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Companion to Irish Traditional Music(Hardback, 2nd edition - November 2011) €59.00 |
Price: €59.00
Add to BagThe Companion to Irish Traditional Music is a landmark, easy to use A-Z format for studying, exploring and researching one of Ireland’s most universally recognisable cultural expressions.
Among the existing publications on Irish traditional music there are works of monumental initiative and deservedly enduring status. But the radical development in this music scene since the 1960s mark it now as an established part of Irish cultural life and demand new kinds of information. The commercial side of the music has evolved and consolidated, generating a new set of standards, popular music dynamics and significant music tourism. The music’s expanding profile within the academic system too has created fresh approaches to playing and study, with a growth of academic research interest, and many major studies published or presently under way. In relevant and accessible ways The Companion uniquely draws together the oldness and newness in all of this: the practice and the study, the aesthetics and the analysis, the competing interests and diverse ideals.
The editor Fintan Vallely is himself an accomplished musician and music writer. He has harnessed the expertise of some 200 specialists from all aspects of traditional music, who in more than half a million words and 300 images present the most comprehensive image of Irish traditional music ever assembled. This detailed mosaic is coloured by history, ideology, scholarship, virtuosity, romance, satisfaction, pride and internationalism, all appropriately flagged by the cover’s use of Maclise’s fabulously energetic Snap Apple Night.
This second edition is not only revised but also greatly expanded, and has much new information, including material never before printed and unavailable elsewhere. In 1,750 individual articles and as many more sub-sections The Companion gives A-Z coverage of song, dance, instruments, bands, storytelling, technology, tunes and style, composition, organisations and promotion, education and transmission, collectors and archives, revival, broadcasting and recording, English, Scottish and Welsh music and song, and music in all Irish counties, Europe and the USA. This commentary and analysis is linked to an historical timeline which spans three millennia, and a publications listing that covers three centuries. Six hundred biographies detail the human endeavour of the field, documenting significant musicians, commentators, historians, promoters and composers, and extended entries cover major themes such as song, dance, education and the elements of style.
The Companion to Irish Traditional Music is a key reference for the interested enthusiast, session player and professional performer. It is also a profoundly comprehensive, one-stop resource for every library, school and home with an interest in the distinctive rituals, qualities and history of Irish culture. And it is a vital resource for all levels in education, particularly valuable at third level as both textbook and research resource. The book is uniquely backed by the provision of a parallel website – www.companion.ie - which guides structured exploration of the text and fully integrates it with the existing vast and magnificent range of traditional music internet resources.
Fintan Vallely lectures and writes on Irish traditional music and is the author of Tuned Out - Traditional Music and Identity in Northern Ireland
Hardback, 2nd edition: November 2011
Printed Pages: 856
Size: 245 x 175mm
ISBN: 9781859184509
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Book Reviews
Michael Quinn, Songlines
March 22, 2012, 14:14 pm
Much has clearly happened in the near decade and a half since Fintan Vallely's landmark Companion to Irish Traditional Music first appeared in 1999. Enough to merit this substantially revised second edition. Writing with wisdom, insight and an involving enthusiasm for the subject, Vallely and his contributors have produced a minor miracle of a book.
Derek Schofield, English Dance & Song magazine
February 27, 2012, 10:17 am
This is the second edition of a similarly-titled book, published in 1999. But it’s hardly a simple revision: the Companion has almost doubled in size to over 800 pages and contains, apparently (I haven’t counted them all), 1,750 articles and 600 biographies (although there are 5,000 individuals and bands listed in the person index). The scope of the Companion is wide – music, dance, song, instruments, organisations, education, archives, the revival and the tradition, performers and styles. There’s an entry for each Irish county, with details of the styles of music, events, sessions, collecting, organisations and key traditional musicians. Neighbouring countries have substantial sections on their own traditional music and dance, but when it comes to the USA and Australia, for example, the focus is on Irish music within those countries. Irish music in London is covered admirably by Reg Hall and others, but I could not find similar entries for Liverpool, Birmingham and other British cities with sizeable Irish communities. The list of contributors – 200 of them – is impressive and includes Nicholas Carolan (Director of the Irish Traditional Music Archive), broadcaster and researcher Harry Bradshaw, dance specialist Catherine Foley, and the editor, Fintan Vallely, who has done an excellent job pulling it all together. There is also a timeline and extensive bibliography, plus a complementary website, www.companion.ie The Companion has already stimulated work on a similar publication for Cape Breton traditional music, so I wonder if an English publisher could be prompted to instigate a guide to English traditional music? This really is an essential, authoritative guide for anyone interested in Irish music, or anyone interested in the interplay between Irish and British traditional music. Copyright English Dance & Song magazine
