Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Composing Irishness: Remembrances Of The Irish Past Through The Prism Of The Present In Music By Donnacha Dennehy (B. 1970) And Jennifer Walshe (B. 1974), Timothy Diovanni

Masters

Although modern remembrances in the fields of literature, theatre, poetry, and the visual arts have received considerable scholarly attention in Ireland since the publication of History and Memory in Modern Ireland in 2001, similar activities in an Irish art music context remain unexplored. This thesis addresses this lacuna in examining how the contemporary Irish composers Donnacha Dennehy (b. 1970) and Jennifer Walshe (b. 1974) have remembered, reimagined, and reinvented the past to communicate their positions on Irish history and modern Irish society, as well as to respond to recent historical and curatorial practices. Through a series of five works written …

J.K. Mertz’S Bardenklänge: A Context For The Emergence Of The Character Piece Genre Within The Repertoire For Solo Guitar, Brinsley Doran

Masters

Having experience a large increase in concert activity in recent years, one would assume that the works of J.K. Mertz (1806–1856) would haveexperience the same level of attention within academic circles, however research is still limited. As a result, this thesissetsout to understand in what areas do Mertz's works differ fromother guitar works in the first half of the nineteenth century—specifically Mertz's set of character piecesfound in hisBardenklänge, op. 13. This thesiswill address shifts in culture, aesthetics and the increasing interest in the ‘Folk’c.1800–1850 that led to the composition of Mertz’s Bardenklänge. Published in 1847, these works are unique in …

The Parisian Immigrant Cook: Who Are You?, Siobhán Gough

Masters

This research focuses on the working conditions, professional lives and identities of immigrant cooks working in Paris with a view to improving, through a better understanding of these aspects, their accessibility to the workforce and potential career paths. France is the home of the restaurant and is historically a country of welcome and refuge for migrants. In the past ten years the rhetoric surrounding immigration and migrants has changed and there is growing negativity surrounding this population group despite the many studies pointing to migrant workers’ positive contributions to societies and economies. The culinary industry relies on, and will continue …

Examining The Irish Art Song: Original Song Settings Of Irish Texts By Irish Composers, 1900-1930., David Scott

Masters

Throughout the second half of the nineteenth century, arrangements of Irish airs were popularly performed in Victorian drawing rooms and concert venues in both London and Dublin, the most notable publications being Thomas Moore’s collections of Irish Melodies with harmonisations by John Stephenson. Performances of Irish ballads remained popular with English audiences but the publication of Stanford’s song collection An Irish Idyll in Six Miniatures in 1901 by Boosey and Hawkes in London marks a shift to a different type of Irish song. This was a move away from the typical ‘Irish ballad,’ towards original art song settings of Irish …

The Economy Of Typography (The Arrangement Or Mode Of Operation Of Typography), Jacqueline Raftery

Masters

The thesis will show that the current research into legibility and readability regarding certain aspects or characters of type is incomplete, and will demonstrate what further research is necessary to complete the analysis of these aspects or characters in the economy of typography in continuous text. Chapter 1 will show that the development of reading depends on the legibility of the typography and characters ‘recognizing patterns, planning strategy, and feeling’ in other words reading and writing are interdependent all depend in some part on the construction of the characters and their relationship to each other. It will also show that …

The Impact Of The Arts On Traveller Education; An Exploratory Study, Bernadette Fagan

Masters

The aim of this study was to explore the impact that the Arts, (that is the study of visual art, drama, music, dance, creative writing, film and video expression), have on the educational process within Irish Traveller Educational Centres whose students are widely recognised as the most highly marginalised group within Irish society (Ireland, 1995; MacGreil, 1996; Zappone, 2002). Art programmes appear to induce a ‘flow’ state, as identified by Csikszentmihalyi, that he defines as a state of optimal awareness in which the subject becomes lost in the action of the moment and results in a heightened integration and differentiation …

Composition Portfolio With Accompanying Comments And Analysis, Dermot Mcdermott

Masters

My M.Phil project consists of eight original musical compositions of varying genre and style, together with accompanying analysis and commentary on these works. The compositions include pieces for full symphony orchestra, string quartet, clarinet quartet, and a number of other chamber works with varying instrumental combinations. Together, the works represent approximately fifty minutes of music, together with over nine thousand words of commentary and analysis. Some of my compositions have already been performed by the contemporary music ensemble, Concorde, and I have also completed a commission, with funds supplied by the Arts Council, for a work which was publicly performed …

An Investigation Of The Body As Location In The Context Of Kristeva's Reading Of The Maternal Orientation Of The Abject, Pauline Keena

Masters

The aim of my research project is the generation and enhanced understanding of what is unspeakable, unrepresented, and beyond the resolve of logical thought in my art practice. I wanted to find a way to display the emerging evidence of what is there in the physical material manifestation and beyond. So I set up a studio based research context to begin an enquiry by engaging philosophic ideas in a set of physical relations through materials and making in the studio. Using the theoretical work of Kristeva, Lacan and Schon enabled me to structure and language the enquiry. Mapping philosophic ideas …

Etha Barror: Profile Of A Successful Choral Conductor, Niamh Mcdonagh

Masters

This study documents the musical career and teaching methodology of one of Ireland’s leading choral conductors, Ethna Barror (1915 - ) and explores the factors contributing to her success as a conductor, with particular reference to her choir, The Lindsay Singers. The study is informed by life history methodology, focusing on interviews with Barror which were conducted over an extended period of time. The research also includes interviews with some of Barror’s peers and choir members. This data is supported by documentary material relating to the Lindsay Singers performances, achievements and awards, and the repertoire they performed. The research is …

A Multiple Belonging: New Representations Of National Identity In Contemporary International And Irish Art Practice, Ciara Healy

Masters

In the late 1980’s, flying somewhere over the ocean on one of my many journeys to visit family in Ireland, I wrote this Haiku. Some years later, I re-read it while sitting in my studio surrounded by scraps of old travel tickets, letters and other ephemera. Looking at the poem once again, I began to wonder about home and to which, if any, I belonged. Late one evening, listening to the voices on BBC Radio 4 crackle over the air waves into my damp Dublin studio, I looked out at the construction sites for the city’s new steel and granite …

Final Build?: Imaging The Local-Global Landscape Of Hewlett-Packard, Ireland, Mark Curran

Masters

This practice-led thesis constitutes a timely response to the absence of audio and visual representation of labour practices and post-industrial space in the context of Ireland’s accelerated economic development during the past decade, resulting in its current status as the most globalised economy in the world. The significance of Ireland’s global position is amplified by the fact that the South of Ireland never experienced the Industrial Revolution and has thus been propelled from an agricultural-based economy to one defined as post industrial. In both its methodological design and implementation, the study stakes out new terrain through the combined use of …

Strategy Process And Practice: Case Studies From The Irish Independent Television Production Sector, Caroline Quinn

Masters

The purpose of this study is to review and empirically examine the literature on the strategy processes and the emerging strategy as practice perspective. The study is set in the Irish independent television production sector, bringing a significant contextual dimension to the analysis of strategy in practice. Working within the interpretive paradigm qualitative case studies are chosen as the means of inquiry, employing in-depth interviews and documentary evidence. The method proved to be both flexible and inventive, allowing for a depth of understanding and a holistic view of the research question. This research examines the strategy formation process and seeks …

Onset And Ornament Detection And Music Transcription For Monophonic Traditional Irish Music, Aileen Kelleher

Masters

To date, much has been... This abstract will be longer in due course!

The Design Process And User Focused Digital Spaces, Elaine M. Keating

Masters

This thesis presents a qualitative inquiry into how the graphic design process is being reconfigured within the new digital media landscape. The literature review looks at the historical relationship between graphic design and technology from the invention of the printing press to the personal computer and reviews how this relationship is again affected by the emergence of the computer as a medium for communication. The products of digital design are no longer static and fixed but are dynamic and progressive. The digital media landscape is transforming not just the nature of design products but also the actual graphic design process. …

Microtonal Systems And Guitar Composition, Michael Nielsen

Masters

This thesis focuses on the use of microtones in guitar composition. In the course of this study the physical aspects of musical sound (pitch, loudness and quality/timbre), vibrational frequencies of strings, and the theory of musical scales and tuning systems are discussed. Whole-number ratios corresponding to musical intervals within the twelve-note/equal temperament scale are calculated in relation to the overtone series for the purpose of surveying consonance and dissonance within the tempered system. These are compared to the ratios for corresponding intervals within the overtone series. Whole-number ratios are also calculated for intervals involving the microtones referred to in this …

Music Copyright Via The Internet, Damian O'Regan

Masters

This thesis will ask if it is possible to use the Internet as a means of copyrighting music. At present, the Internet is not used for the copyrighting of music and furthermore no studies have been carried out to see if this is feasible. Digital technology is used in the composition, recording, playing and downloading and storage of music and the author will research if and how these existing technologies can work in conjunction with the Internet to create a music copyright system. This thesis will research existing copyright requirements, the current technologies used in music that have potential copyright …

Flute Performance And Pedagogy In Dublin 1950-2000, Ciaran O'Connell

Masters

This thesis consists of an investigation into the main influences on flute performance and pedagogy in Dublin during the period 1950 to 2000. It explores the pedagogical lineage between the influential performers and teachers of the period, and Paul Taffanel, the founder of the modern French school of flute playing. Finally, it examines influences on the methodologies of influential Dublin teachers. Chapter 1 outlines the changing musical landscape for flute performers/teachers in Dublin 1950-2000. Chapter 2 discusses the most influential flute performers/teachers of the time in Dublin, namely Andre Prieur, Doris Keogh and William Dowdall. Chapter 3 investigates the pedagogical …

John Wilkes And The Enlightenment, Stephen Carruthers

Masters

Based on the absence of a substantial political philosophy and a scandalous reputation, modern assessments of John Wilkes have tended to marginalise his role in the development of radical political ideas in England in the 1760s and 1770s. This evaluation is reassessed in the context of an analysis of Wilkes’s collaboration with Charles Churchill on the North Briton and his political writings of the period, in particular his Introduction to the History of England (1768). Furthermore, Wilkes enjoyed extensive and prolonged contact with the leading continental philosophers of the period, and in particular d’Holbach, Diderot, Suard, Helvétius, and Chastellux, which …

Typographic Legibility For Retinitis Pigmentosa Readers, Carla Benedetti

Masters

Although numerous papers have been written on the subject of legibility, there appears to be a lack of research into the relationship between printed matter and visual impairment in this context. The research aim of this thesis is to conduct a comprehensive study on the reading performance of those suffering from a particular impairment, namely Retinitis Pigmentosa and to identify typographic considerations that would improve this performance. The work confirms the importance of specially designed material and the need for specific guidelines to ensure optimum legibility for particular eye deficiencies.

Land Surveys And The Robinsons Of North Kildare (1769-1864), James Robinson

Masters

Between the 18th and 19th centuries, the prosperity of Irish Catholic Tenants ebbed and flowed with the prevailing economic, political and social climate. The objective of this work is to illustrate that process by reference to the Robinson Family of North Kildare. Specifically, the dissertation will • Review the surveys undertaken in 1769, 1803, 1819, 1834, 1853, 1864 and 1744 • Establish the status of the Robinson Family as demonstrated by these surveys and other social and economic information, much of it previously unpublished. • Record, where, relevant, the contribution of the family to the social, economic and political developments …

The Flute Sonatas Of Thomas Roseingrave (1688-1766), Brid Grant

Masters

This research project is a study of the XII Solos for A German flute with a through base for the Harpsichord by Thomas Roseingrave, an eighteenth-century composer and performer. In the context of eighteenth-century musical life, Roseingrave occupies a position as a minor, but noteworthy, composer. He was highly regarded as a performer by his contemporaries, and some of his compositions have endured to the present time. The work presents an overview of his life and gives a descriptive analysis and new edition of his flute sonatas

A Comparative Analysis Of Instrumental Teaching Provision In The Republic Of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland And Denmark, Rachel Nolan

Masters

This study is a comparative analysis of the provision for instrumental teaching in the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Denmark. It attempts to redress the lack of research on this subject in the Republic of Ireland by examining European systems of music education and comparing the results with instrumental teaching provision in the Republic of Ireland.

Chapter 1 comprises an overview of music education in the Republic of Ireland today. It consists of an examination of the value of music education and the value of music performance. Its significance in the Irish education system is gauged by a …

The Melodies Of Francis Poulenc: A Selective Musico-Literary Study, Elizabeth Nolan

Masters

This dissertation examines the melodies, or art songs, of the twentieth-century French composer Francis Poulenc in relation to the artistic milieu of his time. The study focuses on prosody and the key role of wordsetting in Poulenc’s compositional technique, with particular reference to the composer’s settings of contemporary poets. The dissertation’s central section comprises a musico-literary analysis of four representative song cycles by Poulenc, set to verses by poets with whom he experienced a particular creative affinity: Guillaume Appollinaire, Max Jacob, Louise de Vilmorin and Paul Eluard. The choice of works has not been determined according to chronological criteriae: instead …