We are pleased to announce that this year’s Dent Medal, struck in memory of the distinguished scholar and musician Edward J. Dent (1876–1957), has been awarded to David R. M. Irving.

Excerpt from the announcement (read the full citation here):

Irving has made major contributions to the study of music and colonialism, the global history of music, and the role of music in early modern intercultural contact. His first, ground-breaking monograph, Colonial Counterpoint: Music in Early Modern Manila (Oxford University Press, 2010) concerns the development of Iberian-influenced musical culture in South-East Asia with a particular focus on the Philippines, in which he proposed the theory that musical counterpoint acted as a powerful agent of colonialism. This book established him as one of the most innovative and important voices in the emerging field of global music history, for which he has developed new conceptual frameworks, including establishing a difference between “world music history” and “global music history” which has since become ubiquitous. His re-evaluations of the colonial history of European music found important expression in his second monograph, The Making of European Music in the Long Eighteenth Century (Oxford University Press, 2024), which has been widely admired within and beyond musicology.

The Dent Medal has been awarded by the Royal Musical Association annually since 1961 to recipients selected for their outstanding contribution to musicology. Historically, nominations for the Dent Medal have been accepted only from trustees of the RMA and from Directorium members of the IMS. In order to ensure a diverse range of candidates, from 2022 all members of both organizations are invited to submit nominations.