Sound Post VOLUME 18 NO. 3 - AUTUMN 2020

IN THIS ISSUE:

#MiseFosta and FairPlé highlighted on RTÉ’s Primetime

FIM welcomes appointment of Daren Tang as Director-General of the WIPO

Female musicians rarely given air- time on Irish radio stationsLuke Kelly statues vandalised

Minister announces €270,000 Music Capital Scheme 2020

Karan Casey Photo: Eric Politzer Liam O’Flynn Collection acquired by ITMA

Paula Meehan's 'Owed to Beethoven on his 250th Birthday'

#MiseFosta and FairPlé high- Axel Klein on Michael William Balfe lighted on RTÉ’s Primetime Minister Martin announces €6 million live performance and music industry support packages By Niamh Parsons Fergus A. D’Arcy on music for the The FairPlé movement was inaugurated in early 2018 by MUI masses member, singer and researcher, Dr. Karan Casey, who, along with other prominent female musicians in the Irish Traditional David Byers on the first Feis and Folk scene, began to question why so few women performers Ceoil were not headlining festivals. After a few meetings, FairPlé (Plé Reviews being the Irish word for discussion) was set up with its aims to achieve gender balance in the production, performance, promo- Times Past tion and development of Irish traditional and folk music. Initial Obituaries reaction was that most participants in the music scene were ei- ther not aware of the imbalance, or in some negative cases, felt MUI Executive Committee, 2019- these musicians were just ‘looking for more gigs’. But the move- 2020 ment grew and FairPlé set up a range of events, including con- certs highlighting some of the best female performers in Irish MUI RTÉ freelance orchestral daily traditional and folk, festivals of debates and an academic re- rates search symposium among other events. Interval Quiz

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vidual stories it comes from tak- FIM welcomes #MiseFosta and ing a lot of collective stories.” Recently, younger women and men appointment of FairPlé high- started to come out publicly under the hashtag #MiseFosta. Daren Tang as lighted on This #MiseFosta movement is a loose grouping of about twenty, Director- RTÉ’s mainly younger men and women whose aim is to address sexism, General of the Primetime sexual harassment and assault within the community. These

sometimes shocking stories WIPO Continued from page 1 were unsurprising but it was the

first time they were publicly ex- On 8th May 2020, the Member See the report of our activism posed and these brave young States of the World Intellectual here. Sexism, lack of respect in a people, in telling their stories, Property Organisation (WIPO) male- dominated world and sex- spurred others to come forward. appointed by consensus Daren ual harassment were among the RTÉ Investigates took up the Tang as the Organisation’s next topics discussed at length and story and highlighted these is- Director-General. The appoint- because these musicians don’t sues with Paul Murphy investi- ment is for a six-year term be- have a governing body, it was dif- gating for RTÉ’s Primetime. On ginning on 1st October, 2020. He ficult for victims to find some- the programme, some musicians will succeed Francis Gurry, who where to report instances speak out of their experiences, has served as Director-General because of the lack of formal their fear of reporting instances since 1st October 2008. structures. because they may forfeit their Tang currently is the Chief Ex- own musicianship, their freedom ecutive of the Intellectual Prop- Then along came #MiseFosta to play in sessions, and their erty Office of Singapore (IPOS). (the Ulster Irish for #MeToo). hopes and dreams of pursuing a For the past two-and-a-half While many of us older women career in music being compro- years, he has also served as knew of these instances, annoy- mised. Chair of the WIPO Standing ing at the very least, criminal at

Committee on Copyright and the very most, we did what Dr. Karan Casey said: “I think Related Rights (SCCR). woman had always done, ignore MiseFosta actually has shown it, brush it under the carpet, hide someone like myself how si- Welcoming Tang’s appointment, it from everyone, or sometimes lenced my generation has been the International Federation of spoke among ourselves but did about these issues and I think Musicians (FIM) said: “We hope not report anything. One of the they are really brave and we owe that this welcome proximity to problems is that we all know them an awful lot, I think we all our sector will allow WIPO to each other, or know of each need to start having a genuine move towards solutions that other, and have met at various conversation about sexual as- meet the expectations and needs fleadhs, festivals and gatherings sault and how it happens within of professional musicians, with over the years. Some of these in- the arts.” regard, in particular, to the shar- stances came from highly re-

ing of revenues generated by spected and powerful musicians. Watch the programme here. streaming services.” The report begins at 22.34 Dr. Una Monaghan, harper, com-

poser, researcher and sound en- Read the RTÉ article here. gineer from Belfast put out a call

for anonymous stories, (click here).

She received 121 stories…. “Every

single one of those stories, al- most, can be dismissed in one of many ways; either as someone’s Niamh Parsons is a tradi- bad behaviour; as a misunder- tional and folk singer and standing; as something that hap- an Executive Committee member of the Musicians’ pens in society in general and Union of . should be shrugged off…the evi- Niamh Parsons Daren Tang Photo: Emmanuel Berrod/WIPO dence does not come from indi- Photo: Des Gallagher

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that we’re losing, the songs that Trust and Music Network in 2008 Female will be missed and the voices as an action-research initiative that we’re never going to hear.” designed to provide support for musicians the purchase of musical instru- ments. In response to the suc- rarely given air- cess of the initial pilot scheme, funding has been made available time on Irish since 2011 by the Department of Media, Tourism, Arts, Culture, radio stations Sport and the Gaeltacht. The Scheme has funded 364 awards,

benefitting more than 42,000 A recently published Gender people of all ages throughout Ire- Disparity Report revealed that land since its inception in 2008. the majority of the twenty-eight music-playing radio stations in The Scheme opened for applica- Ireland feature women artists in tions on 25th August with a dead- their top 20 most played songs line of 2.00 p.m., 13th October only 5 per cent of the time. Con- 2020, for receipt of applications. ducted by the music consultant and publicist, Linda Coogan Further information is available Byrne, the report found that, Eleanor McEvoy at www.musicnetwork.ie. over the previous twelve months, no female musicians For further details, please contact: featured in the top 20 artists played by four stations, FM104, Sarah Cunningham at LM FM, South-East Radio and tel +353 (0) 83 095 5956 / E-mail: WLR FM. Uniquely, RTÉ Radio 1 Minister [email protected] treated female and male musi- cians equally in relation to its announces top twenty most played songs. Muireann Sheahan, Communica- However, according to the re- € tions Manager, Music Network port, only 5 per cent of the top 270,000 Music (01) 4750224 / 087 265 3293 twenty artists played on Today Email: FM, Beat 102-103FM, Clare FM, Capital Scheme [email protected] Corm 96FM, Cork C103, East Coast FM, KCLR FM, KFM, Live 2020 Holly Ní Ghráda , PR & Market- ing Officer, Music Network 95 FM, Midlands radio, Radio 087 4198653 Kerry, Shannonside FM and On 4th August 2020, Catherine Email: Spin southwest FM were fe- Martin TD, the Minister for [email protected] male. The corresponding figure Media, Tourism, Arts, Culture, for Carlow FM was 30 per cent. Sport and the Gaeltacht, con- firming funding of €270,000 for In a response to the findings, the Music Capital Scheme 2020. Eleanor McEvoy, Chairwoman of Supported by the Department of the Irish Music Rights Organisa- Media, Tourism, Arts, Culture, tion (IMRO), said the report was Sport and the Gaeltacht and ‘thoroughly depressing’ and the managed by Music Network, the situation appeared to be getting Scheme comprises two distinct worse rather than better, adding: awards that provide funding for “I grew up hearing very few fe- the purchase of musical instru- male artists on the radio and it ments to both non-professional seems incomprehensible to me performing groups and to pro- that we are still in that place fessional musicians. today. The unconscious bias to- wards male musicians, songwrit- The Scheme was established by ers and performers is the Arts Council, the Irish Catherine Martin, Minister for Media, staggering. Looking at these fig- Recorded Music Association Tourism, Arts, Culture, Sport and the ures I’m frustrated at the talent Gaeltacht

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collection. ITMA is working to- wards organising and mak- ingthis collection accessible to the public in 2020 to mark the second anniversary of Liam O’Flynn’s death.

The materials in this collection are multi-media in nature and represent the working collection of a professional Irish traditional musician who travelled both na- tionally and internationally, per- forming as a solo artist as well as with many of Ireland’s top mu- sicians. His frequent collabora- Owed to Ludwig on his 250th birthday tions with internationally recognised artists are also evi- By Paula Meehan dent throughout this collection, Liam O’Flynn, 2013 Photo: Dónal Glackin most notably in his work with “I was thinking just how much is Nobel Laureate, Seamus Heaney. owed for the joy we experience when we listen to music and are moved by it, how much, in times Liam O’Flynn His frequent collaborations of stress and crisis, we owe to with internationally recog- musicians, to composers, to Collection nised artists are also evident poets, to all our artists. Ham- throughout this collection, pered as we are, restricted as we acquired by most notably in his work with are, hedged round with rules and Nobel Laureate, Seamus regulations as we now are, we ITMA Heaney. still practise our arts and find new ways to offer them to the people. This is 'Owed to Ludwig Earlier this year, Jane O’Flynn, on his 250th Birthday’, done dur- The Liam O’Flynn collection at the widow of the celebrated ing lockdown, pencil and markers.” ITMA includes published books piper, Liam O’Flynn, donated and periodicals, commercial and the Liam O’Flynn Collection to Paula Meehan’s new book is non-commercial sound recordings, the Irish Traditional Music launched on October 1st, 2020 video recordings, photographs, Archive (ITMA). Over several — As If By Magic: Selected original and photocopied music months, the ITMA worked Poems. scores, correspondence, news- closely with Jane O’Flynn to paper clippings, reviews, preserve, organise and make ephemera (event programmes, available the materials of this posters, flyers etc.), business re-

lated papers (contracts etc.) and

research notes. The collection is

currently stored in eighteen

archival boxes.

Audio material in the Liam O’Flynn

Collection has been digitised as

part of the Digital Audio/visual

Preservation (DAP) Project thanks Pre-order directly from Dedalus to generous funding received by Press in Baldoyle: ITMA from what was then the

Department of Culture, Heritage https://www.dedaluspress.com Jane O’Flynn (left) with Maeve Gebruers, and the Gaeltacht as part of its /product/as-if-by-magic-se- Archivist and PR Officer, ITMA, working on national digitisation investment Liam O’Flynn;’s Collection, in ITMA, October lected-poems/ 2018. Photo: ITMA programme.

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connection with Ireland has two Balfe’s sides – as always when one looks at a composer from a national anniversary: No angle: There is what Balfe made of it in his own lifetime and what role for Irish Ireland made of it, then and now. Let’s look at both. sentiment? Contrary to John Field and other musical emigrants from Ireland By Axel Klein who left and never returned,

Balfe did actually return occa- Michael William Balfe’s 150th sionally to conduct his works or anniversary of death is an op- to see friends, most notably portunity to re-examine the Richard Michael Levey, the musi- composer’s connection with his cal director of the Theatre Royal Irish home. The story reveals an in Hawkins Street, . Levey ambivalent picture. also put on works of Balfe in the

composer’s absence, such as There is a Balfe Street in Dublin when he gave the Irish premiere city, a Balfe Road and Avenue in of The Maid of Artois in 1840. Walkinstown, and a Balfe bust in Balfe worked with other Irish the National Concert Hall, but lit- composers, too, for instance, tle else reminds today of one of when he sang the title role in the Ireland’s best-known musical ex- premiere of Samuel Lover’s Il ports, the composer Michael Paddy Whack in Italia in ’s William Balfe (1808–1870). A English Opera House in April, Dublin-born child prodigy, he re- 1841 under Lover’s direction. Michael William Balfe Image: Axel Klein ceived a musical education in Collection This could have given him the Ireland from prominent teachers idea of writing an opera with an at the time such as the com- Irish plot of his own, but he never poser William Rooke and the vio- Given that Balfe lived through did. In fact, not a single one of linist James Barton and gained one of the most decisive periods Balfe’s 29 operas is on an Irish precious experience in the or- in Irish history, including the subject matter or contains any chestra of the Crow Street The- Famine and the rise of the Young musical allusion to the land of atre. But following the early Ireland movement etc., it is strik- his birth. Less than a handful of death of his father in 1823, the ing how little of this touched Irish ballads is all we have in this teenager left for London, and the Balfe. On one occasion in Febru- area, including the rather fa- rest is a comparatively well- ary 1847, he conducted a benefit mous Killarney as well as known story of an Irish musical performance of Verdi’s Nabucco Kathleen Machree and Norah, emigrant’s remarkable career in “For the relief of the distressed Darling. As for a national style, (mainly) England, Italy and Irish because of Famine,” which an English critic described France. His career as an operatic was attended by Queen Victoria Balfe’s operatic music as being composer, tenor and conductor and collected some 2,000 of “careless and unscrupulous is well-documented in two nine- pounds. Basil Walsh, his biogra- triviality, equalling that of the teenth-century biographies and pher, wrote “one must come to most loudly reproached foreign two modern studies (by William the conclusion that most of his tune-spinner, but unaccompa- Tyldesley, 2003, and Basil Walsh, decisions were economically nied by the nationality – or call it 2008). And thankfully, attentive driven and that sentiment didn’t style – which redeems the musicians and audiences nowa- play a role”. Donizettis and Adams from utter days know that there is more to insipidity. Mr. Balfe’s music is Balfe than just The Bohemian After Balfe’s death, his memory neither wholly Italian, German, Girl (1843), his ‘greatest hit’. was reduced to The Bohemian French, nor Irish.” (Athenaeum, 150 years after his lonesome Girl and maybe two or three 23 November 1844). It may not be death of bronchitis at Rowney other operas, phasing out almost a completely fair comment, but it Abbey, Hertfordshire, a look at completely after the 1930s. It was does express a low level of inter- his Irish heritage may not be out Irish musicians who resurrected est in the . of place, since it is an aspect not Balfe on account of his reputa- covered all too frequently. Balfe’s tion and the fact that many of his

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the attitude of Irish musicians commercial venues, producers and the musical public to Balfe and promoters of live perfor- seems ambiguous. For instance, mances and provide employment his 1829 symphony has never got to workers in the creative indus- an airing in Ireland (nor any- tries. The scheme will help to where else) although it is one of ‘de-risk’ the costs of preparing the earliest symphonies by an for new productions which may Irish composer. There is also lit- subsequently have to be post- tle curiosity to try his non-oper- poned, curtailed or cancelled due to restrictions to safeguard pub- atic works such as the songs and lic health. The main objective of cantatas. Beyond Una Hunt’s cir- the scheme is to provide employ- cle, the chamber works are un- ment opportunities in the tick- known. Balfe’s music still offers eted performance sector and a lot to (re-)discover. Irish con- allow commercial organisers of Balfe in France cert programming as well as live performances to commence Irish musicians would benefit preparations immediately and works are actually very good. In from exploring what Balfe has to productions to go ahead in the 1951, The Rose of Castile opened offer. near future while also complying the first Festival, a with public health protection measures. unique event, as the subsequent Axel Klein is a Frankfurt- history of Wexford showed. But based musicologist spe- the first modern recording of The cialising in the history of A further support package, the Irish art music; see ‘Music Stimulus Package’, in- Bohemian Girl was done in Ire- www.axelklein.de. land with the National Symphony volves three funding schemes designed to help sustain the pop- Orchestra and the RTÉ Philhar- Axel Klein ular and commercial music sec- monic Choir (an Argo CD, 1991), tor across all music genres. and RTÉ resurrected Falstaff Under this package, a fund of €1 with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra million is being allocated to stim- and an Irish cast (RTÉ lyric fm Minister Martin ulate areas of work which artists CD, 2008). The indefatigable Una would usually fund with income Hunt has taken on Balfe’s only announces €6 from own sources including live operetta, The Sleeping Princess, event fees. for a 2008 National Library of Ire- land archive recording with million live per- Applications can be made Opera Theatre Company and has immediately. taken it to the 2019 Blackwater formance and Opera Festival and elsewhere. Application Form and Guidelines She also used Balfe’s arrange- music industry for “Live Performance Support ments of Moore’s Irish Melodies Scheme” may be accessed here. support packages for the 2008 Thomas Moore Fes- tival recordings and has insti- Application Form and Guidelines

gated performances of Balfe’s for “Music Stimulus Package” The Minister for Culture, Arts, may be accessed here. piano trio and cello sonata. Much Media, Tourism, Sport and the of this resulted from the 200th Gaeltacht, Catherine Martin, re- anniversary of Balfe’s birth in cently launched a number of 2008, but there is little sign of a new music and performance similar activity in 2020, even support schemes to aid employ- though the subject is far from ex- ment in the creative industries hausted. given the unprecedented nature of the challenge facing the Other recent commercial record- music and live performance ings of Balfe’s vocal music were sectors owing to Covid-19 re- done by English musicians, often strictions. resulting from the commitment of Australian conductor and pi- An allocation of €5 million is anist Richard Bonynge – and fair being made available under the enough, why not. Balfe is part of ‘Live Performance Support ’s cultural heritage. Yet, Scheme’ which aims to assist 1890 747 881

6 Sound Post | AUTUMN 2020 Music for the masses: John Spratt’s Brass Band and the brass band movement in 19th century Ireland: some Studies from life in Ireland: Unidentified men shielding musical instruments from the rain, explorations 31st March, 1888. Image: courtesy Irish Traditional Music Archive charities, to ecumenical co-oper- by at least twenty years. By Fergus A. D’Arcy ation with Anglicans and Dis- One of the striking features of senters, to O’Connellite liberal Spratt’s personality was reflected On 2nd June 1845, Donnybrook politics and, above all, to the in his teetotal organisation and played host to one of the largest campaign for temperance and activities, namely its gaiety. He assemblies it had ever witnessed. teetotalism. He was the first promoted outings and was no It was one with a difference Catholic priest to establish a killjoy in so doing. In promoting since this great gathering was temperance society and teetotal the cause, he organised indoor not one of the legendary Fairs of movement in the City of Dublin, a banquets, outdoor carnivals and Donnybrook, once notorious for decade before Fr Mathew fa- tea parties with dancing. Indeed, drinking and debauchery, gam- mously began his teetotal cam- some of his stuffier followers ob- bling and rioting. Instead, this paign. Spratt brought a passion jected to his allowing dances at congregation represented the and a flair to the cause, much his teetotal parties. At all such exact antithesis of a great as- more colourfully than did its festivities, his ITAA brass band sembly of teetotallers and more sober founding fathers of was an essential presence, as prospective teetotallers. Enter- the Dissenter persuasion. they were on that historic 2nd of taining this multitude were at June 1845 when they took over least two brass bands, that of In August 1839 a group of Dublin Donnybrook Fair Green for the the Irish Teetotal Abstinence working men, led by one Michael soberest yet merriest of meet- Association (the ITAA) and that Groome, founded the Irish Total ings. By the end of the 1840s the of its junior partner, the St Abstinence Association and soon great teetotal processions and Joseph’s Juvenile Association. located themselves at the French festivities had largely passed This ITAA brass band was to Street-Cuffe Lane former their peak but John maintained have a long and colourful life, Carmelite chapel. Their efforts some of these great outdoor though most of that life is lost to were warmly supported by Spratt us today. who, within three months, became their patron, president and The effective leader and public supreme promoter. He led the persona of these bands was the ITAA out on its first St Patrick’s remarkable Carmelite friar, John Day parade in Dublin on 17 March Francis Spratt (1796-1871). A 1840 and continued to promote Dubliner through and through,1 and lead them for the next thirty by 1845 Spratt was already fa- years and more. Within two years mous as the builder of the of its foundation and with growing Whitefriar Street Church of Our strength in members, the ITAA Lady of Mount Carmel, formally had acquired its own teetotal brass opened in 1827. He became band, one which would outlast equally famous for his commit- John himself. When he died in John Spratt, circa 1860’s ment to cross-denominational May 1871 the band survived him

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Athlone Brass Band, circa 1875-1880. Photo: courtesy: Irish Traditional Music Archive

gatherings into the 1850s. notably at Christmas time.3 At of the 1860s it received the fol- One such was a ‘Great Teetotal the same time, the band was to lowing tribute from a newspaper Demonstration on Harold’s Cross parade and play at various public editor: Green’ in July 1853 where, apart events such as the opening of a from his ITAA band, several other new church in Enniskerry, The Cuffe Lane brass band is bands participated, including one County Wicklow, in April 1858 one of the very best at present in mentioned as the ‘Weavers’ where it played alongside the the City and will compare fav- Band’, despite the fact there band of the Kingstown CYMS, or ourably with any of the military were few enough weavers left in at the laying of the foundation bands, or even with the crack that trade in Dublin following the stone of the Catholic University in band of the Constabulary. Its economic disaster that befell the July 1862.4 Indeed, in the middle leader, Mr Tighe, deserves Dublin textile trades since the of the 1860s Dublin City was to great credit for the efficiency 1820s.2 He also continued, every host a Brass Bands competition, which this band has reached week for forty years, the Sunday in association with the concur- under his training and guidance.6 evening pledge-taking cere- rent International Exhibition and monies in Cuffe Lane and the for which some sixteen separate Not all of the ITAA Band’s public proceedings always commenced bands were registered. Interest- appearances were festive. During and terminated with the playing ingly, at least twelve of these the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 of the band. Later, when he were bands from Great Britain: Spratt was greatly to the fore in opened an extensive new school they were rendered so violently organising relief for French peo- for accommodating up to 800 sick in the crossing from England ple in distress as a result of that girls, near Whitefriar Street, in that none could show up for the war and, indeed, in organising July 1851, with the Countess of first day so that only four local expressions of support and sym- Clarendon, wife of the Lord Lieu- bands competed then: Spratt’s pathy for France. tenant, paying an official visit, the ITAA Band, conducted by John music of the ITAA band was an Tighe, the St Cecilia Band also On one occasion, in July 1870, his essential component. Likewise, conducted by him, the St Peter’s Band was involved in a great he employed the band, dressed Band and the Band of the Benev- demonstration in Sandymount in uniform, for all the celebratory olent Society of Housepainters.5 and on Sandymount Strand occasions associated with treats It does not emerge from contem- where some twenty and more for the children of his schools porary reports whether or not the brass bands met to play to a and his St Peter’s Orphanage, band won a prize but at the end huge crowd of some 20,000 pro-

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French sympathisers. These huge amnesty demonstration Dublin City and second only in its bands basically resolved into four was arranged for Drogheda on time to that of his political hero, categories: 1) bands associated 22nd August 1869, which Spratt Daniel O’Connell. At the head of with Temperance and other insti- did not attend, the procession of the procession of 30,000, and im- tutions of Christian commitment, some 20 to 30,000 was led by his mediately behind the hearse came such as parish and CYMS bands; ITAA band.8 Even more strikingly, his beloved ITAA brass band, led 2) local district bands from at a time when the animosity be- by its bandmaster, John Tighe. Blackrock, Booterstown, Bray, tween the friar and the Fenians The fate of that movement, and Powerscourt and Finglas, to had become ever more public indeed of the ITAA, hung in the inner city bands like Dolphin’s and poisonous, an even more im- balance in the wake of the friar’s Barn, Goldenbridge and Mount mense amnesty demonstration death. In time, to use a contem- Brown; 3) overtly political bands was held that October at Phibs- porary expression, the ITAA such as Wolfe Tone’s, George borough, involving an estimated ‘morphed’ within ten years into Henry Moore’s, Brian Boraimhe, 200,000: Spratt was again not something more of a social club Boys of Erin and Star of Erin; and present but his band took a and benefit society than exclu- 4) trade bands such as the Skin- prominent role in marshalling sively a temperance or teetotal ners’, the Stonecutters’, the the multitudes to their allotted pressure group, and it disap- Chimney Cleaners’ and the Bak- places.9 Nevertheless, so far as peared from public view by the ers’. All played Irish nationalist this writer knows, no evidence later 1870s. airs and the Marseillaise.7 has yet emerged of tension be- tween the band members and Spratt’s brass band played on, Politics and music could hardly the Carmelite friar. Far from it: however, way beyond that time, be separated: at the end of the on New Year’s Day 1871 when up as John Tighe continued to lead 1860s Spratt and his teetotal to 1,600 turned up at Cuffe Lane it for many more years. Its 32 supporter, the bricklayer-poet to forswear the drink and take members included two sons of John McCorry, became instiga- the pledge, his ITAA band played his, William and Michael. On the tors of the Amnesty Committee the festive airs. Furthermore, occasion of the O’Connell cente- for the release of Fenian prison- down to the beginning of the nary celebrations in August 1875, ers. This movement was soon 1870s, his beloved band accom- and whose memory John Spratt taken over by more extreme na- panied him on the annual summer had done so much to preserve tionalists, notably by the Fenian outings of his flock to Wicklow and honour, ‘Dr Spratt’s Band, John Nolan, and later Isaac Butt and Wexford on excursion trains. attired in regimental suits’,10 was of the Home Rule movement. Al- prominent. However, it may be though Spratt and the Fenians When Spratt passed away on 21 significant that it did not lead any had been at loggerheads, it is in- May 1871 his funeral proved to be temperance society of which sev- teresting to note that when a one of the largest ever seen in eral took part.

Dundalk Labourers’ Society contingent followed by the Teetotallers’ Band at a St. Patrick’s Day parade, the Crescent, Dundalk, County Louth, circa 1900. This photograph was originally published in Victor Whitmarsh, Memories of Dundalk (Victor Whitmarsh, Dundalk, 1977).

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stage. This writer knows of no estimate of the number of brass bands and fife and drum bands there may have been in Ireland at the start of the 1880s, or at any time before that, but the sheer number and diversity of those that took part in the O’Connell Monument unveiling in August 1882 testify to the proliferation that had occurred by then: there were bands of many trades unions, such as the Gloucester Street Carpenters with their own 36-man brass band; so too, the Stonecutters, the Housepainters, the Operative Horseshoers, the Bakers all had their own bands while others were led by inde- pendent entities such as the Millers led by the Lord Edward Athlone Brass and Reed Band, 1910. Photo: courtesy Irish Traditional Music Archive. Fitzgerald Band, the Brass- founders with the “St John’s In- dependent Band”, the The question arises, therefore, references were still to be found Hairdressers with the “St Kevin’s, did this development represent for what was literally described Protestant-row Band” the Sta- an element of secularising or as “Dr Spratt’s Band” under the tionary Engine Drivers with the distancing from Fr Spratt’s direction of Mr Tighe.13 However, “St Mary’s Cross-lane Band” and memory and association with his by July 1878 it was announced the 150-strong Dublin Ships’ temperance movement? It could that Dr Spratt’s Band now had a Carpenters led by the Donny- have been the case: with the few vacancies, and thereafter it brook Fife & Drum Band. Like- centenary celebrations con- seems to have disappeared for- wise, the Congregated Trades of cluded, the band’s formal associ- ever as to mentions in the press. Limerick were led by the Limer- ation with the name of John In the meantime, the City of ick Foresters’ Band while the Spratt appears to have been ter- Dublin Brass Band continued to Cork Trades were headed by minated. In October 1875, only secure significant public men- their local Barrack Street Band.15 two months after this historic tions. Equally, different parishes and event, the ITAA Band was re- localities featured with their own named ‘The City of Dublin Brass Certainly this point is driven bands, such as the St Catherine’s Band’. This occurred at a cere- home by reference to the occa- Fife & Drum Band, the John’s mony in what was once ‘Dr sion of the unveiling of the O’- Lane Band, the Chapelizod Brass Spratt’s Hall’ and was now re- Connell Monument in Dublin’s Band and the Celbridge Fife & named ‘The Foresters’ Hall’.11 O’Connell Street, on 15th August Drum Band. So too did various Whether this decisive change led 1882: the City of Dublin Brass political groups of the time, such to a schism is not directly stated, Band was to the fore, but it led as the Kells Labour League Fife but there is a hint of it: in the the 300-strong contingent of & Drum Band, the Volunteers same month of October 1875: Dublin Letterpress Printers, and Band of Drogheda, and the John when the newly-named City of not any temperance or teetotal Dillon Band of Francis Street’s Dublin Brass Band played for the society even though temperance Prisoners’ Aid Society. Some Ancient Order of Foresters at and teetotal societies in consid- dated from a long time before their annual ball, a notice in the erable numbers took part.14 and were proud of their heritage, press also announced that “we such as the St Columbkille’s [sic] are requested to state that the It might here be noted in passing Band of Swords who proudly bore late Irish Teetotal Abstinence So- that the parades and celebra- the drum used on 15 August ciety and its band (Dr Spratt’s) tions of August 1882 shone a 1843 when O’Connell held his [sic] continue to hold their meet- bright light on just how extensive great Repeal monster meeting ings in ‘Dr Spratt’s Hall’”.12 Over the musical band phenomenon on the Hill of Tara. the period 1876 to 1878 press had become nationally at that

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As for the City of Dublin Brass into the sand. St Joseph’s (Berkeley Street) and Band, admittedly it did from time Holy Family (Aughrim Street).21 to time support various teetotal Likewise, the whole history of the Indeed, in 1970, Timothy Dawson, societies in their outings through huge brass band and the fife and writing in the Dublin Historical the 1870s and into the 1880s16 drum band phenomenon in Ire- Record, was able to list some 39 but never on any major historic land from the nineteenth century Dublin bands from around the public events. At some point after still awaits its historian. A corre- year 1900, 19 of them being its change of name to City of spondent to the Evening Herald brass and reed, and 20 being fife Dublin Brass Band, it seems to in November 1926 inquired what and drum. Some 6 of these 19 have become associated with or happened to Dublin’s many were trade union bands, includ- an adjunct of the City of Dublin bands: he listed eleven, ten of ing two Bakers’ unions’ bands.22 Workingmen’s Club, Wellington them by name.20 But, more generally, insofar as Quay.17 By the 1890s it had well any work has been done on the and truly become a secularised This was hardly a definitive list history of civilian bands, apart social entity. As such, it was fea- and may not have sought to be. from Orange bands in the North, tured as the first band to play in The list omitted the Artane Boys it has been done for outside of the Phoenix Park’s summer sea- Band, the DMP Band, the St Dublin: most notably by Fintan son for 1894.18 The last mention James’s Brass & Reed Band Lane and by John Borgonovo for this writer has found of its con- which was still going strong and Cork, 23 John Mernin for Water- tinued existence was its contri- claimed to have been founded in ford,24 John Byrne for Carlow,25 bution to the summer music the year 1800. It also omitted any and John McGrath for Limerick,26 programme of the same Phoenix mention of various trade union and with a one-page general Park on 1 July 1900.19 How long bands, including the ITGWU and essay by John Cunningham in thereafter it continued to exist is the WUI, and it did not mention the Encyclopaedia of Music in something that invites further many Dublin county local bands Ireland.27 However, for Ireland as exploration. It appears that the such as the Carriglea Brass & a whole, at present, what we bands of the Wellington Quay Reed, the Balbriggan Brass & have is a lost history and the un- Working Men’s Club and that of Reed, the Blanchardstown Brass recovered history of brass bands the York Street Workmen’s Club Band or the Rotunda String & is not only a lost chapter in the amalgamated in 1904 to form the Brass Band, to mention just a history of music, but also of com- band known as “Ireland’s Own” few. Neither did it mention any of munity and community-making and here, for the present, the the local parish bands such as St in Ireland. stream of history seems to run Agatha’s (North William Street),

St. James’ Band, Dublin, at the funeral of Jeremiah O’ Rossa, Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin, 1st August 1915. Photo: Glasnevin Cemetery

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ITGWU Brass and Reed Band, with James Larkin, General Secretary (behind large drum), Croke Park, 1923. Photo: Irish Labour History Society Archive

1 Born in Cork Street, lived almost all of Society, 24, 1999, pp.17-32. City of Waterford Brass, St Patrick’s his life in Dublin and died in Whitefriar Brass Band, Thomas Francis Meagher Street: see F.A. D’Arcy, Raising Dublin, 16 For example, see Freeman’s Journal, 6 Brass and Reed Band, pp. 218, Waterford Raising Ireland, A Friar’s Campaigns: Fa- June 1876, accompanying the Dublin 2018. ther John Spratt, O.Carm.(1796-1871), Total Abstinence League on its summer Dublin 2018. excursion to Carton. 25 J. Byrne, ‘Hacketstown Brass Band, 1875 – circa 1895’, in Carloviana, No 60, Dec 2 Freeman’s Journal, 2 Aug 1853. 17 Evening Herald, 2 Nov 1926, article by 2011, pp.69-71. Christopher McCann, ‘Dublin’s Brass 3 For example, see Evening Freeman, 15 Bands’. 26 J. McGrath, ‘Music and politics: Marching Jan 1858. Bands in late nineteenth-century 18 Freeman’s Journal, 2 May 1894. Limerick’, in North Munster Antiquarian 4 Dublin Evening Post, 8 Apr 1858, Free- Journal, vol.6, 2006, pp.97-106. man’s Journal, 21, 24 July 1862. 19 Dublin Daily Nation, 30 June 1900. 27 J. Cunningham, ‘Brass and reed bands’, 5 Dublin Evening Mail, 12 Oct 1865, Free- 20 Evening Herald, 2 Nov 1926: those listed in H. White & B.Boydell, eds., The Ency- man’s Journal, 13 Oct 1865 Saunders’s were The City of Dublin Brass Band, the clopaedia of Music in Ireland, 2 vols., Newsletter, 13 Oct 1865. Postmen’s Band, the Shamrock of Erin Dublin 2013, vol.1, p.125. Brass Band (Gardiner Street), St Kevin’s 6 Freeman’s Journal, 19 Apr 1869. (Harrington Street), St Laurence O’Toole (Seville Place), St Peter’s (Phibsboro’), St 7 Dublin Evening Post, 25 July 1870. Patrick’s (Ringsend), the Workmen’s Club (42 York Street), St. Andrew’s (West- Professor Fergus A. D’Arcy, 8 Evening Freeman, 23 Aug 1869. land Row), Fr Mathew (Pembroke)., and M.A., Ph.D. F.R. Hist.S., Pro- ‘a new band [unnamed] started in fessor Emeritus University 9 Irish Times, 11 Oct 1869. Stephen’s Green’. College Dublin, has lectured in modern history since Professor Fergus A. 10 21 1970, was Dean of Faculty of Evening Freeman, 7 Aug 1875. Catholic Standard, 19 Oct 1934. D’Arcy Arts through 1992 to 2004, 11 Freeman’s Journal, 10 Oct 1875. The re- 22 T. Dawson, ‘The City Music and City and has published extensively in the areas of named band continued to support vari- Bands’, Dublin Historical Record, vol. British and Irish political, religious and social ous teetotal societies and outings. XXV, Dec 1971-Sept 1972, pp.102-116. history. His publications include: Terenure College, 12 Freeman’s Journal, 5 & 19 Oct 1875. 23 F. Lane, ‘Music and violence in Working 1860-2010 (Dublin, 2010); Class Cork: the ‘Band Nuisance, 1879- Horses, Lords and Racing Men: The Turf Club, 13 Freeman’s Journal, 6 June, 15 Aug 1876, 82’, in Saothar, Journal of the Irish 1790-1990 (Kildare, 1991); the award-winning 8 Apr 1878. Labour History Society, 24, 1999, pp.17- Remembering the War Dead: British Common- 32; J. Borgonovo, ‘Politics as leisure: wealth and International War Graves in Ire- 14 Freeman’s Journal, 16 Aug 1882. Brass Bands in Cork, 1845-1918’, in L. land since 1914 (Dublin, 2007); and Raising Lane & W. Murphy, eds., Leisure and the Dublin, Raising Ireland: A Friar’s Campaigns 15 On the latter, see Fintan Lane, ‘Music Irish in the nineteenth century, Liverpool (Dublin, 2018). and violence in Working Class Cork: the 2015, pp.23-40. Professor D’Arcy is the progenitor and found- ‘Band Nuisance, 1879-82’, in Saothar, ing Vice-President of the Irish Labour History Journal of the Irish Labour History 24 J. Mernin, Three names – one history: Society.

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Annual Musical Festival consisting course or friendly rivalry’. The Feis Ceoil of Prize Competitions and Concerts, and (d) collecting and preserving Warming to his task, Brett re- goes north – a by publication the old airs of Ire- minded his audience that, thanks land, the Feis Ceoil was intending to Bunting and the 1792 harpers’ tale of two ‘to include the whole of Ireland in meeting, ‘Belfast had an histori- its field of activity, the place of the cal right to take a leading part in cities Annual Musical Festival being any revival of music in Ireland’. changed from year to year’. There was even a possibility of a

divine fire kindling some young By David Byers Things had already moved quickly. spirit. ‘Some Irish Brahms might A Feis Ceoil deputation, including be among them waiting only for Charles Dickens had been dead Edith Oldham, came to a well-at- inspiration. Whether or no, the some 25 years when County Ar- tended meeting in Belfast’s friendly rivalry of their two great magh-born Dr Annie Patterson Clarence Place Hall on 13 July with cities – especially if there be a first mooted the idea of a Feis an invitation that the next festival perfectly impartial tribunal to de- Ceoil. Might this be the best of be held in Belfast in April 1898. In cide between them – must result times as a new century ap- the chair was Charles Brett, a in the advancement of musical proached? Wisdom, belief, light founding member and principal culture, … the venture was worthy and hope – perhaps we might all administrator of the Belfast Phil- of encouragement.’ be going direct to Heaven. harmonic Society. He pointed out that ‘the two great cities had only Continued on page 14 Or not. A couple of days after the too few opportunities of inter- first Feis Ceoil in Dublin in May 1897, Patterson, the first woman to gain a Doctorate of Music in these islands, wrote to the editor of the Freeman’s Journal. She damned the Feis with faint praise. It was ‘notable and auspicious’, but the organisers lacked sympa- thy with the original intentions and so had been prejudicial to Irish music and musicians. She insisted the composition adjudicator wasn’t in touch with Irish folk song. Signor Esposito’s prize-winning cantata, Deirdre, was ‘a work of distin- guished merit and most dramati- cally scored. It would, however, more aptly have graced the oper- atic stage than the concert plat- form of the first “Feis Ceoil”.’

Undeterred, the Feis’s honorary secretaries, Edith Oldham and Joseph Seymour, wrote to the press in August informing every- one that ‘the Feis Ceoil is now a permanent institution’. A consti- tution had been adopted at a pub- lic meeting in Dublin’s Mansion House on 29th June, 1897.

Alongside its declared objectives of (a) promoting the study and cultivation of Irish Music, (b) pro- moting the general cultivation of music in Ireland, (c) holding an Irish News and Belfast Morning Post, 23rd February 1898.

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One was on the matter of judges, Clair Boyd of the Belfast Gaelic The Feis Ceoil ‘who were mostly Irishmen. Far be League and Koeller’s proposal was it from me to cast any reflection passed unanimously. Later, Edward goes north – a upon an Irishman’s honour [he Martyn’s prize money was indeed was German-born after all!]; but it refused by the Feis. tale of two is a mistake to place an Irishman in a position to judge an Irishman, When the Dublin committee had or a Dublin man to judge between its first official meeting in October cities a Dublin man and a Belfast man’. 1897, two Belfast representatives Then there was £100 prize from attended. Koeller outlined the ben- Continued from page 13 Edward Martyn (co-founder of the efits of holding the Feis in Belfast: Feis with Annie Patterson) to be it was an Irish institution; it was The Feis Ceoil’s honorary registrar, competed for by Roman Catholic not called a Dublin festival. Cries Edmund E. Fournier d’Albe, cannily Church choirs: the executive com- of ‘hear, hear’. John Malcolm, one played that same rivalry card, re- mittee ought to consider seriously of the Belfast honorary secre- minding his audience that ‘the whether they should accept such a taries, noted that his committee magnificent performance of the gift. ‘Music is, I believe, the only numbered 126 including patrons. Belfast Madrigal Society and the thing that has actually united all From those, an executive commit- other Belfast prize-winners would Irishmen. If matters of religion or tee of 25 had been elected. Mem- not soon be forgotten. (Applause.) politics are introduced into the Feis bers’ subscriptions stood at £55, Belfast sent up only 6 per cent of Ceoil it will sound the death-knell donations at £133 and they ex- the entries, but it carried off 20 per of all future competitions.’ That pected to raise twice the £500 tar- cent of the prize money. (Hear, view was supported by Dr John St. get. As a contingency, a sum of hear.)’

Next, Fournier d’Albe played the commercial card. Noting that a delegation from the Welsh Eisteddfod had been more inter- ested in the competitions than the concerts, he explained that ‘in Wales the chief popular and finan- cial support was given to the pub- lic competitions, and therein lies a valuable hint to future organisers of the Feis Ceoil. A hint which I ex- pect will not be lost upon Belfast!’

Then he went in for the kill: ‘the executive committee would under- take to hold the festival in Belfast next year if £500 were secured in members’ subscriptions or prize donations by October 1st from the province of Ulster. The executive committee would provide the re- mainder of the funds and carry out the festival in consultation with the local committee. If £500 were not secured the question would be re- ferred to a general meeting.’

Dr Francis Koeller, conductor of the Philharmonic and the Belfast Madrigal Society, was the Feis Ceoil’s local representative. In for- mally proposing that the meeting should accept the invitation, he re- ferred to certain things that some people in the North objected to. Image: courtesy Irish Traditional Music Archive

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Wagnerian cantata, Reullura, set- ting a poem by Thomas Campbell, told of Iona, St Columba, ravaging Danes and a safe return to Ireland. The audience was reportedly very enthusiastic, though it is debatable whether it was ‘a thin house’ (Freeman’s Journal) or ‘largely at- tended’ (Belfast News-Letter). Whichever, and however good the cantata was, its lack of any rela- tionship to traditional Irish music would not have pleased Annie Pat- terson.

Three weeks later, Fournier d’Albe reminded the Feis committee that the first Feis in Dublin had cost £1,480 with revenue of £1,077. The deficit of £403 was reduced to £202 through a call (10s in the pound) on the guarantee fund. For the re- cent Belfast Feis, liabilities were £1,380, revenue was £1,240, leaving a deficit of £140. Belfast had suc- cessfully involved other towns in the North and managed to gain 800 members. Dublin had to do likewise. They had only 500 guinea sub- scriptions. Of their 470 permanent members, two thirds were in Ulster.

It was decided to hold the 1899 Feis in Dublin as Cork was not yet able to provide the necessary guarantee funds. Londonderry felt Image: courtesy Irish Traditional Music Archive that it should follow Cork but wouldn’t be able to summon up £500 had been guaranteed by Dr Koeller’s Belfast Philharmonic So- enough enthusiasm for the under- Koeller, Charles Brett and John ciety had already been invited to taking without the promise of a Malcolm. take part as the chorus for the Feis firm commitment. concerts. The meeting agreed that Belfast Alas, those were pipe dreams for would be the venue for the 1898 That first Belfast Feis Ceoil was both Cork and Derry. The Feis re- Feis Ceoil and Belfast’s Lord Mayor- held over six days in the first week turned to Belfast for the second Elect would be invited to be the As- of May and offered four evening and last time in 1900. Thereafter sociation’s president for that year. concerts culminating in the Friday Dublin would remain the spiritual evening Prizewinners’ Concert – home of the Feis Ceoil. Four months later, February 1898, the best attended of the week. Dr the Central Executive Committee Koeller’s Belfast Madrigal Choir © David Byers met in Dublin. It was time to open won the £50 prize for unaccompa- the envelope revealing the winner nied singing and, for himself, ‘an David Byers is a com- of the best cantata on an Irish sub- exquisite little gold harp’, a minia- poser, musicologist, ject. The adjudicator had been Sir ture replica of Trinity’s Brian Boru writer and broadcaster. Walter Parratt, Master of the harp. Interestingly, and surely After twenty-five years Queen’s Music (what must Annie Annie Patterson must have ap- at the BBC where he was Chief Producer, Music Patterson have thought!). His cho- proved, Saturday morning was David Byers and Arts, he took early sen winner using the pseudonym given over to Irish airs, recorded by Photo:John Harrison retirement in 2002. He ‘No Conquest without Struggle’ the phonograph. was then appointed Chief Executive of turned out to be none other than the Ulster Orchestra, retiring in Francis Koeller. How fortunate that The previous night, Koeller’s September 2010.

15 Sound Post | AUTUMN 2020

the late ‘60s /early ‘70s through among the vividly recalled mo- his lengthy solo career recording ments on this ramble through BOOK songs and performing in pubs life. REVIEW and clubs across Ireland and abroad. He recounts with uncanny, but By Frank Connolly questionable, detail, (remember- Along the road, he engaged in a ing the exact words of conversa- constant struggle to write touch- tions from decades ago, in some ing and meaningful lyrics to cases) his engagements with a match his melodic skills. The host of mainly Irish performers, Voyage is a detailed and honest including Christy, Jimmy Mac- account of his life as a son, a Carthy, Mary Coughlan and other lover, a father and an artist and well known artists, some of whom his encounters with the various gratefully recorded his songs and experiences and eclectics that in- some for whom he had less kind formed his undoubted skills as a words to say. His encounters with . the great and not so good at an Olympia gig for the then termi- Duhan constantly returns to a nally ill, Philip Chevron in more tragedy that overshadows his life recent years make for interesting and work in this tale of a wander- reading. ing artist - his mother’s depres- sion, its effect on his father and He also recalls his own brush The Voyage siblings and the dark cloud which with controversy over his song, hovers at his shoulder and so ‘Could have been me’, which often imbues his words. many repeal activists decried as By Johnny Duhan an anti-abortion tract during the While he has often been de- successful campaign to Repeal (Bell Creations, 2018) scribed and too often disregarded the Eight Amendment in 2018. as a sombre lyricist, Duhan casts His tone is a mix of bitter regret Price: €25 (hardback), including a cold eye on the many charac- as he brings this second volume postage) ters that frequent the pages of of his memoir to a downbeat

‘The Voyage’ but his writing is full close. Available at johnnyduhan.com of humour lined with a healthy self-deprecation. ‘The Voyage’ captures a troubled man who speaks to the world Singer songwriter, Johnny He honestly admits to waging a through his songs, many of which Duhan, has been plying his trade war against his own ego for much are contextualised along with since the mid-60’s, making his of his life only to recognise the their lyrics in this book. early breakthrough as lead vo- futility of the false glamour and calist with the Limerick based the greed that goes with the Duhan is admired for his original R&B group, Granny’s Intentions. music business. and unique words and melodies, In later years, his compositions including in the iconic ‘Just include ‘The Voyage’ which has There is no doubt that many of Another Town’, and his distinctive become a national wedding an- his songs are rooted in a not un- voice which are best enjoyed from them and ‘El Salvador’, both of typical Irish family life in the 1950’s listening to his recorded collec- which were made hugely popu- where mental illness and alcohol tions. lar by . Songs are never too far from home. His composed by Duhan have been songs are influenced by the depth covered by a host of other musi- of his own knowledge and experi- cians who recognise and respect ence from travelling, reading and the depth of emotion he brings observation of the immediate to his craft. around him. A stabbing in a New York street, a homeless man in In the second part of his autobi- Galway, the shades of the Burren, ography, also titled ‘The Voyage’, a lady on crutches, his prayerful Duhan tracks his life from his meditation, his belief in the tran- dogged but doomed effort to land scendent and frequent visits to a record contract in London in the church for mental refuge are Johnny Duhan

16 Sound Post | AUTUMN 2020

as they speak to the many writ- song written about a wayward CD ers and musicians out there try- teenage daughter; titles like: ing to forge relationships: In Pink And Gold; REVIEW the opening line to a song called

‘Lyrics are not poems. For proof, Go: ‘My killer came in crinolines’; By Roger Doyle try the ‘out-loud’ test. the opening lines to Diamond Smiles: ‘Traffic’s wild tonight There are lines in rock that are Diamond Smiles her cocktail as incandescent as anything smile’; and dark dystopian ones written by the poetic greats. But like: ‘Europe looked ugly the very they are just that, a few lines. A last time I saw her Cold and so complete song may leave you as empty She sucks on her gums moved as the greatest poem. It is and looks tired She picks up her not a lesser form. Leonard skirts Still coy but no longer Cohen is an okay poet but a great worth knowing.’ This is a Bob lyricist. Bob Dylan’s earlier songs Geldof you haven’t known before. are awful poetry but superb lyrics with poetic sounding im- There are also photos of agery. Pop doesn’t have to make sketches of hurriedly written- sense it just has to feel sense. down words for songs, little es- Lyrics don’t have to be about says on and anything. Coherence is not re- Dublin in the seventies, Band Aid, quired.’ one on the music business called Tales of Boomtown Wind Chill Factor (Minus Zero) Glory And elsewhere: ‘Poets have the about ‘that Titanic struggle to get sound of the words and the born, get known, recognised,

rhythm of the lines and that is achieve escape velocity and GO’ - By the ‘music’ of a poem. Everything and one called Love, Loss And (Faber Music, London, 2020) the poet means to say must be Memory about a line he particu- contained in the entirety of his larly likes in a song called A Rose Price £20 (hardback) words. But in rock, pop, opera or At Night: ‘You don’t look back/ any other music where instru- Memories - they’re like a rose Available in all good book shops mentation is present, lyrics are that blooms at night’); and some- reductionist. There is no need times a page or two describing necessarily for them to be over how the words of a song came In this book, Bob Geldof has elaborate or grand. They can be, about (Room 19, , Dave, chosen favourite songs with his but in essence the psychology of Lookin’ After No. 1, Banana Re- favourite words in a 360-page a song, its meaning and sense public). book, with the titles in alpha- are conveyed by the melody and betical order and the names of the underlying sub-structure of There’s a lot in here and a lot the albums they were from at rhythm, beat, choice of instru- more I haven’t mentioned, and the bottom of the page. mentation, note selection, ‘feel’, it’s a rewarding read if you have a metre, scansion, tempo etc.’ relationship with words, or are Included also are some brief es- just a Rats fan, or just find Geldof says and background stories. In I think this is well-explained and annoying. the Introduction he tackles the important, though not all may issue of how words and music can agree. work together and his thoughts are illuminating as he speaks Moving on to the words them- from long experience and hon- selves – the first two songs only esty about the process. I would have numbers in their titles, so even add the word ‘educational’ come first. Maybe it’s a co-inci- Roger Doyle is a com- poser and was a drum- to describe his musings, to any dence that the very first one, called 10:15, is very sexually ex- mer in various bands in musician who has ever worked the 60s and 70s. (A with, or thought about, the com- plicit, yet tender. They are all piece of trivia – he went plex issues of words as set to worth dipping into. There are to school with Simon angry personal ones like Never Crowe, the drummer with Roger Doyle Photo: music, or the other way around. Barrry McCaul I think it’s worth quoting some, Bite The Hand That Feeds – a the Boomtown Rats).

17 Sound Post | AUTUMN 2020 TIMES PAST

The Radio Éireann Light Orchestra (RÉSO), Leader, Jack Cheatle; Conductor, Dermot O’Hara, circa 1952. The RÉSO was renamed as the RTÉ Concert Orchestra in 1978. Photo: Cheatle Collection

Born in Dublin’s Liberties on 10 nineteen-year-old Dubliner, Patricia July 1937, Silver Ryder was a twin, (Patsy) McCarthy, also from the the sixth or seventh child of a fam- Liberties, a machinist in Cassidy’s ily of thirteen children - seven boys clothing factory, Dublin. The cou- and six girls - of Mary Ryder (née ple had six daughters. Nolan), a housewife, and James Ryder, an employee of Messrs. Travel was another interest of Guinness. Ryder’s. Among the many places he and his wife visited were the Silver Ryder studied music at Dublin’s south of France, Chicago and Las Sylvester (Silver) Ryder Municipal School of Music, the Vegas. There was also cruising piano with a Mrs. Reidy and the through the Panama Canal. A accordion with Alan Beckley. Dur- highlight for both of them was ing this time, he and his twin their visit to the Royal Albert Hall, OBITUARY brother, Tony, played as a duo in London, to hear Frank Sinatra.

the pantomime at the Olympia Theatre. A lifelong, full-time, pro- Silver Ryder joined the IFMAP in fessional musician, Ryder per- 1974 and was a member of its Na- Sylvester (Silver) formed in variety in working men’s tional Executive Council for some clubs and elsewhere in Britain fourteen years between the mid- Ryder from 1954-1964, subsequently 1980s and 2002, serving as Vice- working as a freelance musician in President from 1999 to 2002, when (1937-2020) Ireland. From the 1970s to the the union was dissolved. noughties, Ryder played the pubs Sylvester (Silver) Ryder, who died and clubs of Dublin, often with his Predeceased by his wife, Patsy, in St. James’ Hospital, Dublin, on vocalist friend, the late Sonny who died in September 2018, Silver 15th May 2020, was a former Knowles. He also performed with Ryder is survived by his daughters, Vice-President of the now defunct the Guinness Jazz Band at the an- Beverly, Deborah, Audrey, Pat, Va- trade union, the Irish Federation nual Cork Jazz Festival. lerie and Rachel. of Musicians and Associated Pro- fessions (IFMAP). Meanwhile, in 1959, at the age of John Swift twenty-two, Silver Ryder married

18 Sound Post | AUTUMN 2020 Sound Post MUI RTÉ Freelance AND FREE EXPRESSION Orchestral Daily

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