musical institutions and venues (1700–1990). The development of music in Ireland in the period immediately after the
Restoration was notably indebted to English precedents. Before the building of Crow Street music hall in 1731, the chief venues for concert music in Dublin were the cathedrals (
St Patrick's,
Christ Church) and the larger churches in the city, including St Andrew's Round church. Mr Neal's Great Room in Fishamble Street was built by the Charitable Musical Society in 1741; it was converted into a theatre in 1777. As the city's first purpose‐built concert hall, it was much used for the promotion of charity benefits and other regular performances of instrumental and choral music. The first performance of Handel's
Messiah was given there on 13 April 1742. The gardens in Great Britain Street laid out by Dr Bartholomew Mosse, master of the Lying‐in hospital in 1749, were modelled on London's Vauxhall Gardens and became the venue for a series of summer concerts which were given annually until 1791. The opening of the Rotunda Room in 1767 provided another important venue for concert performances.
A number of charitable societies were closely associated with the promotion of music in Dublin in the 18th century. The performance of ballad opera in the theatres in Smock Alley and Aungier Street (actually in Longford Street) was followed by the broader cultivation of opera in the 19th century, particularly at the Theatre Royal in Hawkins Street (1821–80).
The sharp decline of ascendancy patronage after the Act of
Union notably affected the promotion of art music, which thereafter survived largely through the foundation of amateur societies for the performance of large‐scale choral works. These societies include the Sons of Handel (1810) and the Philharmonic Society (1826–78). The latter also promoted occasional professional appearances by visiting artists, as did the Antient Concerts Society (1834–63). In 1875 Joseph Robinson founded the Dublin Musical Society which gave its performances in the Exhibition Hall at Earlsfort Terrace (rebuilt and opened in 1981 as the National Concert Hall). It was succeeded by the Dublin Orchestral Society in 1899. The
Royal Dublin Society inaugurated a series of concerts in 1886 which continues to the present day.
Important educational musical institutions include the Royal Irish Academy of Music (1856) and the Dublin College of Music (1890). The inauguration of festivals (
feiseanna) of music in Dublin, Cork, Belfast, Derry, Sligo, and other centres from 1897 onwards was a crucial step in the dissemination of art music. The Oireachtas, a literary festival inaugurated at the same time as the Feis Ceoil, likewise fomented revival of the ethnic tradition. Since 1900 the Belfast Music Festival, the Queen's University Music Festival, the Dublin Festival of Twentieth‐Century Music, and the Cork International Choral Festival have been preeminent in the cultivation of Irish art music and the presentation of the international repertory of contemporary music in this country. The establishment of professional orchestras in Dublin (Radio Éireann Symphony Orchestra (1926), reorganized as the National Symphony Orchestra in 1989), Belfast (BBC orchestra (1926); the Ulster Orchestra (1966) ) and Limerick (the Irish Chamber Orchestra (1995)—originally established in Dublin as the New Irish Chamber Orchestra (1970) ) has significantly increased the presence of art music throughout the country. The role played therein by Radio Telefís Éireann through its sponsorship of choirs, ensembles, and individual composers has been seminal. The development of RTE FM3 (a radio channel shared with Radio na Gaeltachta) marks a new degree of commitment since the mid‐1980s to the dissemination of art music.
Bibliography
Boydell, Brian , A Dublin Musical Calendar, 1700–1760 (1988)
Hogan, Ita , Anglo‐Irish Music, 1780–1830 (1966)
Harry White
