The frontispiece of Paul Alday's symphony.
Discovery of Ireland's First Symphony Inspires Dublin Symposium
A symposium on the symphony in Ireland is to be hosted by the DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama, Rathmines, on 20 April. The aim of the symposium is ‘to examine the context and trajectory of the symphony in, and of, Ireland’. Academics from Ireland and overseas will take part, as well as Irish composers writing symphonic music. The organisers hope ‘to facilitate a contextual discourse on the composition and consumption of the genre in Ireland’.
The symposium was inpired by a recent find at the National Library of Ireland. A group of researchers from Répertoire International des Sources Musicales (RISM) and DIT discovered a complete set orchestral performance parts for the first-known symphony composed in Ireland. The work, written by the French composer Paul Alday was composed in Dublin in circa 1816.
Following an introduction and welcome by Kerry Houston, the German academic Axel Klein will give an overview of two hundred years of Irish symphonies. Catherine Ferris will go into more detail on Alday and the composition of the ‘first Irish symphony’ and Basil Walsh and Michael Murphy will speak about Michael Balfe’s 1829 Sinfonietta.
The DIT Camerata, under the direction of Keith Pascoe, will perform Alday’s symphony, which is elaborately titled Grand Symphony for Full Orchestra, Composed & Respectfully Dedicated to the Anacreontic Society of Dublin. Later in the day speakers will focus on the symphonic work of Charles Villiers Stanford, Michele Esposito, Hamilton Harty and Ina Boyle. Two speakers, Ruth Stanley and Joe Kehoe, will cover the history of radio orchestras in Ireland, specifically the BBC Northern Ireland Orchestra and the Radio Éireann Symphony Orchestra in the Republic.
A panel discussion among contemporary Irish composers John Buckley, John Kinsella, Gráinne Mulvey and Kevin O’Connell will take place at 3.30pm before Professor Harry White’s closing address.
Admission to the event is free but those wishing to attend should register with Catherine Ferris (catherine.ferris [at] dit.ie) by Friday, 12 April.
