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UCD School of Music

Scoil an Cheoil UCD

Professor Thérèse Smith

B.A., B.MUS., M.A. (Brown), PH.D. (Brown), ARIAM, DipMT

Thérèse Smith received her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Brown University, Rhode Island. She lived for 10 years in the U.S.A. studying, lecturing, and completing field work in Mississippi, Kentucky, and Rhode Island. Her research was funded by the National Endowment for the Arts (Folk Arts Program), Mississippi Arts Commission (production costs and documentation for the LP Moving the Spirit: Music of Worship in Clear Creek, Mississippi), Charlotte E. Newcombe Foundation, Institute of Intercultural Studies, and Frances E. Harnish Foundation. She has been invited to give seminars and lectures at the universities of Alabama, California, Kentucky, Maine, and Rhode Island, and at the major universities in Ireland.

Her research interests include the fields of ethnomusicology, African-American music, Irish traditional music, and Music and Identity. She served as Hon. Secretary of the Cumann Cheol Tíre Éireann / Folk Music Society of Ireland from 1992 to 1997, is co-editor of Éigse Cheol Tíre. Her 2004 book publication Let the church Sing! (University of Rochester Press) has been nominated for the Alan P. Merriam prize, awarded for the most outstanding English-language monograph published in a given year. In addition she is the inaugural Chair of the International Council for Traditional Music Ireland.

Professional Qualifications

• B.A. (Honours), 1979 - University College, Dublin (N.U.I.)
• B.Mus. (Honours), 1980 - University College, Dublin (N.U.I.)
• M.A. (Music/Ethnomusicology), 1983 - Brown University,U.S.A.
• Ph.D. (Music/Ethnomusicology; including full Ph.D. examinations in the history, analysis, and theory of the European "classical" tradition), 1988 - Brown University, U.S.A.
• Class of Primary Degree (B.Mus.): Upper Second
• M.A. thesis: "The Afro-American Spiritual," James Koetting, director.
• Ph.D. Dissertation title: "Moving in the Spirit: Music of Worship in Clear Creek, Mississippi, as an Expression of Worldview." Jeff Todd Titon, advisor
• Associate of the Royal Irish Academy of Music, 1981 (Piano)
• Diploma in Music Teaching, 1980. University College, Dublin (N.U.I.) 

Appointments and Memberships

Professor Smith is a member of the Society for Ethnomusicology, the European Seminar in Ethnomusicology, the British Forum for Ethnomusicology, the Society for Musicology in Ireland, the International Council for Traditional Music, and the Irish Association of American Studies.

She is serving as an external examiner in Ethnomusicology at Queen's University Belfast and in the past she has served as External Examiner for the Waterford Institute of Technology and the Dundalk Institute of Technology, and as a member of the Programmatic Review for the School of Humanities, at Waterford Institute of Technology.

Publications

• Let the Church Sing!: Music and Worship in a Black Mississippi Community. Rochester, N.Y.: University of Rochester Press. Xxi and 293 pp., with photographic illustrations, musical transcriptions, and accompanying CD of field recordings, 2004.
• Éigse Cheol Tíre vols. V-VI. Edited by Nicholas Carolan, Hugh Shields and Thérèse Smith, 2001.
• Blas: the Local Accent in Traditional Irish Music (selected proceedings). Edited by Thérèse Smith and Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, 1997
• Moving in the Spirit: Worship through Music in Clear Creek, Mississippi. Documentary record album (single 33 rpm, 12" stereophonic disc) with analytical notes, the University of Mississippi. Produced under sponsorship of the National Endowment for the Arts, Folk Arts Program, and the Mississippi Arts Commission. 1989.

Articles

• • 2003 "Through the Prism of Song: Positing an American Identity," Irish Journal of American Studies, vols 11 & 12: 151-168
  • 2003 "Untranscribed voices from the past" Béaloideas, vol. 71: 55-74.
  • 2001 "The Study of Oral Traditions of Music," Éigse Cheol Tíre V-VI: 17-28.
  • 2001 with Nicholas Carolan and Joan McDermott, "A Select Discography of Irish Traditional Music, 1985-2000," Éigse Cheol Tíre vols. V-VI: 137-165.
  • 2001 with Bairbre Ní Fhloinn, "Innocent Darby Dane and An Cumann le Béaloideas Éireann" Béaloideas, vol. 69: 180-183
  • 2000 with Séamas Ó Catháin, "Iolar Mór na Spáige" " Béaloideas, vol. 68: 189-191
  • 1999 "The challenge of bringing oral traditions of music into an academic teaching environment." In Crosbhealach an cheoil : tradition and change in Irish traditional music. Edited by Fintan Vallely, et al.: 206-210.
  • 1999 "The Fragmentation of Irish Musical Thought and the Marginalisation of Traditional Music," Studies vol 89, no. 354: 149-158.
  • 1998 "Lining, Testifying, and 'Blackenizing': the musical expression of Black American families." Irish Journal of American Studies, vol 7: 55-78.
  • 1998 with Ríonach Uí Ógáin, "Cumhdachaí" Béaloideas, vol. 66: 199-216.
  • 1998 "Education," review of various institution's offerings in Irish traditional music for The Companion to Irish Traditional Music. Edited by Fintan Vallely.
  • 1997 "From the Local to the Global, and Back." In Blas: the Local Accent in Traditional Irish Music (selected proceedings). Edited by Thérèse Smith and Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin: 1-7.
  • 1997 with Ríonach Uí Ógáin, "Ráca Breá Mo Chinn," Béaloideas : 64-65 (1996-1997): 347-349.
  • 1995 "The Folk Music Society of Ireland," Blas: the Local Accent in Traditional Irish Music, an International Conference, The University of Limerick (3-5 November).
  • 1985 "Chanted Prayer in Southern Black Churches," The Southern Quarterly: A Journal of the Arts in the South, Special issue on Black Religion in the American South in the Twentieth Century: 70-82.

Reviews

• 2003 The Petrie Collection of the Ancient Music of Ireland. David Cooper (ed.). Cork University Press 2002. Béaloideas, vol. 71
• 2001 Rabharta Ceoil. Paddy Glackin. Dublin, Gael-Linn CEF 153, 1991, in Éigse Cheol Tíre V-VI: 104-105.
• 2001 The Melodic Tradition of Ireland. James B. Cowdery. Kent, Ohio, Kent State University Press, 1990, in Éigse Cheol Tíre V-VI: 83-84.

Invited Lectures, Conference and Seminar Papers (selected)

International Council for Traditional Music, 38th International Conference, Sheffield, U.K. (2005), Colloquium, Limerick (2004), Dublin International Conference on Music Analysis, U.C.D. (2005), European Seminar in Ethnomusicology, annual meeting, Intercultural Institute for Comparative Music Studies, Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice, Italy (2004), British Forum for Ethnomusicology, annual meeting, University of Aberdeen (2004), Keeping the Beat: Music, Cultures, Societies, a Milan Group Seminar, Università Degli Studi di Milano, Italy (2003), The Society for Ethnomusicology, annual meeting, Boulder, Colorado, U.S.A. (2002), Oakland, California (1990), Ann Arbor, Michigan (1997), Cambridge, Mass. (1987), northeast chapter meetings (1987, 1985, 1984), American Musicological Society, northeast chapter annual meeting (1986), Royal Musical Association, Irish chapter, annual meeting, Dublin (2002), Irish Association of American Studies, annual conference, Dublin (2002, 1997), the Fifty-first UCD International Summer School (1997), Music in Education National Debate Chairperson, "Biculturalism and multiculturalism in music education," (1996), World Music Conference, University College Cork (1996), Crosbhealach an cheoil, an International Conference on Irish Traditional Music, Dublin (1996), Maynooth International Musicological Conference (1995), Blas: the Local Accent in Irish Traditional Music, an International Conference on Irish Traditional Music, Limerick (1995), International Society for the Comparative Study of Civilizations, Dublin (1994), Folk Music Society of Ireland (1992), Folklore Society of Ireland (1992).

University College Cork, Ó Riada Memorial Lecture (2005), Postgraduate Seminar (1996), University College Dublin, MA in Landscape Archaeology (2005), Postgraduate Seminars for the Department of Irish Folklore (2003, 2001), Postgraduate Seminars for the programme in American Studies (1998), Programme in Canadian Studies (1996), M. Phil. in Irish Studies (1992), University of Limerick, Irish World Music Centre, Postgraduate Seminars (2005, 1995), Trinity College Dublin (2005, 1993), Queen's University Belfast, Department of Social Anthropology/Ethnomusicology (1993), University of Wales visiting students (2000, 1995), the College of Music, Dublin (1992), California State University at Sacramento, U.S.A. (1992), University of Alabama, School of Music, U.S.A. (1991). Brown University, R.I., U.S.A (1988, 1987, 1986, 1985, 1982), University of Kentucky, U.S.A. (1987), Bowdoin College, Maine, U.S.A. (1990, 1989, 1984), Haverford College, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. (1988), Trinity College, Connecticut, U.S.A. (1988).

Postgraduate theses supervised

Professor Smith has supervised M.A., M. Litt. and Ph.D. theses in the areas of Irish traditional music, the music of evangelical Christians, and other ethnomusicological topics. She is currently supervising both M.Mus., and Ph.D. theses in Irish traditional music on American music (sacred and secular), and is serving as international consultant on topics in these areas.