A HISTORY OF MUSIC AT CHRIST CHURCH CATHEDRAL, DUBLIN

by Barra Boydell

Christ Church has had a complex and varied history as the cathedral church of Dublin, one of two Anglican cathedrals in the capital of a predominantly Catholic country and the church of the British administration in Ireland before 1922. An Irish cathedral within the English tradition, yet through much of its history it was essentially an English cathedral in a foreign land. With close musical links to cathedrals in England, to St Patrick's cathedral in Dublin, and to the city's wider political and cultural life, Christ Church has the longest documented music history of any Irish institution, providing a unique perspective on the history of music in Ireland.

Barra Boydell, a leading authority on Irish music history, has written a detailed study drawing on the most extensive musical and archival sources existing for any Irish cathedral. The choir, its composers and musicians, repertoire and organs are discussed within the wider context of city and state, and of the religious and political dynamics which have shaped Anglo-Irish relationships since medieval times. More than just a history of music at one cathedral, this book makes an important contribution to English cathedral music studies as well as to Irish musical and cultural history.

BARRA BOYDELL is Senior Lecturer in Music, National University of Ireland, Maynooth.

Contents

1. 'Dulces Fecit Modos': the Medieval Cathedral-Priory
2. 'For the More Honour of God's Divine Service': the Reformation and Early Seventeenth Century
3. 'So Great and Solemn Service': the Restoration and Later Seventeenth Century
4. 'The Increasing Excellence of the Choir': the Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries
5. 'A More Efficient Performance of the Duties of the Choir': the Mid-Nineteenth Century
6. Decline and Revival: Disestablishment and the Twentieth Century