Surveys the development of musical thought in modern Irish cultural history from 1770-1970, studying how music functioned in the history of Irish ideas of the time. Dealing with figures such as Turlough Carolan, Edward Bunting, Thomas Moore and Sean O'Riada, White (music, University College, Dublin) explores both the composition and the preservation of Irish music and ponders why there was not a parallel in significance to the Literary Revival of that period. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

This book collects a number of essays on the relationship between music, cultural history and musicology in Ireland which, taken together, comprise a natural progression from the author's widely acclaimed monograph, The Keeper's Recital (1998). The progress of music in Ireland contains essays on contemporary music and musical infrastructures in Ireland; on Irish musical nationalism in the context of German and Czech traditions; on the presence of music in the work of Brian Friel and Samuel Beckett; on Joyce and music; on university education and Irish musical education; on the discourse of musicology in Ireland; and on the work of Brian Boydell and Aloys Fleischmann as pioneers in Irish musical scholarship.