Music of Ireland

Irish music is music that has been created in various genres on the island of Ireland.
The indigenous music of the island is termed Irish traditional music. It has remained vibrant through the 20th and into the 21st century, despite globalising cultural forces. In spite of emigration and mass exposure to music from Britain and the United States, Ireland's traditional music has kept many of its elements and has itself influenced other forms of music, such as country and roots music in the United States, which in turn have had some influence on modern rock music. Irish folk music has occasionally been fused with punk rock, electronic rock and other genres. Some of these fusion artists have attained mainstream success, at home and abroad.
In art music, Ireland has a history reaching back to Gregorian chants in the Middle Ages, choral and harp music of the Renaissance, court music of the Baroque and early Classical period, as well as many Romantic, late Romantic and twentieth-century modernist music. It is still a vibrant genre with many composers and ensembles writing and performing avant-garde art music in the classical tradition.
On a smaller scale, Ireland has also produced many jazz musicians of note, particularly after the 1950s.

Early Irish music

By the High and Late Medieval Era, the Irish annals were listing native musicians, such as the following:

921BC: Cú Congalta, priest of Lann-Leire, the Tethra for voice, personal form and knowledge, died.
1011: Connmhach Ua Tomhrair, priest and chief singer of Cluain-mic-Nois, died.
1168: Amhlaeibh Mac Innaighneorach, chief ollamh of Ireland in harp-playing, died.
1226: Aed mac Donn Ó Sochlachain, erenagh of Cong, a man eminent for chanting and for the right tuning of harps and for having made an instrument for himself which none had made before, distinguished also in every art such as poetry, engraving and writing and in every skilled occupation, died.
1269: Aed Ó Finn, master of music and minstrelsy, died.
1329: Maol Ruanaidh Cam Ó Cearbhaill, tiompanist, murdered during the Braganstown Massacre in County Louth.
1330: Mael Sechlainn Mac Carmaic, a general entertainer, died.
1343: Donnchad Clereach Ó Maol Braonáin, a choral canon of Elphin, was killed by an arrow.
1357: Donn Shléibhe Mac Cerbaill, an accomplished musician... died.
1360: Gilla na Naem Ó Conmaigh, music ollamh of Thomond... died.
1361. Magraith Ó Fionnachta, Chief Musician and Tiompanist to the Síol Muireadaigh, died.
1364: Bran Ó Brain, a skilful tympanist... died.
1369: John Mac Egan, and Gilbert Ó Bardan, two accomplished young harpers of Conmaicne, died.
1469: Ruaidrí mac Donnchad Ó Dálaigh, the most musical-handed harpist in all Ireland.
1490: Diarmait MacCairbre, harper, was executed.
1553: Tadhg, son of Ruaidhri Ó Comhdhain, i.e. the ollamh of Éire and Alba in music, died.
1561: Naisse mac Cithruadh, drowned on Lough Gill.
''1589. Daighre Ó Duibhgeannáin, a most affable, musical man, died.''
Modern interpretation

Early Irish poetry and song has been translated into modern Irish and English by notable Irish poets, song collectors and musicians. The 6th century hymn Rop tú mo baile by Dallán Forgaill for example, was published in 1905 in English by Mary Elizabeth Byrne, and is widely known as Be Thou My Vision. The Blackbird of Belfast Lough has been notably translated by poets such as Seamus Heaney, Ciaran Carson and Frank O'Connor. Notable recordings of modern interpretations of early Irish music include Pádraigín Ní Uallacháin's Songs of the Scribe, various music albums by choral group Anúna, and the recordings of Caitríona O'Leary with Dúlra and the eX Ensemble.

Early Irish musicians abroad

Some musicians were acclaimed in places beyond Ireland. Cú Chuimne lived much of his adult life in Gaelic Scotland, and composed at least one hymn. Foillan, who was alive in the seventh century, travelled through much of Britain and France; around 653 at the request of Saint Gertrude of Brabant, taught psalmody to her nuns at Nievelle. Tuotilo, who lived in Italy and Germany, was noted both as a musician and a composer.
Helias of Cologne, is held to be the first to introduce Roman chant to Cologne. His contemporary, Aaron Scotus was an acclaimed composer of Gregorian chant in Germany.
Donell Dubh Ó Cathail, was not only musician of Viscount Buttevant, but, with his uncle Donell Óge Ó Cathail, harper to Elizabeth I.

Early modern times

Up to the seventeenth century, harp musicians were patronised by the aristocracy in Ireland. This tradition died out in the eighteenth century with the collapse of Gaelic Ireland. Turlough Carolan is the best known of those harpists, and over 200 of his compositions are known. Some of his pieces use elements of contemporary baroque music, but his music has entered the tradition and is played by many folk musicians today. Edward Bunting collected some of the last-known Irish harp tunes at the Belfast Harp Festival in 1792. Other important collectors of Irish music include Francis O'Neill and George Petrie.
Other notable Irish musicians of this era included Cearbhall Óg Ó Dálaigh ; Piaras Feiritéar ; William Connellan and his brother, Thomas Connellan, composers; Dominic Ó Mongain ; Donnchadh Ó Hámsaigh ; poet and songwriter Eoghan Rua Ó Súilleabháin ; Arthur O'Neill ; Patrick Byrne ; world-renowned piper Tarlach Mac Suibhne ; poet and songwriter Colm de Bhailís.

Traditional music

Irish traditional music includes many kinds of songs, including drinking songs, ballads and laments, sung unaccompanied or with accompaniment by a variety of instruments. Traditional dance music includes reels, hornpipes and jigs. The polka arrived at the start of the nineteenth century, spread by itinerant dancing masters and mercenary soldiers, returning from Europe. Set dancing may have arrived in the eighteenth century. Later imported dance-signatures include the mazurka and the highlands.
The Irish fiddle was said by one nationalist researcher to have been played in Ireland since the 8th century, although this has never been proved by texts or artifacts. The bagpipes have a long history of being associated with Ireland Great Irish warpipes were once commonly used in Ireland especially in battle as far back as the 15th century.
A revival of Irish traditional music took place around the turn of the 20th century. The button accordion and the concertina were becoming common. Irish stepdance was performed at céilís, organised competitions and at some country houses where local and itinerant musicians were welcome. Irish dancing was supported by the educational system and patriotic organisations. An older style of singing called sean-nós, which is a form of traditional Irish singing was still found, mainly for very poetic songs in the Irish language.
From 1820 to 1920 over 4,400,000 Irish emigrated to the US, creating an Irish diaspora in Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston, New York and other cities. O'Neill made the first recordings of Irish music on Edison wax cylinders. Later, Irish musicians who were successful in the USA made commercial recordings which found their way around the world and re-invigorated musical styles back in the homeland. For example, American-based fiddlers like Michael Coleman, James Morrison and Paddy Killoran did much to popularise Irish music in the 1920s and 1930s, while Ed Reavy composed over a hundred tunes that have since entered the tradition in both Ireland and the diaspora.
After a lull in the 1940s and 1950s, when traditional music was at a low ebb, Seán Ó Riada's Ceoltóirí Chualann, The Chieftains, Tom Lenihan, The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, The Irish Rovers, The Dubliners, Ryan's Fancy and Sweeney's Men were in large part responsible for a second wave of revitalisation of Irish folk music in the 1960s. Several of these were featured in the 2010 TV movie "My Music: When Irish Eyes are Smiling". Seán Ó Riada in particular was singled out as a force who did much for Irish music, through programming on Radio Éireann in the late 1940s through the 1960s. He worked to promote and encourage the performing of traditional Irish music, and his work as a promoter and performer led directly to the formation of the Chieftains. His work inspired the likes of Planxty, The Bothy Band and Clannad in the 70s. Later came such bands as Stockton's Wing, De Dannan, Altan, Arcady, Dervish and Patrick Street, along with a wealth of individual performers.
More and more people play Irish music and new bands emerge every year such as Téada, Gráda, Dervish, and Lúnasa.

Classical music in Ireland

There is evidence of music in the "classical" tradition since the early 15th century when a polyphonic choir was established at Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, and "city musicians" were employed in the major cities and towns, who performed on festive occasions. In the 18th century, Dublin was known as the "Second City" of the British Isles, with an active musical life culminating in, among other events, the first performance of Handel's famous oratorio Messiah. The ballad opera trend, caused by the success of the Beggar's Opera, has left noticeable traces in Ireland, with many works that influenced the genre in England and on the continent, by musicians such as Charles Coffey and Kane O'Hara.

Composers of note

Apart from the harper-composers of the 16th century, composers in the 16th and 17th century usually came from a Protestant Anglo-Irish background, as due to the discrimination of Catholics no formal musical education was available to them. Composers were often associated with either Dublin Castle or one of the Dublin cathedrals. These include immigrants in the 18th century such as Johann Sigismund Cousser, Matthew Dubourg, and Tommaso Giordani. Thomas Roseingrave and his brother Ralph were prominent Irish baroque composers. Among the next generation of composers were the Cork-born Philip Cogan, a prominent composer of piano music including concertos, John Andrew Stevenson, who is best known for his publications of Irish Melodies with poet Thomas Moore, who also wrote operas, religious music, catches, glees, odes, and songs. In the early 19th century Irish-born composers dominated English-language opera in England and Ireland, including Charles Thomas Carter, Michael Kelly, Thomas Simpson Cooke, William Henry Kearns, Joseph Augustine Wade and, later in the century, Michael W. Balfe and William Vincent Wallace. John Field has been credited with the creation of the Nocturne form, which influenced Frédéric Chopin. John William Glover, Joseph Robinson and Robert Prescott Stewart kept Irish classical music in Dublin alive in the 19th century, while mid-19th-century emigrants include George William Torrance and George Alexander Osborne. Charles Villiers Stanford and Hamilton Harty were among the last emigrants in Irish music, combining a late romantic musical language with Irish folklorism. Their contemporary in Ireland was the Italian immigrant Michele Esposito, a figure of seminal importance in Irish music who arrived in Ireland in 1882. The years after Irish independence were a difficult period in which composers tried to find an identifiable Irish voice in an anti-British climate, which included ressentiments against classical music as such. The development of Irish broadcasting in the 1920s and the gradual enlargement of the Radio Éireann Orchestra in the late 1930s improved the situation. Important composers in these years were John F. Larchet, Ina Boyle, Arthur Duff, Aloys Fleischmann, Frederick May, Joan Trimble, and Brian Boydell. The middle decades of the 20th century were also shaped by A.J. Potter, Gerard Victory, James Wilson, Seán Ó Riada, John Kinsella, and Seóirse Bodley. Prominent names among the older generation of composers in Ireland today are Frank Corcoran, Eric Sweeney, John Buckley, Gerald Barry, Raymond Deane, Gearóid Ó Deaghaidh, Patrick Cassidy, and Fergus Johnston .