Gordon Munro

Gordon lives in Glasgow and works at the Academy as Head of Undergraduate Programmes and Creative & Contextual Studies. He is also currently External Examiner in the School of Education (Department of Music) at the University of Aberdeen, and a Theory Examiner for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM). 

Gordon Munro (b. 1972) was brought up on the Black Isle in the north of Scotland. After leaving Fortrose Academy, he studied music at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, winning prizes in Music History and Choral Conducting, and graduated Bachelor of Education (Music) with first class honours in 1994.

At the University of Glasgow, Gordon undertook postgraduate research into the history of Scottish church music and Scottish song schools (1500-1700) with Dr Kenneth Elliott. He completed his PhD in 1999 and has since published various articles on the subject and editions of the music. As a result of this work, Gordon advised the Church of Scotland's Committee to Revise the Church Hymnary and some of his editions of early Scottish psalm harmonizations appear in ‘CH4’.

Gordon has taught music history at the Music School of Douglas Academy and has lectured at the University of Glasgow and the RSAMD. 

As Assistant General Editor and Trustee of Musica Scotica, Gordon promotes performances of and research into Scottish music. He is also in demand as a choral conductor, and is Musical Director of Thomas Coats Memorial Choral Society in Paisley.

Publications 

‘‘Sang Schwylls’ and ‘Music Schools’:  Music Education in Scotland, 1560–1650’ in Reading and Writing the Pedagogy of the Renaissance:  The Student, the Study Materials, and the Teacher of Music, 1470–1650 edited by Susan F. Weiss and Russell E. Murray Jr (Indiana:  Indiana University Press, forthcoming)

Early Scottish Psalm-Settings edited by Kenneth Elliott and Gordon Munro (Glasgow:  Musica Scotica, forthcoming)

Notis musycall:  Essays on Music and Scottish Culture in Honour of Kenneth Elliott edited by Gordon Munro et al. (Glasgow:  Musica Scotica, 2005)

editions of five Scottish psalm settings (Winchester Old, Martyrs, Wigtown, York  (Stilt) and French (Dundee), nos. 4ii, 34ii, 41ii, 79ii and 81ii) in Church Hymnary, 4th edn (Norwich:  Canterbury Press, 2005)

‘Moore, Thomas’ in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography edited by H.C.G. Matthew and Brian Harrison (Oxford:  Oxford University Press, 2004)

‘The Scottish Reformation and its Consequences’ in Our awin Scottis Use:  Music in the Scottish Church up to 1603 edited by Sally Harper (Glasgow:  Universities of Glasgow and Aberdeen, 2000)

Patrick Douglas:  In convertendo (Glasgow:  University of Glasgow Music Department Publications, 1998)