Posted 28 July 2014
Harrison Medal awarded to co-editors of The Encyclopaedia of Music in Ireland
In recognition of their outstanding contribution to the discipline of musicology, UCD Professor of Musicology, Harry White and NUI Maynooth Professor Emeritus of Music, Barra Boydell, the co-editors of The Encyclopaedia of Music in Ireland have been awarded the Harrison Medal by the Society of Musicology in Ireland.
The Encyclopaedia of Music in Ireland is the first comprehensive chronicle of the history of music in Ireland. Published by UCD Press, it 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.
The President of Ireland, Michael D Higgins praised The Encyclopaedia of Music in Ireland. He said it is “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”.
“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.
The medal was presented by Kerry Houston, President and Council of the Society for Musicology for Ireland, at a special meeting of the Society in the Deanery of St Patrick’s Cathederal, Dublin on 17 June 2014.
The Harrison Medal of the Society for Musicology in Ireland is named in honour of Frank Llewellyn Harrison (1905–1987), the Irish musicologist who made a seminal contribution to the study of medieval music (especially music in medieval Britain) and to the study of ethnomusicology.
Previous recipients of the Harrison Medal include: Professor Christoph Wolff in 2004 (for his contribution to Bach scholarship), Professor Margaret Bent in 2007 (in recognition of her contribution to the study of music in the middle ages), Professor Kofi Agawu in 2009 (for his contribution to historical musicology, analysis and the study of African music), and Dr Christopher Hogwood in 2011 (for his exemplary combination of musical scholarship and the performance of early music).
(Produced by UCD University Relations)
