UCD School of Music
Scoil an Cheoil UCD
Dr Frank Lawrence
BA, BD, MA, PhD
Frank Lawrence is Lecturer in Early Music History at the School of Music. He was educated at Maynooth, Rome, Limerick and Dublin (UCD). He holds degrees in Music and Modern Irish, Theology, Chant Performance and Medieval Musicology. He wrote his doctoral dissertation at UCD under the joint supervision of Prof. Dr David Hiley (Regensburg) and Prof. Harry White. The dissertation is a study of the oldest extant notated musical source from Ireland – a mid-twelfth century chant manuscript. He is also an organist and held the position of College Organist during his time at Maynooth.
At UCD Frank teaches modules in medieval vocal music, Renaissance polyphony, medieval notation, Early Music research skills, Music History (pre-1750) and Musicianship. He is the school coordinator for International students, school coordinator for first year students and liaison with the UCD Access Office for HEAR and DARE students.
His principal research is on Western medieval liturgical chant with particular emphasis on palaeographical, repertorial and codicological studies of manuscript sources from the British Isles and northern Europe. His research also encompasses medieval notation in periods of transition, liturgical history in the medieval West, musical culture in Early Modern Italy and performance practice (medieval chant and polyphony). Secondary areas of research include Catholic church music and devotional music of the 19th and 20th centuries, relationships between theology and music / liturgy and music (including the development of a liturgical musicology) and conceptualisations of the sacred in music.
He is a contributor and advisory editor to the Encyclopaedia of Music in Ireland (EMIR), and sits on the advisory board of Cantus Planus and the council of the Henry Bradshaw Society. At UCD his research involves close collaboration with the Mícheál Ó Cléirigh Institute for the Study of Irish History and Civilisation and he is a fellow of the UCD Humanities Institute.
Membership of Learned Societies
- Society for Musicology in Ireland
- International Musicological Society
- Cantus Planus
- Plainsong & Medieval Music Society
- Henry Bradshaw Society
Publications
‘Heinrich Bewerunge (1862-1923) Ein beitrag zur geschichte des Cäcilianismus in Irland’, Kirchenmusikalisches Jahrbuch, 74 (1990), 41-66 [with Harry White].
‘Towards a History of the Cecilian Movement in Ireland: An assessment of the writings of Heinrich Bewerunge (1862-1923) with a catalogue of his publications’, Irish Musical Studies, 2: Music and the Church (Blackrock, Co. Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 1993), 78-107 [with Harry White].
‘What did they sing at Cashel in 1172?: Winchester, Sarum and Romano-Frankish Chant in Ireland’, Journal of the Society for Musicology in Ireland, 3 (2007-8), 111-25.
Review of K. D. Hartzell, Catalogue of Manuscripts written or owned in England up to 1200 containing music in The Musicology Review, 3 (2007),
An Irish Gradual of the Twelfth Century - Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Rawl. C. 892 (facsimile edition and commentary) – forthcoming
The Corpus and Rosslyn missals: Making an Irish Episcopal Liturgy - forthcoming
Conference papers and lectures
‘What did they sing at Cashel in 1172?: Winchester, Sarum and Romano-Frankish Chant in Ireland’, 3rd Annual Conference of the Society for Musicology in Ireland, Cork, May 2005 and International Medieval Congress, Leeds, July 2005
‘Music and Liturgy in Medieval Ireland: An introduction to the sources’, Seminar to Graduate Students, University of Limerick, Limerick, March 2006
‘An Irish perspective on the English pre-Conquest Chant tradition: the non-psalmic Introit verses of MS. Rawl. C. 892’, Medieval Chant Seminar, University of Limerick, Limerick, March 2006
‘The Provenance of MS. Rawl. C. 892 in the Bodleian Library, Oxford’, Cantus Planus bi-annual conference, Niederaltaich, August, 2006
‘The Antiphonale Missarum of the Drummond, Rosslyn and Corpus Missals: Cantus Romanus in pre-Norman Ireland’, Work-in-progress Colloquium, Campion Hall, University of Oxford, Oxford, January, 2007
‘Music and Liturgy in the Irish Twelfth Century - English, Norman and south German influences’, Kolloquium zu aktuellen Themen der Musikforschung, Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, April 2007
‘An Irish Gradual of the Twelfth Century – MS. Rawl. C. 892: Origin and destination’, Medieval Music Seminar, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, May 2007
‘From Brian Boru to Strongbow and Aoife: Music and Liturgy in the long Irish Twelfth Century’, Medieval Music lecture series, National Museum of Ireland, Dublin, February 2009