Humanities: Challenging the Future

An Foras Feasa

In association with

The Department of Music and Creative Media

Dundalk Institute of Technology

9th June 2009

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WELCOME FROM THE PRESIDENT

Denis Cummins

Ba mhaith liom Fáilte Uí Cheallaigh a chur romhaibh go léir anseo inniu go hInstitiúid

Teicneolaíochta Dhún Dealgan. Is cúis mór dúinn go bhfuil an Dr Chris Cahill ó Nua Eabhrac in

ár dteannta le haghaidh an ócáid speisialta seo.

May I extend a warm welcome on behalf of Dundalk Institute of Technology to our An Foras

Feasa partners, colleagues and guests. It is a great honour and pleasure to welcome our

distinguished guest speaker Dr Chris Cahill, Executive Director of the American Irish Historical

Society, New York and also Professor Margaret Kelleher, Director of An Foras Feasa. Today‘s

Conference is an exemplary showcase for the breadth and depth of the research projects being

undertaken by the research community of An Foras Feasa and celebrates both the diversity and

interdisciplinarity of our collaboration. I congratulate everyone involved in today‘s Conference,

our speakers, session chairs and performers, and thank the Department of Music and Creative

Media for the excellent organisation and planning of this special occasion.

Denis Cummins

President

Dundalk Institute of Technology

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Foras Feasa

The term ‗foras feasa‘, which can be translated as ‗foundation of knowledge‘, has a particular

resonance arising from its use in the title of Geoffrey Keating‘s celebrated Foras feasa ar Éirinn

(c.1634). This work did more than any other to transmit ancient Irish learning and traditions to

the modern world and was highly influential in forming a national consciousness in Ireland.

Compilation of the work involved collecting material from some of the oldest manuscript

sources available and evaluating them using the most modern historiographical methods of the

time. An Foras Feasa: The Institute for Research in Irish Historical and Cultural Traditions

likewise seeks to apply the most modern scholarly and technological resources available to the

study of the historical and cultural traditions of this island, including relationships with Europe

and with the wider world.

An Foras Feasa

An Foras Feasa: the Institute for Research in Irish Historical and Cultural Traditions is a

consortium of four institutions, formally established in 2006, comprising staff from Humanities

and Computer Science departments in NUIM, DCU, DKIT and SPCD; it currently has over 70

members. Foras Feasa supports individual and collaborative research projects in the areas of

Humanities and Technology, and represents a unique contribution of traditional knowledge and

dynamic innovation. The four research streams and research networks prioritized for the period

2007-2010 are:

ICT Innovation and the Humanities

Multiculturalism and Multilingualism: Textual Analysis and Linguistic Change

Ireland and Europe: History, Literature and the Cultural Politics of Migration

Cultural Heritage and Social Capital in a Global Context

Foras Feasa will advance the generation and utilisation of interactive media by its emphasis on

the incorporation of information and communication technology into the study of the

Humanities. Foras Feasa commits to disseminating the fruits of its research to scholars, students

and the wider community. Building on the existing range of expertise available from its members

in the various languages needed to understand Ireland‘s past (including Irish, English, Latin,

French, Spanish, German), it supports the diverse linguistic scholarship that the scholarly study

of Irish culture and history requires and, through a range of programmes currently being

designed for students and researchers, will offer training to others in this regard.

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Foras Feasa affords special attention to the study of Ireland‘s multiculturalism, historically and in

the present, with the further aim of supporting the needs of new communities of learners and

future generations of university researchers. At inter-institutional and national levels, it

prioritises the needs of early career researchers and of graduate students, offering a breadth of

professional training and technological expertise that will transform existing postgraduate

programmes.

Partnership and Collaboration

Foras Feasa comprises staff from four third-level institutions and seeks to ensure the coherence,

compatibility and visibility of research in NUIM, SPCD, DKIT and DCU through the

enhancement of interdepartmental, interdisciplinary and inter-institutional co-operation. The

partnership with SPCD provides complementary expertise in the field of humanities and

distinctive expertise in the interrelationship of humanities, technology and education.

Collaboration with DKIT offers additional specialisation in the fields of computing, software

engineering and technology. The partnership with DCU‘s Centre for Translation and Textual

Studies brings expert researchers in the fields of multilingualism and identity formation, as well

as the role of translation in cultural, political and linguistic development. Through the funding of

appropriate trans-cultural and trans-national linkages, Foras Feasa promotes comparative and

innovative research on Irish culture in archipelagic, European and world contexts.

An Foras Feasa is an integral part of the ―Humanities Serving Irish Society‖ (HSIS) initiative

towards building a National Platform for the Humanities, an all-island inter-institutional research

and training infrastructure embracing the universities, the Royal Irish Academy, two Institutes of

Technology and NCAD as a partnership of equals.

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Humanities: Challenging the Future

Sessions and Locations

09.00

Arrival and Registration

Foyer of Whitaker Theatre

09.30 Welcome Address

Dr Gerard Bob McKiernan, Head of School of Informatics, Music and

Creative Media

Whitaker Theatre

09.45-11.15 Parallel Sessions 1 & 2

Whitaker Theatre & Slieve Foy Room

Session 1: Local is Global (Whitaker Theatre)

Chair: Dr Mary Shine-Thompson, Dean of Research

(St Patrick’s College Drumcondra)

Gerry O’Connor (DkIT) Luke Donnellan‘s Dance Music of Oriel

Linda Butler (DkIT) Bothered with thinking; rehearsing citizen Utopias in young people‘s

critical theatre practice

Karol Mullany-Dignam (NUI Maynooth) Music in the Irish Country House: Birr Castle - a case study

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Session 2: Into the Future (Slieve Foy Room)

Chair: Dr Christian Horn, Head of Department of Computing and

Mathematics (DkIT)

Caroline O’Sullivan ( DkIT) Tomorrow on facebook is more real than what happens tonight - The

impact of Digital Media on the Dublin music scene

Yvonne Igoe (DkIT) Irish language programming on Telefís Éireann in the 1960s:

Deconstructing the 'Gaeltacht' - A case study

Bride Mallon (DkIT) Game Narrative Challenges

11.15-11.45 Coffee Hospitality Corridor

11.45-13.15 Parallel Sessions 3 & 4 & 5

Whitaker Theatre, Slieve Foy Room & H217

Session 3: Composer, Editor, Musicologist (H217)

Chair: Stephen McManus, Registrar (DkIT)

Eibhlis Farrell (DkIT)

Old Myths, New Music: Reinventing Orpheus

Sarah Burn (DkIT) If it ain't broke, why fix it? The editor's role as unseen intermediary

Adèle Commins (DkIT) Indebted to the Past: The Future of Stanford‘s Preludes for Piano

Session 4: Identity and Heritage (Slieve Foy Room)

Chair: Dr Tim McCormac, Head of Research (DkIT)

Jonathan Grimes and Patricia Flynn (CMC & St Patrick’s College

Drumcondra)

Future Proofing our Musical Heritage:The Contemporary Music

Centre's music score digitisation project

John O’Flynn (St Patrick’s College Drumcondra)

Music, Identity, Ireland: Evolving Perspectives

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Session 5: Breaking with Tradition? (Whitaker Theatre)

Chair: Professor Fiona Palmer, Head of Music (NUI Maynooth)

Ian Wilson (DkIT)

Transformative Performative: Old Wine in New Skins? - how the

combination of traditional music performance practice and cutting

edge technology can obtain the best of both worlds

Ben Knapp (Queen’s University Belfast & DkIT) Exploration of Music and Emotion in the Context of Irish Traditional

Music

Fintan Vallely (DkIT) From branches to filaments - transforming a printed dictionary into a

live web asset

13.15-14.05 Lunch

Campus Restaurant

14.05-14.45

Concert

New Black Box Theatre

Angels Dancing on the Head of a Pin (2008) Eibhlís Farrell

Damien Kelly (guitar)

Apparition (1979) George Crumb

Claire Wallace (voice) & Deborah Armstrong (piano)

The Bell of Bronach (2009) Eibhlís Farrell

Joanna Shields (violin)

15.00-16.30 Parallel Sessions 6 & 7 & 8

Whitaker Theatre, Slieve Foy Room & H217

Session 6: Sounds Electrifying! (Whitaker Theatre)

Chair: Dr Patricia Flynn, Music Department (St Patrick’s College

Drumcondra)

Victor Lazzarini (NUI Maynooth)

A Critique of Leigh Landy's Concept of Sound-Based Music

Hilary Mullaney (DkIT)

Dawn: composition exploring time and place at the Mamori Art Lab,

Brazil

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Paul McGettrick (DkIT) Computational Musicology: The Analysis of the Future

Session 7: Location, Location, Location (Slieve Foy Room)

Chair: Seamus Puirséil, Former Director of HETAC

Conor Brady (DkIT)

Mapping a Digital Landscape: Recent Archaeological Research in the

Brú na Bóinne WHS

Michael Holohan (DkIT) New Music from the Boyne Valley

Helen Lyons (DkIT)

Transforming Traditions: Contemporary Irish Harping

Session 8: Social & Historical Perspectives (H217)

Chair: Professor Kieran Taaffe,

Emeritus Dean of International Affairs (DIT)

Martin Maguire (DkIT) The Senior Civil Servants of the Irish Free State, 1922-72: A Digital

Resource

Fiona Fearon (DkIT) Decoding the Audience: Social Media Consumption and Audience

Participation at DkIT

16.30-16.50 Coffee Hospitality Corridor

16.50-17.20 Electroacoustic Music Concert

Cube 2 S5 (2009) Andrew Grafton

Andrew Grafton (guitar)

Niall Cloak (violin)

Green Gates (2009) Hilary Mullaney

Will you fuzz down the black wire to infinity (2009) Rory Walsh

Caitriona McEniry (piano)

Rory Walsh (computer)

Silencio (1991) Victor Lazzarini

Mary McCague (piano)

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New Black Box Theatre

17.20-17.50 Keynote Address ‗That the World May Know‘

Dr Christopher Cahill, Executive Director,

American Irish Historical Society, New York with introduction by

Professor Margaret Kelleher, Director of An Foras Feasa

New Black Box Theatre

17.50-18.00 Closing Address

Mr Denis Cummins, President Dundalk Institute of Technology

New Black Box Theatre

18.00-18.20 Ceoldráma: Samhradh na gCruitirí

Students from Ceol Oirghialla, Department of Music, DkIT

New Black Box Theatre

18.30-19.30 Wine Reception

New Black Box Theatre Foyer

20.00 Conference Dinner

Crowne Plaza Hotel

09.00-19.00 Ongoing Creative Media and Film Exhibition

Carroll‘s Building

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ABSTRACTS

Session 1: Local is Global (Whitaker Theatre)

Chair: Dr Mary Shine-Thompson, Dean of Research (St Patrick‘s College Drumcondra)

Gerry O’Connor (DkIT) Luke Donnellan’s Dance Music of Oriel

The South Ulster area has a significant local repertoire of instrumental music and song, most of

which has not been highlighted during the revival of Traditional music since the 1950s. A

significant collection is the hand-scribed Oriel Songs and Dances, music which was collected by

Luke Donnellan and partially published as hand transcription in the Louth Archaeological

Journal in 1909. This unique body of music represents a repertory of music which was familiar

to the population of South Ulster/North Leinster at the turn of the 20th century. This paper,

which draws on my Masters research will examine the process of editing for performance of this

material, and its translation into modern, accessible media. I will also perform a selection of

tunes from this unpublished collection during my presentation.

Linda Butler (DkIT) Bothered with thinking; rehearsing citizen Utopias in young people’s critical theatre practice

This paper examines the concept of knowledge as it relates to learners as citizens in the Irish

state. I problematise the ways in which one border community, Truagh in North County

Monaghan struggles to enact knowledge as generating self-efficacy for a learning society amid

troublesome and complex ideologies and legacies of economic disadvantage. My conceptual

framework seeks to support creative spaces where young people have the opportunity to develop,

drive and determine a project they consider significant to their lives. I am principally interested

in developing a hybrid practice that draws on elements of Theatre in Education and Theatre for

Development in partnership with young people as an effective pedagogical intervention that

supports them to name and structure their world as a problem.

Truagh young people document a need to learn for critical citizenship. They address and

challenge fundamental rights and responsibilities that inform and potentially transform what they

identify as oppressive circumstances. Their investigations specifically interrogate community

referents as expressions of cultural and historical hegemonies. Theatrically, they expose deep-

seated contradictions that range from an unworkable health system; a sectarian past; authoritarian

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systems; and patriotic activities that describe community practices but do not necessarily define

them or their sense of identity.

Karol Mullany-Dignam (NUI Maynooth) Music in the Irish Country House: Birr Castle - a case study

This paper outlines the origins and significance of the Music in the Irish Country House Project

currently being conducted at the National University of Ireland Maynooth. This interdisciplinary

research project marks an exciting collaboration between the Department of Music and the

Centre for the Study of Historic Irish Houses & Estates, Department of History at NUI

Maynooth. The project aims to investigate the circumstances by which particular musical

materials came to exist in Irish country houses, the context within which such materials were

employed and the traditions of music represented by or disseminated using these materials from

the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries. It also points to the role which private music collections

have in enhancing the knowledge of primary source materials available for the study of music in

Ireland.

The project originated in an internship awarded in 2008 by An Foras Feasa and the Departments

of History & Music at NUI Maynooth to conduct a pilot study of the musical materials held at

Birr Castle, Co. Offaly. This paper will outline the findings of that study and the importance of

the materials discovered at Birr Castle in terms of a more extensive project of identifying and

utilising private music collections for the contextualisation of music and musical activity in

Ireland. The future for cultural tourism and heritage lies in collaboration and co-operation

between scholars of humanities subjects, such as music and history, owners and managers of

historic properties and those involved in promoting and marketing the industry in Ireland.

Session 2: Into the Future (Slieve Foy Room)

Chair: Dr Christian Horn, Head of Department of Computing and Mathematics (DkIT)

Caroline O’Sullivan ( DkIT)

Tomorrow on facebook is more real than what happens tonight - The impact of Digital Media on

the Dublin music scene

There can be no doubt that the advent of and access to digital media technologies has had a

profound effect on how we consume, experience and engross ourselves in music. The arrival just

over five years ago of Web 2.0 caused a further irrevocable shift and now the ways in which we

engage with, immerse ourselves in and perform music are changing on a weekly if not daily

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basis. While a significant focus has been placed on activities, interactions and communities that

are no longer reliant or even concerned with physical proximity, it is important not to overlook

the continued existence of thriving local music scenes.

In this paper I will discuss the impact of these technological changes on the fans of a music scene

that no longer revolves solely around a locality but that is also played out in minute detail in an

ever-changing virtual environment. I will outline how the locale is being stimulated, mediated

and fundamentally transformed by a flurry of activity online.

Yvonne Igoe (DkIT)

Irish language programming on Telefís Éireann in the 1960s: Deconstructing the 'Gaeltacht' - A

case study

This paper explores Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and applies it to a programme sourced

from the RTÉ archives. Conamara is the fifth programme in an eight-part television series

broadcast on RTÉ entitled Gaeltacht. Each programme in the series was dedicated to a specific

Gaeltacht area and sought to provide a picture of how the Irish language and traditional culture

of the region was faring in relation to the modernization project of Ireland in the 1960s. One key

strand in Media studies is that of textual analysis. It is important to combine textual approaches

such as semiotics, which emerged from cultural and literary criticism, with the complementary

application of discourse analysis — which emerged from the field of linguistics. This paper

applies theories relating to media discourse, including those of Fairclough 1995; Van Dijk, 1993,

and Wodak and Meyer 2001, to Irish language current affairs programming Each of these have

explored ideas relating to linguistics and discourse analysis, and in the latter stages of their

careers have developed and engaged in Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). ―Both the ideological

loading of particular ways of using language and the relations of power which underlie them are

often unclear to people. CDA aims to make more visible these opaque aspects of discourse.‖

(Fairclough and Wodak, 1997; 258) This case study will consider how CDA might be applied in

order to uncover and debate ideologies that are embedded in Irish language media texts.

Bride Mallon (DkIT) Game Narrative Challenges

One of the challenges facing the future of the humanities is to assist in narratives‘ evolvement

and integration with computer games. Although the humanities have a long history and skill with

producing narratives, integrating narrative and games is not easy, and poor integration has lead to

complaints that the play starts when the story stops. This presentation calls for the humanities to

isolate which traditional narrative elements are most influential within games, and to seek out

ways to make narrative elements interactive. To answer in part this broad call, I focus on one

element of narrative, interpersonal relationships, suggesting how to make relationships between

player and non-player character (NPC) and NPC and NPC interactive for the player.

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Session 3: Composer, Editor, Musicologist (H217)

Chair: Stephen McManus, Registrar (DkIT)

Eibhlis Farrell (DkIT)

Old Myths, New Music: Reinventing Orpheus

Eibhlís Farrell examines the role of ancient myths and legends as an important inspirational

source for composers writing new works. She will feature music in which she has adapted myth

and legend and discuss how they become reinvented in contemporary composition. She will

analyse aspects of styles and techniques involved in translating from myth to music and the

responsibility of the composer in respecting inherent themes and reinterpreting their relevance.

The presentation will conclude with a first performance of a new work for violin The Bell of

Bronach performed by violinist Joanna Sheilds.

Sarah Burn (DkIT)

If it ain't broke, why fix it? The editor's role as unseen intermediary

The author outlines her experience to date of editing music by A.J. Potter (1918-1980), drawing

comparisons between the role of the music copyist and that of the editor. Reference will also be

made to recent work she has carried out on music by Aloys Fleischmann (1910-1922). An

overview will be given of the role of the editor in preparing music for performance and why and

when it may be necessary. The effects of historical editorial interventions in the field of Irish

traditional music will be alluded to.

Adèle Commins (DkIT)

Indebted to the Past: The Future of Stanford’s Preludes for Piano

Charles Villiers Stanford‘s output for the piano embraces over thirty works for the piano not

counting his piano duets. His handling of different genres is noteworthy as he exploited a range

of different genres; one such genre was the prelude. Stanford composed two sets of twenty-four

preludes for solo piano: op.163 and op.179. However, like much of the Dublin-born composer‘s

piano music, the works have suffered from an inadequate appreciation and understanding of the

music; the neglect in performance of these works is mirrored by writers on English musical

history who have failed to mention Stanford‘s preludes in their literature. Stanford was not alone

in enduring such misguided judgements: the piano music of many composers of the English

Musical Renaissance suffered scathing criticism at the hands of contemporary critics.

There was a strong tradition of keyboard preludes throughout the centuries, and notwithstanding

its change of function in the nineteenth century the prelude did not lose its place in the canon of

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musical compositions. Despite the fact that Stanford had been introduced to his first piano

preludes as a young pianist growing up in Dublin he did not turn to the composition of preludes

until quite late in his life. Was Stanford‘s late decision to write forty-eight preludes a desperate

attempt to place himself in the lineage of great composers who had made distinguished

contributions to this genre before him? Or did his approaching death, coupled with his childhood

reflections, force him to revisit a genre associated with his past?

While answering these questions, this paper will reveal the composer‘s artistic debt to his

musical forefathers in his forty-eight preludes while also demonstrating that these works make an

interesting contribution to the piano prelude in the twentieth century and merit serious critical

attention. The preparation of a performing edition of the preludes, coupled with performances of

the works will ensure that this traditional form will have a place in the musical canon in the

future.

Session 4: Identity and Heritage (Slieve Foy Room)

Chair: Dr Tim McCormac, Head of Research (DkIT)

Jonathan Grimes and Patricia Flynn (CMC & St Patrick’s College Drumcondra)

Future Proofing our Musical Heritage:The Contemporary Music Centre's music score

digitsation project

The Contemporary Music Centre (CMC) is Ireland's national archive and promotion centre for

Irish composers' music. It has a unique collection of scores, recordings and related information

materials on Irish composers. The Centre began a joint digitisation project with An Foras Feasa

in 2009 to digitise its collection of music scores with the aim of enabling future Irish music

research and ensuring its future preservation.

The paper will give an overview of the project and will outline some of the project's technical

challenges and achievements to date, including what CMC considers to be current best practice

in digitising musical works. The paper will also look at the impact digital dissemination of music

will have on CMC's future work and will examine the broader implications of this change on the

work of Music Information Centres and other cultural resource organisations.

John O’Flynn (St Patrick’s College Drumcondra)

Music, Identity, Ireland: Evolving Perspectives

This paper puts forward a meta-analytic approach to studies of musical identity that are based in

and/or are associated with the entity of Ireland. The presentation reviews aspects of the recently

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published The Irishnesss of Irish Music (O‘Flynn 2009) as well as previewing the forthcoming

volume Music and Identity in Ireland (eds. B. Boydell, M.Fitzgerald & J.O‘Flynn). The

discussion will involve a consideration of the concepts of identity, musical meaning and

‗Irishness‘.

Session 5: Breaking with Tradition? (Whitaker Theatre)

Chair: Professor Fiona Palmer, Head of Music (NUI Maynooth)

Ian Wilson (DkIT)

Transformative Performative: Old Wine in New Skins? - how the combination of traditional

music performance practice and cutting edge technology can obtain the best of both worlds

There are many different approaches to performance within traditional Irish music, influenced by

a range of factors including geography, education and upbringing. Across this spectrum there

are, however, consistently occurring elements which give the music its character and which are

usually provided as much by the performers as by the music itself.

While many traditional musicians have spent the last half century re-invigorating their heritage,

contemporary classical composers have been responsible for inspiring some of the most radical

technological musical advances of the same period – the work of Stockhausen and Varèse in the

1950s, and that of Boulez at IRCAM since the 1970s, provided the impetus for much of what is

used today in the pop and dance music worlds, not to mention more rarefied and specialised

fields such as sound art and computer music.

My research is concerned with identifying and isolating performative gestures used by traditional

Irish musicians when singing or playing traditional Irish music – the ornaments, embellishments

and interpretative elements they instinctively apply in performance which help to make Irish

music sound Irish - and using the results as the architectural basis of new works which will be

strongly influenced by modern musical technology.

I am working with two Irish musicians, sean-nós singer Lorcán Mac Mathúna and fiddler Gerry

O‘Connor, as well as with electroacoustic composer and software creator Rory Walsh to find

ways to combine these two practices so that they complement and enhance each other rather than

one simply changing the other beyond recognition.

In this paper I will outline my findings so far and will provide audio examples of some early

results, both in terms of gestural identification and of initial steps towards organic combination

of the traditional and the new.

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Ben Knapp (Queen’s University Belfast & DkIT) Exploration of Music and Emotion in the Context of Irish Traditional Music

We present a study on the quantitative measurement of physical motion and physiological

indictors of emotion during the performance of Irish Traditional Music. Sensors were placed on

a quartet playing fiddle, flute, concertina, and bodhrán as well as in the chairs of the audience

watching the performance. The data was then analyzed to understand intra- and inter-personal

entrainment and empathy. We also present the use of this type of real-time monitoring of

performance in a piece, titled The Reluctant Shaman, performed at the International Computer

Music Conference. The Reluctant Shaman explores traditional Irish music using an

actor/musician to lead the audience on a journey through a traditional Irish sacred site and the

historical contexts therein. Using pieces composed in the time from the famine to the early

twentieth century, the Reluctant Shaman weaves a narrative of exploration, reminiscence, and

understanding. Through the use of kinematic and physiological sensors (unseen), the audience

hears what the Shaman is imagining and what is happening around him on his journey. Through

sensors in the audience‘s chairs and on the other performers, an intimate and emotional

interaction is created. Thus, the concept of avant-garde embodiment is used in the context of

traditional music.

Fintan Vallely (DkIT)

From branches to filaments - transforming a printed dictionary into a live web asset

The 1999 Cork University Press reference book Companion to Irish Traditional Music sold its

initial 5000 print run over five years and is going to a new edition. This involves amendment,

expansion and re-organisation of data. Most of the original book's information will go into the

new edition, revised, but the inclusion of significant new material and a new underlying structure

will render the new work quite different. This structure comes in response to feedback from

students of music, lecturers and new-to-Irish-music readers, for whom a ‗stemma‘ or family tree

style map of the interrelationships among all of the 2,300 individual A-Z-arranged items is

demanded as a key aperture of access. This has necessitated the organisation of the book's 10,000

or so discrete facts into 21 major 'family' database units, each containing up to five levels of sub-

category. The structure will also facilitate the eventual presentation of the data on line, and will

provide active links into the extensive and varied range of web resources which are presently

available in the subject-area worldwide. This access address - www.companion.ie - will thus

function as an academically-directed web reading list which relates to peer-approved

publications and sites, as well as being the basis of an on-line E-cyclopedia. The paper will

illustrate the development and functioning of the core stemma structure and relate this to AFF's

ongoing digitization programme.

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Session 6 Sounds Electrifying! (Whitaker Theatre)

Chair: Dr Patricia Flynn, Music Department (St Patrick‘s College Drumcondra)

Victor Lazzarini (NUI Maynooth)

A Critique of Leigh Landy's Concept of Sound-Based Music

In his work The Art of Sound Organisation, Leigh Landy argues the case of the existence of a

new, separate sonic art form, which he calls Sound-Based Music, which has arisen mainly as a

product of the development of audio technologies for musical creation. Although his

characterisation of the concept is innovative and his ideas in relation to it very welcome, the

distinction between more traditional forms of music-making and his new paradigm is in many

cases too fluid to be made. He appears to make a clear separation between music that is foremost

'note-based' and this new art that is 'sound based'. In this paper, I would like to demonstrate the

many issues that may arise from making too clear a distinction between these two modes of

operation. In particular, I would want to point out that, for composers, such categorisation may

prove counter productive and lead to missed opportunities in the creation of new music.

Hilary Mullaney (DkIT)

Dawn: composition exploring time and place at the Mamori Art Lab, Brazil

Dawn was composed while attending the Mamori Sound Project residency with Francisco Lopez

at the Mamori Art Lab, located in the Amazon, Brazil.

The piece uses recordings of the jungle awakening at dawn. The opening of the piece consists of

an unprocessed section of this recording, which throughout the duration of the piece gradually

builds in intensity through processing and dense layering. My personal experience of the jungle

was a contradiction in that there was this large expansive environment that paradoxically felt

constrictive through its rich vegetation and isolated landscape, but yet created an environment

conducive to artistic expression and exploration. This contradiction created an intense experience

which I feel has unconsciously emerged in this composition. This paper will discuss the

compositional and digital processes which were employed to create this work.

Paul McGettrick (DkIT)

Computational Musicology: The Analysis of the Future

Computational Musicology in the 21st Century: Issues, Challenges and Opportunities.

Throughout history music has always been affected by developments in technology. In more

recent times the impact of advances in technology in general, and computing in particular, on

composition, performance, music education and music distribution has been profound. The

increase in the use of computing as an aid in the study of musics (i.e. computational musicology)

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has also been significant, presenting us with both opportunities, and associated issues and

challenges, for studying musics from a new and different perspective. This paper presents an

overview of computational musicology in the 21st century with a particular focus on corpus-

based musicology.

Session 7 Location, Location, Location (Slieve Foy Room)

Chair: Seamus Puirséil, Former Director of HETAC

Conor Brady (DkIT)

Mapping a Digital Landscape: Recent Archaeological Research in the Brú na Bóinne WHS

Since the discovery of Newgrange in 1699, the Brú na Bóinne area has been the focus of

scholarly investigation and speculation. This culminated in the extremely important large-scale

excavations at Knowth and Newgrange in the 20th century. However, there is still much more to

be learned about this internationally recognised landscape. The talk will focus in particular on

the results of a programme of fieldwalking of ploughed land in the Brú na Bóinne area which

involved the systematic collection and mapping of flint and stone tools in ploughed fields and

has indicated extensive evidence of activity and settlement in the wider landscape dating to

between the Mesolithic and the Bronze Age. Follow-up geophysical survey at a number of the

sites aimed to search for possible intact archaeological features preserved in the soil below the

recorded lithic scatters and has produced interesting and dramatic results which change our

views of landscape use during the prehistoric period. Other recent research initiatives in the area

will also be outlined including a project which aims to model landscape and land-use history in

the Boyne River valley, and the plans for the future investigation of the WHS as outlined in the

emerging Heritage Council Brú na Bóinne World Heritage Site Research Framework document.

Michael Holohan (DkIT)

New Music from the Boyne Valley

Composer Michael Holohan talks about the geographical, historical and archaelogical influences

of the Boyne Valley region on his compositional output and presents works directly associated

with and inspired by its locations, stories and historical legacies.

Helen Lyons (DkIT)

Transforming Traditions: Contemporary Irish Harping

The golden age of Irish harping in Ireland is most often associated with the harper-composers of

the seventeenth century (most frequently Turlough Carolan) and seen as ending with the 1792

Belfast Harp Festival. The seminal publications on Irish harping in the past one hundred years

have focused exclusively on this era (Milligan Fox, 1911; Yeats, 1980; Rimmer, 1984; Moloney,

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2000). None of these volumes addresses the revival of the Irish harp in Ireland in the 1950s

which has continued to gain momentum to this day. Moreover, the revival can be viewed from

the perspective of Tamara Livingston‘s (1999) model of revivals; in 1952 the Irish harp re-

emerged as an accompaniment instrument played most notably, by Mary O‘Hara, to accompany

her singing. The oft-criticised stage Irishness of the mid twentieth century gave way in the

1960s to a legitimised tradition aligned with Western art music that was prompted by cultural

nationalism and musical idealism. In the early 1980s a new branch of harping emerged from the

art-music style: harping in the style of mainstream traditional Irish music. The combined result

is that in 2009 there is a flourishing tradition, with an unprecedented number of active harpists,

yet a deep division of styles exists (art and traditional). This paper, based on my recent

fieldwork will focus on the harping tradition today and will critically assess some of the myriad

of influences currently important within the tradition.

Session 8: Social and Historical Perspectives (H217)

Chair: Professor Kieran Taaffe, Emeritus Dean of International Affairs (DIT)

Martin Maguire (DkIT)

The Senior Civil Servants of the Irish Free State, 1922-72: A Digital Resource

A professional, non-political civil service equally available to whichever political party is in

power, providing expert advice to policy-makers, is a defining feature of the modern European

State. Civil servants have come to embody the concept of the European technocratic state

tradition; objective, professional and aloof from the partisan squabbles of the political classes.

The role of the political parties, individual politicians, the Catholic Church, the trade unions and

farmer organisations in the independent state have all been subject to historical analysis. The

role of the civil service has not been subject to the same examination. Therefore, in broad terms,

the research sets out to create a digital resource that will enable an historical analysis of the place

of the civil service in policy-making in independent Ireland. The project sets out as its objectives

the creation of an online data resource on the personnel that made up policy-making levels of the

Irish civil service (the departmental secretary-generals) from 1922 to 1972, consisting of a

detailed career biography of each civil servant. The data will facilitate future research into the

place of the civil service in the formation of the modern Irish state, the practice of policy

formation, the method of hierarchical decision making, and the origins (political or bureaucratic)

of major state initiatives.

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Fiona Fearon (DkIT) Decoding the Audience: Social Media Consumption and Audience Participation at DkIT

In April 2008 Calipo Theatre Company and Louth County Arts Office approached Dundalk

Institute of Technology about conducting an audience research project based around Calipo's

forthcoming production of Chatroom in September 2008. The research project was two-fold, in

that there was a need to establish base-line data on the social media consumption and arts

participation of 18-35 year olds in the Louth area and also a desire to evaluate the effectiveness

of peer-to-peer advertising in the promotion of the production of Chatroom. As part of the

research into social media consumption and arts participation the research team conducted an

online questionnaire with the staff and students of Dundalk Institute of Technology during June

to October 2008. The research team were also interested in the reception process of the target age

group, and subsequently conducted questionnaires and focus groups around the reception of the

production of Chatroom in September 2008.

Traditional approaches to understanding both written texts and performances have been largely

dependent on the expertise of critics, who invariably have highly developed competencies in art,

music or literary appreciation. Many theoretical approaches to audiences have ignored the social

production of meaning, and rather emphasised the phenomenological experience of the expert.

This paper will discuss the reception of critics and social audience and how their experience can

be understood through new technologies. Current technology has its limitations, but it can

provide us with a more comprehensive and effective methodology than has ever been possible, to

evaluate what the audience read and understand, and how to decode their experience. Key will be

an analysis of the authority of the performance, and the resistant audience whose reception of the

performance is open to considerable interpretation and misinterpretation.

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The American Irish Historical Society

991 Fifth Avenue

New York, NY 10028

Phone: 212-288-2263

Fax: 212-628-7927

aihs@aihs.org

The American Irish Historical Society, founded at the close of the 19th century to inform the

world of the achievements of the Irish in America, is today a national center of scholarship and

public education. From its home on New York‘s Fifth Avenue, across from the Metropolitan

Museum of Art, the Society is a focus of contemporary Irish experience where current public

issues are explored, and where great renaissance in Irish culture is celebrated in lectures, musical

recitals, art exhibits and a literary journal. Non-partisan and non-political from its beginning, the

Society welcomes new members and is open to the public during the week. Membership

benefits also include access to the Society‘s large collection of rare Irish books, manuscripts,

newspapers and memorabilia.

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Performances

Concert New Black Box Theatre

Angels Dancing on the Head of a Pin (2008) Eibhlís Farrell

Damien Kelly (guitar)

This work for guitar solo is as its title suggests ephemeral in nature. I have tried to create a

soundworld evocative of sweeping angel wings, pinpoints of tiny sounds, and delicate dance-like

rhythms underpinned by unrooted first inversions. It is constructed in a mosaic-like pattern from

small cells which are either rhythmic, melodic, tempo and dynamic related or registral. These are

constantly moving and never quite attached and hover throughout around a pitch- centric E.

Apparition (1979) George Crumb

Claire Wallace (voice) & Deborah Armstrong (piano)

Elegiac Songs and Vocalises on texts from Walt Whitman‘s ―When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard

Bloom‘d‖

“Music might be defined as a system of proportions in the service of a spiritual impulse”

George Crumb (b. 1929) was born in West Virginia to parents who were both active performers

and music educators. Growing up in a natural apprenticeship setting, he was equipped with a

ready and versatile musicianship. Crumb‘s strongest musical statements lay in his propensity for

deep philosophical musings (on such subjects as the many dimensions of time, the presence and

purpose of evil, rebirth and self-renewal, and the cyclical nature of life). His primary purpose in

music was the communication of a transcendental message brought about by idealism intermixed

with an acute awareness of life‘s polarities and ironies. He found his voice in the mystical and

dark images of Federico Garcia Lorca, texts to which he wrote a number of settings.

In 1979, on request from soprano Jan DeGaetani, Crumb composed Apparition using texts from

Walt Whitman‘s ―When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d‖ written during the weeks

following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln in 1865. Crumb has chosen most of his text

from a section sub-titled Death Carol. This is a pause in the direct reference to Lincoln and

contains some of Whitman‘s most imaginative writing on the experience of death.

There are nine movements. Wordless soundscapes (vocalises) of nocturnal sounds of birds and

insects are interspersed between haunting invocations forming a larger vision and coalescing into

a tableau. The virtually identical outer movements function not only as a frame to the interior

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meditation, but also echo Whitman‘s view of death as a circular, continual return to the universal

life-force, never-ending, always beginning.

1. The Night in Silence under Many a Star

Vocalise 1: Summer Sounds

2. When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom‘d

3. Dark Mother Always Gliding Near with Soft Feet

Vocalise 2: Invocation

4. Approach Strong Deliveress

Vocalise 3: Death Carol

5. Come Lovely and Soothing Death

6. The Night in Silence under Many a Star

The Bell of Bronach (2009) Eibhlís Farrell

Joanna Shields (violin)

The Bell of Bronach, a bronze bell dating from the 9th

century, was housed in the Monastery of

Naomh Bronach which was destroyed along with the saint during the Viking raids of the time.

The bell disappeared for centuries and entered the realm of myth. Local tradition was that the

bell could be heard ringing out over the wind and the sound became a symbol of hope at times of

despair. During the Big Wind in the nineteenth century an oak tree was blown down and the bell

discovered within its branches. After its authentication it was housed in the Church of Saint

Mary, Star of the Sea in Rostrevor, near to its original home, where it has been rung for church

ceremonies for many years. This work for solo violin is based on the rich sounds which emanate

from the Bell, from the fundamental D tone on striking right up to the shimmering upper partials

that reverberate in the ear of the listener long after the bell has been struck. The work is shaped

by the contrasting sonorities and the overall sense of spiritual serenity is reflected in the slow

upward moving thematic material which permeates the textures.

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Electroacoustic Music Concert New Black Box Theatre

Cube 2 S5 (2009) Andrew Grafton

Guitar: Andrew Grafton

Violin: Niall Cloake

Cube 2 S5 (Amplified Violin, Guitar and Fixed Media) was written using a technique of

organised numbers to represent musical notes. The numbers are organised in a cube made up of

nine segments with each cube having a unique order. In addition to the cubes a set of scale's were

devised that would be chosen in collaboration with the cubes.

Green Gates (2009, World Première) Hilary Mullaney

This fixed media composition is part of a collection of works exploring the use of site specific

field recordings and the influence and associations this landscape has on the compositional

process. This work uses recordings of the sound produced when wind blows through the gates of

my home in Dublin. On first hearing, it was a mystery as to how or where it was produced until I

followed it to its source. The varying sound which is produced travels around the building

providing a beautiful contrast to the unsettling sounds of a storm. This piece is an attempt to

capture my relationship with this soundmark which to me is both comforting and familiar.

Will you fizz electric down the black wire to infinity (2009, World Première). Rory Walsh

Piano: Caitriona McEniry

Computer: Rory Walsh

This composition for piano and computer forms part of a larger work which is still under

development. The piece focuses on heavily processed piano sounds which are captured in real-

time by the computer. The computer then runs a sequence of different algorithms that manipulate

and alter the sounds being output through the speakers. Rather than viewing this piece as a

straightforward duet for piano and computer I see it more as a solo piece for computer, with the

piano driving the computer's performance. Special thanks to Orla who let me borrow a line of

text from one of her emails and use it as a title for my piece.

Silêncio (1991, European Première) Victor Lazzarini

Piano: Mary McCague

This piece is about the spiral-like nature of silence and how it seems to take us on a helter-skelter

ride when we pay attention to it. It is also a musical representation of silence in the use of circular modes that do not have a definite resting place. It is also a fugue and a passacaglia, but

hopefully that should not put us off listening to it.

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Ceoldráma New Black Box Theatre

Exerpt from 'Samhradh na gCruitiri' Siubhán Ó Dubháin

Students from Ceol Oirghialla, Department of Music, DkIT

by Siubhán Ó Dubháin

Producer: Mary McCague

Cast

Ó Neill: David Lynn

Spailpín: Diarmuid Ó Conchuair

Rógairí: Hanna Ní Cathasaigh, Lucia Mangan, Kiaya King

Siubhán Ó Dubháin (keyboard)

Eibhlis Farrell (violin)

This is a short excerpt from one of four ceoldramaí by Siubhán

It is set in 1792, the year of the great Belfast Harp Festival, and one of the blind harpers, Art Ó

Néill is passing through the linenfields of south Down. Having been mistaken for an old beggar,

he has been refused shelter by the woman of the house and is preparing to sleep under the stars.

A poor Spailpín shows him kindness in the form of a drink of buttermilk. The Spailpín has his

own heartache and tells the harper of his love for Bríd, the farmer's daughter. Ó Neill gives him

some timely advice and sings of his own homeless state. when the Spailpín tries to help him with

his bag of belongings, the harper irritably warns him off. Three rógairí also have their eye on the

mysterious bag. Emboldened by poitín they come up with a plan to sing the old man to sleep and

then to steal his bag, which, they think, must contain something valuable, like gold, or at the very

least, a fat goose. They are chased off by the Spailpín, and the threat of a curse from the harper.

The Spailpín sees Ó Neíll settling for the night, and, overcome with curiosity, opens the bag

himself. He is immediately enchanted by the beautiful harp, and, as he runs his fingers over the

strings, forgets about Bríd, and sees a vision of freedom on the open road.

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Fís 09

Fís 09, the annual Creative Media Show in Dundalk IT was officially opened on Wednesday 3rd

June. Fís showcases the work of final year students in Communications in Creative Multimedia,

Video and Film Production and Computing in Games Development in the Carrolls‘ building.

The onus on the students is to create new and exciting works using emerging technologies and

once again they worked solidly and lived up to their reputation.

Students used video, images, audio, sensors, GPS and online data to create games, films and

learning tools to show off their creative and team-working skills. The projects moved away from

typical mouse clicks in order to engage the audience further

One of the projects, an interactive story on Setanta‘s Myths and Legends will be displayed this

summer in Millmount Museum, Drogheda.

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Programmes on offer in the Department of Music and Creative Media

Music Programmes

BA (Hons) in Applied Music

MA/MSc in Music Technology

MA/MSc by Research

PhD by Research

Creative Media Programmes

BA (Hons) in Communications in Creative Multimedia

BA in Communications in Creative Multimedia

PgDip/MSc in Future Communications in Creative Technologies

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Map of DkIT