UCD Humanities Institute
Belfield, Dublin 4
4 April 2012
10.30am-4.30pm

The purpose of this symposium is to consider the present state of musicology in Ireland. The practice of thinking and writing about music as a self-standing discipline is overshadowed by the current economic drive to reconfigure Irish higher education in the humanities. In this climate, the inherent value of musicology, ethnomusicology and music theory can be eclipsed by a system of education which privileges high student intake over the intrinsic merit of individual disciplines. Such a system has tended to diminish the presence of musicology (along with that of many other disciplines) in other countries. By contrast, the vigorous promotion of musicology in Ireland can identify ways in which the subject is ideally placed to enrich the humanities in its multiple engagements with history, culture, society and the structural and semantic intelligence of music itself. As we approach the tenth anniversary of the founding of the Society for Musicology in Ireland and the publication of the Encyclopaedia of Music in Ireland (hosted by the DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama and published by UCD Press), this symposium provides a timely opportunity to celebrate musicology as a vital resource in Irish education.

Programme [updated 20/3/2012]
10.30am: Julian Horton, Introduction and Welcome
10.45am: Jan Smaczny, Musicology in Ireland: Perspectives from Without and Within [Chair, Julian Horton]
11.15 am: Coffee
11.30am: Harry White, Musicology and the Humanities in Ireland [Chair, Maria McHale]
12.15pm: Lorraine Byrne Bodley, Why Musicology Matters [Chair, Wolfgang Marx]
1pm-2pm: Lunch
2pm: Gareth Cox, Musicology and Teacher Education [Chair, Jaime Jones]
2.45pm: Kerry Houston, Performance and Musicology in Ireland [Chair, Frank Lawrence]
3.15pm Short break
3.30pm: Round table discussion: Musicology in Ireland [Chair, Harry White]
4.30pm: Concluding remarks
7.00pm: Philip Bohlman, In Praise of Musical Thought (John F Larchet Memorial Lecture, Theatre NT1, Newman Building) [Chair, Julian Horton]
8pm: Wine Reception, School of Music (J305), Newman Building

Registration information
Please email music@ucd.ie by Friday 30 March to register for the Symposium. A registration fee of €5.00 is payable on the day of the event.