Recently, I sent a version of my editorial from the May-June 07 JMI into the Irish Times as a letter. It was published on April 24th (below), and a response came from Deirdre McCrea of Music Network on April 27th (also below).
Author Archives: Admin
Traditional Music and the Avant-Garde
During last year’s RTÉ Living Music Festival, a questionnaire was handed out. One of the questions was whether or not the audience would like to see genres other than contemporary classical music covered in future festivals. I ticked the ‘no’ box Continue reading
A Young Man’s Vision
It is possible that, over the past five years or so of JMI, Seán Ó Riada has received more mentions in the magazine than any other Irish musical figure. While this may suggest some establishment-like status for the composer and musician, it is easy to Continue reading
Purists All
Little captures the imagination like the idea of the ‘traditional music purist’ – though it’s a notion rife with inconsistencies. What is more, the idea appears to be as popular as ever, though for reasons, argues Toner Quinn, that have little to do with music…
Images of England
For all the ties that bind Ireland to England – not least in family and employment – it remains in our perception a force to be pushed against. In this jostling, there are expressions of English culture which we are prone to overlook. English folk music is Continue reading
Normalising the Nation
The news that the Arts Council has allocated 3 million euro to the traditional arts for 2006, with that figure set to increase in 2007 and 2008, is both welcome and significant. Setting aside for a moment the practical impact it could have on traditional Continue reading
Are You Talking to Me?: Traditional and Classical Music in Ireland
Since the nineteenth century, when nationalism and the use of traditional tunes became a feature of classical music internationally, the subject of traditional music has regularly been referred to in classical music criticism. Ireland is no Continue reading
Intellectual Enterprise
Without giving away too much, one point raised in Axel Klein’s travelogue of his recent (and most enterprising) trip to the US can be commented upon here. Mr Klein suggests that it is ‘Irish people’ (and not he – who is German and based in Bonn) who Continue reading
The decline in traditional music CDs
We may be reluctant to admit it, but as the years wind on it is becoming increasingly difficult to deny. While we may look on in awe at the degree of enterprise traditional musicians have shown in independently releasing dozens upon dozens of CDs in Continue reading
An Interview with Frankie Gavin
In 1976, Frankie Gavin, aged just nineteen, made one of the outstanding fiddle albums of the latter half of the twentieth century, Continue reading
Toner Quinn 