RISM Ireland & The National Library of Ireland | Scoping Study Report: Uncatalogued Music

The purpose of this scoping study report is to establish the number uncatalogued of pre-twentienth century music scores and manuscripts held by the National Library of Ireland. The study will enable RISM Ireland to determine the size of a proposed project to catalogue these materials. The aim of the project is to make these valuable materials accessible to musicologists and performers on the new RISM Ireland database and website (www.rism-ie.org)

Found in translation: Franco-Irish translation relationships in nineteenth-century Ireland

Various studies of the long-standing relationship between French and Irish cultures have revealed multiple evidence of mutual exchange. Yet, the role played by translation and translators has been largely neglected as a contribution to this relationship and to Hiberno-French cultural developments. This doctoral research on Franco-Irish translation relationships in nineteenth-century Ireland aims at redressing this omission, thereby supporting the idea that translation history is a useful tool for widening and adjusting our perspective on past cultural exchanges. Through the lens of translation, the present study underlines some of the key political and cultural debates in nineteenth-century Ireland, shedding light on the contribution of Ireland’s agents of translation to these debates. In addition to conceptual underpinnings drawn from the field of translation studies, and with particular attention paid to historical context, this research aims at showing key aspects of French-Irish cultural interaction in the nineteenth century. In this regard, it is situated at an interdisciplinary crossroads between the fields of translation studies, history and Franco-Irish studies, highlighting the contribution which translation history can make to each of these disciplines. Chapter 1 presents an outline of research methods and conceptual methodology. Chapter 2 provides an overview of the historical and contextual backgrounds to the Franco-Irish relationship and to translation in nineteenth-century Ireland. Chapters 3 to 6 present the overall findings of this research. Largely based on an investigation of Ireland’s translation holdings, as well as surviving materials such as periodicals and catalogues, these chapters map out the translation landscape and offer an analysis of sociohistorical trends in nineteenth-century translation of French writing in Ireland. Chapter 7 introduces a key moment of the Franco-Irish relationship in the nineteenth century. It draws attention to English-language translations by Irish translators from the French of Béranger, a songwriter who indeed emerged as one of the most significant figures. Lastly, an overall conclusion summarizes the main aspects of both analyses, and highlights the achievements of this research

The Dublin Library Society and its founding members: associational activity and cultural patriotism in late-eighteenth-century Dublin.

In late-eighteenth-century Dublin, options were limited for an expanding reading public who wished to consult quality printed works. During this period of the Anglican Ascendancy, membership to institutional libraries or participation in associational activities was largely limited to elites and those from the Established Church. The Dublin Library Society provided a public reference library service without restrictions of confession, connection, elections, or status”with admission based only on ability to pay the initial two-guinea charge (and one thereafter). Using hitherto neglected primary sources, particularly contemporary newspapers, this thesis will examine the origins of the Dublin Library, public reaction towards it, and its position promoting cultural patriotism and inclusivity in public library service provision in late-eighteenth-century Dublin. Also, a detailed prosopographical analysis of the librarys founding subscribers, specifically for their occupational backgrounds and associational activities, will show that the library represented a cross-section of Dublins reading public and help identify the social and cultural milieu in the capital. Through a combination of historical and prosopographical research on the library and its members, this study aims to contribute to both library history and the wider fields of social, cultural, and urban history of Dublin. The library was founded amidst a backdrop of Irish patriotism evidenced by the achievement of legislative independence from Britain. Dubliners expressed their patriotism through participation in clubs and societies that promoted Irish cultural, commercial, political, and social improvement and self-sufficiency. Further Enlightenment ideals of toleration and intellectual cultivation were embodied in these associations. By the end of this examination, the Dublin Library Society will be regarded not only as significant in the expansion of Dublins literary public sphere, but also a noteworthy location of the Irish Enlightenment in the capital

Understanding Scotland’s medieval cartularies

The medieval cartulary is well known as a major source for documents. This article takes Scotland as a case study for examining how the understanding of medieval cartularies has been shaped by those works extensively used by researchers to access cartularies and their texts – in a Scottish context this is principally the antiquarian publications and modern catalogues. Both pose their own problems for scholars seeking to understand the medieval cartulary. After an in-depth examination of these issues, a radical solution is offered which shifts the attention onto the manuscripts themselves. Such an approach reveals those extant cartularies to be fundamentally varied, and not an exclusive ‘category’ as such. This in turn allows historians to appreciate the dynamic nature of cartularies as sources for documents, and to eschew the deeply embedded tendency to see the cartulary simply as a copy of a medieval archive

The Pedal Harp Tradition in Ireland (c.1790-1900): Practitioners, Pedagogy, Trade and Repertoire

This study examines the European pedal harp tradition in Ireland in the period c.1790-1900. Steered by collections of nineteenth-century pedal harp repertoire, and hinged on data extracted from newspaper archives, it addresses a lacuna in harp-focused scholarship, by illuminating the significance of the pedal harp tradition in nineteenth-century Irish musical life and reviving nineteenth-century pedal harp repertoire of Irish interest. The evolution of the pedal harp tradition in Ireland was influenced by multiple personalities. Foreign pedal harpists, including Nicholas Charles Bochsa (1789-1856), Charles Oberthür (1819-1895) and Aptommas (1829-1913), had a significant impact on the tradition and travelled regularly to Ireland to perform and to teach. Irish pedal harpists with a public profile, including the Ashe sisters (prior to 1850) and Glover sisters (after 1850), tended to be from established musical families. Central to the survival of the pedal harp tradition in Ireland was an amateur pedal harp community from which the demand for teaching, instruments and sheet music emanated. In the early decades of the nineteenth century, pedal harp tuition was taught privately, on a one-to-one basis or in educational facilities for ladies. In the second half of the century, access to tuition was ameliorated through convent schools and the Royal Irish Academy of Music. Over the course of the nineteenth century, demand for pedal harps and sheet music in Ireland was met by a reactive Irish music trade. Pedal harps were sold privately, by practising harpists or in music shops, and appeared in auctions of household furniture. The indigenous manufacture of pedal harps in Ireland was, for the most part, a phenomenon of the period 1800-1850 and was controlled by the Egan family of Dublin. This study establishes that Boleyne Reeves (1820-1905) was the most successful Irish pedal harpist of the nineteenth century. Born in Cork, Reeves was the only Irish composer, harpist or otherwise, who contributed what have been termed ‘original’ works to the canon of nineteenth-century pedal harp repertoire. A wider repertoire study, enriched by RISM cataloguing, establishes the existence of a body of nineteenth-century pedal harp works ‘of Irish significance’. These include arrangements, variations and fantasias based on ancient Irish melodies, particularly those popularised by Irish poet and lyricist Thomas Moore (1779-1852). Representative recordings of repertoire of Irish significance, including four compositions by Reeves, are an integrated component of this study and breathe life into a genre of pedal harp repertoire that is hitherto unaccounted for in contemporary harp scholarship

Boston University Symphony Orchestra, February 15, 2011

This is the concert program of the Boston University Symphony Orchestra performance on Tuesday, February 15, 2011 at 8:00 p.m., at the Tsai Performance Center, 685 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts. Works performed were Prelude to The Creation by Franz Joseph Haydn, Tuba Concerto No. 2 for Tuba and Orchestra by Gunther Schuller, and Symphony No. 4 in E Minor, op. 98 by Johannes Brahms. Digitization for Boston University Concert Programs was supported by the Boston University Center for the Humanities Library Endowed Fund

Legal Crisis and Artistic Innovation in Thirteenth-Century Scotland

Weathered, damaged and largely forgotten, the thirteenth-century effigies of Walter and Mary Stewart lie amidst the evocative ruins of Inchmahome Priory on an island in the Lake of Menteith. This tomb has been largely overlooked by art historians, yet it is the earliest surviving example in the British Isles to represent the effigies of husband and wife lying side-by-side on a single tomb, the forerunner of a trend for commemorating marriage which would not become widespread for almost another hundred years. The intimacy of Walter and Mary’s relationship is expressed through a complex exchange of gestures, unparalleled in medieval funerary sculpture: both figures stretch out their arms to embrace one another around the shoulder, while Walter reaches across with his other hand to pull the folds of Mary’s cloak over her body. The following article considers the possible connection between this remarkable instance of artistic innovation and Walter and Mary’s involvement in a long-running legal dispute over their possession of the earldom of Menteith. Examining the gestures of the figures, the decision to place the monument at Inchmahome and the probable identity of Walter as patron, I argue that the effigies should be considered in part as a “monumental charter”, providing enduring evidence of the legitimacy of Walter and Mary’s possession of their title and lands

Illustrated travel: steel engravings and their use in early 19th century topographical books, with special reference to Henry Fisher & Co..

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the introduction, production and sale of steel engravings in the illustrated picture books of the first half of the nineteenth century with particular reference to the publications of Henry Fisher, who began his career in Liverpool and continued it together with his son Robert in London. By looking at the processes from the initial artist's design through to its engraving and printing, and by establishing the interaction between the artist, author, publisher and engraver, this study will lead to a better understanding of both the economics and aesthetics of print production and determine the destination of these illustrated picture books by examining the relationship between the publisher and the public. Previous work on nineteenth-century topographical steel engraving has largely had a bibliographical rather than historiographical aim and has concentrated on the classification of images into regional units. Although useful these publications are not intended to be critical and do not lead to an understanding of the contextual background necessary to explain the enormous output and consumption of topographical steel-engraved books in the 1830s and 1840s. The two leading specialist topographical print-publishers were the London firms of Fisher, Son & Co. and George Virtue. The early career of Henry Fisher as a master printer of mainly religious publications issued in numbers is examined, and this study shows how his innovative marketing, selling and distribution methods led to these being adopted by others in the publishing trade. His transition from publisher of religious numbers in Liverpool to leading publisher of illustrated topographical works in London is investigated for the first time. As no records, account books or archives appear to have survived, this dissertation is based on the substantial number of illustrated travel books with steel-engraved plates that both firms produced between 1829 and 1844 as well as correspondence from Robert Fisher to the Irish artist George Petrie, in which Fisher explains some of 'the peculiarities of our business'. The two most prolific designers of illustrations for topographical picture books in this period were Thomas Allom (1804-1872) who worked for Fisher, and William Henry Bartlett (1809-1854) who worked for Virtue. Their contribution to the field of topographical book illustration has largely passed unnoticed by art historians who question whether mass produced images can be valued as art. Allom and Bartlett are usually classified as jobbing topographical artists or, at best, as architectural draughtsmen. A secondary aim of this dissertation is to offer a counterbalance to this view and show that their art was more genuinely creative than merely reproductive and moreover that their motives for doing this work were far from being similar