RISM Ireland

In association with SMI, a 'RISM Ireland' working group has been set up: see below for membership of the group and contact information.

RISM Ireland is working in close cooperation with the RISM UK Trust to undertake the systematic cataloguing of musical sources in Ireland, both north and south. Religious and secular manuscript and printed music up to 1830, music librettos and books about music are central to the project, as is the issuing of RISM sigla to previously unidentified music repositories. Physical objects relating to music such as instruments, paintings, etc., are also being noted for the purposes of a future project. Sources may be either public or private but must be accessible to bona fide researchers: totally private repositories are therefore excluded from the project.

The resulting database of Irish RISM A/II music manuscripts will be incorporated within the RISM UK Trust's free-to-access website at www.rism.org.uk/database.html. It is intended that the many previously uncatalogued items relevant to RISM series A/I, B and C will be published in one or more dedicated volumes.

Researchers and other interested parties are invited to contact any member of the RISM Ireland working group with information they may possess regarding hitherto unidentified, uncatalogued or little-known music sources or repositories in Ireland. We also welcome any information regarding any completed or ongoing cataloguing or research projects. Any assistance given to the RISM Ireland project will be appropriately acknowledged.

The RISM Ireland working group finalised a new list of Irish repository sigla in November 2007, and this will be launched at a plenary session that will take place at 5.30 p.m. on Friday 9th May during the 2008 SMI Conference at Waterford Institute of Technology.

With regard to the Call for Papers for the 2008 Conference, I definitely have a problem with my e-mails, both incoming and outgoing, that our technicians cannot solve at present. There is no logical reason why some fail to arrive or be sent, as no distinct pattern has emerged, but I think we need to add some kind of warning notice to the call for papers in case someone submitting a proposal gets lost in the system. I shall also be in England for over three weeks in Dec.-Jan. and I think this had better also been mentioned in case people wonder why their proposals haven't been acknowledged during that period. I therefore suggest something like the following to be inserted at the end of the Call for Papers section on the conference page (please feel free to reword this as you see fit):

Due to problems beyond anyone's control, a number of incoming and/or outgoing e-mails have recently not been received by David Rhodes. Anyone submitting a paper proposal who does not receive an acknowledgement within seven working days is therefore requested to resubmit the proposal either by e-mail or my post. David Rhodes will be out of the country from 12 December 2007 to 7 January 2008 inclusive and will be unable to reply to any communications during that period of time.

RISM Ireland working group:

Dr Ann Buckley (NUI Maynooth): Hon. Treasurer
Specialist field: Medieval music to c1600; iconography and organology; music in Irish country houses.

Dr Kerry Houston (NUI Maynooth)
Specialist field: church music from c1600.

Dr Sarah McCleave (Queen's University, Belfast): Hon. Secretary
Specialist field: Baroque secular music.

Dr David J. Rhodes (Waterford Institute of Technology): Chair
Specialist field: Classical secular music.

Dr Adrian Scahill (NUI Maynooth)
Specialist field: Irish traditional music.

Mr. Roy Stanley (Trinity College Dublin)
Music librarian.

Address for non-email written communications:
Dr David J. Rhodes
RISM Ireland
Music Department
College Street Campus
Waterford Institute of Technology
Cork Road
Waterford, Ireland

RISM (Répertoire International des Sources Musicales) is the 'International Inventory of Musical Resources' — a cross-country non-profit joint venture which aims at comprehensive documentation of existing musical sources worldwide.

The Central Editorial Office (RISM Zentralredaktion), in Frankfurt-am-Main, 'coordinates the contributions of the various RISM national working groups to the projects RISM Series A/I (printed music before 1800) and Series A/II (Music Manuscripts after 1600, with a cut-off point of c1800-1850: this varies from country to country). It also prepares information for both series for publication and helps coordinate the publications of RISM Series B (specialist music collections) and C (directory of music research libraries).

For further details, see the RISM website:
rism.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/engl/e_zentralr.htm