"This book addresses the relationship between music and cultural history in Ireland. It variously identifies and examines the development of music as an outgrowth of extra-musical concepts and socio-cultural entities, including celticism (in pre-christian and early christian Ireland), the ideology of ethnic culture, education, nationalism, religion, the composer in modern Ireland and the impact of music on the Irish literary imagination. Throughout the book, an abiding concern with music as the expression of political, social and religious norms of cultural development in Ireland affords thematic coherence to the essays as a whole." "As with the preceding volumes in the series, Music and Irish Cultural History breaks new ground in the cultivation of musicology in Ireland. In particular, it serves as a stimulus to the better understanding of music as a vital preoccupation of the Irish Mind."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

"This book addresses the relationship between music and cultural history in Ireland. It variously identifies and examines the development of music as an outgrowth of extra-musical concepts and socio-cultural entities, including celticism (in pre-christian and early christian Ireland), the ideology of ethnic culture, education, nationalism, religion, the composer in modern Ireland and the impact of music on the Irish literary imagination. Throughout the book, an abiding concern with music as the expression of political, social and religious norms of cultural development in Ireland affords thematic coherence to the essays as a whole." "As with the preceding volumes in the series, Music and Irish Cultural History breaks new ground in the cultivation of musicology in Ireland. In particular, it serves as a stimulus to the better understanding of music as a vital preoccupation of the Irish Mind."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

This book brings together important material from a range of sources and highlights how government organizations, musicians, academics and commercial companies are concerned with, and seek to use, a particular notion of Irish musical identity. Rooting the study in the context of the recent history of popular, traditional and classical music in Ireland, as well as providing an overview of aspects of the national field of music production and consumption, O'Flynn goes on to argue that the relationship between Irish identity and Irish music emerges as a contested site of meaning. His analysis exposes the negotiation and articulation of civic, ethnic and economic ideas within a shifting hegemony of national musical culture, and finds inconsistencies between and among symbolic constructions of Irish music and observed patterns in the domestic field. More specifically, O'Flynn illustrates how settings, genres, social groups and values can influence individual identifications or negations of Irishness in music. While the apprehension of intra-musical elements leads to perceptions of music that sounds Irish, style and authenticity emerge as critical articulatory principles in the identification of music that feels Irish. The celebratory and homogenizing discourse associated with the international success of some Irish musical forms is not reflected in the opinions of the people interviewed by O'Flynn; at the same time, an insider/outsider dialectic of national identity is found in various forms of discourse about Irish music. Performers and composers discussed include Bill Whelan (Riverdance), Sinead O'Connor, The Corrs, Altan, U2, Martin Hayes, Dolores Keane and Gerald Barry.

Music and Identity in Ireland and Beyond represents the first interdisciplinary volume of chapters on an intricate cultural field that can be experienced and interpreted in manifold ways, whether in Ireland (The Republic of Ireland and/or Northern Ireland), among its diaspora(s), or further afield. While each contributor addresses particular themes viewed from discrete perspectives, collectively the book contemplates whether ’music in Ireland’ can be regarded as one interrelated plane of cultural and/or national identity, given the various conceptions and contexts of both Ireland (geographical, political, diasporic, mythical) and Music (including a proliferation of practices and genres) that give rise to multiple sites of identification. Arranged in the relatively distinct yet interweaving parts of ’Historical Perspectives’, ’Recent and Contemporary Production’ and ’Cultural Explorations’, its various chapters act to juxtapose the socio-historical distinctions between the major style categories most typically associated with music in Ireland - traditional, classical and popular - and to explore a range of dialectical relationships between these musical styles in matters pertaining to national and cultural identity. The book includes a number of chapters that examine various movements (and ’moments’) of traditional music revival from the late eighteenth century to the present day, as well as chapters that tease out various issues of national identity pertaining to individual composers/performers (art music, popular music) and their audiences. Many chapters in the volume consider mediating influences (infrastructural, technological, political) and/or social categories (class, gender, religion, ethnicity, race, age) in the interpretation of music production and consumption. Performers and composers discussed include U2, Raymond Deane, Afro-Celt Sound System, E.J. Moeran, Séamus Ennis, Kevin O’Connell, Stiff Little Fingers, Frederick May, Arnold

This title was first published in 2002: Until relatively recently, musicologists' account of church music in post-Restoration and early Georgian England has been substantially incomplete due to an almost exclusive preoccupation with the music and musicians of the Chapel Royal. The balance is now being redressed and this book begins the task of filling one of the remaining gaps in our understanding of the field. The volume represents a detailed examination of the practical workings of a choral foundation during the later 17th and early 18th centuries, placing the musicians within their wider historical and social contexts, and based on a comprehensive survey of extant archival material.

Ths text ffers an overall assessment of Berlioz's musical achievement as we approach the bicentary of his birth in 2003. This is a full-length musical study of the composer taking into account the rediscovered Messe solennelle.

An international collaboration between leading scholars showcases a broad spectrum of observations on Handel and his music, covering many aspects of modern interdisciplinary and traditional philological musicology.

This is the first study to provide a systematic and thorough investigation of continuo realization styles appropriate to Restoration sacred music, an area of performance practice that has never previously been properly assessed. Rebecca Herissone undertakes detailed analysis of a group of organ books closely associated with the major Restoration composers Purcell, Blow and Humfrey, and the London institutions where they spent their professional lives. By investigating the relationship between the organ books' two-stave arrangements and full scores of the same pieces, Herissone demonstrates that the books are subtle sources of information to the accompanist, not just short or skeleton scores. Using this evidence, she formulates a model for continuo realization of this repertory based on the doubling of vocal parts, an approach that differs significantly from that adopted by most modern editors, and which throws into question much of the accepted continuo practice in modern performance of this repertory.