Declan Townsend: 'My ambition was to teach the world to sing'
Dr Declan Townsend with the Distinguished Alumnus Award he was recently awarded at the MTU Cork School of Music. Picture: Darragh Kane
Dr Declan Townsend recently became the latest recipient of the Distinguished Alumnus Award at MTU Cork School of Music.
The award was established in 2015 to honour the achievements of notable CSM graduates, and previous recipients have included Cara O'Sullivan, Mary Hegarty, and Majella Cullagh.
Born in Tralee, Co Kerry, Dr Townsend began teaching at the Union Quay facility in Cork in 1974 before moving into a Head of Department role in 1981.
He was subsequently involved in many areas of the Cork music scene, composed numerous pieces and also reviewed classical and opera concerts for the Irish Examiner for many years.
Speaking at the awards ceremony, Dr Ciara Glasheen-Artem, Head of MTU Cork School of Music, paid tribute to Dr Townsend.
“Dr Townsend graduated with a Dip-CSM in 1958 and since then has inspired young people and amateurs with his energy and love of music. His thirst for knowledge and spirit of life-long learning has seeped into the foundations of the Cork School of Music.”
I attended the Christian Brothers school in Tralee and, following my father’s transfer to Cork, at Sullivan’s Quay.
My instrumental training was in the Cork School of Music. At UCC I did a BA in Gaeilge, Geography and Music, followed by a B. Mus postgraduate study which led to an M.A. (‘The Origins of the Irish Jig’) and PhD (‘Choral Folksong’).
The first PhD in Music awarded by the National University of Ireland was obtained by Ita Hogan from Ballintemple, Cork. I was the second PhD graduate.
My ambition was, I suppose, to "teach the world to sing", following the motto of the Elizabethan composer, William Byrd, who wrote ‘Since Musick is so good a thing, I wish all men would learn to Sing’.
Not only did I want to share my own obsession with music, I wanted every Irish child to be able to read music and make music either with an instrument or with others, singing in a choir.
I was, in 1960, the only man employed in a secondary school in Cork (CBC on Wellington Road) to teach music.
While there I taught class music, and choral music, as well as teaching and conducting one of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas every Christmas.
Outside of school I played in the Donal Ring Céili band, and became musical director of the Gilbert and Sullivan Company of Nigel Hay productions.
While in UCC I had conducted the Choral Society in The Beggars Opera, and The Conspirators, by Schubert.
In later years I was to conduct about 20 different operettas in Cork, Fermoy, Waterford, Clonmel, and Limerick but all the while I was becoming more and more obsessed with choral music and music in education.
Pilib O Laoghaire recruited me to conduct a male voice choir in Cobh, the Irish Steel Male Voice Choir and they taught me more than I taught them. They provided some of the most moving musical experiences that I've ever enjoyed.
I studied the Ward method of teaching music to children while I was teaching in Christians and then became head of music in 5t Colman's College, Fermoy.
While in St Colman's, I was involved in introducing the new curriculum for music in the Intermediate Certificate to teachers from all over Munster.
The president of St Colman’s College, Fr Chris Twohig, was a highly cultured man, and we ended up with five teachers in the music department of the school.
My constant studying of Irish music began to take a back seat to my interest in how music was taught all over Europe, particularly in Hungary, where the composers Bartok and Kodaly were incorporating Hungarian folk music into their classical compositions.
Having spent eight years trying to track down the origins of Irish reels, hornpipes, and set dances, I changed course and undertook part-time study towards a PhD in ethnomusicology.
Simultaneously, I began to lecture at summer courses for primary teachers and to discover what was needed in the classrooms.
I was invited to return to Cork and join the staff of the School of Music. There, I developed a methodology for teaching sight singing, and eventually published a collection of songs, chosen by the teachers, to sing in harmony with ad-lib accompaniments for whatever instruments were available in the classrooms.
Although I never considered myself a ‘composer’, I had, right from the time I was in CBC, been writing music for all sorts of ensembles, instrumental and choral.
Over the years I have composed solo songs, songs with piano accompaniment, choral music for children and adults in 2, 3, and 4 parts, masses, hymns, music for violin and piano and numerous other instruments, as well as orchestral music for strings, concert band, and symphony orchestra.
And this does not even scratch the surface of what I have arranged for choirs and student ensembles.
If asked, 'What do you do as a musician?', my response is I've done almost everything except conduct a professional orchestra or opera company. l've even sung (as a Hebrew slave) in Verdi's opera, Aida.... and played in a céili band in the Cricklewood Ballroom, London.
I came to a thorough appreciation of opera after marrying Gráinne, who knew far more about it than me. But I knew more about oratorio than her, even though she had sung in Messiah in Galway, where the conductor and all of the soloists were internationally known celebrities. Music for Gráinne and me has been a constant joy.
She tells me that, when she agreed to marry me, I told her, "Although you will be my wife, Music will always be my mistress:"
When I came to reviewing performances of concerts, recitals, operas, etc for the Irish Examiner, I regarded my role as an educational opportunity and sought to draw the attention of readers to the beauty of what was being performed.
Having reviewed over 600 such events I can honestly say that I've done my best to raise the level of appreciation of the Divine Art that has been my raison d'etre all my life.
