Longford academic graduates with top marks after uncovering new music research breakthrough

Longford’s Aileen Smith graduated on Tuesday, December 2 from University College Dublin with a First-Class Honours Master of Musicology degree.

As part of her ‘Music and Culture’ degree, Aileen’s final dissertation, ‘The Alexandra Palace Symphony Competition, 1876: Investigating the Accusation of Bias as Reported in the Press”, received an A+ and was also the subject of her paper presented at the Society for Musicology of Ireland’s (SMI) 23rd Annual Plenary Conference in June 2025. 

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The symphony competition, initiated in 1876 by the Alexandra Palace in London, was judged by eminent musicians of the period, George Alexander Macfarren and Joseph Joachim, who awarded the top three places to: 

(1) Francis William Davenport, the son-in-law of Macfarren

(2) Anglo-Irish composer, Charles Villiers Stanford, who was a protégé and close friend to Joachim but also a colleague of Macfarren’s in Cambridge University

(3) Oliviera Prescott, a composition student of Macfarren’s at the Royal Irish Academy of Music in London

As these associations were suspicious and there were approximately 38 submissions into the competition, Aileen sought to collate the concrete evidence to confirm bias occurred. 

“The competition was heavily reported in newspapers and music periodicals at the time. Yet, these articles could not be completely relied upon to either confirm or deny the alleged bias due to their own biases, which I discussed in-depth in the dissertation. Therefore, investigating this competition was the equivalent of being a detective but without the key eyewitnesses or suspects to interrogate,” she explained. 

“I did uncover one letter of complaint about the competition’s results by someone writing under a pseudonym–a bit like a Lady Whistledown in Bridgerton–which was a reliable source and incredible find nearly 150 years later! Every hypothesis had to be thought outside the box. Hence my research was heavily reliant on archival materials, such as census records, directories and concert programmes, to name a few. 

“Overall, I found concrete evidence to prove that the competition was biased.” 

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Going forward, Aileen’s ambition is to ensure that this new research is made publicly available. 

“I believe scholars and researchers should have access to this dissertation for additional research and discussion, as it shines a new light on some prominent figures of classical music in the 19th century, particularly that of Joseph Joachim, who was a renowned Hungarian violinist, and Charles Villiers Stanford, who went on to have a flourishing career as a composer.”

Speaking about the graduation day itself, Aileen remarked how delighted she was to attend the ceremony at UCD, and it was “rewarding” to have achieved a Master’s degree in Musicology. 

Aileen is the sister of Longford Leader journalist, Éimear Smith, who was in attendance at the UCD graduation.