Module Code - Title:
MD6171
-
FRAMING IRISH MUSIC: SOURCES AND DISCOURSES 1
Year Last Offered:
2025/6
Hours Per Week:
Grading Type:
N
Prerequisite Modules:
Rationale and Purpose of the Module:
The purpose of this module is to explore the printed, manuscript, and audio-visual sources of Irish Music, and to examine the main discourses around this music over the past three centuries. This module is one of six offered by the Irish World Academy as part of a joint PhD in The Anthropology of Irish Music coordinated with the Keough Naughton Institute of Irish Studies, University of Notre Dame.
Syllabus:
By means of a systematic examination and analysis of printed, manuscript, and audio-visual sources of Irish Music (including Dance), as well as an investigation of the central discourses surrounding the music, this module opens up the origins of the music alongside its conceptual articulation both by the music performers themselves as well as by the rapidly increasing integration of this music within an academic context.
Learning Outcomes:
Cognitive (Knowledge, Understanding, Application, Analysis, Evaluation, Synthesis)
Contextualise the various sources (printed, manuscript, audio-visual) with regard to their social surround, their various motivations, and their cultural impact.
Examine the repertoire contained within each source with respect to its uniqueness, its relation to other sources, and its relative importance in the transmission of music culture.
Evaluate the influence and impact certain sources have had on the living contemporary oral-tradition in terms of transmission, continuity, and innovation.
Affective (Attitudes and Values)
Become aware of the various perceptions that can be brought to bear on any source.
Learn how to challenge inappropriate perceptions of the nature of a source, and to recognise how such perceptions can lead to mythologizing the nature of a tradition.
Psychomotor (Physical Skills)
Actively engage in the performance of repertoire from the various sources with a view to generating critical discussion and analysis around the various interpretations of these sources
How the Module will be Taught and what will be the Learning Experiences of the Students:
The module is taught through a direct examination of the primary sources, through the performance of the repertoire from these sources, and through discussion generated by a clear first-hand knowledge of the material allied to the insights provided by music cognition through both individual and collective performance activities.
The newly emerging academic literature on arts practice research is central to this teaching approach.
Graduate Attributes achieved include those under the headings: Knowledgeable, Creative, Collaborative, Articulate.
Research Findings Incorporated in to the Syllabus (If Relevant):
Prime Texts:
Aloys Fleischmann/Mícheál Ó Súílleabháin/Paul McGettrick (1998)
Sources of Irish Traditional Music
, Garland Press: New York and London
Catherine E. Foley (2012)
Irish Traditional Step Dancing in North Kerry
, North Kerry Literary Trust: Listowel
Other Relevant Texts:
Nicholas Carolan (1997)
A Harvest Saved: Francis O'Neill and Irish Music in Chicago
, Cork:Ossian Publications
Liam de Noraidh (1965)
Ceol ón Mumhain
, Baile Átha Cliath: An Clóchomhair
Programme(s) in which this Module is Offered:
Semester(s) Module is Offered:
Autumn
Module Leader:
sandra.joyce@ul.ie