of Southampton and an Arts and Humanities Research Council Leadership Fellow.
My teaching areas are primarily music theory and analysis, harmony and counterpoint, and 19th-century music. In Semester 1, 2020-21 I will be teaching the undergraduate module 'Fundamentals of Counterpoint and Harmony' (MUSI1007), and will also be assisting with teaching on the MMus degree.
I am currently the holder of a prestigious Arts and Humanities Research Council Leadership Fellowship for a project entitled 'Queer Music, Queer Theory, Queer Music Theory'. My other research interests include nineteenth-century song, the music of Franz Schubert, and tonal music theory. I supervise several doctoral students undertaking research in various areas of music theory and analysis, and I am always happy to hear from potential PhD applicants.
I came to Southampton as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in 2007, working on several music e-research projects (that is, research employing digital technologies), including musicSpace, MusicNet and SALAMI, before working with Prof. William Drabkin on the 'Heinrich Schenker as Theorist, Teacher and Correspondent, 1925-1930' project. Prior to that I was a doctoral student at the University of Oxford, where my thesis was supervised by Suzannah Clark. I was a founding Trustee for the charitably incorporated Society for Music Analysis, and am currently a member of the Music Analysis Editorial Board.
I am actively involved in the local Branch of the University and College Union, where I am currently joint Equalities Officer.
Qualifications
BA Hons, Music, University of Reading, 2001
MA, Music Theory and Analysis, University of Reading, 2002
DPhil, University of Oxford, 2008
Appointments held
2007-08: Early Career Teaching Fellow, University of Southampton
2007-13: Postdoctoral Research Fellow (attached to various projects), University of Southampton
2013-18: Lecturer, University of Southampton
Since 2018: Associate Professor, University of Southampton