TU Dublin Library Services is an integral partner in the Research Foundation for Music in Ireland, actively curating collections relating to music in Ireland and developing resources to facilitate potential research projects.
The library of the Society for Musicology in Ireland (SMI) is housed in the library of the TU Dublin Conservatory of Music & Drama Rathmines and represents the intial stages in development of a reference library for musicologists in Ireland.
The library of the TU Dublin Conservatory of Music & Drama has a specialised collection of the music composed in Ireland, about Ireland and by Irish composers which has developed through generous donations and bequests.
One of the most interesting acquisitions by the library is a bequest by Marjorie Courtney - an independent agent of performers in Dublin. Details and documentary evidence of agents are particularly rare within Ireland’s music scene making this collection of particular importance. Courtney’s clients included the Irish Festival Singers and Kitty O’Callaghan, the well-known Dublin accompanist. The collection includes a substantial amount of tour ephemera from the Irish Festival Singers tour of America in 1954 and 1955.
The majority of the O’Connor collection comprises individual song scores published in London and New York around the 1920s. Many adopt the topic of Irish nostalgia as seen from abroad, with music covers illustrating the idyllic Irish countryside and the iconic image of the harp: My Irish Home Sweet Home (Hanley & Swain), When Ireland Comes Into Her Own (Branen & Stanley), If I Knew That Ireland Was Free (Elinore, Tracey & Williams); I Love The Name of Killarney (Gillen, Fairman & Tunison).
Finn Georg O’Lochlainn B.Mus, B.A., H.D.E. (b. 9 February 1921 – d. 21 December 1991) appointed as College of Music librarian in 1969, with “ten hours be devoted to Library duties and that this time be taken off Mr O Lochlainn’s teaching time” in piano and composition. He was elected Chairman of the Teachers’ Council in 1975.
Éimear O’Broin (b. 1927 – d.2013), assistant conductor of the Raidió Éireann Symphony Orchestra (RTE National Symphony Orchestra) from 1955 – 1970, staff conductor of the Raidió Éireann Light Orchestra (RTE Concert Orchestra) and Raidió Éireann Singers (RTE Singers) until his retirement in 1991.
A former lecturer at the College of Music (now TU Dublin Conservatory of Music & Drama), Professor Barra Boydell (b.1947) is one of the leading Irish musicologists and educators contributing to the areas of organology, musical iconography and music in Ireland.
Vincenzo Caminiti (d. 2010) was leader of the RTE Symphony Orchestra cello section and husband of RTESO violinist Vanessa Caminiti. The Caminiti collection donated to the TU Dublin Conservatory of Music & Drama contains the original manuscripts compositions and arrangements for violoncello of his father Giuseppe Caminiti (1898-1971). The remaining collection of over one hundred printed violoncello scores comprises canonical repertoire including Bach, Beethoven, Dvorak, Popper, Prokofiev, Selmi and Vivaldi.
The Caruana Gramophone Collection comprises a near-complete run of the bound Gramophone magazine and corresponding shellac (78s) releases. The Gramophone, established in 1923, is the oldest record magazine still in existence. The print volumes begin with the magazine's first issue in April 1923 and run continuously through the World War II to 1999 missing only one volume from June 1984 – May 1985. Frank Caruana collected 10-inch and 12-inch records to correspond with the magazines, which he meticulously organised with a codified numerical sequence.
Belfast-born Derek Bell (1935–2002) was a harpist, oboist, dulcimer player, pianist and composer, best known as a member of the six Grammy Award-winning ensemble, The Chieftains. He also worked with the BBC Northern Ireland Orchestra, the City of Belfast Orchestra and the Belfast Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and appeared with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Budapest Symphony Orchestra, Moscow Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.
