"This book addresses the relationship between music and cultural history in Ireland. It variously identifies and examines the development of music as an outgrowth of extra-musical concepts and socio-cultural entities, including celticism (in pre-christian and early christian Ireland), the ideology of ethnic culture, education, nationalism, religion, the composer in modern Ireland and the impact of music on the Irish literary imagination. Throughout the book, an abiding concern with music as the expression of political, social and religious norms of cultural development in Ireland affords thematic coherence to the essays as a whole." "As with the preceding volumes in the series, Music and Irish Cultural History breaks new ground in the cultivation of musicology in Ireland. In particular, it serves as a stimulus to the better understanding of music as a vital preoccupation of the Irish Mind."--BOOK JACKET.