Irish traditional music
Irish traditional music is a genre of folk music that developed in Ireland.
In A History of Irish Music, W. H. Grattan Flood wrote that, in Gaelic Ireland, there were at least ten instruments in general use. These were the crwth and cláirseach, the tiompán, the feadán, the buinne, the guthbuinne, the beannbhuabhal and corn, the cuislenna, the stoc and storgán, and the cnámha. Within the tradition, there is poetic reference to the use of a fiddle as far back as the 7th century, which predates the development of the modern violin by around 900 years.
There are several collections of Irish folk music from the 18th century, but it was not until the 19th century that ballad printers became established in Dublin. Important collectors include Colm Ó Lochlainn, George Petrie, Edward Bunting, Francis O'Neill, James Goodman and many others. Though solo performance is preferred in the folk tradition, bands or at least small ensembles have probably been a part of Irish music since at least the mid-19th century, although this is a point of much contention among ethnomusicologists.
Irish traditional music has endured more strongly against the forces of cinema, radio and the mass media than the indigenous folk music of most countries in the west of Europe. From the end of the Second World War until the late fifties folk music was held in low regard. Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann and the popularity of the Fleadh Cheoil helped lead the revival of the music. Following the success of the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem in the US in 1959, Irish folk music became fashionable again. The lush sentimental style of singers such as Delia Murphy was replaced by guitar-driven male groups such as the Dubliners. Irish showbands presented a mixture of pop music and folk dance tunes, though these died out during the seventies. The international success of the Chieftains and subsequent musicians and groups has made Irish folk music a global brand.
Historically much old-time music of the US grew out of the music of Ireland, England and Scotland, as a result of cultural diffusion. By the 1970s Irish traditional music was again influencing music in the US and further afield in Australia and Europe. It has occasionally been fused with rock and roll, punk rock and other genres.
Musical characteristics
Composition
Irish dance music is isometric; is built around patterns of bar-long melodic phrases akin to call and response. A common pattern is A Phrase, B Phrase, A Phrase, Partial Resolution, A Phrase, B Phrase, A Phrase, Final Resolution, though this is not universal. Mazurkas, for example, tend to feature a C Phrase instead of a repeated A Phrase before the Partial and Final Resolutions. Many tunes have pickup notes which lead in to the beginning of the A or B parts. Mazurkas and hornpipes have a swing feel, while other tunes have straight feels.Tunes are typically binary in form, divided into two parts, each with four to eight bars. The parts are referred to as the A-part, B-part, and so on. Each part is played twice, and the entire tune is played three times; AABB, AABB, AABB. Many tunes have similar ending phrases for both A and B parts; it is common for hornpipes to have the second half of each part be identical. Additionally, hornpipes often have three quavers or quarternotes at the end of each part, followed by pickup notes to lead back to the beginning of the A part onto the B part. Many airs have an AABA form.
While airs are usually played singly, dance tunes are usually played in medleys of 2-4 tunes called sets.
Historically, tunes were often made up of a far greater number of parts than in modern times. Tunes of up to 6 parts are well documented in the written record, and there is no real solid rule regarding the number of parts a tune might have; One of the more extreme examples includes a tune comprising 24 parts. While shorter tunes are perhaps more common nowadays, lengthy tunes are still sometimes played in jam circles in modern times.
Modes
Irish music generally is modal, using Ionian, Aeolian, Dorian, and Mixolydian modes, as well as hexatonic and pentatonic versions of those scales. Some tunes do feature accidentals.Ornamentation
Singers and instrumentalists often embellish melodies through ornamentation, using grace notes, rolls, cuts, crans, or slides.Accompaniment
While uilleann pipes may use their drones and regulators to provide harmonic backup, and fiddlers often use double stops in their playing, due to the importance placed on the melody in Irish music, harmony is typically kept simple or absent. Usually, instruments are played in strict unison, always following the leading player. True counterpoint is mostly unknown to traditional music, although a form of improvised "countermelody" is often used in the accompaniments of bouzouki and guitar players. In contrast to many kinds of western folk music, there are no set chord progressions to tunes. Many accompanists use power chords to let the melody define the tonality or use partial chords in combination with ringing drone strings to emphasize the tonal center. Many guitarists use DADGAD tuning because it offers flexibility in using these approaches, as does the GDAD tuning for bouzouki.Music for singing
Like all traditional music, Irish folk music has changed slowly. Most folk songs are less than 200 years old. One measure of its age is the language used. Modern Irish songs are written in English and Irish. Most of the oldest songs and tunes are rural in origin and come from the older Irish language tradition. Modern songs and tunes often come from cities and towns, Irish songs went from the Irish language to the English language. In the late 1900s Frank Harte composed more ribald songs for the urban pub scene; the genre moved effortlessly from the countryside to the town.Sean-nós songs
Unaccompanied vocals are called sean nós and are considered the ultimate expression of traditional singing. This is usually performed solo. Sean-nós singing is highly ornamented and the voice is placed towards the top of the range. A true sean-nós singer, such as Tom Lenihan, will vary the melody of every verse, but not to the point of interfering with the words, which are considered to have as much importance as the melody.Sean-nós can include non-lexical vocables, called lilting, also referred to by the sounds, such as "diddly die-dely".
Non-sean-nós traditional singing, even when accompaniment is used, uses patterns of ornamentation and melodic freedom derived from sean-nós singing, and, generally, a similar voice placement.
Caoineadh songs
Caoineadh is Irish for a lament, a song which is typified by lyrics which stress sorrow and pain. The word is Anglicised as "keening". Traditionally, the Caoineadh song contained lyrics in which the singer lamented for Ireland after having been forced to emigrate due to political or financial reasons. The song may also lament the death of a family member or the lack of news from loved ones. In Irish music, the Caoineadh tradition was once widespread, but began to decline from the 18th century onwards, becoming almost completely extinct by the middle of the 20th century. Examples of Caoineadh songs include: "Far Away in Australia", "The Town I Loved So Well", "Going Back to Donegal" and "Four Green Fields". Caoineadh singers were originally paid to lament for the departed at funerals, according to a number of Irish sources.Dance music
Social settings
Irish traditional music and dance has seen a variety of settings, from house parties, country dances, ceili dances, stage performances and competitions, weddings, saint's days or other observances. The most common setting for Irish dance music is the seisiún, which very often features no dancing at all.Repertoire
Traditional dance music includes reels, hornpipes, and jigs. Jigs come in various other forms for dancing – the slip jig and hop jig are commonly written in time.Later additions to the repertoire include the waltz and, in County Donegal, mazurkas in the same time signature, though with an accent on the 2nd beat. Donegal is also notable for its "highland", a sort of Irish version of the Scottish strathspey, but with a feel closer to a reel with the occasional scots snap.
Polkas are a type of tune mostly found in the Sliabh Luachra area, at the border of Counties Cork and Kerry, in the south of Ireland. Another distinctive Munster rhythm is the Slide in time.
Style
The concept of "style" is of large importance to Irish traditional musicians. At the start of the 19th century, distinct variation in regional styles of performance existed. With the release of American recordings of Irish traditional musicians and increased communications and travel opportunities, regional styles have become more standardised. Regional playing styles remain nonetheless, as evidenced by the very different playing styles of musicians from Donegal, Clare and Sliabh Luachra. Donegal fiddle playing is characterised by fast, energetic bowing, with the bow generating the majority of the ornamentation; Clare fiddle playing is characterised by slower bowing, with the fingering generating most of the ornamentation. While bowed triplets are more common in Donegal, fingered triplets and fingered rolls are very common in Clare.Stage performers from the 1970s and 1980s have used the repertoire of traditional music to create their own groups of tunes, without regard to the conventional 'sets' or the constraint of playing for dancers. Burke's playing is an example of an individual, unique, distinctive style, a hybrid of his classical training, the traditional Sligo fiddle style and various other influences.