Scholarcast 7: Globalising Irish Music
Bill Whelan (Composer, Riverdance)- Subscribe to UCDScholarcast in iTunes
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Abstract
Over the last three decades Bill Whelan has been at the heart of many exciting moments of extraordinary innovation in Irish music across the genres from traditional to rock. Here he documents and considers his varied career to date, from jobbing session musician in the early 1970s to Grammy Award winner in 1997. Dónal Lunny and Andy Irvine are recalled as seminal influences on his music during the Planxty years while the founding of Windmill Lane Studios in the 1980s is seen as a landmark moment in the evolution of Irish music across the spectrum. Whelan reflects on Riverdance from inception to global reception. At a time of rapid cultural change he welcomes the creative possibilities brought on by recent immigration to Ireland and argues for the importance of a robust Irish musical tradition.
Bill Whelan
Bill Whelan graduated from UCD with a law degree in 1973. He joined Planxty in the early 1980s and, with Dónal Lunny, arranged and produced Timedance in 1981. He also produced and arranged for artists such as U2, Van Morrison, Kate Bush and Paul Brady. As composer to the W.B. Yeats International Theatre Festival in 1989 he wrote original music for a number of Yeats's plays. In 1994 he composed the music for Riverdance which won him a Grammy Award in 1997. Among his film scores are Lamb, Some Mother's Son and Dancing at Lughnasa. His orchestral works include the specially commissioned pieces, The Ó Ríada Suite (1987), The Seville Suite (1992), and The Spirit of Mayo (1993). His most recent CD, The Connemara Suite, was released in 2008.
