Date: Thursday 22 October 2026
Time: 16.00 to 17.30
Location: Boydell Recital Room, Top Floor, House 5, Department of Music, Trinity College Dublin.
Admission is free and all welcome.
Title: From Realisation to Invention: Historical Pedagogy and Musical Learning Today
Abstract
What did it mean to learn to be a musician in the eighteenth century, and why might that matter for music education today? This lecture explores a largely overlooked pedagogical tradition through the work of Johann Christian Kittel (1732–1809), the last surviving pupil of J.S. Bach. Drawing on manuscript sources and pupil accounts, it examines the pedagogical use of the multiple-bass chorale (a single melody set over alternative basses), and its role in the formation of the eighteenth-century organist. The lecture then asks what this historical practice might offer musical learning today, and what musicology and music education stand to gain from closer dialogue.
Bio
Susan McCormick is a lecturer and researcher in music education at the School of Education, Trinity College Dublin. Susan leads the Bachelor in Music Education programme and the music strands on the Master in Education and Professional Masters in Education programmes. Susan is also the TCD coordinator for Music Making, the Arts and Society, an elective run in conjunction with the Royal Irish Academy of Music.
Susan's doctoral research was carried out under the supervision of Prof Yo Tomita in Queen's University Belfast, and has been described as 'the philological foundation of German Choralbuch research' (Remeš, 2021, p. 274). Susan is former treasurer of the Society for Music Education in Ireland, and is a regular contributor to national press and radio.
Her research explores how people become musicians and educators, and how those pathways can be made more inclusive, reflective and accessible. She investigates how pedagogical identities and teaching practices are shaped across historical and contemporary contexts - from overlooked improvisatory traditions of 18th-century music, to the beliefs and motivations of today's student teachers. A recurring thread across her research projects is the question of whose knowledge and experience are legitimised in music education, and how inherited models of teacher (whether historical or contemporary) shape who feels able to participate, to teach, or to belong. Her future research aims to challenge narrow narratives of musical success and amplify voices that exist outside formal systems. Through scholarly and public-facing work, Susan contributes to more inclusive, critically engaged models of music education and teacher development, that is rooted in lived experience and responsive to the diverse realities of learners and teachers today.
For more information about this event or the Trinity Seminar in Musicology Series please email Dr Nicole Grimes at Nicole.Grimes@tcd.ie.