Postgraduate Research Assistant

**About the role**



The Faculty of Music proposes to appoint a fixed-term Research Assistant for
‘Elgar’s Themes’ a major large-scale research project funded by the Leverhulme
Trust and led by Principal Investigator Prof. Daniel Grimley at the University
of Oxford. This is for a fixed period of 36 months with effect from 7 October
2024 or as soon as possible thereafter.





Themes are a foundational unit of musical organisation and experience, but
critical study of thematic process has become increasingly marginalised. This
ground-breaking interdisciplinary project will employ cutting-edge digital
methods to revitalise the analysis of musical themes via an online thematic
catalogue of the work of Edward Elgar (1857-1934). Elgar’s diaries, writings
and correspondence indicate how he associated themes with specific times and
places, particular people (most famously in the ‘friends pictured within’ the
Variations, op. 36), and with feelings, moods, memories and emotions.
Connecting historical modes of understanding with the opportunities enabled by
a fully digital environment supports a new understanding of theme as linked
data, promoting a fresh engagement with questions of thematic ontology and
musical meaning.





**About you**



We are seeking to appoint an experienced postdoctoral Research Assistant to
undertake foundational work with one of the project’s workstreams. Reporting
to the project PI Grimley and senior researcher Dr Kevin Page, based at the
Oxford e-Research Centre (OeRC), the RA will be a digital musicologist with
experience of working with archival materials and catalogues.





The person appointed will collate catalogue materials and assemble entries for
the digital catalogue of Elgar’s work, updating current metadata from existing
catalogue resources (held at the BL and elsewhere), and generating original
metadata for new sources. The catalogue will be assembled using the specialist
music cataloguing software MerMEId, originally developed at the Royal Library,
Copenhagen (https://mermeid.edirom.de/about.html) and previously employed by
members of the project team to create a digital catalogue of the works of
Frederick Delius (https://delius.music.ox.ac.uk/catalogue/welcome.html).





Applications are welcome from candidates with experience of using specialised
software and digital methods within a research investigation.





Candidates must hold a relevant PhD/DPhil in digital humanities or a cognate
field.





The duties and skills required are described in further detail in the job
description.





Any further enquires may be addressed to PI Prof. Daniel Grimley:
daniel.grimley@music.ox.ac.uk



Or recruitment@music.ox.ac.uk





The closing date for applications is **12.00 noon on 13 September 2024**. Only
applications received before this time can be considered.





Please quote Vacancy ID **173986** on all correspondence.





**Committed to equality and valuing diversity**