The founding of the Society for Musicology in Ireland (SMI) is largely due to his vision and effort, and he served as its inaugural president from 2003 to 2006. Likewise, the publication of the "Encyclopaedia of Music in Ireland" (2 volumes, 2013) would have been unthinkable without White, who has argued for such a publication repeatedly from as early as 1989. He became its joint editor, with Barra Boydell. In his many articles on Irish music and in three monographs – "The Keeper's Recital" (1998), "The Progress of Music in Ireland" (2005) and "Music and the Irish Literary Imagination" (2008) – he has shed new light on the central role of music in Irish cultural and intellectual life; for the last-named book he was awarded the Michael J. Durkan Prize from the American Conference for Irish Studies (ACIS). In 2006, White became the first historical musicologist to be elected to the Royal Irish Academy after Aloys Fleischmann (1966) and John Blacking (1983). Other honours include Fellowship of the RIAM (2007) and the first DMus awarded by the National University of Ireland for published work in musicology (2007). He is also an Honorary Fellow of the Academy of St Cecilia (London). In acknowledgement of the publication of the "Encyclopaedia of Music in Ireland", both editors received the Harrison Medal of the Society for Musicology in Ireland in 2014. In 2015, he was elected to the Academia Europaea, and in 2018 he was elected Corresponding Fellow of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, the first Irish person to receive this honour. On the occasion of his sixtieth birthday in 2018, he was honoured with a "festschrift", edited by Lorraine Byrne Bodley with contributions from more than 40 authors that is a testimony to White's wide research interests and his impressive circle of academic friends across the globe. David Hiley wrote of it: "This book is a fine tribute to a remarkable scholar. Not only has Harry White revealed unknown musical riches in Germany and Austria, he has set the music of Ireland in a clearer, truer perspective". The eloquent, expressive and often poetic style of Harry White's musicological writing finds a more artistic outlet in his poetry. As a master's student in Toronto, he had already won the university's gold medal for poetry in 1984. Two published volumes of his poetry have appeared to date: "Polite Forms" (2012) and "The Kenmare Occurrences" (2018).