Can you please introduce yourself; can you explain why you chose the MA in Irish Music Studies?
My name is Rhiannon. I am from Connecticut, USA. I have been playing the harp for about 11 years now. My undergraduate degree was a BA in performance, and I wanted to expand my knowledge. I chose this course because I think the topics that it covers are interesting and it is a perfect combination of my favourite subjects, English, History and Music. I was introduced to UL through my harp teacher Dominique Dodge, because she did her masters here. Through her, I looked at the all the course options and this is the one that really stood out to me.
Can you take us through a typical week on the MA programme?
Starting on Mondays, I receive HARP lessons for my independent study. I have that first thing Monday morning and then in the afternoon I am auditing a Bluegrass ensemble on harp. I do the readings every week and then I meet with a tutor Avril where we talk about the readings in detail.
On Wednesday, I have a module called Colloquium, which means you attend four lectures that you have chosen out of a choice of twenty elective options. Thursdays are my longest day. I have a lecture from 10:00 to 12.00 and then from 12.00 to 15.00, I have another class. That class is more structured towards how to write an ethnographic or paper, focusing on all the different viewpoints that you could possibly take. On Fridays, I complete my own independent study.
What was your favourite topic or subject that you studied on the programme?
My favourite module so far is called anthropology of music/current theoretical issues.
The goal is to be able to teach you how you could write through different lenses. One week we could be studying about queer gender issues and then the next week we are learning about ecological topics. It covers a wide range of subjects and I think it is interesting that you could write about the same exact thing fifty different ways.
Can you describe your experience of the programme?
From an academic point of view, it has definitely helped broaden the way I see things. The students in my classes come from all over the world. The number of viewpoints that I am being exposed to and being made aware of is beneficial.
From a musical standpoint, it has definitely changed the way I view what I am playing. I come from a mostly Scottish tune repertoire so to come here where it's all Irish tunes, I see an overlap in some of that repertoire. Knowing how I might approach the music versus how someone here might approach the music is very different, although there are some similarities.
I was able to audit an ensemble for first years last semester and the way that ensemble was taught was vastly different from my undergraduate experience. In my undergraduate degree, I was in a Celtic ensemble. It started with the assumption that most of the people in it were not well versed in the style. It was very much from the ground up whereas here it was assumed you knew how to play it so then it is a matter of let us see what we can do with it. There are a lot of weird chords and time signatures. It felt like, yes, this is Irish traditional music, but it's being reinterpreted in a really fun way
What are the benefits and challenges of completing the MA in Irish Music Studies?
One of the benefits is definitely meeting people. I was able to meet many people that otherwise I might not have.
I think the main challenge I faced was the difference in the schedule from what I was used to during my undergraduate degree and the way classes are scheduled. I think time management and trying to be really on track and on top of my schedule was definitely a challenge, but it was good for me to do and a good life skill to learn.
Would you recommend the MA to others?
The classes are interesting, and I like how it is structured, I thrive on structure. It also has some breathing room to it; every semester you are allowed to choose two optional modules and I like that. You can really focus on what you are interested in. The classes are nice and the teachers are knowledgeable and supportive. They really know what they are talking about. They do try to cater it towards what they think we need to know, what we want to know, but they balance it nicely, and overall, I think UL attracts a nice group of people.
What do you plan to do post-graduation?
My plan has always been to be able to teach and perform on the harp. I think this degree brought back my love of writing. I always loved English class; writing is something I always liked to do but I forgot that I liked doing it. For my thesis I really had to narrow the focus of what I was researching, so I think maybe eventually I'd like to be able to expand on that and do more comparative analysis in this area.