The Seán Ó Riada Collection, Special Collections, Boole Library, UCC

 

One of Ireland's most influential composers and musical innovators, Seán Ó Riada is credited with bringing Irish traditional music to the forefront of contemporary Irish culture. His group Ceoltóirí Chualann led the revival in Irish Traditional Music in the 1960s. The group achieved unprecedented critical and popular acclaim and it’s success catapulted numerous later groups, including The Chieftains onto the international stage. Ó Riada is also recognised as one of the most significant Irish composers of music in the European Art Music tradition in the 20th Century.  In addition to his orchestral and chamber works in this idiom, he composed many original scores for theatre and film. His best known ‘classical’ work  is his score for George Morrison’s groundbreaking film, Mise Éire.

 

The Papers: The Seán Ó Riada Collection was acquired from the Ó Riada family by University College Cork in 2004. In addition to a the personal and professional papers of Ó Riada, the Collection  contains a large number of musical scores, many of which are unpublished and written in the composer’s own hand. These scores are, arguably, the most valuable materials in the collection and they provide the primary focus of the proposed PhD project. 

 

The Project:  The principal aims are the the proposed PhD (DAH) project is the completion of a catalogue of musical materials in the collection, an analysis of these musical materials, and the generation of facsimile and performance editions of the music compositions.

 

In the academic literature, critical consideration of Ó Riada’s life and work is scant.

Outputs from the proposed research will address this lacuna  and develop a critical understanding of Seán Ó Riada’s creativity and contribution to Irish musical culture.

In addition, performances and recordings of Ó Riada’s compositional output are limited by the availability of performance editions of much of his music; the PhD research outputs will expand the accessible repertoire of 20th Century Irish music through production of performance editions of the music contained in the collection.

Finally, through the generation of digital editions of the musical materials in the collection, the project will increase access to Ó Riada’s compositions for scholars and performers.

 

 

Bibliography.

 

White, H. The Keeper’s Recital: Music and Cultural History in Ireland, 1770–1970 (CUP, 1998)

Ó Canainn, T. Seán Ó Riada, His Life and Work The Collins Press, 2003)