Dr Adrian Scahill

Music

Lecturer
Deputy Head of Department

Logic House
107
(01) 708 4638

Biography

Adrian Scahill is Deputy Head of Department and assistant professor in the Department of Music, Maynooth University. A graduate of Maynooth, he undertook doctoral research with Professor Harry White at University College Dublin, and after teaching in a number of Irish universities returned to Maynooth as a lecturer.

His research interests are focused on Irish traditional music, including the history of the tradition, stylistic analysis, and more theoretical and conceptual approaches to the music. Other areas of interest include popular music (and how it intersects with tradition), and the broader fields of music and musicology in Ireland.

He was subject editor for traditional music for The Encyclopaedia of Music in Ireland (2013), and was a major contributor to the volume, writing more than forty articles. Recent publications includes chapters and articles on the use of the piano during the Gaelic Revival, and on traditional music albums of the 1950s and 1960s. He has presented papers at conferences and given invited lectures both in Ireland and abroad. He is a regular contributor to the Journal of Music, writing in particular on new traditional music releases. He is currently secretary for ICTM Ireland, and has led the organisation of conferences for both SMI and ICTM at Maynooth. An active traditional musician, he established the Music Department’s Traditional Group in 2006, and has helped develop and currently oversees traditional music performance in the department. His teaching embraces a wide range of topics, including ethnomusicology, popular music studies, Irish traditional music, and musicology.

Research Interests

Music in Ireland, particularly Irish traditional music and popular music. Music and politics and protest music. Music and globalization.

Book Chapters

  Year Publication
2019 'Transformations of performance and participation in the early céilí (1897–8)'
Adrian Scahill (2019) 'Transformations of performance and participation in the early céilí (1897–8)' In: Kerry Houston, Maria McHale and Michael Murphy (eds). Documents of Irish Music History in the Long Nineteenth Century (Irish Musical Studies vol. 12). Dublin: Four Courts Press. [Details]
2018 '‘That Vulgar Strummer’: The piano and traditional music in the Gaelic Revival'
Adrian Scahill (2018) '‘That Vulgar Strummer’: The piano and traditional music in the Gaelic Revival' In: Music Preferred: Essays in Musicology, Cultural History and Analysis in Honour of Harry White. Vienna: Hollitzer Verlag. [Details]
2017 'Towards a reconsideration of the place of traditional music in the Catholic church'
Adrian Scahill (2017) 'Towards a reconsideration of the place of traditional music in the Catholic church' In: Kerry Houston & Harry White (eds). A musical offering: essays in honour of Gerard Gillen. Dublin: Four Courts Press. [Details]
2016 'The Harp in the Early Traditional Group'
Adrian Scahill (2016) 'The Harp in the Early Traditional Group' In: Helen Lyons, Sandra Joyce (eds). Harp Studies: Perspectives on the Irish Harp. Dublin: Four Courts Press. [Details]
2013 'Riverdance and Irish Traditional Music'
Scahill, Adrian (2013) 'Riverdance and Irish Traditional Music' In: Music and the Irish Imagination: Like a Language That We Could All Understand. [Details]
2010 'The flight of the earls in Irish traditional music'
Scahill, Adrian (2010) 'The flight of the earls in Irish traditional music' In: The Flight of the Earls - Imeacht na nIarlaí. Derry: Guildhall Press. [Details]
2009 'Irish Traditional Music and the Seventeenth Century'
Scahill, Adrian (2009) 'Irish Traditional Music and the Seventeenth Century' In: Music, Ireland, and the Seventeenth Century: Irish Musical Studies 10. Dublin: Four Courts Press. [Details]

Peer Reviewed Journals

  Year Publication
2019 'The album and the musical work in Irish folk and traditional music, ca. 1955-70'
Scahill A. (2019) 'The album and the musical work in Irish folk and traditional music, ca. 1955-70'. Eire-Ireland; a journal of Irish studies, 54 (1-2):17-45 [DOI] [Details]
2009 'Riverdance: Representing Irish Traditional Music'
Scahill, Adrian (2009) 'Riverdance: Representing Irish Traditional Music'. NEW HIBERNIA REVIEW, 13 :70-76 [IR Link] [Details]

Other Journals

  Year Publication
2017 'In the Mix: Review of Flowing Tides: History & Memory in an Irish Soundscape, by Gearóid Ó hAllmhuráin'
Adrian Scahill (2017) 'In the Mix: Review of Flowing Tides: History & Memory in an Irish Soundscape, by Gearóid Ó hAllmhuráin' Dublin Review of Books, November 2017 . [DOI] [Details]
2015 ''The piper's story over three centuries''
Adrian Scahill (2015) ''The piper's story over three centuries'' Journal of Music, . [Details]

Conference Contributions

  Year Publication
2019 ‘Supporting and Shaping Creativity in the Recording of Irish Traditional Music Albums’.
Adrian Scahill (2019) ‘Supporting and Shaping Creativity in the Recording of Irish Traditional Music Albums’. [Oral Presentation], Society for Musicology in Ireland Annual Plenary Conference, Maynooth University [Details]
2018 Remote Control: The uneasy relationship between traditional music and television.
Adrian Scahill (2018) Remote Control: The uneasy relationship between traditional music and television. [Oral Presentation], Voicing Cultures, Cultural Voices: 13th Annual Conference of ICTM Ireland, University of Limerick [Details]
2018 Reconsidering the album as artwork in Irish traditional music.
Adrian Scahill (2018) Reconsidering the album as artwork in Irish traditional music. [Invited Oral Presentation], Nótaí/Notes: Music and Ireland Research Symposium, NUIG [Details]
2016 Framing Trad: Irish Traditional Music, Television and (mis)Representation.
Adrian Scahill (2016) Framing Trad: Irish Traditional Music, Television and (mis)Representation. [Oral Presentation], Society for Musicology in Ireland, Annual Plenary Conference, Dublin City University [Details]
2016 Revival and Revolution: A transitional period in the ensemble playing of Irish traditional music.
Adrian Scahill (2016) Revival and Revolution: A transitional period in the ensemble playing of Irish traditional music. [Oral Presentation], Music in Ireland: 1916 and Beyond, DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama [Details]
2013 Around the House Again for Old-Time's Sake: The Reissuing of Irish Traditional Music in the Digital Age.
Adrian Scahill (2013) Around the House Again for Old-Time's Sake: The Reissuing of Irish Traditional Music in the Digital Age. [Oral Presentation], 2013 Joint Annual Meeting of the British Forum for Ethnomusicology/ICTM-Ireland, Queen's University Belfast [Details]
2013 Adrian Scahill: The 'Vulgar Strummer': The Gaelic League piano from the céilí to the céilí band.
Adrian Scahill (2013) Adrian Scahill: The 'Vulgar Strummer': The Gaelic League piano from the céilí to the céilí band. [Invited Lecture], Notes and Narratives Series, Na Píobairí Uilleann, Dublin [Details]
2012 Droning on: the fiddle as accompaniment in Irish Traditional music.
Adrian Scahill (2012) Droning on: the fiddle as accompaniment in Irish Traditional music. [Oral Presentation], NAFCo 2012 Conference: Ón gCos go Cluas, University of Ulster [Details]
2012 Skiffle in 1950s Ireland.
Adrian Scahill (2012) Skiffle in 1950s Ireland. [Oral Presentation], Tenth Annual Conference of the Society for Musicology in Ireland, Dundalk Institute of Technology [Details]
2009 Annual Conference, British Forum for Ethnomusicology.
(2009) Annual Conference, British Forum for Ethnomusicology. [Oral Presentation], Riverdance: Representing Irish Traditional Music, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool [Details]
2006 Made at the spinning wheel: early recordings and contemporary Irish traditional music.
Adrian Scahill (2006) Made at the spinning wheel: early recordings and contemporary Irish traditional music. [Oral Presentation], Society for Musicology in Ireland Annual Conference, Mary Immaculate College, Limerick [Details]
2009 Contester En Chansons: Expressions en Marge.
(2009) Contester En Chansons: Expressions en Marge. [Oral Presentation], Roaring from the Margins: Tradition and Revolution in Musical Commentary on the Celtic Tiger, Université de Poitiers, Poitiers, France [Details]
2009 Joint Annual Conference of the Society for Musicology in Ireland and the Royal Musical Association.
(2009) Joint Annual Conference of the Society for Musicology in Ireland and the Royal Musical Association. [Oral Presentation], The Reel Thing: Irish Traditional Music in The Boys from County Clare, Royal Irish Academy of Music, Dublin [Details]
2008
(2008) [Oral Presentation], Off the Record: American 78 rpm Recordings, Department of Music, NUI Maynooth [Details]
2008 Réflexions autour de la musique en Irlande: esthétiques et enjeux.
(2008) Réflexions autour de la musique en Irlande: esthétiques et enjeux. [Oral Presentation], Riverdance: Representing Irish Traditional Music, L’Université de Caen, Caen, France [Details]

Book Review

  Year Publication
2010 John Flynn: The Irishness of Irish Music (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2009).
Dr Adrian Scahill (2010) John Flynn: The Irishness of Irish Music (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2009). Book Review [Details]
2010 David Cooper, The musical traditions of Northern Ireland and its diaspora: community and conflict (Ashgate, 2009).
Dr Adrian Scahill (2010) David Cooper, The musical traditions of Northern Ireland and its diaspora: community and conflict (Ashgate, 2009). Book Review [Details]

Encyclopedia Entry

  Year Publication
2013 c40 entries including accompaniment, Bothy Band, Ceoltóirí Chualann, folk music, ornamentation, piano in traditional music, traditional groups.
Adrian Scahill (2013) c40 entries including accompaniment, Bothy Band, Ceoltóirí Chualann, folk music, ornamentation, piano in traditional music, traditional groups. Encyclopedia Entry [Details]

Thesis

  Year Publication
2005 The Knotted Chord: Harmonic accompaniment in printed and recorded sources of Irish traditional music.
Scahill, A. (2005) The Knotted Chord: Harmonic accompaniment in printed and recorded sources of Irish traditional music. University College Dublin: Thesis [Details]

Other

  Year Publication
2013 Subject Editor for Traditional Music.
Adrian Scahill (2013) Subject Editor for Traditional Music. Other [Details]