Page 148 - Weiss, Jernej, ur./ed. 2024. Glasbena kritika – nekoč in danes ▪︎ Music Criticism – Yesterday and Today. Koper/Ljubljana: Založba Univerze na Primorskem in Festival Ljubljana. Studia musicologica Labacensia, 7
P. 148
glasbena kritika – nekoč in danes | music criticism – yesterday and today
nature at all, initials or a pseudonym] increasingly became the norm during
the course of the twentieth century.”4
Music criticism in Ireland has followed the general developments in
other countries, yet with some specific deviations due to local conditions.
In this chapter I will look at examples from three different periods of its
history: the emergence of Irish music criticism in the mid-nineteenth cen-
tury, the later part of the twentieth century as exemplified by the career of
Charles Acton, and the impact of the digital revolution in the twenty-first
century.
Today, music criticism covers all kinds of music, from popular via tra-
ditional to classical. However, in the past this was not the case – in the nine-
teenth and much of the twentieth century, critical attention was focused on
classical music only. To this day scholarly discussion of music criticism still
focuses much more on classical reviewing than its share in today’s review
publications warrants.
Irish Music Criticism in the Nineteenth Century
A randomly selected issue from the Irish Times may serve as an example
of Irish music criticism in the nineteenth century. It was published on Sat-
urday, 22 September 1860, and I have mainly selected it because it contains
three music-related articles. The Irish Times (which had only been founded
in 1859) was the newspaper of the Protestant ascendancy class, so it catered
particularly for the Anglo-Irish ruling elite in Dublin. The music-related
reviews and announcements appear on page 2 of that Saturday’s issue in
a section entitled “Fashionable Intelligence”, which also offers what would
today be called celebrity news (such as who was received by the Queen and
where some high-ranking aristocrats arrived or what they did yesterday).
Let us first focus on a brief announcement of “an extra morning per-
formance” by the Buckley’s Serenaders which had been “commanded”
by the Lord Lieutenant, the king’s representative in Dublin.5 This is not
a review, of course, yet still provides a useful entry into Irish reporting
on musical issues. We are informed that the Lord Lieutenant intends to
be present himself and that a “most attractive programme has been pub-
lished” – yet no detail of the programme is shared here, so this infor-
mation appears to be far less relevant than the Lord Lieutenant’s attend-
ance. The event will be followed by another appearance of the Serenaders
4 Dingle and McHugh, “Stop the Press?”.
5 Anon., “The Buckley’s Serenaders,” The Irish Times, September 22, 1860, 2.
148
nature at all, initials or a pseudonym] increasingly became the norm during
the course of the twentieth century.”4
Music criticism in Ireland has followed the general developments in
other countries, yet with some specific deviations due to local conditions.
In this chapter I will look at examples from three different periods of its
history: the emergence of Irish music criticism in the mid-nineteenth cen-
tury, the later part of the twentieth century as exemplified by the career of
Charles Acton, and the impact of the digital revolution in the twenty-first
century.
Today, music criticism covers all kinds of music, from popular via tra-
ditional to classical. However, in the past this was not the case – in the nine-
teenth and much of the twentieth century, critical attention was focused on
classical music only. To this day scholarly discussion of music criticism still
focuses much more on classical reviewing than its share in today’s review
publications warrants.
Irish Music Criticism in the Nineteenth Century
A randomly selected issue from the Irish Times may serve as an example
of Irish music criticism in the nineteenth century. It was published on Sat-
urday, 22 September 1860, and I have mainly selected it because it contains
three music-related articles. The Irish Times (which had only been founded
in 1859) was the newspaper of the Protestant ascendancy class, so it catered
particularly for the Anglo-Irish ruling elite in Dublin. The music-related
reviews and announcements appear on page 2 of that Saturday’s issue in
a section entitled “Fashionable Intelligence”, which also offers what would
today be called celebrity news (such as who was received by the Queen and
where some high-ranking aristocrats arrived or what they did yesterday).
Let us first focus on a brief announcement of “an extra morning per-
formance” by the Buckley’s Serenaders which had been “commanded”
by the Lord Lieutenant, the king’s representative in Dublin.5 This is not
a review, of course, yet still provides a useful entry into Irish reporting
on musical issues. We are informed that the Lord Lieutenant intends to
be present himself and that a “most attractive programme has been pub-
lished” – yet no detail of the programme is shared here, so this infor-
mation appears to be far less relevant than the Lord Lieutenant’s attend-
ance. The event will be followed by another appearance of the Serenaders
4 Dingle and McHugh, “Stop the Press?”.
5 Anon., “The Buckley’s Serenaders,” The Irish Times, September 22, 1860, 2.
148
