Why is it so difficult to experience the musical culture of the west of Ireland?

What role does metaphor play in music?

How the arts can get through this recession

The roll of jazz in Eastern Europe through the decades

How old music becomes new

Jon Boden is a singer and fiddle-player born in Chicago and raised inWinchester, England.

Front cover (recto and verso) of the first issue of The Irish Musical Monthly, an early twentieth-century Dublin periodicalThe Irish Musical Monthly.

The Irishness of Irish MusicJohn O’FlynnAshgate (Surrey and Vermont, 2009)It is a fact that music genres which originate outside Ireland tend not to be regarded as ‘Irish’.

The Making of Irish Traditional MusicHelen O’SheaCork University Press (2008)One of the duties of musicology is that it must look at the way we structure our musical practice – socially, conceptually, culturally and musically (if you can re

Twelve Études for GuitarGamelan Media (GAM0004)Reviewing a live performance by Benjamin Dwyer of his Twelve Études for Guitar in the The Journal of Music last year, Rob Casey applauded the diverse technical challenges and genre-spanning rea

TogethernessLiving Room Project (LRP 004)Since its debut early last year, the Dublin quartet Togetherness has grown into one of the leading lights of the Irish jazz scene. Impressive performances at 12Points!

Seanchairde/Old Friends3-Scones-2008-001The fiddle-playing of Dermy Diamond is the revelation on this trio recording. Although a familiar figure on the Irish traditional music scene, this is the first recording that carries his name.

Double PlayCompass Records 7 4502 2 First appearing together on the 2000 album Lost in the Loop, this is the second CD which features the pairing presented as a duet, acknowledging the importance of Doyle’s contribution to the recording’s.

Tesla/ LISTEN hEAR Farpoint RecordingsThe brilliance of the Quiet Club, the Cork-based ‘entity’ of Danny McCarthy and Mick O’Shea, is best apprehended live.

Si Dolce è il TormentoDiatribe DIACD003Francesco Turrisi is an Italian pianist, accordionist and percussionist who has been brightening the Irish jazz scene with his unique blend of influences since moving to Dublin three years ago.

Batu. Barcode III.

Gamelan Sekar Petak, Neil Sorrell (director); The Gong Agenda; Michelle O’Rourke (soprano); Salil Sachdev (metal bowl, djembe, hang); Joe Browning (shakuhachi), Jonathan Sage (clarinet); Linda Buckley (voice)National Concert Hall, Dublin, 1

Café Oto, London9–11 March 2009Otomo Yoshihide and Sachiko M’s three-day residency at Café Oto featured them in solo and duo performances, in addition to group improvisations alongside musicians such as Eddie Prévost, Christian...

J.J. Smyth’s, Dublin15 March 2009It is surprising that jazz, which owes so much to its African roots, does not return to the creative well of African culture more often.

Kevin Volans (piano); Jennifer Walshe (vocals); Crash Ensemble: Emily Thyne (violin), Lisa Grosman (viola), Kate Ellis (cello), Malachy Robinson (double bass), John Godfrey (piano), Deirdre O’Leary (clarinet), Andrew Crowley (trumpet), Owen

RTÉ Vanbrugh QuartetIrish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin3 April 2009In Stepping Stones, the book of interviews with Seamus Heaney conducted by Dennis O’Driscoll, the poet does not give the impression that he actively seeks out music, whether

Berliner Ensemble, Berlin12 April 2009Pairing the director Robert Wilson and the musician Rufus Wainwright in a theatrical production to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the publication of Shakespeare’s sonnets was a courageous commission

A period of freedom – and tension – in Chicago jazz through the playing of Anthony Braxton and the AACM

Why Japanese pop artists are ditching romance, language and identity

A crisis of identity in choral music is leaving it professionally sidelined and with little status in society

LISTINGS FROM THE IRISH TRADITIONAL MUSIC ARCHIVEContinued from The Journal of Music April–May 2009CDS PUBLISHED 2008–2009Blackthorn Band, instrumental & vocal group, The River that Runs Below, Hobgoblin Records HOBCD1009, 2008Burke, Ke

CLASSICAL/EARLYCD Review Andrew McGregor Sat, 9:00am www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/cdreview/Classical Collection Sarah Walker Mon–Fri, 10:00am www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/classicalcollection Composer of the Week Donal Macleod Mon–Fri, 12:00pm www.bbc.co.uk

The first in a series of curious anecdotes from musical history.

Music That’s Good ValueClare Keville, Galway, writes:In ‘Music That’s Good Value’, (April–May), Toner Quinn writes that the ‘2009 winner of the Gradam Ceoil reflects a key belief in traditional music, that the contribution...

Kuljit Bhamra, Shahid Khan, the Orlando Consort and Jonathan Mayer Described as ‘musical conversations across the Indian Ocean’, Mantra is a new work cultivated by the National Centre for Early Music (York) which combines sixteenth-century

Yannis Kyriakides, whose online installation forms part of Sound and Music’s first season Sound and MusicSound and Music has launched its first season.

There are many issues involved in writing about music, some of which are addressed in this issue in articles by John McLachlan and Bob Gilmore, but traditional-music criticism has problems all of its own.Unlike other genres, the body of hig

The discourse around music serves only to divide us

Have we lost clear sight of the purpose of music criticism?