Raymond Deane

The first composition teacher of Charles Villiers Stanford, the ‘father’ of the renaissance in English classical music, came from Tralee. In a review of a new book on Arthur O’Leary (1834–1919), Raymond Deane argues that a new assessment of Irish classical music history is an urgent necessity.

If pulse-based music is the norm in our society, are most contemporary composers hopelessly out of touch? Does choosing to create pulse-based music mean one is succumbing to American cultural imperialism? Following on from Ronan Guilfoyle’s article in the Nov-Dec JMI on the relationship of jazz and contemporary music to society today, composer Raymond Deane and jazz bassist Guilfoyle tease out the issue more in this email debate.

Dear Editor,A ghost haunts the JMI – the ghost of the Irish Bartók. When last seen some years back, this fearsome spectre was safely tucked in his tomb, a sprig of garlic in his gob and a shamrock up each hairy nostril. Now David Flynn has disinterred...

Dear Editor,Patrick Zuk clearly wishes that modernism had never happened, and hence is unable to imagine that it might still be a living presence – hence the wishful thinking implied by the past tense in his title. Adorno’s many failings have...