This is How we Fly express a free-spirited philosophy for group playing in traditional Irish music, while staying within the lines of that tradition.
Barra Ó Séaghdha
Barra Ó Séaghdha is a writer on cultural politics, literature and music and was previously co-editor of Graph cultural review
Empty Space
Kathleen Loughnane
The Harpers Connellan: Irish Music of the late 17th century
Oddbox: Cyclone of Discord
DEAF: Soap & Skin (Anja Plaschg)/Chip Shop Music/Paddy Glackin, Emer Mayock & Donal Siggins
Classic Protest Songs
Various, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings (SFW40197)
Sounds Left Behind
Oddbox: Voodoo, Sir Richard?
Odd Box: Some Undignified Use
Seamus Heaney
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
'Write Whatever You Want'
Oddbox
Concorde
Live Reviews: Crash Ensemble: Free State III / World View UK
Live Reviews: At First Light
Live Reviews: Cellotronicum
Andrzej Bauer (cello), Roger Doyle (keyboard), Keith O’Brien (guitar, laptop), Brian Ó hUiginn (uilleann pipes) Liberty Hall, Dublin19 September 2008This year’s burst of concerts from Music 21 was as diverse as ever, taking in the quite...
Living Up to the Song
Live Reviews: The Frost is All Over
Live Reviews: Tarab
Francesco Turrisi (piano), Gabrielle Mirabassi (clarinet), Roman Bunka (oud), Ronan Guilfoyle (bass), Bijan Chemirani (percussion)National Concert Hall, Dublin24 April 2008Two Italians, a German, an Irishman and a Franco-Iranian (or Irano-F
Live Reviews: Seán Ó hÉanaigh
Bewley’s Café Theatre, Dublin 211 March 2008The immediate impression as you entered Bewley’s Theatre for singer Seán Ó hÉanaigh’s performance was one of relaxed conviviality. People at different tables visited...
Live Reviews: i-and-e
Boris Baltschun, Erik Carlsson, Roy Carroll, Axel Dörner, Kai Fagaschinski, Martin Küchen, David Lacey, Jason Lescalleet, Quiet Club (Danny McCarthy & Mick O’Shea), Fred Van Hove, Paul VogelThe Unitarian & Peppercanister Churches, D
Live Reviews: Life After Feldman
Live Reviews: Temple Bar Trad
Olympia Theatre, Dublin27 January 2008The last concert of this year’s Temple Bar Trad was promoted from the usual smaller venues to the Olympia Theatre, thanks to the sponsors and to the fact that the occasion was being televised for TG4.
Live Reviews: Nils Økland Trio
St Audoen’s Church, Dublin13 February 2008In theory, but only in some theory, music is to be treated as a thing in itself, and the nature of the location, of the audience and of the musicians as people are incidental.
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.
CD Reviews: Lorcán Mac Mathúna
Live Reviews: ConTempo String Quartet / RTÉ Vanbrugh Quartet
Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin / National Gallery, Dublin2 December 2007Sunday the 2nd of December almost accidentally became a feast-day for devotees of the string quartet.
Live Reviews: Music 21: Hugh Tinney / The Thing
NCH, Dublin/4 Dame Lane, Dublin28 September 2007Friday 28 September was a big day for Music 21, as this year’s program of events concluded with two radically different concerts.
Live Reviews: Niwel Tsumbu and Clear Sky Ensemble
Spiegeltent, Dublin Fringe Festival19 September 2007Clear Sky Ensemble is almost a feature writer’s dream.
Southside Sessions
A review of the inaugural TRADITION:DL, the Dún Laoghaire Festival of Traditional Music
Letters: Irish Musical Culture / RTÉ LMF
Barra Ó Séaghdha, Dublin, writes: Having complained so much about the poverty of debate on cultural matters in Ireland, I must thank Leith Davis, Ronan Guilfoyle and Barra Boydell for having taken the trouble to respond to recent articles o
Live Reviews: Young Composers' Collective
New Theatre, Temple Bar, Dublin29 July 2007‘Neck, pegbox and scroll’ was the attractive title of a concert devoted to works for cello and double-bass that took place in the New Theatre on 29 July.
Musical Texts of the Elites
Barra Ó Séaghdha finds much to debate in a recent work on music and Irish identity.
Colour on all sides
A review of the recent RTÉ Living Music Festival which focused on jazz and the music of American composer John Adams.
The Encyclopaedia of Music in Ireland
The very first Encyclopaedia of Music in Ireland, the most comprehensive publication on music ever to have been undertaken in Ireland, is currently in preparation and scheduled to be published in 2010.
Live Reviews: Horizons: Donnacha Dennehy / Strange Folk!: Crash Ensemble and Iarla Ó Lionáird
Horizons: Featured composer – Donnacha DennehyRTÉ NSO, Darragh Morgan (violin), National Chamber Choir (David Darcy, chorus master), Gavin Maloney (cond.)NCH, Dublin, 30 January 2007Strange Folk!: Crash Ensemble & Iarla Ó LionáirdSamuel
Live Reviews: Barry Guy and Mats Gustafsson
J.J.
Live Reviews: Sean Carpio, Simon Jermyn and Joachim Badenhorst
Sean Carpio, Simon Jermyn and Joachim BadenhorstSean Carpio’s front room14 September 2006It was the first evening of three on which drummer Sean Carpio and a varying selection of musical accomplices were due to play in his flat as part of t
Home Sweet Home: Classical Music Culture in Ireland, Britain & America
Sparked by a recent book on musical life in America over the past two centuries – Joseph Horowitz’ Classical Music in America: A History of its Rise and Fall – Barra Ó Séaghdha considers the classical music experiences of the US and Britain
Letters: Organic Music: Remembering B'Ween Kay Li
Barra Ó Séaghdha, Dublin 7, writes: If, like many other JMI readers, I was deeply touched by the letter from Ms Choona Day about the tragically curtailed career of her composer-father B’ween Kay Li, there was a further personal dimension...
Live Reviews: Debashish Bhattacharya
(chaturangi – 22-string guitar)Farmleigh Salon Series (programmed by Improvised Music Company), Farmleigh, Castleknock, Dublin, 17 July 2006A large black dog nearly put paid to this review – and, for a very long minute or two, it seemed li
Live Reviews: Iarla Ó Lionáird / Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill
ESB Beo Celtic Music Festival, NCH, Dublin5 August 2006It is not difficult to see the thinking behind the pairing of Iarla Ó Lionáird with Martin Hayes for one evening of the ESB Beo Celtic Music Festival.
O'Leary the Levitator
Recent work by Cork guitarist Mark O'Leary.
Six Hours with Feldman
Barra Ó Séaghdha experiences a performance at the NCH of the extraordinary String Quartet II by Morton Feldman, which lasts six hours without a break…
MC Hill
The Bray Jazz Festival 2006.
Palestinian notes for a new Ireland: Reem Kelani’s Sprinting Gazelle
Emigration and exile: songs from Palestine and their relevance to Celtic Tiger Ireland.
Live Reviews: Mostly Modern Festival
Bank of Ireland Arts Centre, Dublin, 3-4 March 2006This year’s Bank of Ireland Mostly Modern Festival was an Irish/Italian affair, with Luciano Berio and the less well-known Francesco Clementi figuring prominently.
Live Reviews: i-and-e festival
Various venues, Dublin, 31 March-1 April 2006Building on last year’s one-day event, the second i-and-e festival of improvised music took place on Friday 31 March and Saturday 1 April.
Live Reviews: Temple Bar Trad 2006, Festival Concerts – Saturday & Sunday
Various venues, Temple Bar, Dublin, 26-29 January 2006Anyone who can play as Tommy Peoples can is entitled to operate by his own rules.
The Sound of Discovery
The Festival de Jazz et de Free Music in Mulhouse, France.
Live Reviews: Horizons – Kevin Volans
NCH, Dublin, 31 January 2006 Andrew Hamilton – Map; Volans – Cello Concerto; Stravinsky – Four Études for Orchestra; Volans – Strip-weaveRTÉ National Symphony Orchestra;Gavriel Lipkind, cello; Robert Houlihan, conductorThe...
Live Reviews: ECM Autumn Cycle – Jon Balke's Magnetic North Orchestra
Whelan’s, Dublin, 17 November 2005The appearance of Jon Balke’s Magnetic North Orchestra at Whelan’s on 17 November was one of the last in a year-long series of concerts presented by the Improvised Music Company and the Jazz Architects and.
Live Reviews: Rachid Taha
Vicar Street, Dublin, 24 November 2005Rachid Taha is a leading figure among the new French-Algerian musicians who blend techno-trance/dance influences with rai and other North African sounds.
The Menacing & the Sublime
Composers' Choice 2005.
Letters: RTÉ Living Music Festival 2005
Dear EditorGiven that I had been quite critical of his programming, it is entirely understandable that Kevin O’Connell should be annoyed with my review of the 2005 RTÉ Living Music Festival.
Music, Ideas and History
Barra Ó Séaghdha reviews The Progress of Music in Ireland, a wide-ranging new book of essays by Harry White on the relationship between music, cultural history and musicology in Ireland.
Live Reviews: Improv at the Printing House Festival
Saturday 23 AprilThe Printing House, Trinity College, DublinDuring the interval of the afternoon session of the first Improv at the Printing House Festival, I suddenly found myself listening intently to the gurgling of water in a pipe again
Imagining the Festival of the Future: The RTÉ Living Music Festival 2005
The RTÉ Living Music Festival has been a great feat of enterprise and adventure for three years. Now, RTÉ is pausing to take stock.
The Chosen Ones
The Sligo New Music Festival and Composers’ Choice.
The Price of Happiness?
Has too much been sacrificed by Irish traditional music in embracing the values of modern Ireland? Barra Ó Séaghdha takes some snapshots of a country with 'societal amnesia' and wonders where all the slow airs have gone...
RTÉ Living Music Festival 2004
The weekend of 20-22 February saw the RTÉ Living Music Festival 2004 at the Helix in Dublin. Last year's very successful Berio-centred event appears to have set the pattern for the festival.
Crash and Bang...
The 2003 Crash Festival at the Project (Dublin) presented a wide range of formats and activities, from solo piano to video + electronics + percussion to interview. Responses too were varied.
The Who, What, Why, Where and When of Music and Ideas
Barra Ó Séaghdha looks back over the JMI's first three years and suggests possibilities for the future...
Traditional Music: Back at the Crossroads
Barra Ó Séaghdha gives his response to the second Crossroads conference on traditional music which took place in Derry from 25th to 27th April.
Live Reviews: Up North!: Festival Overview
There may have been periods when little or nothing seemed to be happening in the contemporary/classical world, but 2002 was not a year for morose contemplation of the difference between nothingness and near-nothingness.
Live Reviews: RTÉ Living Music Festival: Overview
The RTÉ Living Music FestivalFeaturing the music of Lucian Berio, October 25-27 @ The HelixDecision time.
Letters: Musical Constructions of Nationalism
Dear Editor,I was intrigued by Axel Klein's response to Patrick Zuk's review of Harry White’s writings on music and nationalism. It is noteworthy that Dr Klein does not take issue with any specific point raised by Zuk.
Look Who's Talking!
A look at the current state of reviewing in jazz, traditional and classical music in Ireland.


















