Music, the Moving Image and Ireland, 1897–2017 constitutes the first comprehensive study of music for screen productions from or relating to the island. It identifies and interprets tendencies over the first 120 years of a field comprising the relatively distinct yet often overlapping areas of Irish-themed and Irish-produced film. Dividing into three parts, the book first explores accompaniments and scores for 20th-century Irish-themed narrative features that resulted in significant contributions by many Hollywood, British, continental European and, to a lesser extent, Irish composers, along with the input of many orchestras and other musicians. Its second part is framed by a consideration of various cultural, political and economic developments in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland from the 1920s (including the Troubles of 1968–1998). Focusing on scoring and other aspects of soundtrack production for domestic newsreel, documentary film and TV programming, it interprets the substantial output of many Irish composers within this milieu, particularly from the 1960s to the 1990s. Also referring to broader cultural and historical themes, the book’s third and final part charts approaches to and developments in music and sound design over various waves of Irish cinema, from its relatively late emergence in the 1970s to an exponential growth and increasingly transnational orientation in the early decades of the 21st century.
Introduction: Music, the moving image, and Ireland
Conceiving the field
A national cinema?
Aims and methods
Representing Ireland
Musical tropes and their alternatives: a book of three parts
Musical and ideological readings
Part 1: Irish Themes on Screen and in Sound
Chapter 1: The first half-century: From silent newsreel to narrative sound film
The beginnings of Irish cinema
Early Irish-themed sound film
Max Steiner and Irish-themed film
British and Irish film: the mid-to-late 1930s
Irish-themed British film music: William Alwyn
The luck of the Irish?
Chapter 2: Harping on? The 1950s to the 1990s
The early to mid-1950s
Irish-produced and Irish-themed
Fighters, writers and leprechauns
Different directions in the 1970s
Re-working sonic Irishness
Chapter 3: Literature-to-film adaptations and music
O’Casey and Synge
Joyce, music and film
New generations of writers
Elmer Bernstein and adapted Irish screenplays
End-of-century adaptations
Part 2: Perception and Production from Within
Chapter 4: Sounding nation and culture on screen
Early perspectives on the independence struggle
Anthropology and ideology
Nation building
Tourism, heritage and the natural world
Commemoration
Documenting tradition in a modern age
Chapter 5: Soundtracks to Ireland’s troubles: dramas and documentaries
The long 19th century on TV
The Northern Ireland Troubles in documentary film
The mid-1990s: A new aesthetic for Troubles documentaries?
Critical perspectives on the Republic: the 1960s
Continuing themes of unemployment, emigration and diaspora
Abuse, abjection and marginalization
Millennial perspectives on Irish history
Chapter 6: Irish Composers and 20th-century film and TV
Mid-20th century composers
Combining tradition and modernity?
Experimental scoring: Brian Boydell
Composing for TV: A.J. Potter
From newsreel to feature film: Gerard Victory
The late 20th century: Seóirse Bodley, John Buckley and Roger Doyle
Part 3: Cinematic and Musical Developments
Chapter 7: Soundtracks for an emerging Irish cinema: Margins, borders, troubles
On the margins: first wave Irish cinema
Early narrative features on the Troubles
Troubles films go mainstream
South of the border: past troubles
Chapter 8: A plurality of genres
Documenting music on screen
Traditional and folk soundtracks
Traditional music and orchestral scores: Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, Bill Whelan and Shaun Davey
From stage to soundtrack: music hall, dance bands and jazz
Popular music: composition and compilation
The Irish music-film
Chapter 9: 21st-century themes
Soundtracks, places, spaces
Crime drama
Past traumas
Looking back at the Troubles
Outsiders
Beyond Ireland
Conclusion: Retrospectives and recent developments
Music, the moving image and Ireland: the first 120 years
21st-century documentary features
Retrospectives and (re)-composition
Developments in screen music production
Glossary of Musical Terms
Selected Filmography
Bibliography
Biography
John O’Flynn is Associate Professor of Music at Dublin City University. He is author of The Irishness of Irish Music (2009) and co-editor of several books, including Music and Identity in Ireland and Beyond (2014) and Made in Ireland: Studies in Popular Music (2020).
"Overall, I highly recommend Music, the Moving Image and Ireland, 1897–2017 as a seminal book that demonstrates the evolution of music in Irish-themed and Irish-produced films over the last 120 years."
- Lauren Alex O’Hagan, Örebro University
