Dr. Tony Langlois, our Festival Founder and Music programmer, was given the highest honour by ICTM Ireland (International Council for Traditional Music and Dance, Ireland) at a ceremony at All Hallows College, Dublin City University on March 7th.
The Oirdhearchas award was bestowed on Tony posthumously, citing his unstinting contribution to the organisation, to the academic world, to students and cultural endeavours globally.
It was a unamimous decision by the organising committee of ICTMD Ireland to nominate Dr. Langlois for this prestigious award, which is made every three years. The recipient of the award will have made a continuous and important contribution over many years to the scholarly study of music and dance. Oirdhearchas is an old Irish word, incorporating the qualities of excellence, dignity, and worth and also confers a unique title of honour on the recipient.The event took place at All Hallows College, Dublin City University, and the award was presented to Tony’s wife Úna Langlois, his son Pascal Langlois and sister, Kate Hogben, who travelled to Dublin to receive it.
Professor Jaime Jones of University College Dublin presentation speech:
‘As news spread of the unexpected passing of Dr. Tony Langlois, disbelief quickly turned to grief among many different music, film, sound studies, and scholarly communities across Ireland and beyond. For us in ICTMD, it was not just about the sad and untimely passing of a valued fellow ethnomusicologist. The depth of feeling signalled something else; a profound sense of personal loss amongst many of our members. Stories began to emerge of a colleague and, more especially, a friend, who wore his intelligence lightly and always in the service of other scholars, especially younger academics floundering in new positions, trying to make their way. Tony Langlois offered his support with such grace, ease and humour that it was easy to miss just how much of an impact he had on people and on shaping the institutions that undergirded the academic journeys and professional networks of others. He did not have a transactional bone in his body and he never seemed exhausted from giving.
Tony’s research interests were wide and varied, yet he managed to generate work of considerable depth throughout his career as an academic, moving from an undergraduate dissertation on House Music in Manchester, Belfast, and Liverpool, to a PhD on Music and Popular Culture on the Moroccan/Algerian Border, which he finished in 1997 at Queen’s University, Belfast. His commitment to his musical communities in those borderlands remained steadfast, not only in his research, but also in his efforts to bring students from these regions to Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, in more recent times.
Tony picked up and expertly honed many skills throughout his life, from performing a variety of world musics to generating multimedia compositions; scoring soundtracks to leading collaborative soundscape projects. He led the way in the subdiscipline of media ethnomusicology in MIC and his work as Co-Director of The Audio Research Centre, along with other facets of applied media production, inspired a generation of students, many of whom now hold key positions in academia and related creative fields.
Tony worked in a number of academic settings across his career – occasional, part-time, and full time – from Trinity and Queen’s, to UCC and UL, with other places in between, finally settling in MIC in Limerick. In each place, he left a deep and abiding impact; his students invariably speak of his absolute commitment to them and his astounding enthusiasm for teaching and critical engagement, underpinned by expansive knowledge, insight, and a wry sense of humour.
Highlights in his career include the 2011 edited collection Non-Western Popular Music. Tony’s passion for the Eurovision Song Context translated into important writing that continues to have an impact today in Eurovision Studies. His work on Limerick Soundscapes from 2014 illustrated ways in which citizens could become part of a sounding out of their city by being facilitated to record and pay attention to their sonic environment; a project that spoke to his abiding commitment to applied ethnomusicology. That project was featured in the ground-breaking OUP double volume on Applied Ethnomusicology from 2021, edited by leading international ethnomusicologists Beverley Diamond and Salwa El-Shawan Castelo-Branco.
Tony’s service to this organisation, ICTMD, was exemplary. He was characteristically low key and facilitatory, while being extraordinarily efficacious in his role of Honorary Secretary of the society from 2009-2012, and especially as Editor and Online Editor of the associated journal Ethnomusicology Ireland (2009-2017), during a period that was critical in sustaining and then breathing new life into the Irish chapter of the organisation. Tony also co-edited the 2013 Fieldwork in Ireland CD, and he would go on to support incoming chairs and editors by always being available to give advice or lend his considerable expertise, ensuring the health and robustness not only of the organisation but also of the people volunteering on it.
Tony had a deep passion for all kinds of music, especially electronic music; his more recent work on electronic music in Iceland and Ireland exemplified this, as did his longstanding commitment and service to ISSTA (Irish Sound, Science, and Technology Association, for whom he was President from 2011-2014). His composer profile is featured on the Contemporary Music Centre website, and his creative outputs may be found on a number of websites, including his own. But Tony also maintained a healthy creative life outside of academia; his work on IndieCork Film Festival, founded in 2013, and back to his homeland to create the 13th Parish Jersey Film festival, evidenced his sincere commitment to his many creative communities and to the broader public.
Tony Langlois genuinely strove to make the world a better place, through his pedagogy, his publications, his art, and his activism. That, more than anything, is Tony Langlois’ lasting legacy. But there is another quieter legacy, too; Tony modelled how to be a thoughtful, generous, smart, funny, and egoless ethnomusicologist, academic, and person. That we might all strive to follow his example…
You will be sorely missed by your colleagues and those of us who were lucky enough to consider you a friend, Tony.”
This chapter from Le Guin’s interpretation of the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu seems a fitting tribute to the gentle, creative maverick that was Tony Langlois.
Acting Simply
True leaders
are rarely known to their followers.
Next after them are the leaders
the people know and admire;
after them, those they fear;
after them, those they despise.
To give no trust
is to get no trust
When the work’s done right
with no fuss or boasting
ordinary people say,
Oh, we did it.
