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.

As of March 2025, I've completed the introduction, five of eight chapters and am advancing well in chapter 6 (about the period 1880 to 1935). Since the beginning of 2025 I reduced my working time in my office job to four days in order to advance faster. It works well.