Madam, - I would like to reinforce Una Hunt's call (January 5th) for a national archive of Irish composers as a badly-needed resource for musicians and historians.
While the Irish Traditional Music Archive and the Contemporary Music Centre fulfil valuable functions for their particular areas, there is no dedicated centre for the preservation of the substantial amount of music produced by generations of Irish composers who supplied music for church, theatre and concerts in the main urban centres from the early 18th century to the mid-20th century.
This music is at present housed in various libraries throughout the country, often uncatalogued. As years go by, it is in serious danger of being damaged or lost.
The establishment of the Society for Musicology in Ireland (2002) reflects the healthy growth of musical scholarship in our third-level institutions. In recent years there has been an explosion of postgraduate research and publications in the area of cultural nationalism.
A national archive of Irish composers would fill a gap in our cultural and musical history and would redress the neglect that these composers have suffered in the past. Like our poets and writers, our composers deserve to be a valued segment of our national heritage. - Yours, etc,
Dr ITA BEAUSANG, Kincora Court, Dublin 3.