School of Music, Cardiff University

Cadw's description

Location

On north side of Corbett Road opposite Welsh Government Offices, immediately east of Aberdare Hall.

History

University concert hall and music teaching rooms built 1970 for Department of Music by Alex Gordon and partners, working closely with Alun Hoddinott (1929-2008), then head of the School of Music. Officially opened by the Duke of Edinburgh on 21 May 1971 the building was described as ‘austerely handsome without, handsomely functional within’. Foyer extension with bar and box office added by 1974 in response to the popularity of university concerts with the general public.

Music was amongst the first subjects offered by the University College of South Wales formed in Cardiff in 1883, with Clement Templeton the first lecturer giving popular public lectures with performances of Bach on the piano. In 1946 Alun Hoddinott (1929-2008), a teenage violin prodigy from Bargoed, won a scholarship to Cardiff. Whilst still a student in 1949 the BBC in Wales broadcast the first studio performance of his Clarinet Concerto, which went on to be performed at the Cheltenham Festival in 1954 and the BBC Proms in 1955 earning him a UK wide reputation. He became head of the School of Music in 1967 and in the same year established the Cardiff Festival of 20th Century Music. This attracted acclaimed musicians such as Benjamin Britten and Olivier Messiaen to the Welsh capital as well as artists such as Barbara Hepworth who would provide a large bronze sculpture for the expanding School’s new building. Hoddinott was a prolific composer of operas, symphonies and concertos whose works include the investiture dances written for the investiture of the Prince of Wales in 1969. He retired as head of the School of Music in 1987. Hoddinott Hall, home to the BBC National Orchestra of Wales at the Wales Millenium Centre was named in his honour in 2009.

The School of Music was the first of a sequence of brick clad buildings by Alex Gordon and partners for the University in the early 1970s, continuing with the Sherman Theatre in 1971, the Mathematics block in 1972 and the Student’s Union in 1973, all on Senghennydd Road. Sir Alex Gordon became President of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1971 where he was an early champion of sustainable design under the motto ‘long life / loose fit / low energy’ and also designed the large extension to the Cathays Park Welsh Government Offices completed in 1979.

Exterior

Three storey flat-roofed Modernist ‘shoe-box’ cuboid, concrete framed and clad in red brick to match Aberdare Hall, blind and unornamented to left side containing concert hall with minimal vertical slit steel framed windows on right side containing teaching rooms. Octagonal glazed audience foyer projects out from southwest face. Battered brick plinth except on northwest side. Third floor services block over teaching rooms is recessed into north corner of flat roof.

Projecting central canopy in front elevation over student entrance blind to front with narrow side lights and rooflight and inward sloping underside. Windows set in narrow vertical recesses, two tall lights to front staircase left of canopy, to right of canopy four lights to each floor on front right, six to each floor on right side with seventh window to second floor only towards rear, and six to rear elevation on right side with additional glazing to rear central stair. Shaped brick lintels and sills to windows. Low square hatch to rear of concert hall for electrical cables used for outside broadcasting of concerts.

Hexagonal flat lead roofed audience foyer, steel framed with four and a half plate glass sides, meets brick toilet block at rear. Double door glass entrance in south face up short flight of steps. Grassed front lawn sits below pavement height, originally red pavers connected student entrance to street via short flights of steps, causeway now raised in height in red brick to improve access in 2005. Red pavers also extend from front left under plinth to Three Obliques sculpture (see Listing 25834).

Interior

Staff and student entrance in front centre leads to stairs on left with landings to each floor, these academic foyers walled in brick matching exterior. Public octagon glazed foyer on left leads to concert hall from the opposite side via rear WCs, bar and box office.

Full volume height concert hall can accommodate 250 on removable seating with tiered raised area to rear. Walls and ceilings retain original coffered and perforated acoustic panelling. Integral organ in wall to rear of stage with pipes set in deep alcoves. Single internal window to technicians’ room on first floor. Glass plaque in Welsh only on opposite wall commemorating official opening:

AGORWYD YR ADEILAD HWN GAN EI UCHELDER BRENHINOL DUG CAEREDIN CANGHELLOR PRIFYSGOL CYMRU AR 21 MAI 1971.

Teaching spaces are organised with smaller individual practice rooms and offices around the outer faces, mostly retaining one wall panelled in timber and the opposite plastered to produce an even acoustic. Larger teaching spaces in core of building with one double floor height lecture room across first and second floors with raked seating. Narrow storerooms running from front to back of building contain service ductwork and serve to isolate teaching rooms from each other acoustically. Elevator alongside rear stair. Ground floor library has been split into two after collection was moved elsewhere.

Reason for designation

The School of Music is of special interest and Listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural Interest- Amongst the best works of Sir Alex Gordon, austere, finely detailed and uncompromisingly Modernist despite contextual brick cladding. Thoughtfully planned in collaboration with Alan Hoddinott the internal organisation has stood the test of time and is expressed in the stark exterior.

Historic Interest- Illustrates an important aspect of Wales’ cultural history as an important engine for the musical achievements of the post-war period. Its planning expresses the long-held aspiration towards widening access to music through the University.

Close Historical Associations with Alun Hoddinott as an important figure in Welsh music, as well as many other distinguished musicians who have studied, taught and performed here.

Group Value with forecourt sculpture by Barbara Hepworth and the Welsh Government Cathays Park Offices opposite by the same architect, as well as with other listed university buildings in Cardiff.