Desmond Fennell

Dr Desmond Fennell, Maynooth, writes:In the March-April issue Niall Ó Ciosáin reviewed Music in Nineteenth-Century Ireland, edited by Michael Murphy and Jan Smaczny. Inevitably, Mr Ó Ciosáin felt it necessary to deal with the much...
Desmond Fennell, Anguillara, Italy, writes:From Bob Gilmore’s article (JMI, January–February), I note that Steve Reich has written: ‘All music turns out to be ethnic music’. This reinforces what I said about ‘classical’...
Desmond Fennell, Anguillara, Italy, writes:Ronan Guilfoyle (‘Contemporary Music?’, November-December) opened my eyes to a number of things. So-called ‘contemporary’ music is merely one kind of contemporary music. It is by the ch oice...
Dear Editor,A large part of Barra Ó Séaghdha’s review of Prof. Harry White’s new book (JMI July-August) was taken up with White’s theory of why nineteenth-century Ireland did not produce a classical composer of international...
In the latter part of his essay ‘The Search for Samhita’ (JMI, November-December) Benjamin Dwyer wonders ‘what the role of the artist might be in a Western contemporary society dominated by technology’. Specifically, he speculates on...
Dear Editor,I was very much struck by Michael Cronin’s timely article ‘Silenced by Sound’. It suggested the following thoughts.Cronin omitted one particular instance of ‘silenced by sound’. I mentioned it in my ‘Seattle’...
Dear Editor,As a participant in the Irish intellectual and cultural scene and an observer of it, a few things struck me when reading the last issue of the JMI. In the second part of his review article, Patrick Zuk comments on the exclusion of Irish art music...
The Art Problem
We have an 'art problem', argues Irish writer Desmond Fennell.