April/May 2009

CD Review: Corn Uí Riada: Buaiteoirí, 1972–2007

CD Review: Corn Uí Riada: Buaiteoirí, 1972–2007

CD Review: Corn Uí Riada: Buaiteoirí, 1972–2007

Corn Uí Riada: Buaiteoirí, 1972–2007 / Cló Iar-Chonnachta / RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta / CICD 177

Published on 1 April 2009

Pádraig Ó Cearbhaill is employed as a placenames researcher in the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs. Pádraig’s solo CD of traditional song, Amhráin na Séad /Jewels and Pathways was released in 2006.

The Suffering Ducks

The Suffering Ducks

The Suffering Ducks

How has a Belfast flute sound evolved in such a short time?

Published on 1 April 2009

Ciaran Carson (1948–2019) was a poet, prose writer, translator and flute-player. He was the author of Last Night’s Fun – A Book about Irish Traditional Music, The Pocket Guide to Traditional Irish Music, The Star Factory, and the poetry collections The Irish for No, Belfast Confetti and First Language: Poems. He was Professor of Poetry at Queen’s University Belfast. Between 2008 and 2010 Ciaran wrote a series of linked columns for the Journal of Music, beginning with 'The Bag of Spuds' and ending with 'The Raw Bar'.

Derek Ball

Derek Ball

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra; Robert Houlihan (conductor); Matthew Jones (viola) National Concert Hall, Dublin 3 February 2009.

Published on 1 April 2009

Rob Casey is a Dublin-based musician and composer of electronic and acoustic music.

Concorde

Concorde

Concorde

Elaine Clark (violin), Martin Johnson (cello), David James (cello), Madeleine Staunton (flute), Paul Roe (clarinet), Roberto Oliveira (percussion), Tine Verbeke (soprano), Jane O’Leary (piano) / Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin / 15 Febru

Published on 1 April 2009

Barra Ó Séaghdha is a writer on cultural politics, literature and music.

Parisian Radar

Parisian Radar

Parisian Radar

France may not be a leading exporter of music, but the Paris scene is a great importer, able to spot talents, even with English lyrics, that seem to pass other countries by.

Published on 1 April 2009

Gareth Murphy is author of Cowboys and Indies – The Epic History of the Record Industry. For his music business articles in the UK press, he won Writer of the Year at the 2017 PPA Independent Publisher Awards. He ghostwrote Siren Song, Sire Records founder Seymour Stein’s official autobiography, and lives in Paris.

The Art of Inefficiency

The Art of Inefficiency

The Art of Inefficiency

Peter Rosser on the intimacy and ritual of live music

Published on 1 April 2009

Peter Rosser (1970–2014) was a composer, writer and music lecturer.

He was born in London and moved to Belfast in 1990, where he studied composition at the University of Ulster and was awarded a DPhil in 1997. His music has been performed at the Spitalfields Festival in London, the Belfast Festival at Queen’s and by the Crash Ensemble in Dublin.

In 2011 the Arts Council acknowledged his contribution to the arts in Northern Ireland through a Major Individual Artist Award. He used this award to write his Second String Quartet, which was premiered in 2012 by the JACK Quartet at the opening concert at Belfast's new Metropolitan Arts Centre (The MAC).

Peter Rosser also wrote extensively on a wide range of music genres, with essays published in The Journal of Music, The Wire, Perspectives of New Music and the Crescent Journal. 

He died following an illness on 24 November 2014, aged 44.

Music by Committee

Music by Committee

Music by Committee

Composer competitions are a twisted game.

Published on 1 April 2009

Bob Gilmore (1961–2015) was a musicologist, educator and keyboard player. Born in Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland, he studied at York University, Queen's University Belfast, and at the University of California. His books include Harry Partch: a biography (Yale University Press, 1998) and Ben Johnston: Maximum Clarity and other writings on music (University of Illinois Press, 2006), both of which were recipients of the Deems Taylor Award from ASCAP. He wrote extensively on the American experimental tradition, microtonal music and spectral music, including the work of such figures as James Tenney, Horațiu Rădulescu, Claude Vivier, and Frank Denyer. Bob Gilmore taught at Queens University, Belfast, Dartington College of Arts, Brunel University in London, and was a Research Fellow at the Orpheus Institute in Ghent. He was the founder, director and keyboard player of Trio Scordatura, an Amsterdam-based ensemble dedicated to the performance of microtonal music, and for the year 2014 was the Editor of Tempo, a quarterly journal of new music. His biography of French-Canadian composer Claude Vivier was published by University of Rochester Press in June 2014. Between 2005 and 2012, Bob Gilmore published several articles in The Journal of Music.

From the Editor

From the Editor

Welcome to the first issue of The Journal of Music.Our philosophy is simple: we look for the bigger picture in musical life, and we ask those at its coal face – musicians, composers and listeners – to write about it.We connect across genres

Published on 1 April 2009

Toner Quinn is Editor of the Journal of Music. His new book, What Ireland Can Teach the World About Music, is available here. Toner will be giving a lecture exploring some of the ideas in the book on Saturday 11 May 2024 at 3pm at Farmleigh House in Dublin. For booking, visit https://bit.ly/3x2yCL8.

Tanya Tagaq Gillis

Tanya Tagaq Gillis

Tanya Tagaq Gillis (vocals), Michael Edwards (laptop), Kenton Loewen (percussion)Café Oto, London16 February 2009Tanya Tagaq Gillis works in a variety of vocal styles, from her native idiom of Inuit throat singing, to super-charged and loos

Published on 1 April 2009

Stephen Graham is a lecturer in music at Goldsmiths, University of London. He blogs at www.robotsdancingalone.wordpress.com.

Way Out West: New Jazz from Ireland

Way Out West: New Jazz from Ireland

Gerry Godley introduces Way Out West, a free recording of new Irish jazz by the Improvised Music Company which accompanies our April–May issue

Published on 1 April 2009

Gerry Godley is Artistic Director of Improvised Music Company, a resource organisation for jazz and related music in Ireland. He presents the world music programme Reels to Raga on RTÉ lyric fm.