Joseph Groocock (1913-1997) was an educator, composer, conductor and organist. A former teacher of the Conservatory of Music & Drama (1975-1997), he also taught at St Columba’s College, Trinity College Dublin and the Royal Irish Academy of Music. He was also a choral conductor of the Culwick Choral Society and the University of Dublin Choral Society. The library collection contains over 200 works of the choral society repertoire including folk part-songs of Britain and Ireland together with Christmas carols. These scores are available for use and loan.
Most notable perhaps of Groocock’s contribution to music in Ireland were his writings on music in Ireland, music education and in particular fugal composition. His volume Fugal Composition: A Guide to the Study of Bach’s ‘48’ was posthumously published by his wife Doreen under the Drummartin Press imprint and later edited by Yo Tomita and published by Greenwood Press in 2003. The library holds the Tomita edition and two reference copies of the 1998 Drummartin Press edition. The 1998 copies are type-written, spiral bound and have handwritten editorial notes (e.g. ‘Intro: very good/clear aims set out clearly page 3-6...’).
The contents of the collection can be seen here.
