January/February 2009

Player on the Black Keys

Player on the Black Keys

Player on the Black Keys

In an extract from a memoir in progress, musician Tony MacMahon remembers moments of inspiration, captivation – and terror.

Published on 1 January 2009

Tony MacMahon (1939–2021) was a traditional musician and television producer in RTÉ, where he produced The Pure Drop, The Green Linnet, Aisling Gheal, The Long Note, The Blackbird and the Bell and many other series. He made three solo recordings, Tony MacMahon (1972), MacMahon from Clare (2000), and Farewell to Music (2016) and recorded I gCnoc na Graí (1985) with Noel Hill and Aislingí Ceoil (1994) with Noel Hill and Iarla Ó Lionáird. Read our full obituary here: https://journalofmusic.com/news/rip-tony-macmahon

The Thing Itself

The Thing Itself

The Thing Itself

How do we recognise the real thing in traditional music?

Published on 1 January 2009

Ciaran Carson (1948–2019) was a poet, prose writer, translator and flute-player. He was the author of Last Night’s Fun – A Book about Irish Traditional Music, The Pocket Guide to Traditional Irish Music, The Star Factory, and the poetry collections The Irish for No, Belfast Confetti and First Language: Poems. He was Professor of Poetry at Queen’s University Belfast. Between 2008 and 2010 Ciaran wrote a series of linked columns for the Journal of Music, beginning with 'The Bag of Spuds' and ending with 'The Raw Bar'.

Live Reviews: Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival: James Tenney Retrospective

Live Reviews: Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival: James Tenney Retrospective

Live Reviews: Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival: James Tenney Retrospective

Quatuor Bozzini; Rick Sacks (percussion), Eve Egoyan (piano), Miriam Shalinsky (double bass), local instrumentalists / Huddersfield, Yorkshire 24–26 November 2008

Published on 1 January 2009

Garrett Sholdice is a composer and a director of the record label and music production company Ergodos.

Live Reviews: Anail Dé

Live Reviews: Anail Dé

Live Reviews: Anail Dé

Gavin Bryars (double bass), Iarla Ó Lionáird (voice), Leo Abrahams (guitar), Lisa Grosman (viola), Cian Ó Dúill (viola), Kate Ellis (cello)Royal Hospital, Kilmainham, Dublin, 14 November 2008.

Published on 1 January 2009

Garrett Sholdice is a composer and a director of the record label and music production company Ergodos.

Notes

Notes

Notes

Unlocking the Archive / Session with the Pipers /Music Recording / Casadh Arís / Temple Bar Trad / Música Nueva de Mexico / Outof Time / New Books on Music in Ireland / Winteriser / Happy to Meet, Sorry toPart / Dublin Philharmonic in USA /

Published on 1 January 2009

Open House

Open House

Open House

'Access' is now a guiding principle across music and the arts, but what does it mean in practice?

Published on 1 January 2009

Peter Rosser (1970–2014) was a composer, writer and music lecturer.

He was born in London and moved to Belfast in 1990, where he studied composition at the University of Ulster and was awarded a DPhil in 1997. His music has been performed at the Spitalfields Festival in London, the Belfast Festival at Queen’s and by the Crash Ensemble in Dublin.

In 2011 the Arts Council acknowledged his contribution to the arts in Northern Ireland through a Major Individual Artist Award. He used this award to write his Second String Quartet, which was premiered in 2012 by the JACK Quartet at the opening concert at Belfast's new Metropolitan Arts Centre (The MAC).

Peter Rosser also wrote extensively on a wide range of music genres, with essays published in The Journal of Music, The Wire, Perspectives of New Music and the Crescent Journal. 

He died following an illness on 24 November 2014, aged 44.

Editorial: MacMahon from Clare

Editorial: MacMahon from Clare

In 1996, for a speech given at the Crossroads Conference in Dublin, Tony MacMahon wrote the following: ‘Underlying the affection of a large section of the public for [traditional music and song] is a preconception – that apart from its ente

Published on 1 January 2009

Toner Quinn is Editor of the Journal of Music. His new book, What Ireland Can Teach the World About Music, is available here. Toner will be giving a lecture exploring some of the ideas in the book on Saturday 11 May 2024 at 3pm at Farmleigh House in Dublin. For booking, visit https://bit.ly/3x2yCL8.