Reflections on the RMA Annual Conference 2025

The Royal Musical Association’s Annual Conference has long been a fixture in my academic calendar, and this year’s gathering in Southampton confirmed once again why it remains one of my favourite scholarly events. The RMA provides not just a platform for presenting new research, but a vibrant intellectual and social community where ideas are tested and collaborations begin. This was my fifth consecutive year presenting at the conference, and as always I came away with fresh insights, unexpected connections and a renewed sense of scholarly energy.

Presenting on Sailortown and Shanty Repertoire

My own paper, “As I was a-walking down Ratcliffe Highway”: re-constructing London’s sailortown through shanty repertoire, explored how sea songs can serve as a window onto the geography, culture and lived experience of nineteenth-century dockside communities. Ratcliffe Highway - infamous for the tales of murder, theft and degradation that the area was seen to epitomise - emerges repeatedly in shanty texts. By tracing these references, I argued that shanties both reflected and shaped perceptions of London’s maritime neighbourhoods, offering valuable (if messy) cultural maps of an urban environment in flux. The audience engaged with great questions, and I was especially glad that no one criticised my map-drawing skills, which made an appearance in the presentation! For me, the most rewarding part of giving this paper was the way it sparked dialogue about how music can be used to reconstruct lived experience - and how performance repertoires might preserve traces of place, memory and identity.

Map of London's Sailortown (c.1860s), drawn by yours truly

Social and Collegial Highlights

Conferences are as much about the conversations outside the panels as within them. A highlight this year was undoubtedly the drinks reception after Sarah Collins’ fabulous keynote lecture, held at the SeaCity Museum. As a maritime history enthusiast (obviously), I could not have been more delighted to find myself in a venue whose exhibitions (including its Titanic gallery) speak so directly to my research interests. The opportunity to explore the museum after hours, surrounded by colleagues, created a memorable evening - and reinforced the importance of hosting academic gatherings in spaces that connect scholarship with heritage institutions and public history. It was also a pleasure to reconnect with friends and colleagues across the discipline, and to meet new scholars at different career stages. Seeing the work of the RMA Student Committee on display was another highlight; their energy, creativity and commitment to building supportive structures for students and early career researchers is both inspiring and essential. Having served on the committee myself in recent years, I felt particularly proud of the initiatives they are driving forward, including the pre-conference PGR/ECR social, which was a notable success!

Pre-Conference PGR/ECR Social in Turtle Bay, Southampton

Sessions and Papers that Resonated

As always, the breadth of research on display at the RMA conference was remarkable. Several sessions stood out to me, both for their content and for the unexpected ways they intersected with my own work on maritime music. One such moment came in the Early Musics session, where Michael Winter delivered a paper entitled “An Eton Mess: Rivalries and Misunderstandings in Renaissance Musicology”. At first glance, it seemed far removed from my own focus on nineteenth- and twentieth-century shanties. Yet Winter’s discussion of Richard Runciman Terry and the wider editorial landscape of the twentieth century resonated strongly. Questions of editing practice, authority and the construction of authenticity in printed collections have clear parallels with how shanty repertoire has been mediated, particularly in the hands of collectors such as Stan Hugill. This unexpected crossover reminded me of the importance of looking sideways in our discipline - sometimes insights come from places we least anticipate.

The session on Musical Archives and Memory also spoke directly to my own practice. I am currently involved in developing an archive around Stan Hugill, the so-called “last working shantyman”, and it was fascinating to hear how other scholars conceptualise the processes of building, curating and framing archives. Discussions around ownership, accessibility and interpretive framing were particularly relevant, and I left with new perspectives to consider as I think about how best to preserve and present Hugill’s legacy.

Another highlight was the session Performance on the Move: The Musical World of Fairgrounds in Switzerland, 1850–1950, presented by Anna Stoll Knecht, Achille Kienholz, and Nicholas Rogers. I had first encountered Achille’s research at the BFE Audible Pasts Workshop earlier this year, where he gave a tremendous talk on fairground music. Hearing about the wider project was both enjoyable and eye-opening. The team’s work on itinerant musicians, popular entertainment and the shifting soundscapes of fairground culture illuminated fascinating parallels with maritime song: both are traditions shaped by mobility, transience and performance in liminal spaces.

One of the final papers of the conference, Jo Hicks’ Peter Handford’s Steamscapes, provided a memorable conclusion. Handford, known for his detailed recordings of steam locomotives in the 1960s, meticulously documented gradients, engine types and other technical details in his liner notes. While the focus was locomotives rather than ships, the resonances with my own work were striking. Handford’s efforts to capture the sonic textures of a vanishing world align closely with broader movements in the folk revival of the time, where collectors sought to record authentic performances from 'the living tradition' before they disappeared. This struck a personal chord too: Handford was a local boy to me, having lived in Wickham Skeith, just a few villages over from where I grew up in Suffolk. In my own collection of LPs, I have a 1960s commercial recording of Liverpool’s soundscape ('the sounds of the city'), which includes shanties as part of the city's identity during a period of rapid change. Jo Hicks’ paper reminded me how preservation, sound recording and cultural memory intersect across seemingly disparate domains.

Looking Ahead

This year’s RMA Annual Conference was, for me, a blend of intellectual provocation, collegial warmth and personal inspiration. The combination of presenting my own research, engaging with others’ work, and sharing in the communal spaces of discussion is precisely what makes this conference such a vital fixture in my calendar. The conference was impeccably organised throughout, with a seamless balance of stimulating papers, engaging social events and plenty of opportunities for conversation - a real testament to the efforts of the organising team at Southampton. The RMA has always been supportive of my research journey, providing opportunities not only to present but to belong to a scholarly community that values diverse approaches, interdisciplinary connections and the contributions of early career researchers. I feel grateful for that support, and for the chance to share in the collective enterprise of music scholarship in all its breadth.

As I reflect on this year’s conference, I am already looking ahead to Belfast in 2026. If the past five years are anything to go by, it promises once again to be an occasion where scholarship, community and inspiration meet. And of course, no conference experience would be complete without a note on the weather. This year it was decidedly temperamental: sunshine one moment, torrential rain the next. I even managed my customary 5:30am run - and was promptly soaked to the skin. Still, it felt fitting that the elements themselves added an extra maritime flavour to my time at the RMA Conference in Southampton.

Looking forward to next year!