Author Biography
Harry White is Professor of Music at UCD and a Fellow of the Royal Irish Academy of Music. In 2003-6 he was inaugural President of the Society for Musicology in Ireland. He has been general editor (with Gerard Gillen) of Irish Musical Studies since 1990 and is perhaps best known as a cultural historian of music in Ireland, on which subject he has published three monographs: The Keeper's Recital: Music and Cultural History in Ireland, 1770-1970 (1998); The Progress of Music in Ireland (2005) and Music and the Irish Literary Imagination (2008). He was elected to the Royal Irish Academy in 2006. Barra Boydell was Professor in the Department of Music at NUI Maynooth until his retirement in 2010. He was a founding member of the Society for Musicology in Ireland (SMI) and served as its first Honorary Secretary. He was elected to honorary life membership of the SMI in 2011. Widely known for his work in organology and musical iconography, he has an international reputation as an historian of music in Ireland in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. His many publications in this area include Music at Christ Church before 1800: Documents and Selected Anthems (1999), A History of Music at Christ Church Cathedral Dublin (2004) and Music, Ireland and the Seventeenth Century (2009), edited with Kerry Houston.
Description
The Encyclopaedia of Music in Ireland (EMIR) is the first comprehensive attempt to chart Irish musical life across recorded history. It also documents Ireland's musical relations with the world at large, notably in Britain, continental Europe and North America, and it seeks to identify the agencies through which music has become an enduring expression of Irish political, social, religious and cultural life. In these respects, EMIR is the collective work of 240 contributors whose research has been marshalled by an editorial and advisory board of specialists in the following domains of Irish musical experience: secular and religious music to 1600; art music, 1600-2010; Roman catholic church music; Protestant church music; popular music; traditional music; organology and iconography; historical musicology; ethnomusicology; the history of recorded sound; music and media; music printing and publishing; and, music in Ireland as trade, industry and profession. EMIR contains some 2,000 individual entries which collectively afford an unprecedented survey of the fabric of music in Ireland.It records and evaluates the work of hundreds of individual musicians, performers, composers, teachers, collectors, scholars, ensembles, societies and institutions throughout Irish musical history, and it comprehends the relationship between music and its political, artistic, religious, educational and social contexts in Ireland from the early middle ages to the present day. In its extensive catalogues, discographies and source materials, EMIR sets in order, often for the first time, the legacy and worklists of performers and composers active in Ireland (or of Irish extraction), notably (but not exclusively) in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It offers to the general reader a regiment of 'brief lives' of Irish musicians throughout history, and it affords the specialist a detailed retrieval of information on music in Ireland hitherto unavailable or difficult to access. Above all, it is (proverbially) encyclopaedic in its address on the plurality and diversity of Irish musical experience. To this end, EMIR represents the single largest research project on music in Ireland to have been undertaken to date.
‘White’s substantial introduction, on behalf of the general editors, gives an interesting and thoughtful account of the project’s genesis and goals … The sense we get is the wish to create a monument that at the same time tries to correct some of the mistakes of traditional monumental reference projects.’
Ruth A. Solie, Journal of the Society for Musicology in Ireland, 10 (2014–15)
'EMIR offers routes into the place of Irish music in Ireland and beyond; and it helps in the navigation of the complexity of music in human life. The work helps show musical diversity across political boundaries; historical and contemporary moments in the history of Ireland; and a range of music styles, many of which are sonic emblems of the island of Ireland. This encyclopaedia is an essential source for anyone with an interest in music in Ireland, and also for those with historical and contemporary interests in a plethora of music related topics.'
Henry Johnson, Ethnomusicology Forum, September 2014
‘… it is the ideal starting place for anyone seeking to learn more about Irish music topics. As a guide to the unique universe of Irish music scholarship, it will remain indispensable for years to come.’
CHOICE, September 2014
‘The physical production is itself a work of art. It’s expensive but well worth it, and will become the standard way into the labyrinth of music in Ireland for some time.’
Irish Times Book Of The Year, November 2013
'The Encyclopaedia of Music in Ireland is practical in its structure but also poetic in its generosity. As such it has transformed the labyrinth of the knowledge of music in Ireland into a readable map spanning the territory. It has had a new go at the business and, in so doing, given us all cause to celebrate.'
The Irish Times, 23 November 2013
‘The EMIR is an overdue and important work, a kaleidoscopic record of what was and what is in the artistic and intellectual potential of “music” in Ireland.’
The Living Tradition, February 2014
'I am delighted to be here today to celebrate the launch of this valuable and long awaited publication, The Encyclopaedia of Music in Ireland. I would like to thank Professor Gerard Gillen for inviting me to launch this important publication and all of you for that generous welcome.
Tá tábhacht ag baint leis an lá inniu i saol cultúrtha na hÉireann; mar is é seo an lá a dhéanann muid an chéad stair den cheol in Éirinn á cur i dtoll a chéile le breis is céad bliain, a cheiliúradh agus a sheoladh. Is é an t-aon taifead uil-chuimsitheach é ar scéal agus ar stair cheol an náisiúin is linne é. Cruthaithe agus curtha i dtoll a chéile ag saineolaithe ceoil, ar liosta le háireamh iad, tugann an ciclipéid seo léiriú ar ár n-oidhreacht agus ar an iomad tionchar a chuaigh i bhfeidm ar an oidhreacht sin agus a rinne é a mhúnlú.
[Today is an important day in the cultural life of Ireland; the day when we celebrate and launch the first history of music in Ireland to be compiled in over a hundred years and the only all encompassing record of our nation’s musical life and history. Created and brought together by an impressive roll call of music experts, this Encyclopaedia outlines our musical heritage and the many facets which have formed and shaped that heritage. ]
President Michael D. Higgins with editors Barra Boydell, ex Professor in the Department of Music at NUI Maynooth and Harry White, Professor of Music at UCD launched The Encyclopaedia of Music in Ireland at The Grand Logde Room, Freemasons' Hall in Molesworth St, Dublin
The Encyclopaedia of Music in Ireland is both a celebration of the artistic empathy for which we, as a nation, are renowned and an affirmation of the great wealth of musical talent that has always existed in this country. It is a great coming together of knowledge and musical scholarship that will allow us to reach a true understanding of the musical journey of a nation – of its continual evaluation and progression, its constant reworking and re-shaping and its reflection of the society with which it engages.
Here in Ireland it is appropriate that we take an understandable pride in our rich cultural heritage and in our worldwide reputation for creativity and innovation. However, that pride tends to be somewhat singularly focussed on our great literary tradition with public discourse on the cultural history of Ireland often granting the role of music a somewhat tangential space. Where debate does focus on our musical journey it has tended to begin with the traditional music which is identified so strongly with our culture and tradition; and to travel straight to the success of some Irish musical landmarks of recent decades, such as U2 and Riverdance, which are rightly regarded as having etched a new found confidence in ourselves as Europeans producing musical and cultural experiences. These volumes show how much has often been missed in the contemporary discourse.
However, as with all critical journeys, the pathways which have brought us to where we stand today have been complex ones; ones with many twists and turns and digressions and unexpected discoveries. It has been a multifarious journey of many layers, a journey based on what we share and one that is continually being reworked, progressed and influenced by the society in which we live and by the many influences being brought to bear on that society, in particular its exilic and migratory character.
Harry White asserts, in his introduction to the Encyclopaedia that, for all its inclusiveness, the Encyclopaedia of Music in Ireland cannot be an exhaustive directory but a map. It is a valuable map that allows us to retrace our country’s musical passage, and to fully explore the people, the places, the performances, the genres, the societies, the ensembles and the many other factors which have left their footprint on the landscape of Ireland’s musical voyage.
It is also a work that maps a changing Ireland, measured through the differing sounds that have emerged as our country grows and develops and changes; re-imagining, rethinking and adapting to an ever evolving and increasingly globalised world. It is a reminder that just as we are now a country busy rebuilding and re-imagining ourselves, it is important that our music also continues to develop and transform, reflecting a complex modern world and engaging with the present in all its light and shade.
This encyclopaedia is the result of an enormous level of dedication and commitment, a vast collaboration which has provided a valuable and profound wealth of research into the role of music in Irish life. As I looked through the encyclopaedia I so was impressed by both its generous scope and the wealth of influences that have impacted on the evolution of our nation’s music.
From the opening page where the worlds of literature and music connect through the story of our National Theatre, to the final entry where we learn that the first International Conference on Irish Music took place in Durham just three years ago, we are allowed a profound insight into the world of Irish music and all that has shaped, formed and impacted on it.
Cuireann an dá imleabhar seo ar ár gcumas dul isteach go smior sa Ghaelachas seo ‘gainne agus léargas a fháil ar an gcaoi a ndearnadh ár stair ár gceoil a
Twitter: @UCDPress