"No Encores" The Royal Dublin Society Concert Archive Recitals in Retrospect: 1925-50

A large archive of sources for the RDS classical music recitals is extant in the Society’s Library, Ballsbridge, Dublin. The recitals were established in 1886 for the promotion of chamber music and in order to expose Dublin audiences to the works of the great composers. Extant in the collection are minute books; autographed programmes; newspaper cuttings which include previews, reviews and advertisements; correspondences with artists and agents; promotional material; selections of photographs; records of attendance, artists fees and takings; and volumes of printed music.
This paper will document the organisation, management and occurrence of the RDS classical music recitals for the period 1925 to 1950 and will encompass the opening of the current concert hall (The Members’ Hall, 1925), the Society’s bi-centenary celebrations (1931) and the continuance of the recitals within the context of the Second World War (1939- 45). The paper will examine and analyse the following: networks, repertoire and reception.
The RDS music committee established significant links with many performers and UK-based classical music agents. Recitalists include musicians of international renown; Myra Hess, Isolde Menges, Lili Kraus, Joseph Szigeti, Leon Goossens, Sir Hamilton Harty and The Hallé Orchestra, The Catterall Quartet and many local, Dublin-based musicians; Raidió Éireann Orchestra, Dublin String Orchestra, Dublin Philharmonic Orchestra and Culwick Choral Society. The compromises and collaborations in evidence between the music committee, agents and performers resulted in the presentation of varied and well-balanced programmes featuring sonatas, quartets, trios, concerti, overtures, symphonies and songs by composers including Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn and Brahms. Works by contemporary composers including Bax, Dohnanyi, Szymanowski and Suk were also regularly performed, as were works with an Irish influence or flavour. Audiences mainly consisted of members of the Society, music students were encouraged to attend at a reduced rate and reviews were regularly published in the Irish Times, Irish Independent and Irish Press.

Catalogue of works on anthropology, ethnology, primitive society, etc., etc. : also mythology and folk-lore including a portion of the Library of Sir H. H. Risley.

Mode of access: Internet.

The scientific proceedings of the Royal Dublin Society.

Mode of access: Internet.

Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London.

Mode of access: Internet.

Proceedings of the Royal Society of London.

Title on vol. t.p., 1905-1934: Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Containing papers of a biological character.

Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Obituary notices are included in many of the volumes.

Cantor lectures on the modern methods of artificial illumination : delivered before the Royal Society of Arts on February 15, 22, and March 1 and 8, 1909 /

Mode of access: Internet.

Museum and Library of the State historical society of North Dakota.

Mode of access: Internet.

Printed books in the library of the Society of Antiquaries of London.

Bound with: Printed books in the library of Antiquaries of London, 1887.

Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society

Mode of access: Internet.

Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society.

Mode of access: Internet.

Transactions of the Royal Historical Society.

Vol. 1- lacks date designation.

The role of the library in an electronic society /

"Papers presented at the 1979 Clinic on Library Applications of Data Processing, April 22-25, 1979."