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Dr Naomi Barker

Profile summary

  • Central Academic Staff
  • Head of Discipline (Music)
  • Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences
  • School of Arts & Humanities
  • Music
  • naomi.barker

Professional biography

Naomi Barker is a musicologist specialising in late-sixteenth and seventeenth century music. SheÌýjoined the Open University music department on a part-time basisÌýin 2012 after having been an Associate Lecturer since 2001. As an AL,Ìýshe taught a number of undergraduate and postgraduate music modules including AA314, A214, A870, A871 andÌýA877. She was appointed Senior Lecturer in 2019.ÌýPrior to her full-time appointment at the OU in 2014, she worked extensively in adult education andÌýhadÌýpart time lecturingÌýpositions at Durham University and Manchester University.ÌýIn addition toÌýacademic work, she hasÌýbeen involved in music education at allÌýlevels,ÌýwasÌýmanager ofÌýa local authority music service and ledÌýthe Gateshead and South TynesideÌýMusic Education Hub.

Naomi holds aÌýB. Mus (hons) and M.Mus degreesÌýfrom the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.Ìý After working as a professional flautist and teacher in Johannesburg for several years, she wasÌýawarded an overseas prestige scholarship which enabled herÌýdoctoral studies at Royal Holloway & Bedford New College, University of London.ÌýShe continues to perform as a baroque flautist whenever possible. She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA).

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Research interests

Naomi Barker's research focuses on late sixteenth and seventeenth century Italian instrumental music, especially for keyboard,Ìýin relation to its contemporary theoretical frameworks, cultural contexts and performance practices. She is particularly interested in the interdisciplinarity of music, art, religion and science.ÌýHer most research focuses on music at the Hospital ofÌýSanto Spirito in Sassia,ÌýRome and addresses issues relating to musical practice, medicine and religion in that institution. Her book 'Music, Medicine and Religion at the Hospital of Santo Spirito in Sassia, 1550-1750' was released in February 2024. Naomi's new project focuses on the extensive music libary of Santo Spirito in Sassia that includes over 500 manuscripts dating from the 1550s to the 1750s. Articles on the musical architecture of the hospital and on newly discovered music by Paolo Papini are currently in preparation.Ìý

Naomi welcomes applications fromÌýpotential PhD studentsÌýwith interests in lateÌýsixteenth- andÌýseventeenth-century music, including those whoÌýwish to be jointly supervised in another discipline through the Medieval andÌýEarly Modern Research group.Ìý

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Teaching interests

Alongside duties as Head of Discipline for Music, Naomi Barker is currently on the module team producing the new MA in Music. She has previously been the music department rep for the interdisciplinary level 1 modules,Ìý A111 'Discovering the arts and humanities'Ìý and A113 'Revolutions', for which sheÌýwroteÌýseveral units. She is also the author ofÌýtwo units inÌýthe level 2 music module A234 'Understanding music' and is now co-authoring several units for A890 (part 1 of the MA in Music) and authoring a unit for A891 (part 2 of the MA).Ìý

She isÌýcommitted to open access learning and hasÌýco-written a MOOC calledÌý'From notation to performance: Understanding musical scores' which is also available on OpenLearn . She was involved in an ERASMUS funded project to create open access resources on conducting including a MOOC on conducting which is now available worldwide atÌýÌý

Impact and engagement

Naomi has given pre-concert talks for the Orchestra of the Age of Enligtenment . She continues to support music education in schools and the development of resources for schools by members of the music department.ÌýÌý

Externally funded projects

Music&/people/njb326/44; medicine and religion at the Ospedale di Santo Spirito c. 1550-1700
RoleStart dateEnd dateFunding source
Lead01 Nov 202131 May 2023LEVERHULME The Leverhulme Trust

This study will explore the extent to which music was part of a physical and spiritual healthcare regime at a time of religious reforms and significant shifts in scientific thought. Using previously unpublished manuscript sources&/people/njb326/44; it will provide a new approach to the study of music by establishing connections between the treatment of disease based on the study of medicine&/people/njb326/44; concepts of healing founded on religious thought and the practice of music. It will focus on the Ospedale di Santo Spirito in Sassia&/people/njb326/44; Rome&/people/njb326/44; a unique institution comprising an orphanage&/people/njb326/44; school&/people/njb326/44; convent&/people/njb326/44; hospital and collegiate church&/people/njb326/44; during the period c.1550-1700.

Music at the Ospedale di Santo Spirito&/people/njb326/44; Rome 1600-1630
RoleStart dateEnd dateFunding source
Lead01 Apr 201730 Nov 2018BRITAC British Academy

This study forms part of a larger project which will break new ground in contextualising the keyboard music of Girolamo Frescobaldi within the wider cultural trends of the early seventeenth century. By focusing on the Ospedale di Santo Spirito&/people/njb326/44; it will answer two questions: to what extent was music part of a wider programme of healing? and do the documented activities of musicians demonstrate patterns that support this or do they reflect other concerns? The Ospedale di Santo Spirito is unusual in that from the late 16th century it had a large organ situated in the hospital wards. Listed among the musicians who worked at the Ospedale and its church is the composer Girolamo Frescobaldi&/people/njb326/44; but little is known of his activities there. The presence of music in a space built within a humanist aesthetic framework&/people/njb326/44; and in which Galenic humoral medicine was practiced offers an unexplored context for musical practice. This study will bring new insights to bear on the context for music and the music profession in Rome by exploring the role of music in the hospital environment

Publications

(2024-03)
Barker, Naomi
Journal of the History of Collections, 36(1) (pp. 200-201)

(2021)
Barker, Naomi J
Early Music, 49, Article caab044(3) (pp. 395-412)

(2019)
Barker, Naomi J.
Royal Musical Association Research Chronicle, 50(1) (pp. 1-28)

(2019)
Barker, Naomi J.
Journal of Seventeenth-Century Music, 25(1)

(2015)
Barker, Naomi J.
The Seventeenth Century, 30(4) (pp. 375-390)

(2013-08)
Barker, Naomi J.
Early Music, 41(3) (pp. 447-459)

(2007)
Barker, Naomi
Early Music, 35(2) (pp. 191-212)

(2000-03-01)
Barker, Naomi Joy
Music in Art, 25(1-2) (pp. 5-24)

(1996)
Barker, Naomi
Repertoire International d'Iconographie Musicale / Research Center for Musical Iconography Newsletter, 21(1) (pp. 29-31)

(1992)
Barker, Naomi
South African Journal of Musicology, 12 (pp. 11-19)

(2024-02)
Barker, Naomi J.
Music in Society and Culture
ISBN : 9781837650651 | Publisher : Boydell Press | Published : Woodbridge

(2018-07-01)
Barker, Naomi J.
In: Vejvar, Andreas and Grassl, Markus eds. "Avec discrétion": Rethinking Froberger. Wiener Veröffentlichungen zur Musikgeschichte (14) (pp. 205-221)
ISBN : 978-3205207405 | Publisher : Böhlau Verlag | Published : Vienna

(2013)
Barker, Naomi J.
In: Smith, David J. and Taylor, Rachelle eds. Networks of music and culture in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries (pp. 59-70)
ISBN : 9781472411983 | Publisher : Ashgate Publishing Limited | Published : Surrey

(2003)
Barker, Naomi Joy
In: Dobszay, László ed. The past in the present
ISBN : 9637181342 | Publisher : Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music | Published : Budapest

(2023-06)
Mulholland, Paul; Stoneman, Adam; Barker, Naomi; Maguire, Mark; Carvalho, Jason; Daga, Enrico and Warren, Paul
In : Workshop on Personalized Access to Cultural Heritage (PATCH) at UMAP ’23 (26 Jun 2023, Limassol, Cyprus) (pp. 408-418)