h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

My daughters are starting back to college today.

Iz is into her fourth and final year for her degree in costume making for stage and screen. El is starting a PhD in the history of church music in Ireland in the 18th Century.

Would the fancy seamstress be a "BA" of a sort then? I didn't know there were degrees in such things. A previous Researcher here put herself through university for a BSc in Archaeology, and is now a clerk in a shop. Not much call on the average day for some degrees, no matter how difficult and deep they are . . .

Church music by Irish composers, or whatever music was played in Irish churches, regardless of the composer's origin?

I ask this because Handel's "Messiah" had its premier in Dublin, or so I've read.

Yes, she'll get a BA or something equivalent in Costume Design.

Music as sung/played in Irish churches.

You're right that Handel's Messiah was first performed in Dublin, at the Music Hall in Fishamble Street. There's isn't a music hall there anymore, but I've sung Hallelujah Chorus with the choir standing in Fishamble Street street in front of the spot where the Music Hall once was.

Messiah won't be directly relevant to El's degree but it will be part of the background.

Oh, so "Messiah" wasn't performed in a church?

'Music Hall' sounds a bit of a louche venue for that sort of thing

It was actually the New Musick Hall.

Because they expected a big crowd, the ladies were asked not to wear hoops and the gentlemen to leave their swords at home.

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A friend of mine, David O'Shea, is doing a PhD on the music used in the Chapel Royal, Dublin Castle. Unlike the English Chapel Royal, the Irish one had a permanent location.

Is El going to find much Catholic church music? The Penal Laws remained in force throughout the 18th century.

I ask because the last head of the DIT Conservatory of Music, Gordon Munro, told me he had done his doctorate on music in the reformation Scottish Church. I said, didn't the Calvinist reformation simply ban church music, and he said, yes, more or less.

Keep your topic simple, I say.

El has chosen her dates so as not to overlap with Davd O'Shea.

There won't be any Catholic music. It will be mainly the music of the two cathedrals, Christ Church and St Patrick's.

From the little I know about Eighteenth Century Catholic church music, I gather that there was a period, in the latter part of the century, when orchestrated versions of the Mass were not allowed, at least in Austria. This would have put a crimp in Mozart and Haydn's style. Haydn's late masses may not have been intended for use in churches, but rather as part of the name-day celebrations of Count Esterhazy's wife [who also was the soloist in them].

The restrictions were ultimately eased.

Something similar happened in 1950s Ireland. The only musical instrument allowed in a Catholic church was the organ.

I've never figured out why so many people would rather not listen to organ music. It's a truly remarkable instrument that's been around much longer than many people realize. Nero played a hydraulis, which was a forerunner of the organ.

http://www.westfield.org/programs/curious-facts/

There are very few feats of instrument-playing that amaze me as much as listening to an organist accompany performances of the "Messiah."

It's the associations. For many years the sound of an organ had an effect of instant somnolence on me

Was that because it was heard in a church?

The BBC still broadcasts a weekly show of popular organ tunes: "The Organist Entertains", which has been running since 1969. It's always a surprise when I tune in late expecting to find some late night rock or jazz, only to hear some concert organ churning out "Oh I do like to be beside the seaside":

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006wr9w

I used to have a cassette of Fats Waller piano rolls that had been attached to a pipe organ. It was

I once listened to some J S. Bach organ music, and followed it with some Tina Turner songs that had a booming organ accompaniment. The sonic imprint was similar enough that I wondered if Tina was a Bach fan.

There's a scene in "Eraserhead" wherever a plump middle aged woman on a little stage stomps on what look like tadpoles to the tune of a theater organ. It doesn't seem to mean anything, but the music is enjoyable.

At 6:30 every Sunday morning there used to be a radio program featuring organ music played in different churches around the Boston area. I'm not usually up that early, but I know someone who used to organize the performances.

"It doesn't seem to mean anything, but the music is enjoyable."

That describes everything David Lynch has made.

I agree.

I don't remember any music in David Lynch's "The Straight Story" but the vistas were good.