Music Preferred: Essays in Musicology, Cultural History and Analysis in Honour of Harry White

Vienna: Hollitzer Verlag, 2018
784pp

“A birthday, and reaching the age of sixty, make an appropriate time to celebrate one of Ireland’s most distinguished musicologists. The title of this book, ‘Music Preferred’, is from White’s very first publication, a poem written to announce his intention to privilege music as a preoccupation rather than take a purely literary path.  Since then White has actively built a stellar reputation as an eminent scholar of international stature. His establishment of Irish Musical Studies, The Society for Musicology in Ireland and general editorship of The Encyclopedia of Music in Ireland not only bear testimony to the kind of goals that he has set himself, but his ability to bring others with him. It is a measure of his gifts and of his energy that in the past three decades he has remained an exceptionally productive scholar, whose work has been transformative. His monographs and edited volumes have been reviewed as being major works of scholarship. The original quality of these publications has led to White’s widespread international acceptance as a leading musicologist specializing in the cultural history of music in Ireland, the music of Johann Joseph Fux and the history of Anglo-American musicology since 1945. The vitality and creativity of his scholarly career is indicated by the fact that he continues to work in all of his fields of interest, cross-fertilizing each of them with questions and insights drawn from the others. As a scholar he represents the tradition of musicology in Ireland at its very best: original, insightful, expansive and yet responsive to public interest, a superb communicator and industrious to a remarkable degree. Aside from honouring to his lifelong commitment to musicology, this book celebrates his extensive European connections and his distinguished record as an inspirational teacher.”

Prof. Lorraine Byrne Bodley, Liber Amicorum, Preface to Music Preferred