Sean O Riada (1931-1971) was a major factor in the rise of Irish traditional music in the second half of the twentieth century. He is one of Ireland's most fascinating and significant characters--composer, musician (jazz, classical, and traditional), director of music for the Abbey Theatre, raconteur, film-maker, and academic--and the man most influential in changing the direction, and popularity, of traditional music that set the stage for the success of bands like The Chieftains and Planxty. In this wide-ranging account of his life and work a friend and colleague looks behind the mask O Riada held up to the world and reveals the complex personality of a unique individual, the first composer of modern Ireland.

It presents an investigation into the liturgical music of Sean and Peadar O Riada through an examination of three Roman-Rite mass settings composed in the Irish vernacular from within the cultural context of the West-Cork Gaeltacht of Muscrai. The main part of the work, running from Chapters Three to Six, consists of a detailed analysis of the contents of the mass settings, a body of material which is considered from the following perspectives: as emanating from a living culture of native traditional song; as part of a historical continuum of monophonic liturgical composition for the Roman Rite, having at its origins the compositional traditions of plainchant; as part of a broader aesthetic context of text-music relationships found in the repertoires of plainchant, medieval song and folksong; and finally, as part of the new liturgical reality existing since the Second Vatican Council which requires viable and sustainable musical approaches to the setting of vernacular texts.

Field Work is the record of four years during which Seamus Heaney left the violence of Belfast to settle in a country cottage with his family in Glanmore, County Wicklow. Heeding "an early warning system to get back inside my own head," Heaney wrote poems with a new strength and maturity, moving from the political concerns of his landmark volume North to a more personal, contemplative approach to the world and to his own writing. In Field Work he "brings a meditative music to bear upon fundamental themes of person and place, the mutuality of ourselves and the world" (Denis Donoghue, The New York Times Book Review).

Imagine no Chieftains, no Planxty or Bothy Band, no Moving Hearts or Riverdance! This biography of Seán Ó Riada, who spearheaded the revival of Irish traditional music and moved it onto the international stage, shows it might not have happened without him. One of the few significant artists to remain in Ireland after the Second World War, he became an influential and intriguing character – composer, musician, raconteur, film-maker and academic. In this wide-ranging account of his life, his friend and colleague looks behind the mask to reveal the complex personality of a unique individual and paint a vivid picture of an ambivalent talent. In his short life, Ó Riada encountered a host of personalities and suffered personal, professional and financial crises. The result is a fund of anecdotes, many almost surreal. The book concludes with the highly amusing Charles Acton correspondence and the great critic's obituary for Ó Riada. * Also available: An Poc Ar Buile by Seán Ó Sé

This volume explores Irish rock's relationship to the wider world of international popular music through detailed analysis of the island's most prominent artists and bands such as U2, Van Morrison, Sinéad O'Connor, The Boomtown Rats, and Horslips - and key musical movements including the beat scene and the folk revival.

Politically and historically, the Mediterranean has been a space for critical dialogue for competing and often antagonistic voices, and still functions as meeting place for diverse and interdisciplinary approaches. Although other academic disciplines have attempted a unified approach to Mediterranean studies, until recently Mediterranean music as a singular concept has received relatively little scholarly development. This volume is a crucial first step and investigates several musical cultures that have traditionally demonstrated common threads, trends, and interactions. The music of Greece, Crete, Turkey, Albania, Corsica, Italy, Spain, Morocco, Algeria and Palestine are all considered in this volume as the scholars represented here reveal the musical commonality among otherwise divergent traditions. Unnecessary technical jargon is avoided, and an interdisciplinary approach embracing ethnology and material culture considerations makes this volume relevant not only to musicologists and anthropologists, but likewise to the general reader interested in tourism.