Robert Fraser

Robert Fraser is Professor Emeritus of English at the Open University. He was a boy chorister at Winchester Cathedral, after which he studied literature at the universities of Sussex and London, and Harmony, Counterpoint and Composition at Morley College. Before joining the OU in 1999, he taught at the universities of Cambridge, Leeds and London. He  has had a number of – mostly vocal- works performed, and is the author or editor of over twenty books.  His musicological interests encompass Synaesthetics, written accounts by English listeners in Italy from Charles Burney onwards, the relationship in twentieth century culture between art music and  “noise”, the ethnomusicological work of A.M. Jones, and the deployment of African rhythm in Steve Reich and György Ligeti. His theoretical concerns focus on the contribution of historical listening practice to the study of musical perception.