A Concise History of Irish Classical Music

Since W.H.G. Flood's A History of Irish Music (1905!, with a third edition in 1913) no more recent monograph on the general history of art music in Ireland has appeared. A possible reason is that today we know so much more about this history that it seems like an insurmountable piece of work.

While such a piece of work is undoubtedly necessary at some point in time, I think there is even more urgent need for a short, concise, comprehensive work covering the field – a book that serves as an introduction and that points to areas worthy of further research. In an ideal world, a book like this would be richly illustrated (with people, locations, music examples, etc.). I am aiming for book of no more than 250 to 280 pages. It has been a long-cherished project of mine for which I originally drafted a table of contents and an editorial layout back in 2011. I am now in the process of writing it.

Writing this in April 2024, I've completed the introduction and (almost) the fifth of eight chapters. I am applying an informal peer review by showing drafts of my chronological chapters to experts in the field. I want to make absolutely sure that the text is free of factual mistakes and that it represents the latest state of research. It's working well thus far, even though my progress is slower than originally expected. But it's coming ...