Irish Traditional Music at DkIT
Masters by research in Traditional Musics
Traditional Music Studies are conducted by flute player and writer Dr. Fintan Vallely, internationally-renowned fiddler Gerry O’Connor, and singer and researcher Sean Corcoran.
These are actively involved in and have internationally renown for public performance, in addition to being variously respected for contribution to the major debates, writing, research and analysis in Irish music:
Fintan Vallely is the editor of Traditional music’s major reference work, The Companion to Irish Traditional Music (1999), and of its first flute tutor book (1986)
Sean Corcoran is a member of the group Cran, is an authority on the Scottish Gaelic song tradition and Irish vernacular music and song, and a field worker associated with The Arts Council of Northern Ireland, the National Folklore Archives at UCD, and the Irish Traditional Music Archive.
Gerry O'Connoris widely known in Europe as a professional Traditional music performer (the groups Skylark and La Lugh, and the vocal ensemble White Raven, and as a fiddle teacher and maker, and is engaged in research into the Co. Louth Donnellan collection of Irish music.
Research Masters students benefit from the considerable volume of research experience and resources which this team has at its disposal, making the MA experience at Dundalk a truly unique opportunity. Students of the one- or two-semester Irish Traditional Music Studies programme are integrated with all of this Departmental expertise, resources and talents, and with performance itself where applicable or desired.
Supportive environment
A number of key research projects currently support the Traditional music teaching environment at DkIT. The researchers are in all cases musicians themselves
Gerry O'Connor, working on Luke Donnellan's Music of Oriel (MA)
Jesse Smith, working on a transcription project Realising the Music of Michael Coleman (MA)
Jacinta McEvoy, working on The development of a critically-evaluated folk dance teaching resource-package for use in Irish Primary schools (MA)
Oisin Mac Diarmada, researching a project in music and movement, The Shapes of Melody (MA)
Sean McElwain - Music in Monaghan, 1500 - 1950 (MA)
Seosamh Ó Neachtain - History and Style in Old-style step dancing (MA)
Related to this work are projects in the 'crossover' area of Classical music arrangement of Irish melodies:
Clement Mac Manuis - A critical evaluation of the contribution of Éamonn Ó Gallchobhair to music in 20th century Ireland (MA)
Sara Burn - A critical performing edition of selected works by A.J. Potter (PhD)
Staff research
Dr. Fintan Vallely - Tuned Out - Protestant attitudes to Traditional Music in Northern Ireland ; rewriting and restucturing of The Companion to Irish Traditional Music; doctoral research on Flute Routes to 21st century Ireland (PhD, at UCD); ongoing research in Education and Traditional Music.
Sean Corcoran - Culture, identity and ideology in music in Irish life (PhD, at QUB)
Research links
Web Links in Traditional Music
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Programmes in Development
Music Programmes in Irish Studies - The Music of Ireland
The BA (Hons) Applied Music at Dundalk Institute of Technology provides the basis of The Music of Ireland - a highly-specific and uniquely-informative, single-semester or year-long programme. The single-semester course has six major modules each of which carries 5 ECTS credits. It stands alone knowledge-wise, but also functions as an information base for the second-semester course for those who choose the year-long option (both modules are free-standing however).
The first six modules are completed in semester 1 (mid-September – mid December), and the second six in Semester 2 (mid January – late May). Each semester-based programme offers a matrix of inter-related topics which are bound up with and inform present-day performance of Irish music.
Music-performance ability
Music-performance ability (instrumental, song or dance) is optional: it is only required for one elective module in each semester. Knowledge of music is of course an advantage on all modules, but is absolutely not required for comprehension of these. No specific experience of the Traditional music genre is necessary either, and no established singing ability is necessary for choral participation. For those taking the performance option, reasonable (but not expert) prior music ability (instrumental, dance or vocal) is required and, additionally, for those to whom it applies, tuition on a chosen instrument (including voice) is provided as part of each of the performance-based modules.
International student options
All students can engage profitably with either or both of the semester programmes: no previous knowledge of the topics is required. However, students are likely to gain more if they have had previous experience in one or more of:
• performance-based music
• ethnomusicology
• international folk musics (‘world’ music)
• Irish culture appreciation, Irish studies, Irish politics or Irish history
Location
Both semester programmes are Dundalk based at DkIT’s Dept. of Music, a newly-constructed, purpose-designed facility with the most up-to-date facilities.
Ancillary exercises
All music students additionally take part in the college choir (120 voices; semester 1 - Irish and Christmas choral performance; semester 2 – Ceol-drama, choral arrangements and drama which utilise Irish airs).
Extra-curricular activities
During the semester students will take part in a 4 day music-related field trip to a major performance and learning site, viz. Armagh/Belfast, Ennis/Limerick, or Dublin. Students may also take the option of a 4 day break experiencing Irish and European Folk music practice in a major European city - Rome, Berlin or London. International students may be included on all field trips for Theatre, Archaeology and History modules, irrespective of whether they are taking those electives.
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Taught Masters in Traditional Music Studies *Coming on stream in 2009
Taught Masters students benefit from the considerable volume of research experience and resources which this team has at its disposal, making the MA experience at Dundalk a truly unique opportunity. Students of the one- or two-semester Irish Traditional Music Studies programme are integrated with all of this Departmental expertise, resources and talents, and with performance itself where applicable or desired.
MA Traditional Music Studies, course content
This taught, 3-semester programme is rooted in Irish Traditional music, analysing extant song and music forms and contexts, but explores outwards into the neighbouring traditions which have impacted on Irish music, clarifying linkages, overlaps and borrowing. It is performance- and presentation-based, with all material explored via personal solo and group music interpretation. While instrumentalists, singers and dancers will gain greatly from it, it is nevertheless constructed in such a way as to permit equal involvement of the aficionado, listener or consumer, in production, presentation and management.
Course materials for this programme include critical and analytical texts, and video and audio recordings in Folk/Traditional music studies and Ethnomusicology.
Modules taken over 12 months:
Analysis of Folk and Popular performance aesthetics and contexts
Technologies of music promotion, representation and storage
Fieldwork, ethnography, collection and documentation
Established stylistics versus improvisation – comparative study of dance, song and music composition and practices.
Nostalgia, art and popular culture in European music revivals.
Dissertation research skills and procedures
Transmission and education practices in Folk and Popular musics.
The shapes of melody – kinetic responses to music.
Technology in the retrieval and analysis of Traditional musics.
Pitch, mode and scales in European Folk musics.
Impulse, art and agency in the development, presentation and promotion of Traditional music.
Resources for Traditional music study
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Application
Traditional Music Studies are run by flute player and writer Dr. Fintan Vallely, internationally-renowned fiddler Gerry O’Connor, and singer and researcher Sean Corcoran.
These are all actively involved in and widely known for public performance, in addition to being variously respected for contribution to the major debates, writing, research and analysis in Irish music: Fintan Vallely is the editor of Traditional music’s major reference work, and Sean Corcoran is a leading song researcher.
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Thesis and Dissertation regulations - extract from DkIT guidelines
8.1 Presentation of thesis
For the initial submission, the candidate must prepare copies of the thesis for distribution to the internal examiner and the external examiner(s). Initially, the candidate should present the thesis in soft binding to facilitate any subsequent revisions that may be required.
8.1.1 Number of Copies
The candidate must prepare three or four copies of the thesis,(depending on the number of external examiners); one copy each for distribution to HETAC, the external examiner(s) and one for the Institute, typed and bound in a fixed binding so that leaves cannot be removed or replaced.
The custody and distribution of all copies of the thesis presented by the candidate is the responsibility of the Institute. This responsibility relates in particular to the forwarding of the required copies to the External Examiner(s).
8.1.2 Print and Pagination
The thesis should be in typescript or print on A4-size paper with pages numbered consecutively. The main text should be typed or printed in double spacing; footnotes and quotations should be typed or printed in normal spacing.
Photographs or diagrams, if any, should, where feasible, be incorporated digitally with the text; where this is not appropriate or practicable they should be fixed firmly in place.
Where the thesis consists of more than one volume, the pagination should indicate the number of the volume as well as the page-number referring to the particular volume.
Appendices should be named alphabetically, and each appendix paginated consecutively but separately from the main text and from each other.
Page numbers should be located centrally at the bottom of the page and about 20mm above the edge of the page.
8.1.3 Front Board and Spine
The front board (cover) of the thesis shall contain the following information only:-
• the title of the thesis;
• the initials and name of the candidate;
• the HETAC award for which the thesis is submitted, and the year of submission;
• where the thesis consists of more than one volume, the volume number and the total volumes.
The same information (excluding the title of the thesis) shall be printed along the spine of the cover in such a way as to be easily legible when the copy is lying flat with its front cover uppermost. All lettering on the cover and the spine shall be of plain graphic design.
8.1.4 Title Page
The title page of each volume of the thesis should contain the following information:-
• The full title of the thesis, and the subtitle, if any. If there is more than one volume, the total number of volumes and the number of the particular volume.
• The full name of the author with, if desired any qualifications or distinctions.
• The award for which the thesis is submitted to HETAC.
• The name(s) of the supervisor(s) of the research;
• As the last line on the page, the statement "Submitted HETAC, (Month) (Year)".
8.1.5 Abstract of Thesis
An abstract not exceeding 300 words should be bound in as an integral part of the thesis, and should precede the main text. Each copy of the thesis submitted should also be accompanied by a separate copy of the abstract. The abstract should be printed or typed in single spacing and should indicate the author and title of the thesis in the form of a heading.
8.1.6 Presentation of performed/exhibited element(s) and of composition
Each application for registration for a higher degree by research and thesis should state clearly whether the thesis to be presented is expected to include any material other than printed text, diagrams and photographs. Where such other material is to be included, the application should describe the form which such material is expected to take, and the proposed arrangements for making it available for assessment by the Examiners. It is the responsibility of the Institute to ensure that adequate disclosures and arrangements have been made in this regard.
HETAC may, at the time of registration of the candidate, or subsequently, specify the form in which the thesis is to be presented, and any special arrangements to be made by the candidate in relation to presentation.
In all cases it shall be the Institute’s responsibility to arrange appropriate and convenient access by the External Examiner(s) to such facilities as are required for the full and proper assessment of the thesis.
In the case of a thesis in which the development of computer software is a primary objective, the candidate's Supervisor, in consultation, as necessary, with the External Examiner(s), shall specify how the software is to be presented.
In the case of a thesis, which is accompanied by an exhibit or artefact produced or developed by the candidate, which forms a significant part of the submission; or where performance on the part of the candidate or of another person or persons comprise the practitioner element, it shall be the Institute’s responsibility to arrange appropriate and convenient access to the exhibit, artefact or performance for the purpose of assessment by the external examiner(s).
Requirements for submissions, of which performance, practice or exhibition forms a significant part, for the purposes of postgraduate research awards, are as follows:--
• The work must have been undertaken as part of a registered postgraduate research programme.
• The final submission must be accompanied by a permanent record of the creative work(s).
• The creative work(s) must be set in its relevant theoretical, historical, critical or visual context.
• There must be a written dissertation.
• The work will constitute an independent and original contribution to knowledge.
• The submission will demonstrate an understanding of appropriate methodology
• There will be an oral examination.
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