Europe's Reception of the Irish Melodies and National Airs: Thomas Moore in Europe

Project Information

ERIN

Grant agreement ID: 658376

DOI

10.3030/658376

Project closed

EC signature date 25 February 2015

Start date 1 September 2015

End date 31 August 2017

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 183 454,80

EU contribution

€ 183 454,80

Coordinated by

THE QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY OF BELFAST
United Kingdom

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ERIN (Europe's Reception of the Irish Melodies and National Airs: Thomas Moore in Europe)

Reporting period: 2015-09-01 to 2017-08-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

ERIN enables network analysis, investigating the cultural articulation of national identity in 19th-century Europe through the musical works of Irish poet-songwriter Thomas Moore. He created two European song series, the Irish Melodies and National Airs, of global circulation; these inspired arrangements by European composers. His 'oriental romance' Lalla Rookh inspired songs, operas and ballets. ERIN is the first systematic study of this cultural network, innovative in considering temporal and spatial aspects of networking. ERIN contributes to the knowledge-based economy and society through accessible research outputs designed to engage the European public: a blog, podcasts, a radio documentary, online exhibits, a database catalogue, conference papers, and an edited book. ERIN's research foundation is the substantial Moore collection at host institution Queen’s University Belfast (QUB); a database catalogue of Moore’s music at QUB and selected European repositories is a dataset to be mined for the remaining outputs; resources can be explored and interrogated by other researchers and the public.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

During months 1-4, the RF studied QUB’s Moore collection, gathering enrichment data (catalogue); she liaised with Dublin Institute of Technology re a cross--border music project (radio programme). By 01/10/15 the 'early' DMP was submitted. Months 2-4: the RF and PI attended 4 Queen's Digital Humanities courses (re exhibitions). The RF liaised with 8 European libraries re data sharing (catalogue). By 01/12/15 RF had written 6 blog posts; the blog launched on 20/01/16. In month 5, the RF and PI designed and trialled a model database (catalogue). In month 6, RF and PI planned a concert (radio documentary, podcasts). The RF continued work on the QUB Moore collection (database, online exhibitions). In month 7, the RF and PI attended dh@queen's training on the OMEKA platform (exhibitions). Meetings established the secondment and radio documentary. In month 9, the RF visited archives in Munich and Paris; in month 10, she visited libraries in Dublin and London (database, exhibitions). The PI supplemented the database records at the British Library. By month 11, the database held 400 records (as a spreadsheet). We submitted the mid-term DMP on 06/09/16. In months 12-13, the RF cleaned the catalogue data, transferring it to an Access database. In month 13 the RF and PI planned a concert (radio documentary, podcasts); we mapped the repertory for an Irish Melodies podcast (ERIN website). In month 14, QUB Information Services applied Google analytics to the blog. The RF completed her research trips (Berlin), adding records to the catalogue and gathering data of semantic enrichment (exhibitions). The database was handed over to its developers in 02/17; the PI and RF did preparatory work (exhibitions). Between months 12-21, the RF undertook professional development, including the Postgraduate Certificate for Higher Education Teaching; teaching performance classes in Music, supervising an M-Res project and a BMUS dissertation. EXPLOITATION & DISSEMINATION OF RESULTS (months 21-24). BLOG. 'Thomas Moore in Europe', available at https://blogs.qub.ac.uk/erin/. ERIN published 48 posts, attracting 6000+ visitors. Topics include the circulation of Moore's musical works in Europe; Moore's travels in Europe; ‘how to research’ at certain European libraries; podcasts of European music. ERIN used the blog to 'soft launch' outputs on 31/08/17. RADIO DOCUMENTARY, “An oriental romance: Thomas Moore's Lalla Rookh,” was completed (RF gained experience in production through secondment). It aired 10 September at 18:00 on RTE Lyric. Music recordings are podcasts on the project website: www.erin.qub.ac.uk. A sample recording from the documentary was released as a blog post. PRESENTATIONS. The PI and the RF delivered 2 public seminars (QUB), participated in a Lalla Rookh Symposium (Dublin), and delivered the plenary lecture at the annual conference of the SMI (QUB). An associated concert was recorded (radio documentary; podcasts for website). The plenary lecture forms 2 podcasts on the blog. Texts for these presentations (and visual material) are available through the QUB research repository: pure.qub.ac.uk/.../sarah-mccleave. PODCASTS On 17/05/17, the PI directed a show featuring European music to Thomas Moore's Lalla Rookh (podcasts for website). In June 2017 we recorded QUB Music students performing a few of Moore's Irish Melodies in different arrangements (podcasts for website). A sample will appear on the blog. ONLINE EXHIBITIONS. On 31 August we published (at http://omeka.qub.ac.uk) 4 electronic collections and 4 electronic exhibitions in the openly-accessible OMEKA platform; over 200 Cultural Heritage Objects are available in an accessible and searchable format. DATABASE CATALOGUE. By 02/17 the RF and PI had created 50% of the records for this resource, which was then handed over to the commercial developer. The development process was more complex than anticipated; handover to QUB took place in 10/17. Currently, a 'data dump' of the catalogue is found at: pure.qub.ac.uk/.../sarah-mccleave. ERIN WEBSITE (www.erin.qub.ac.uk). This links to the blog plus the OMEKA collections and exhibitions. It has all podcasts and the database catalogue. The website will be released in 03/18, when the catalogue is nearly complete. We will offer a virtual launch for the website (with video demonstration of the resources), through the project blog. BOOK of essays, working title 'Thomas Moore and the Global Marketplace', co-edited by the RF and PI. We've collected and done a first edit of 50% of the expected chapters. Updates on progress may feature on the blog.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

ERIN produced several interactive, open access outputs, suitable for specialist researchers and the general public. Our blog reaches a wide public. We designed the database catalogue to be accessible to the general reader, and useful to the experienced researcher. The electronic collections and exhibitions-in the interactive OMEKA platform-are at the cutting edge of 'public history', permitting individual readers to interrogate and arrange material for themselves. ERIN fostered a cross-border music performance-preserved and contextualised through the radio documentary-strengthening relations between institutions of EU member states Ireland and the UK. ERIN supported BMUS students creating a musical re-telling of Lalla Rookh, featuring the music of various European composers performed (and sometimes arranged) by themselves. This music, added to ERIN’s website podcasts, created impact by giving student performers, composers, and a sound engineer a platform to develop professional expertise; some students wrote for the project blog. The Lalla Rookh podcast and radio documentary give the public a chance to hear rarely heard non-canonic European music. ERIN’s project outputs allow us to discover and evaluate the reach of a popular Irish writer/musician during a century where the exchange and spread of cultural artefacts within Europe evidenced changes in taste as well as in means of dissemination. ERIN traces the dissemination of Irish Melodies, European National Airs, and music inspired by an oriental theme- articulating notions of regional and national identity, as well as evidencing an international cultural exchange. As readers and listeners engage with its open-access outputs, ERIN will generate further results and impact.

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