Are you a Harpist with Historical Leanings?

We've been advised of an interesting conference run by the Historical Harp Society of Ireland on 15-21 August in Kilkenny.

More information:

SCOIL na gCLÁIRSEACH -Festival of Early Irish Harp 2018

The Society is now taking bookings for the 2018 Scoil na gClairseach—Festival of Early Irish Harp, 15–21 August 2018 at Coláiste Pobail Osraí in the medieval city of Kilkenny, Ireland.

Book before 15 May 2018 for an Early Bird discount of €25 on the week rate and / or sign up with a friend who is new to the festival and you will each get a Bring a Friend discount of €25 on the week rate.

Players: Join for the complete festival programme, from 8.45 a.m. to 6.45 p.m. each day.
Listeners: Join for part – or all – of any day to listen in on Players' sessions, workshops, lectures, masterclasses and concerts.
Field trippers: Join for a day in Dublin, inspecting historic harps close-up, guided by world experts, on Tues. 21 August.

** * **

What's it all about? Informational video HERE
Read about the 2017 festival HERE and see the 2017 timetable HERE
Booking information HERE

Email: info@irishharp.org Call: +353 (0)86 8623430 

Can't I Just Photocopy the Part? Music Copyright Can and Can't Do's in the UK

Copyright guidelines courtesy of CILIP

So you've lost your viola part?  That could be a problem! You cannot just copy another one from the score without the publisher's permission.

Our professional association, IAML (UK and Ireland), has a very helpful web page telling you what is, and is not permissable in the British and Irish world of music copyright.  

Read all the do's and don'ts here:- UK Copyright FAQs, courtesy of IAML (UK and Ireland).

Also, do refer to the general guidelines produced by another professional organisation, CILIP:-

• International Association of Music Libraries, UK and Ireland Branch 
• Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals

Irish Music Collections Online (We're all Celts together)

This Irish piping link might be of interest to our Scottish music degree students.  The tunes are not restricted to pipe music, and you  never know when there might be overlap in repertoires!

http://www.pipers.ie/IMCO/

And the homepage  of Na Píobairí Uilleann - http://www.pipers.ie/

Music manuscripts from Ireland (pre-20th century) - RISM listing

Kilcormack Missal,Trinity College Dublin

'Whittaker' gladly shares with you this excellent news of improved bibliographic access to Irish music manuscripts.  Here's the communication from Dr Catherine Ferris:-

"First Phase of the RISM Ireland Database Launched

http://www.rism-ie.org

RISM Ireland is delighted to announce the launch of a new Irish-focused free-to-access database of pre-twentieth century musical materials held in repositories throughout the island of Ireland. This new resource highlights the contents of Ireland’s collections in a national context. In addition, records from the RISM Ireland catalogue are shared with the RISM Zentralredaktion in Frankfurt, which publishes the collective work of RISM groups in thirty-five countries throughout the world, thereby placing the Irish sources in a worldwide context.

The work of RISM Ireland is project-based, focusing on diverse areas of Irish musical life and individual institutional holdings. This launch highlights the first major research project to be published in the database: The Mercer’s Hospital Music Collection. This project, undertaken in collaboration with RISM Ireland and RISM UK, resulted from a DIT Conservatory of Music & Drama research scholarship. The scholarship to carry out doctoral research on the collection was awarded to Tríona O’Hanlon and supervised by Dr Kerry Houston.

For further information, see the IAML (UK & Irl) February 2013 Newsletter or contact Dr Catherine Ferris."

All Celts Together

We've been looking at Ireland's The Gathering website.  If you have Irish ancestry or connections, you can check an interactive map to see where events are taking place.

Why not try it out for yourself?  (Then get out the bodran, fiddle, flute or harp, and head for the Emerald Isle during 2013 ...)

• http://www.thegatheringireland.com/
• Twitter @GatheringIRL

First The Year of Homecoming, and now The Gathering

We had our Scottish Year of Homecoming in 2009, and it was so successful that it's being repeated in 2014 (http://www.homecomingscotland.com/)

But before that, let's help our Celtic cousins celebrate in Ireland, where 2013 marks The Gathering.  Same concept. There's an interesting piece in the Irish Times by Felicity Hayes-McCoy today, reflecting on this event. 

If you enjoy Felicity's writing, I might add that she is the author of The House on an Irish Hillside, and writes about cultural Celtic traditions - I commend the book to anyone interested in this subject.

• The Gathering, Ireland, 2013 
• Homecoming Scotland, 2014

Wexford Festival Opera 2012: William Vincent Wallace and Mozart

Wexford Festival

The Magic Flute

William Vincent Wallace bicentenary recital
Here's a review of William Vincent Wallace songs, performed by pianist Una Hunt and mezzo-soprano Rachel Kelly; and a performance of Mozart's Magic Flute.

William Vincent Wallace was born in Wexford - hence the connection with the Festival.  Singers may appreciate an understanding of his context, since his songs do occasionally feature in singers' recital repertoire.  Click here.

Late 18th century hymns and psalms

You never know what'll turn up next ...

A donation of two old bound volumes is proving very interesting.  The first is a collection of late 18th century hymns and psalm tune publications - and an abbreviated Messiah for pianoforte or organ and voices!  Published in Dublin, who knows where they've spent the past 212 years or so before ending up in the Whittaker Library at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland?
Before 'Whittaker' gets over-excited, he's off to have a quick coffee, then it'll be time to catalogue the second volume.

They want you to know

'Whittaker' gets sent information, links, CDs, on a regular basis. It's all because the senders want you, our borrowers, to know what they've got to offer.

Today:-

• CMC CD: Contemporary Music from Ireland Vol.10 - the CD was released in December, and we received a free one today. Which will be catalogued very soon ... check the catalogue here. 
• We have also received a Knuston Hall programme of courses and events.  Might be of interest to your private pupils, friends or relatives.
• And a copy of Boosey and Hawkes' Quarternotes newsletter about new releases.  (You can also read about Boosey's composers online, too.  Just click the link)

Composition competitions

Competitions to enter

Lots of composition competitions and other awards on the Contemporary Music Centre Ireland website.  (Especially if you've got Irish connections - in which case, do take a look right now!)

Whittaker will also post this on our Awards, Grants, Prizes page.

Celtic Diaspora

"Whittaker" thinks it's important for Celtic musicians to be aware what's going on in other Celtic lands.  With that in mind, we've added a few Welsh CDs to the Whittaker Library stock.  Take a look here.

Image by Ogwyn Davies

I've also been indexing useful websites onto my Diigo account.  Here are the Welsh sites.

And then - did you think I'd omit the Irish websites?  (Me, half-Welsh, wed to a Scot, two of whose great-grandparents came from Ballymoney; I have genuine Celtic pretensions!)

Irish Classical Music Pioneers

Irish Classical Music Pioneers

(http://basilwalsh.wordpress.com/)

This Wordpress blog by author Basil Walsh is jam-packed full of useful information about Irish classical music history - including John Stevenson, who was Thomas Moore's arranger. (Whatever Moore achieved with his evocative lyrics, he would not have got the same widespread acclaim without Stevenson's settings.)


Info about Walsh himself:-

About: Basil Walsh
http://www.britishandirishworld.com/
Published Author--19th century opera biographies of Irish born classical musicians and performers. Contributor to The Opera Quarterly, OPERA magazine, Dictionary of Irish Biography, Encyclopedia of Ireland and the Americas: Culture, Politics and History, History Ireland Magazine, Encyclopedia of Music in Ireland, GROVE music publications etc.

George Ewart Evans - oral history at the British Library Sound Archive

RSAMD staff and students have access to the British Library Sound Archive via the British Library's Archival Sound Recordings website http://sounds.bl.uk/. Just one of the interesting collections at the Sound Archive is the George Ewart Evans oral history collection, and the BL is working on adding these recordings to the Archival Sound Recordings website . Find out more about it here. Read the Sound Archive's description of the collection:-

Around 200 recordings of interviews and songs made by George Ewart Evans, with about 170 interviewees, between 1956 and 1977. Also includes a small number of recordings by John Ridguard, Ginette Dunn and an unidentified male interviewer, with some self-recorded audio-letters to George Ewart Evans by Charles Kindred. Most recordings made in Suffolk, but a number in Wales, Ireland and Scotland. Principal subjects are rural life and agricultural work in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, folk beliefs about animals, medicine and witchcraft, folk and popular songs, entertainment and education in rural communities (with some material on domestic service, transport and mining).

Whittaker Live will alert patrons when the recordings become available online via the Archival Sound website: http://sounds.bl.uk/.