Opening up a topic long closed to debate, this is the first study ever to survey the developments of musical thought in modern Irish cultural history. Its purpose is to register the function of music as a dynamic agent in the history of Irish ideas in the period 1770-1970 by means of three prevailing themes: the integrity of sectarian culture, the political expression of cultural independence, and the symbolic force of Celticism. The Keeper's Recital aims to identify and distinguish between the symbolic power of Irish music and its failure to generate a durable aesthetic comparable to that which infused the Literary Revival.