Posted 10 October 2013
New encyclopaedia maps musical journey of the Irish nation
The first comprehensive chronicle of the history of music in Ireland has been officially launched by the President of Ireland Michael D Higgins.
The Encyclopaedia of Music in Ireland published by UCD Press covers an exhaustive range of topics in the domain of Irish musical history. With 2,000 articles and 240 contributors, it documents the work of hundreds of performers, composers and musicians, from U2 to John Field.
Pictured at the launch (l-r): President of Ireland Michael D Higgins and the General Editors of The Encyclopaedia of Music In Ireland: Prof Barra Boydell, Department of Music, NUI Maynooth; and Prof Harry White, UCD School of Music
President Higgins praised The Encyclopaedia of Music in Ireland as “a wonderful, wonderful achievement that will allow us to reach a true understanding of the musical journey of the nation, and of its continual evaluation and progression”.
He described the 1,145 page publication in two volumes as a “map” which “allows us to retrace our country’s musical passage and to fully explore the people, the places, the performances, the genres, the societies, the ensembles and the many other factors that have left their footprint on the landscape of Ireland’s musical voyage”.
The General Editors of The Encyclopaedia of Music in Ireland are Professor Harry White, UCD School of Music, University College Dublin and Professor Emeritus Barra Boydell, Department of Music at NUI Maynooth.
“Ten years in the making, The Encyclopaedia of Music in Ireland affords a uniquely detailed survey of music in the fabric of Irish life from the early middle ages to the present day,” said UCD Professor Harry White.
“It also bears witness to musicology itself as a richly matured intellectual discipline in this country, and it testifies to the advantages of scholarly co-operation between Irish universities, colleges and institutes of education in the production of such a complex and diverse account of music as an expression of cultural, religious, social and indeed political life in Ireland.”
The Encyclopaedia of Music in Ireland represents the single largest research project on music in Ireland to ever have been undertaken.
(Produced by UCD University Relations)
