January/February 2008

In Praise of the Ceili Band

In Praise of the Ceili Band

In Praise of the Ceili Band

There’s a burst of applause before the band launches into a set of reels: the pace is immediately fast and furious, and you can hear the audience in the background, whooping and hurrahing above an excited buzz of conversation.

Published on 1 January 2008

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'.

Live Reviews: The Necks / Paul G. Smyth

Live Reviews: The Necks / Paul G. Smyth

Live Reviews: The Necks / Paul G. Smyth

Daghdha Space, Limerick3 November 2007Chris Abrahams’ hands rest silently on the piano keys, hesitate, reconsider, retreat. A second attempt to begin reveals a single tone, repeated with a silver care, racing ahead and pulling back.

Published on 1 January 2008

Benedict Schlepper-Connolly is a composer and a director of Ergodos, a production company and record label. schlepperconnolly.com

The Little Ponies that Beat the Mare: Thomas Moore and his Irish Melodies

The Little Ponies that Beat the Mare: Thomas Moore and his Irish Melodies

The Little Ponies that Beat the Mare: Thomas Moore and his Irish Melodies

A range of commemorative events will mark the two hundreth anniversary of the publication of Thomas Moore’s Irish Melodies. Una Hunt looks at his life and work and Moore’s legacy today.

Published on 1 January 2008

Una Hunt is a pianist, broadcaster and Irish music specialist, and Professor of Performance Research at DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama.

One Man, Many Voices

One Man, Many Voices

One Man, Many Voices

Pádraig Ó Cearbhaill reads a book of essays in honour of Tom Munnelly.

Published on 1 January 2008

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.

Editorial: Spread the Word

Editorial: Spread the Word

One of the Forum for Music in Ireland’s most important roles has been its highlighting of the slow development of music education in Ireland. It does this through its bi-annual meetings, its website and its campaigns.

Published on 1 January 2008

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.

Live Reviews: Remembering Ligeti Festival

Live Reviews: Remembering Ligeti Festival

Liberty Hall Theatre/NCH, Dublin9-11 November 2007György Ligeti was still alive when Benjamin Dwyer had the idea of dedicating a festival to his work; Ligeti had been dead for over a year when the idea eventually came to fruition.

Published on 1 January 2008

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

Live Reviews: DEAF

Live Reviews: DEAF

Various venues, Dublin25-29 October 2007Confucius said: ‘Everything has its beauty, but not everyone sees it.’ After last year’s focus on Ireland, this year’s Dublin Electronic Arts Festival turned its gaze eastwards, its theme being...

Published on 1 January 2008

Seán Ó Máille is a freelance critic, photographer and full-time secondary teacher in Dublin.

Live Reviews: Eliza Carthy

Live Reviews: Eliza Carthy

Spiegeltent, Queen’s University, Belfast21 October 2007The woman who was going to drag English folk music into the twenty-first century was at the Belfast Festival at Queen’s in Autumn, but watching the middle-aged and middle-class – that..

Published on 1 January 2008

Robert MacMillan is Irish Language Editor with The Irish News in Belfast.

Notes

Notes

Notes

Rossa and Rónán Ó Snodaigh in Ceolchuairt on TG4 JMI Seeks Marketing ExecutiveJMI welcomes letters of application for the new post of Marketing & Promotions Executive. The position shall involve promoting the magazine at major music...

Published on 1 January 2008

Inbox: Aran Island Pipers

Inbox: Aran Island Pipers

Deirdre Ní Chonghaile, Cill Rónáin, Oileán Árainn, writes: On a point of information: as I understand it, there were five pipers in the Aran Islands in 1821, not seven as either Fred Johnston or Sean Donnelly suggested in...

Published on 1 January 2008

Deirdre Ní Chonghaile is a PhD student in UCC’s Music Department. Her thesis is on the music and song of the Aran Islands. 

Live Reviews: Rolf Hind (piano) & David Alberman (violin)

Live Reviews: Rolf Hind (piano) & David Alberman (violin)

Printing House, Trinity College, Dublin4 December 2007Theloosely-themed programme of New Sound Worlds in December focussed on the developments made in twentieth and twenty-first century violin and piano music, highlighting the distance trav

Published on 1 January 2008

Seán Clancy is a composer living in Dublin.

Resonant Air: The Music of Michael Alcorn

Resonant Air: The Music of Michael Alcorn

Resonant Air: The Music of Michael Alcorn

In the sixth article in his series on Irish composers, Bob Gilmore interviews Michael Alcorn, Director of the Sonic Arts Research Centre in Queen’s University.

Published on 1 January 2008

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.