Dan Elphick

@danelphick.bsky.social

2221 Followers 938 Following

Music Lecturer at RHUL, working on music history and analysis, and Slavic studies. Also a runner and TU organiser (@rhucu.bsky.social). Listen to Shostakovich. I wrote a book on Weinberg: https://tinyurl.com/5xs2h82h https://danielelphick.co.uk

Poster for my PLAY! festival event: 'Dan Elphick sings Bob Dylan II: More Bob, More Dylan' (featuring Simon Watteron). 10 June 2026, 9pm, The Packhorse, Egham.
Book cover for said volume - featuring a highly stylised portrait of Paderewski.
Cover of the book 'Sounds of Freedom, Echoes of Control: The Warsaw Autumn Festival Across the Iron Curtain', edited by Beata Bolesławska-Lewandowska and Jolanta Guzy-Pasiak (Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences, 2026).
Image of the landing page of the Holocaust Research Institute at Royal Holloway; header reads 'The Holocaust Research Institute at Royal Holloway is one of the leading academic centres of its kind in Europe, internationally recognised for its research, teaching, public engagement and creative work'.
Graphic of Scully from the X Files, captioned 'Yeah, I use AI: Actual Imagination'. From the instagram account @sculder.and.mully
Front cover of the book 'Mieczysław Weinberg: Between East and West', edited by Michelle Assay and David Fanning.
Strava map of the route for the Half Marathon (8.75 laps round the park!)
Nick Cave playing piano in St Bart's
Screenshot of Everyman cinema website, with a 18 November date for 'Baby Club' tickets for the film 'Nuremberg'. The content warning notes list 'images of real dead bodies, Holocaust references, strong violence'.
Still from 'Friends'. The character Joey is excitedly pointing to his own face, which is showing on a television. He looks very serious in the television appearance, but looks excited in the room while he is pointing at the image.
View outside Senate House, Bloomsbury.
Photo of me surveying a 15-foot-high pile of horse manure.
Stop using anti-arthouse film language. Instead of 'I didn't like that movie', say 'Probably need to revisit this film'. Instead of 'way too long and jumped around a lot', say 'a sprawling epic' Instead of 'boring', say 'takes its time immersing you' Instead of 'overhyped old movie', say 'such an important film in cinema history' Instead of 'idk what that movie was even trying to say', say 'thematically nuanced and allows room for interpretation'
Cover of the new book 'Mieczysław Weinberg: Between East and West', edited by David Fanning and Michelle Assay.
Me speaking in the radio3 box at the Royal Albert Hall, with several wonderfully grumpy-looking people in front.
Our lovely decorated Big Easy Jam piano!
Me playing guitar and singing, part of a gig of me singing Bob Dylan songs in the pub. Photo credit Marcus Lai.
Edited version of the notorious photo of Stalin and his cabinet, where Yezhov is edited out in later versions after being 'disappeared' - now with Trump as Stalin and Musk and Yezhov.
Email reads: 'Greetings, from the illuminati world elite empire. Are you a business Man/woman, politician, musician, student, employee. Do you strive to expand your knowledge to achieve personal growth, Do you want to be rich?, need protection, be powerful and famous. If YES! Then you can achieve your dreams by being a member of the great illuminati empire. Once you are a member all your dreams and heart desire can be fully accomplish. With this brief summary, If you are interested to become a member of the great illuminati then get back to us for more information about joining the illuminati. kindly reply us back on our direct recruitment email only at: infoilluminati@religious.com Please note, Kindly make sure all your response are send directly to the email stated above.'
Me posing in my new suit - light blue, linen blend.
A giant cut-out poster for the film 'Slade in Flame' in the foyer of BFI, Southbank.
Olga Tokarczuk's 'The Books of Jacob', an enormous book in gorgeous Fitzcarraldo Editions blue binding.
Cover of a vinyl copy of Bob Dylan's 'Blonde on Blonde', complete with '£6' price tag.
My home study, with writing bureau and chair. On the wall above it, three courses of shelving (complete with books), that I put up yesterday evening. My cat Martha sits next to the bureau, looking eerily like a bad taxidermy.
Shot of a tv showing the film 'Russian Ark'. Caption reads 'Russian music makes me break out in hives'
My medal - image of Battersea Park peace tower, with 'Battersea Park Chase the Moon' under it.
Poster for my talk today, in the Emily Wilding Davison building event space, 1pm. The poster image shows the composer Galina Ustvolskaya sat in a forest.
Satirical cartoon. A couple walks past a sign reading 'pop stars release album of silence'. One says to the other 'how dare they reproduce John Cage's work without permission'.
Poster for Alain Resnais's film 'Hiroshima mon amour'.
Photo of Senate House, central London.
Screenshot from the Simpsons (episode 'Pranksta Rap'), with rapper wearing a 'Thursday the 20th' necklace.
Book cover with the note
Events webpage for the seminar, titled 'Music Under Collapse' (4pm, Wettons Terrace 001, RHUL Music Department, Tues 28 January). Abstract reads: '‘Music Under Collapse’ is a project that examines the experiences of musicians and audiences under the Soviet Collapse, 1985-1995. In this time, state support for compositions and concerts diminished to almost nothing, and scarcity of basic resources took imperative over artistic pressures. At the same time that economic precarity reached new heights, artistic pressures almost vanished, in that the state control exerted for most of the Soviet Union virtually vanished. My research examines what the Soviet project meant for musicians and their audiences at the very end of the Soviet era – all that was lost and all that was gained during this tumultuous time. While composers had to endure the withdrawal of state support (and, consequently, having to adjust to market economics for the first time in their lives), audiences had to deal with the diminishing prestige of music and ‘high art’ – with the rise of ‘low art’ venues in the 1990s. In this talk, I present an overview of the main research questions and challenges for this project, as well as a case study of the main organisational body for Soviet music - the Composers’ Union.'
A poster for the film series, complete with Russian 'Kino Glaz' classic poster by Rodchenko. Films include 'Aleksander Nevsky', 'The Cranes are Flying', 'Solaris', and more.
Album cover of Bob Dylan's 'Blood on the Tracks'
A very stylish photo of Martha the tabby on my sofa
Beautiful Chagall sketch, in a gold frame, on my wall.
Two pairs of On cloudneo shoes, one pair very dirty and worn, the other new and clean.
Selfie, looking soggy in my running gear, but happy.
Martha the tabby cat lying on my dining table, with warm winter sunlight streaming through large windows behind.
Overview of my long run. 22km in Windsor Great Park, with the pace steadily increasing over it.
My Mum and I raising a glass
Image showing my strava stats for running in 2024. 2971km in total, 272 hours spent running.
'Waiting for Godot' poster, Lucian Msamati as Estragon and Ben Whishaw as Vladimir.
Front cover of Langley's book; it collates cartoons of lots of Victorian-looking gentlemen in conversation or reading, against a blue background.
Me showing off my 'The Happy Man' shirt. I am suitably happy in the photo.
It's a very clever modulation; text reads: 'Tonic C-major; relative (e minor) to the dominant (G major) of C major; use this e minor, which is also sub-dominant in b-minor; dominant (F-sharp major) of b minor; use this F-sharp major, which is at the same time the tonic of F-sharp major; use this chord of the sixth (E-sharp, G-sharp, C-sharp), which is also the chord of the Neopolitan sixth in B-sharp major (Cadence!)'
The cover of Bob Dylan's 'Christmas in the Heart' album.
Poem: 'For a student who used AI to write a Paper': Now I let it fall back in the grasses. I hear you. I know this life is hard now. I know your days are precious on this earth. But what are you trying to be free of? The living? The miraculous task of it? Love is for the ones who love the work.
A screenshot of a photo posted in a facebook group. It's a photo of a vaguely Xmas tree shaped wooden sculpture with a flared base. It looks *ahem* suggestively like a certain private implement.
Data screen of my 5k parkrun this morning (time of 20:10, beating my previous personal best by 25 seconds!)
Tweet reads: 'I'm giving my students five minutes at the start of today's lectures to register to vote online. I see this as being a vital part of their education. The ruling government has explicitly stated their intention to disenfranchise students.' The tweet had 3,200 retweets and 8,900 likes.
My cat (Martha), having tucked herself up in the duvet this morning.
'Flights' by Olga Takarczuk