Ireland
(Irish,
Éire).
Country
in Europe. It is the second-largest island of the British Isles. It is divided
into two sections, the Republic of Ireland which comprises 26 southern counties
and Northern Ireland which comprises six counties of Ulster and is part of the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
I. Art music
II. Traditional music
HARRY WHITE (I), NICHOLAS CAROLAN (II)
Ireland
I. Art music
1. To 1700.
2. Since 1700.
3. Northern Ireland.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ireland, §I: Art music
1. To 1700.
Although
the distinction between ‘art’ music and ‘traditional’ music obtains with
reasonable clarity in Ireland after the Battle of Kinsale (1601) and the defeat
of the Gaelic aristocracy, it reflects an ethnic divergence and the
pre-eminence of English norms over an oral Gaelic culture that thereafter was
preserved and developed in severely polarized circumstances. The fragmented
polity of modern Ireland, no more clearly expressed than in the counter-claims
of Gaelic and Anglo-Irish perceptions of high culture, has determined the
understanding of orally transmitted music as a corpus of ethnic melodies, with
its roots in the culture of Gaelic Ireland. The concept of ‘art music’
incorporates the norms of European (English, German, Italian) musical patronage
assimilated as part of the colonial status quo, especially after the Battle of
the Boyne (1690). This is the music treated here; the history and development
of Gaelic music is addressed in §II.
The
sources for music in pre-Christian and early medieval Ireland are few: although
later writings (e.g. the Annals of the Four Masters and Geoffrey
Keating's History of Ireland) attest to the function of music in bardic
culture, the absence of notation and technical information makes it difficult
to determine the nature of secular chants to which Gaelic poetry was recited.
Manuscripts from the 10th century to the 15th that record versions of Irish
mythology frequently include references to the magical, incantatory powers of
music, but little is known about this music, except that it was pre-eminently
verbal. The modern phrase ‘abair amhráin’ (‘speak a song’) connotes the
pervasive alliance of the musical and the verbal in Gaelic culture. The
symbolic force of music in this culture (its magical and narrative-emotional
significations in particular) is also an abiding theme in the later annals.
Iconographical
evidence from shrines, stone crosses and statuary of the 9th century to the
14th confirms the use of harps, horns and pipes, all of which receive attention
in the literature of this period. The social status of the harpist in early
modern Ireland is further indication of the prominence of music as an adjunct
to the tradition of bardic poetry.
The
complete absence of notation from all Irish liturgical manuscripts before 1000
makes it extremely difficult to trace with exactitude the history and
development of music in the Celtic rite. Synodal reforms in the 7th century
strongly suggest the adoption of Roman liturgical practices in Ireland,
alongside which older, Celtic-Gallic traditions survived until the enactment of
decrees that followed the Anglo-Norman invasion of 1172 and the introduction of
the Use of Sarum. Early sources of the Celtic rite, including the Stowe Missal
(c800) and the Antiphonary of Bangor (7th century) identify those parts
of the liturgy that were chanted and confirm the distinctive use of hymns in
mass and office. Traces of the rite persist in Irish 15th-century antiphonals
which predominantly reflect the Sarum liturgy. Although earlier Irish sources,
including the Book of Drummond (11th or 12th century), reflect Roman practices
outright, it may be that Celtic rather than Roman chant was initially employed
for the singing of the new liturgy. There is also evidence to suggest that the
Celtic chants were accompanied by a small, eight-string harp (ocht-tedach).
Sporadic
but instructive comments from visitors in the 12th century (including Gerald of
Wales) and from more settled residents in the 16th (Edmund Spenser) allow us to
trace the perception of music in Gaelic culture prior to its decline in the
17th century. Gerald's remarks are disinterested, insofar as he was concerned
with the technical prowess and civilizing influence of musicians, but Spenser's
famous antagonism towards bardic culture in A View of the Present State of
Ireland (1596) exemplifies that reading of Irish music as an instrument of
political resistance which was to endure in the minds of British and Irish
commentators thereafter.
Sources
for music in the cathedral foundations of Armagh, Cork, Dublin, Kilkenny and
Waterford are scant until the beginning of the 17th century. It is clear that
the immediate post-Reformation period saw a more continuous appointment of
organists, vicars-choral and boy choristers, but not until the early 17th
century did composers begin to contribute regularly to the cathedral repertory.
Thomas Bateson, organist at Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin from about 1608
to 1630, was required ‘to teach and instruct four choristers to sing
sufficiently from time to time to serve the choir during his natural life’.
Little of his sacred music survives. The music of other composers attached to
the Dublin cathedrals, Christ Church and St Patrick's, around the end of the
17th century (including Ralph and Thomas Roseingrave) is more plentifully
preserved.
Ireland, §I: Art music
2. Since 1700.
The
development of art music in Ireland after the Restoration was strongly indebted
to English models. In Dublin, before the building of Crow Street Musick Hall in
1731, the principal venues for concert music were the cathedrals and larger
churches. Mr Neale's Great Musick Hall in Fishamble Street, built by the
Charitable Musical Society in 1741 and the following year playing host to the
first performance of Handel's Messiah, was converted into a theatre in
1777. The gardens in Great Britain Street, designed in 1749 by Bartholomew
Mosse, Master of the Lying-in Hospital, were modelled on London's Vauxhall and
were used for summer concerts until 1791. The Rotunda Room (1764) was another
popular location for concerts.
Although
the cultivation of opera in Ireland was slow to develop, the performance of The
Beggar's Opera in March 1728 established a busy tradition of ballad opera.
Works by Arne, Shield, Thomas Coffey and J.F. Lampe were among the most popular
operatic mainpieces or afterpieces sung between the acts of spoken plays. From
1760, visiting companies from London and the continent presented serious operas
in Italian and English at the Smock Alley and Crow Street theatres.
The
stable conditions enjoyed by the Anglo-Irish Ascendancy after the Williamite
wars produced a corresponding measure of musical continuity throughout the 18th
century within the Pale, the region of Dublin and its hinterland. The
‘Protestant Interest in Ireland’ did not espouse a taste for serious opera in
Italian, but it patronized other forms of high musical culture, and a number of
gifted musicians – among them Matthew Dubourg, Johann Sigismund Kusser (or
Cousser), Francesco Geminiani and Tommaso Giordani – settled for long periods
in Dublin: Kusser and Dubourg were both Masters of the King's Musick in
Ireland. The distinctive feature of Ascendancy musical life, apart from the
popularity of ballad opera, was the promotion of major choral works (oratorios,
odes and anthems) for charitable purposes, including the support of hospitals
and the relief of prisoners in the city gaols. The choirs of St Patrick's Cathedral
and Christ Church Cathedral provided the mainstay of these performances, with
distinguished soloists from London.
Attempts
towards the end of the century to narrow the divide between Gaelic and
Ascendancy musical cultures vividly illustrate the differences between them.
While Joseph Cooper Walker in his Historical Memoirs of the Irish Bards
(1786) sought to identify Turlough Carolan (1670–1738) as the true focus of
Irish musical endeavour, Charles Burney contemptuously dismissed the role of
the Irish bard as ‘little better than that of piper to the White Boys,
and other savage and lawless ruffians’ (1787). A small number of collections of
ethnic music had been published during the 18th century, beginning in 1724, but
it was not until the appearance of Edward Bunting's General Collection of
the Ancient Irish Music (in three volumes, 1797, 1809 and 1840) that the
anglophone community attempted to absorb, or at least countenance, the native
repertory. Thomas Moore's Irish Melodies, which appeared in ten volumes
between 1808 and 1834, drew freely, but not exclusively, on Bunting's
publications. Whereas Bunting (and the collectors who succeeded him) laboured
to preserve the ethnic integrity of this repertory, Moore politicized it from
within the folds of the colonial establishment; and though Bunting resented
this projection of Irish music, its appeal gathered momentum throughout the
19th century. When Moore's interpretation of Irish melody was cross-blended
with the ballad tradition (through the efforts of Young Ireland and the musical
exhortations and compositions of Thomas Davis in particular), the polarized
condition of ethnic music as the intelligencer of nationalism (as against the
colonial status of art music) was complete. Charles Carter, Philip Cogan, John
Stevenson and Thomas Cooke are among a number of important Anglo-Irish
composers to have arranged Irish airs in the idiom of contemporary art music
after the turn of the century. With the passing of the Act of Union in 1801,
the cultivation of music within the art tradition notably decreased. Choral
societies were established in Dublin from 1810 onwards and enjoyed considerable
popularity in the Victorian period, while the dearth of professional orchestras
was partly redeemed by the surge of amateur playing fostered by the Robinson
family and by Robert Prescott Stewart, among others.
After
the closure of the Crow Street Theatre in 1820, the Theatre Royal (opened in
1821) became the focus for presentations of grand opera in Italian as well as
English grand opera, the latter represented by, for example, Balfe's The
Bohemian Girl (1843), Wallace's Maritana (1845) and Benedict's The
Lily of Killarney (1862). Balfe and Wallace were Irish, though their
careers were made abroad. Meanwhile, the improved condition of Roman Catholics
after emancipation (1829) was reflected in the music associated with the
devotional reform in Ireland. Paul Cardinal Cullen's steady drive towards the
romanization of the Catholic liturgy inspired a musical resurgence of striking
conservatism: the restoration of plainchant, Roman polyphony and
modal-polyphonic pastiche predominated. The strong ties between the Irish
Society of St Cecilia (1878) and similar societies in Europe reflected
religious and sometimes scholarly interests which were unaffected by the
colonial-ethnic divide in Irish music. ‘Cecilianism’ strongly appealed to a
largely urban Catholic middle class, which sought a musical idiom worthy of its
strongly held beliefs. One of its chief proponents was Edward Martyn, better known
as co-founder of the Irish Literary Theatre and sometime president of Sinn
Fein.
The
foundation of the Feis Ceoil and Oireachtas festivals in 1897 illustrates the
division that continued to characterize music in Ireland at the close of the
century. Although the Feis did nurture ethnic music to a degree, it quickly
became apparent that two kinds of music – however nationalistic the motivation
of the Feis – required two kinds of festival. Efforts to merge the resources of
European art music and the indigenous repertory faltered, despite the
prominence of Irish folk music as a symbol of the Celtic Revival. Music
functioned in Irish poetry and drama as a powerful metaphor for the literary
imagination (notably in Yeats), but the development of Irish music itself was
negligible. John F. Larchet's incidental music for plays given at the Abbey
(including Synge's Deirdre of the Sorrows, 1910) and Robert O'Dwyer's
Irish opera Eithne (1909) reflect efforts at synthesis which only partly
succeeded. Stanford's editions of Irish music (collected by George Petrie) and
his somewhat superficial admixture of Irish melodies and symphonic texture
compare uncomfortably with the literary productions of the Celtic Revival. The
early compositions of Arnold Bax were directly inspired by Yeats and the
Revival, but remained exceptionally free of the burdens of folk-music
quotation. Esposito, like his pupil Larchet, continued to espouse the
possibility of stylistic integration, but selfconsciously wrote two kinds of
music which ‘respectively’ cultivated a late Romantic European demeanour and an
ethnically imbued vocabulary.
After
1922 the cultural oppressiveness of the ethnic repertory worsened. While
critics recognized that a cosmetic arrangement of Irish melodies was a poor
substitute for a wholly developed, yet manifestly Irish, art music, the blatant
politicization of Irish traditional music as a ‘priceless’ national resource
continued to inhibit composers. As late as 1951 Brian Boydell could write that
‘music in Ireland … is in a shocking state’. Boydell's concern was with the
striking lack of musical infrastructures throughout the country, a lack
repaired in significant measure by Radio Telefís Éireann (RTÉ) and by the
improvement in educational facilities and opportunities for performance which
followed upon the economic growth of the 1960s. The postwar expansion of the
Radio Éireann orchestras and the increased transmission of art music were vital
steps forward. Festivals of choral music (Cork) and contemporary music
(Dublin), and recital series fostered by the Royal Dublin Society, the Music
Association of Ireland and several amateur organizations, contributed to a new
climate of commitment to art music which blossomed in the 1980s with a National
Concert Hall and the RTÉ (radio channel for art music) FM3. The Dublin
International Organ Festival (founded in 1981) and the GPA Dublin International
Piano Competition (founded in 1988) are representative of later developments.
The
presentation of regular seasons of opera did not begin until 1941, with the
founding of the Dublin Grand Opera Society, based at the Gaiety Theatre. The
Wexford Opera Festival, established in 1951 by T.J. Walsh, explores
little-known works and has acquired an international reputation. Touring
companies such as the Irish National Opera (1965) and Opera Theatre Company
(1986) have significantly advanced both opportunities for young Irish singers
and the dissemination of wide-ranging, if thinly spread, repertory. Dublin
remains without an opera house. Perhaps as a result of the sporadic condition
of operatic performance in Ireland, few Irish composers have succeeded with
this genre. Stanford's Shamus O'Brien (1896) perpetuates a stage-Irishry
which the literary revival finally repudiated. Since World War II a number of
composers have written substantial operas to English texts, including Gerard
Victory (Chatterton, 1967), A.J. Potter (The Wedding, 1981) and
Gerald Barry (The Intelligence Park, 1988).
The
1960s witnessed the brilliant but unresolved career of Seán Ó Riada (1930–71).
Ó Riada's crisis of artistic growth, in which he abandoned art music for a
highly successful revival of the ethnic repertory (see also §II, 7),
originated in that colonial-ethnic fissure that has been the signature of music
in Ireland for three centuries. Although younger Irish composers, notably
Gerald Barry, Raymond Deane and John Buckley, have escaped the anxiety of his
influence, none has overcome the paradox of a vibrant ethnic musical tradition
which appears to undermine the enterprise of original composition. The
Contemporary Music Centre (Dublin) and the Irish Arts Council have in recent
years done much to disseminate the work of Irish composers, not least by the
circulation of scores and tapes, and the recording of works in collaboration
with RTÉ.
The
state of music education in the Republic of Ireland leaves much to be desired,
particularly in primary and secondary schools where less than one per cent take
music as a subject in final state examinations. The provision for tertiary education
is considerably better: there are undergraduate music courses in Cork, Dublin,
Limerick, Maynooth and Waterford, many of which afford opportunities to
specialize in performance, composition or musicology. The first international
musicological conference in the history of the state took place in 1995 in
celebration of the bicentenary of St Patrick's College, Maynooth, jointly
organized by the music departments at Maynooth and University College Dublin.
The performance faculties of the Cork School of Music, the Dublin College of
Music and the Royal Irish Academy of Music have significantly raised the
standard of instrumental tuition since 1970. Youth orchestras, including the
National Youth Orchestra, have likewise cultivated a high standard of performance.
Ireland, §I: Art music
3. Northern Ireland.
The
formation of Northern Ireland as a political entity in 1921 did not immediately
affect the development of art music there, but the founding of the BBC Northern
Ireland Orchestra in 1924 gave Ulster its first professional ensemble of
orchestral musicians. Amateur music-making was mainly vocal and choral, though
in the postwar period interest in chamber music notably increased. The Ulster
Orchestra was founded in 1966 and subsequently absorbed the BBC Northern
Ireland orchestra, flourishing under a number of distinguished conductors
(among them, Bryden Thomson and Yan Pascal Tortelier); it has also recorded
works by Hamilton Harty.
Festivals
of music in Belfast, including the Sonorities and Early Music festivals
associated with Queen's University, and recital series throughout the province,
attest to a vigorous professional calendar of art music supported by an
impressive system of music education at all levels. Professional opera
productions are limited to two short seasons per year, given by Opera Northern
Ireland. The Education and Library Boards provide instrumental tuition to
schools across Ulster; specialized instrumental tuition is also available in
the Ulster College of Music, Belfast. The University of Ulster and Queen's
University offer degrees in music which provide specializations in, among
others, electronic music and analysis. An Irish Chapter of the Royal Musical
Association was established at the Univeristy of Ulster in 1987: it has met
annually since then in university and college campuses throughout Ireland.
For further information on musical life in Ireland see Belfast; Cork; Dublin; Wexford.
Ireland, §I: Art music
BIBLIOGRAPHY
HarrisonMMB
J.C. Walker: Historical
Memoirs of the Irish Bards (Dublin, 1786/R, 2/1818)
T. Davis: Essays
Literary and Historical (Dublin, 1814, 2/1914)
The Spirit of
the Nation (Dublin, 1843–4; enlarged with music, 1845/R)
M. Conran: The National
Music of Ireland (London, 2/1846/R)
Lyra
ecclesiastica: Monthly Bulletin of the Irish Society of St Cecilia (Dublin, 1878–93)
H. Bewerunge: ‘The Teaching of Music in Irish Schools’, Irish Ecclesiastical Record (Dec 1897), 481–7
J.H. Bernard and R. Atkinson: The Irish
Liber hymnorum: Edited from the MSS, with Translations, Notes and Glossary (London, 1898)
H. Bewerunge: ‘Cecilian Music’, New
Ireland Review, xv (1900), 73–84
J.S. Bumpus: Irish Church
Composers and the Irish Cathedrals (Dublin, 1900)
R. Dwyer: ‘Imitations of Palestrina’, New Ireland Review, xv (1900), 155–60
W.H. Frere: Bibliotheca
musico-liturgica: a Descriptive Handlist of the Musical and Latin-Liturgical
MSS of the Middle Ages Preserved in the Libraries of Great Britain and Ireland(London, 1901–32, 2/1967)
R. Henebry: Irish Music (Dublin, 1903)
R.B. Armstrong: The Irish
and Highland Harps (Edinburgh, 1904/R)
W.H.G. Flood: A History of
Irish Music (Dublin, 1905, 3/1913/R, 4/1927)
E. Martyn: ‘The Gaelic League and Irish Music’, Irish Review, i (1911)
W.J. Lawrence: ‘Early Irish Ballad Opera and Comic Opera’, MQ, viii (1922), 397–412
J. Larchet: ‘A Plea for Music’, The
Voice of Ireland, ed. W.G. Fitzgerald (Dublin, 2/1924), 508–11
R. Henebry: A Handbook
of Irish Music (Cork, 1928)
A. Fleischmann: The Neumes
and Irish Liturgical MSS (MA diss., National U. of
Ireland, 1932)
A. Fleischmann: ‘Composition and the Folk Idiom’, Ireland Today, i/6 (1936), 37–44, esp. 42
F. May: ‘Music and the Nation’, Dublin
Magazine, xi (July–Sept 1936), 50–56
B. Boydell: ‘The Future of Music in Ireland’, The Bell, xvi/4 (1951), 21–9
A. Fleischmann, ed.: Music in
Ireland: a Symposium (Cork, 1952)
D. Donoghue: ‘The Future of Irish Music’, Studies, xliv (Spring 1955), 109–14
J. Groocock: A General
Survey of Music in the Republic of Ireland (Dublin, 1961)
A. Fleischmann and R. Gleeson: ‘Music in Ancient Munster and Monastic Cork’, Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society, lxx (1965), 79–98
I.M. Hogan: Anglo-Irish
Music 1780–1830 (Cork, 1966)
F.Ll. Harrison: ‘Polyphony in Medieval Ireland’, Festschrift Bruno Stäblein, ed. M. Ruhnke
(Kassel, 1967), 74–8
E. Deale, ed.: Catalogue of
Contemporary Irish Composers (Dublin, 1968, 2/1973)
K. Fadlu-Deen: Contemporary
Music in Ireland (diss., University College, Dublin, 1968)
J. Rimmer: The Irish
Harp (Cork, 1969, 3/1984)
R.J. Hesbert, ed.: Le
tropaire-prosaire de Dublin, Monumenta musicae sacrae,
iv (Rouen, 1970) [facs. of the MS
used at Christchurch, Dublin, in the mid-14th century]
B. Boydell: The Music
Trade in Ireland up to 1850: a Graphical Checklist
(Dublin, 1972)
S. O'Riada: Our Musical
Heritage (Portlaoise, 1982)
M. Curran: The
Antiphonary of Bangor and the Early Irish Monastic Liturgy (Blackrock, 1984)
D. Herron: Deaf Ears? (Dublin, 1985)
B. Boydell: ‘Music, 1700–1850’, A
New History of Ireland, iv, ed. T.W. Moody and W.E.
Vaughan (Oxford, 1986), 568–629
F.Ll. Harrison: ‘Music, Poetry and Polity in the Age of Swift’,
Eighteenth-Century Ireland, i (1986), 37–63
D. Hyde: ‘The Necessity for De-Anglicising Ireland’, Douglas Hyde: Language, Love and Lyrics, ed.
B. O'Conaire (Dublin, 1986)
J. Rimmer: ‘Patronage, Style and Structure in the Music Attributed to Turlough
Carolan’, EMc, xv (1987), 164–74
B. Boydell: A Dublin
Musical Calendar 1700–1760 (Blackrock, 1988)
H. White: ‘Musicology in Ireland’, AcM, lx (1988), 290–305
W.H. Grindle: Irish
Cathedral Music (Belfast, 1989)
H. White: ‘Carolan and the Dislocation of Music in Ireland’, Eighteenth-Century Ireland, iv (1989), 55–64
P. Brannon: A Contextual
Study of the Four Notated Sarum Divine Office Manuscripts from Anglo-Norman
Ireland (diss., Washington U., 1990)
G. Gillen and H. White, eds.: Musicology
in Ireland, Irish Musical Studies, i (Blackrock, 1990)
M. McCarthy: Music
Education and the Quest for Cultural Identity in Ireland (1831–1989) (diss., U. of Michigan, 1990)
J. Ryan: Nationalism
and Music in Ireland (diss., National U. of Ireland, 1991)
G. Gillen and H. White, eds.: Music and
the Church, Irish Musical Studies, ii (Blackrock, 1993)
E. O'Kelly, ed.: Irish
Composers (Dublin, 1993, 4/1996–7)
K.A. Daly: Catholic
Church Music in Ireland, 1878–1903 (Blackrock, 1995)
G. Gillen and H. White, eds.: Music and
Irish Cultural History, Irish Musical Studies, iii
(Blackrock, 1995)
A. Klein: Die Musik
Irlands im 20. Jahrhundert (Hildesheim, 1996)
H. White: The Keeper's
Recital: Music and Cultural History in Ireland, 1770–1970 (Cork, 1998)
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forthcoming)
W.H. McCormack, ed.: A Companion
to Irish Culture (Oxford, forthcoming)
Ireland
II. Traditional music
1. General.
2. History.
3. Composition,
performance and transmission.
4. Songs and singing.
5. Instrumental music.
6. Instruments.
7. Groups and bands.
8. Dancing.
9. Collecting and
publishing.
10. Sound recording,
radio and television.
11. Research.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ireland, §II: Traditional
Music
1. General.
The
traditional music of the island of Ireland is an important part of Irish
contemporary culture. Although its performers and audiences are in a minority
compared to those of international popular music, most aspects of traditional
music have enjoyed a revival in the second half of the 20th century, especially
among younger people, which makes it unique in western Europe. It is also
commonly performed and listened to in centres of Irish settlement abroad –
chiefly Britain, the USA and Australia – and from the 1970s has been growing in
popularity in continental Europe and North America among people who are not of
Irish descent. The reasons for the strength of Irish traditional music are
partly historical and social: political conditions have fostered the oral arts
of song, instrumental music, dance and storytelling rather than the visual and
plastic arts; traditional rural society, non-industrial and conservative,
survived longer in Ireland than in western Europe generally; and the relative
smallness of the country and its population enables easy access to all
varieties of live performance. There seems also to be a particular affinity to
music in the Irish national character.
Traditional
music is a central element of Irish identity, and the state symbol of the
Republic of Ireland is the harp. However, while music of oral tradition is
common to the whole of Ireland and to both of its two politico-religious
groupings, the Nationalist-Catholic majority and the Unionist-Protestant minority,
it has been falsely perceived in recent years of political disturbance within
Northern Ireland as being associated only with the Nationalist minority there.
Reflecting
the predominant social and cultural strains in modern Ireland, its traditional
music is largely Celtic (Gaelic or Irish) and British (English and Scottish) in
origin. Its main contemporary forms are songs in Irish and English and
instrumental airs and dance tunes. Apart from its functional roles in dancing
and marching, the music is now primarily recreational, whereas in the past it
also had mythic, supernatural and seasonal ceremonial significance. It shares
many of the characteristics of the traditional music of western Europe and is
related to the music of other Celtic regions, especially Scotland. Musical ties
are close also with other parts of Britain and with North America after
centuries of invasion, settlement and emigration. Irish emigrants have also
influenced the music of Australia. Direct relationships which have been claimed
with the music of North Africa, India and the Middle East are, however, based
on superficial resemblances.
Monophonic
melody is predominant, although harmonic and percussive dimensions have
developed in recent years with the introduction of instruments that allow for
these dimensions. Most tunes, vocal and instrumental, are heptatonic, with
pentatonic song airs common in the northern province of Ulster. It has been
estimated that more than half are in the Ionian mode, followed in order of
frequency by the Mixolydian, the Aeolian and the Dorian modes. Phrases are
mostly even in number and equal in length. The tradition is often considered to
be essentially one of solo performance, but small and large instrumental groups
are common (see §6 below). Transcriptions of song texts and staff notation or a
variety of alpha-numeric or tablature music notations have been increasingly
used by performers over the last 200 years, but only as an aid to memory or for
teaching and never in performance. Some level of literacy is now common.
Traditional
Irish music is of rural more than urban origin, a reflection of an earlier
population distribution, but many items and forms of the repertory have come
from towns and cities, or through them from abroad. Much is now performed and commercially
produced in urban areas. Local and regional performance traditions once
existed, some of which favoured song and others instrumental music. While such
styles can still be heard, especially in singing in the Irish language and
fiddle playing, they are generally in decline or have disappeared because of
factors such as the end of rural isolation and the growth of
telecommunications.
Ireland, §II:
Traditional Music
2. History.
Information
on early Irish music, which was entirely music of oral tradition, derives from
speculation on the facts of archaeology and history, and on passing references
to music in literary and other writings. Until the 20th century, when Ireland
began to come under the influence of North American and Irish American culture,
all Irish musical history concerned musical trends and ideas coming from the
east, often through Britain, that combined with native creativity to produce
new forms and new music. The first people came to Ireland over 9000 years ago,
during the middle Stone Age or earlier. Their artefacts were generally stone,
bone and wood, and later pottery, but no musical instruments survive. After
millennia of human occupation about which little is known, but during which the
technologies of farming and metalworking were introduced, the earliest musical
instruments are found: side- and end-blown bronze horns, the earliest of which
belong to the 2nd millennium bce, and which may have been
used for ritual purposes. The country was predominantly Celtic in culture from
about the middle of the 1st millennium bce to the 17th
century ce. Continental Celtic musical practices such as
the singing of war- and praise-songs and the playing of lyres may have existed
also in Ireland at the beginning of the Christian era, and an aristocratic
oral-music tradition performed by professional musicians of high status for
wealthy patrons certainly co-existed with vernacular traditions.
During
the 1st millennium ce Ireland was brought into contact with
Christian religious music introduced by missionaries from the 5th century, and
forms of Scandinavian music practised by Viking invaders and settlers from the
9th century, the only identifiable remains of which are bone whistles. When
French-speaking Normans invaded the country from Wales in the 12th century they
found a distinctive Irish harp which seems to have been a development of an
earlier instrument. Used in instrumental music, song and recitation
performance, and with a lively playing style in which melody was accompanied by
the bass strings, the harp remained the chief instrument of Ireland until the
17th century. Other instruments played in Ireland in the Middle Ages include:
the tiompán, a small string instrument whose exact nature is unknown; fidlí,
early fiddles; cuislí or mouth-blown pipes; píopaí or mouth-blown
bagpipes which were used in warfare as well as for recreation; and the trumpa
or jew's harp. The Normans themselves introduced dance-songs and songs of amour
courtois, traces of which survive in contemporary Irish-language song,
influenced later by English songs and continental literature. ‘Callino’, an air
preserved in Dublin in a lute book of the last quarter of the 16th century, is
the earliest known notation of an Irish melody.
The
modern era of Irish traditional music had its beginnings in the 17th century, a
period of transition in Ireland during which aristocratic Gaelic society
diminished and the middle and lower classes became the main performers and
patrons of traditional music. It does not now seem possible to detail the
influence which the aristocratic oral poetry, music and song traditions must
have had on the vernacular traditions. The long-standing cultural unity which
had existed between the north of Ireland and Gaelic-speaking Scotland came to
an end during the century, and large-scale settlement by English and
English-speaking Scottish colonists in Ulster aided the spread of
English-language song, including the classical ballads. British culture and
urban civilization generally began to gain ground in the country, although the
majority of the population was still Irish-speaking and lived on the land. The
harp declined with court music, the mouth-blown bagpipe disappeared and the
modern fiddle was introduced.
The
bulk of the current repertory, including that of Irish-language song,
originated in the 18th and 19th centuries. A large body of songs in English
were composed on English and Gaelic models, and texts were circulated on ballad
sheets as well as orally. The reel and the hornpipe were introduced from
Britain and thousands of melodies were composed in these new forms, as well as
in the older jig forms which had been in use since at least the 16th century.
The bellows-blown uilleann pipes were developed and replaced the harp as the
classical instrument of Irish traditional music; the baroque flute came into
the hands of traditional players, and outside musical influences such as
Italian instrumental music were felt as musicians catered to a new type of
wealthy patron. A growing interest in traditional music among the educated
urban classes led to the collection of older materials, their preservation and
publication. By the early 1840s there was a population of over eight million
people in the country which included the greatest-ever number of Irish
composers, singers, instrumentalists and dancers. This situation was radically
altered by the Great Famine of the 1840s and the subsequent emigration which
reduced the population of Ireland by half within five years. Music was badly
affected and only began to recover in the final decades of the 19th century
when new instruments such as the accordion, concertina and metal whistles were
taken up; it was at this time that social dances based on continental
quadrilles spread throughout the country. Increasing population mobility led to
the decline of local and regional style.
The
Irish diaspora has developed its own music traditions abroad, especially in
Britain and the United States, since the 19th century.
The
work of preservation begun by the early collectors was greatly aided by the
invention of sound recording, and since the 1890s tens of thousands of
commercial and field recordings have been made. A national Gaelic revival
beginning in the 1890s gave prominence to traditional music, especially to
Irish-language song, and the establishment of uilleann piping clubs rescued the
instrument from extinction. The harp was revived in a modified form which is
still played, although it is not nearly as important as it once was. The
revival influenced the cultural character of the new 26-county state
established in 1922. Irish songs were included in school curricula, although
traditional music was not generally taught in the schools, and the state helped
fund publications of traditional-music collections. No such recognition or aid
has been given to traditional music in the six-county state of Northern Ireland
until recently. Traditional music was generally in decline between the World
Wars, affected by heavy emigration from the countryside and economic recession,
but this was countered by the spread of gramophones and radio, which made the
music available to new audiences, especially in the towns and cities. These and
later forms of telecommunication, such as tape recording, brought about a profound
change in the transmission and nature of Irish traditional music.
Increased
interest after World War II led, among other manifestations, to the
establishment in 1951 of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann (the Association of Irish
Musicians), an organization for the promotion of traditional music through
teaching, performance and competition. A song-focussed revival in the late
1950s and the 1960s preceded the revival of instrumental music in the 1970s.
Playing has since become widespread with a high level of virtuosity;
instruments such as the concertina which had diminished to the local level
became again national, and a cottage industry of instrument-making has grown
up. The uilleann pipes, which were being played by only a few players such as Leo
Rowsome of
Dublin, experienced a revival. There are now hundreds of musicians who play the
instrument to a high standard all over the world, and it is increasingly to be
heard in international music. Influenced by technological advances such as LPs
and CDs, tape recording and television, the revival and renewal of older
traditions has continued strongly until the present day, and new and
experimental performance styles and new instruments are found alongside older
ones. Traditional instrumental music is to an extent now part of youth culture
and is commonly played with great vigour and dash. General levels of virtuosity
have hardly ever been as high, but a certain homogeneity of style is now found
in a music that well into the 20th century showed a great degree of variety and
local distinctiveness. Earlier local styles are preserved on recordings of
performers such as the singers Elizabeth Cronin of Cork or Joe
Heaney (Seosamh
Ó hÉanaí) of Galway, or the fiddle player padraig O'Keeffe of Kerry.
Ireland, §II:
Traditional Music
3. Composition, performance and transmission.
Composers
of Irish traditional music, always performers, share the conservative tastes of
their own communities, but are usually forgotten as compositions spread and are
altered by others. Far more men than women are known to be composers of
melodies, although women are better represented among known composers of song.
Instrumental music is composed on instruments, but little is understood of the
traditional method of composition. In some cases it seems that a stray fragment
of melody is developed in accordance with the norms of the tradition, as was
the case with the 20th-century fiddle player and composer Ed Reavy of Cavan and
Philadelphia; at other times the composer tries to evoke a mood or commemorate
an event. There has been a recent decline in song composition, but instrumental
melodies of individual character continue to be made, and there has been a
considerable increase in tune composition since the 1980s. New pieces are often
quickly recorded and thus fixed in form, and the accelerated rate of
transmission made possible by mass communications has led to swift acceptance
of some modern compositions into the body of the tradition. Some composers of
the past received material reward from patrons, but in the last few centuries the
rewards have been self-satisfaction and community respect. Even today, with
increasing copyright registration on commercial recordings, there are few
financial rewards from composition. Some professional arrangers of traditional
pieces have, however, profited in the 1990s from a commercial boom in sales of
the music.
Being
largely the music of non-professionals, traditional music is normally performed
during leisure hours at night, weekends and during holiday periods. The
domestic music occasions of the past, which often mixed singing, instrumental
music and dancing, have largely been replaced since World War II by more
specialized performances in venues open to the public, particularly public
houses, where informal ‘sessions’, gatherings of musicians performing for their
own enjoyment, take place. The seeds of session-playing can be seen in
music-making on fair days in the past and among early congregations of emigrant
musicians in the United States and Britain. More organized performances such as
cabarets are held in tourist areas, and concerts are commonly held throughout
the country. Live music can also be heard at festivals, ranging from informal
weekends to structured week-long summer schools. Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann
has branches throughout Ireland and abroad, at which music is played regularly.
It also organizes competitive regional fleadhanna ceoil (music
festivals), which culminate in an annual all-Ireland fleadh. Session
performers are people of all ages and social classes, and music sessions are
generally a mixture of experienced players and learners, men and women, people
of rural and urban backgrounds, playing instruments of all sorts. At the same
time, friends and people of similar levels of ability will organize more
private sessions. A good deal of performance now takes place at summer schools
and at weekend festivals throughout the year, and there has been an explosion
in the number of these since the 1970s. Best known is the Willie Clancy Summer
School organized annually in memory of an influential Clare piper. Performers
and their core audiences share a common experience of the music and by and
large a common musical taste. In the past, public performance and competition
were the domain of men, with women performing more in the home, but this
changed in the later 20th century as women played an increasingly public role
in Irish society. While musical competency was widespread in traditional
culture, there were always performers who were recognized as having special
abilities. Being able to convey the meaning of a song well, or having
outstanding technique on an instrument, were admired qualities, and some
performers have become legendary through a combination of musical abilities and
strong personality. Examples of well-known figures are the 18th-century
harpist-composer Turlough Carolan (Toirdhealbhach Ó Cearbhalláin,
1670–1738), the first composer of Irish traditional music whose compositions
survive in any number, and the 20th-century virtuoso uilleann piper Seamus
Ennis (Séamus
Mac Aonghusa, 1919–82), who formed a bridge between the older traditions and
new enthusiasts in the 1950s, especially through his work on radio and
television. Musicians of the travelling community – such as the Donegal
fiddle-players John, Mickey and Simey Doherty, the Wicklow pipers Johnny and
Felix Doran, or the Cork singer Margaret Barry – have played an important part in
disseminating music, and Travellers have preserved older items abandoned by
settled people, as well as developing styles of performance suitable for the
open air.
Traditional
transmission processes of absorption, imitation and tutoring continue,
especially within families (for instance, the Potts family of Dublin, the
Crehans of Clare, or Muintir Uí Bheaglaoich of Kerry) and have been greatly
augmented in the second half of the 20th century by the mass communications
media, especially sound recordings. Formal instrumental classes and festival
workshops have been a response to increasing demand in the same period, but
songs are still learnt by listening and imitation rather than formal
instruction. A large number of instrument tutors as well as sound recordings have
been published since the 1970s, and instructional videos began to be produced
in the 1990s. The formal education system at the first and second levels makes
almost no provision for the teaching of traditional music in Ireland, although
university music departments are increasingly providing courses of study which
include instrumental instruction.
Ireland, §II:
Traditional Music
4. Songs and singing.
The
contemporary singing tradition is less vigorous than that of instrumental
music. This is in part due to the invasion of the traditional singing venues of
the home and the workplace by television and the transistor radio, the decline
in neighbourly visiting and the recent transfer of traditional music to the crowded
and noisy public house. It is also a result of the loss of some older
functions. Traditional songs, particularly when performed unaccompanied, are
increasingly heard only in specialized clubs and festivals.
Songs
in the Irish language are still commonly performed on Irish-language radio and
on commercial recordings, and in the shrinking gaeltachtaí
(Irish-speaking districts), which are largely on the west coast and in the
south. Decreasing numbers of older songs are sung, and modern compositions,
although numerous, are in modern international idioms. Love songs predominate,
and there are many songs on national and local themes as well as songs in
praise of locality. Many older genres such as the heroic lay, the keen or death
lament, the work song, the lullaby invoking magical powers and the aisling
or political vision-song, are now obsolete. Almost all songs are lyric,
expressing intense personal feelings in everyday but poetic language and
imagery and sometimes using such European poetic conventions as the
pastourelle. Although narrative songs are rare, narrative is often implied, and
sometimes a prose preamble, údar an amhráin (the story of the song),
supplies background material. Author attribution is more common than in
English-language songs.
Narrative
and lyric songs are both plentifully supplied in the English language. The
oldest form of these, the imported British classical ballad, has almost
disappeared, but there is a large surviving body of later songs created in
Ireland with distinct Hiberno-English roots that incorporate Gaelic features
such as internal assonance. Their concerns are generally those of
Irish-language song, but they deal more with emigration and the events of the
late 19th century and the 20th. Politically sectarian songs are still composed
in the north of Ireland. Since the early 19th century, songs of literary
origins have passed increasingly into oral circulation, and many national
political songs are of this type.
The
songs of both languages are strophic, metrically uniform and in accented
metres, often with an alternating verse and chorus. The most common metres are
3/4, 4/4 and 6/8. Intonation sometimes varies at the third, fourth and seventh
degrees. While most songs are sung within a range of one to one and a half
octaves, Gaelic airs have a larger range and favour an AABA structure.
English-language songs more often have an ABBA structure. Melodies cross
the language divide, and more texts exist than melodies although some melodies
exist in a large number of versions.
In performance
both languages are sometimes heard on the same occasion, and there are a few
macaronic songs that alternate between languages. Stylistic differences arise
from regional and personal differences, not from languages or genres. Although
there are suggestions in early literature of ancient instances of choral
singing, the singing tradition has long been monophonic and is still normally
unaccompanied. Verbal text is more important than music, but while the ability
to convey the meaning of a song is more valued than a good voice, a musical
voice is highly regarded in a singer, as is a good memory. The general singing
style is understated and conversational. Song tempos are never very fast, but
faster songs are performed in strict time. Slower songs are relaxed and more
variable in rhythm. Simple ornaments such as grace notes, turns and slurs, and
other embellishments, such as producing a nasal tone or adding extra syllables
may be added. Rubato singing in the Irish language, especially the highly decorated
and high-pitched tense style of County Galway, is often called sean-nós
or ‘old-style’ singing, a relatively recent term.
Until
the mid-20th century, music for dancing was sometimes provided by lilters, men
or women who vocalized dance tunes, solo or in unison duet, to standard
vocables. Also known as dydeling, mouth-music or in Irish as portaireacht
bhéil, lilting is sometimes still performed to entertain listeners.
Ireland, §II:
Traditional Music
5. Instrumental music.
Instrumental
music may comprise a small number of pieces such as the older harp tunes which
were composed to be listened to, or ‘slow airs’ which are song airs played
instrumentally with rubato, but the vast bulk of instrumental music consists of
fast dance music.
Almost
all types of Irish dance music share a common symmetrical structure. Tunes
usually consist of two parts, one lower in pitch (the ‘tune’) followed by a
higher (the ‘turn’). Each part is made up of an equal number of bars – eight in
the case of all tune types except set dances – and each part is usually played
twice, often with variation, before moving on. When a tune has been played two
or three times, a second and usually a third tune is nowadays played in the
same way, as a suite. Some tunes have three or more parts; the extra parts are
usually variations of the first two. Most tunes comprise three or four distinct
motifs in a variety of contrasting and repeated patterns. A certain degree of
variation, from a single note to a whole part, can occur, but generally
performers do not vary their own versions greatly once they have fixed them to
their satisfaction. Ornaments common to all instruments are single cuts, double
cuts, short rolls, long rolls and triplets.
Dance
music is usually notated and played in keys of one or two sharps. Occasionally
three sharps are used, especially in fiddle music, and rarely one flat. Most
tunes fall within a range of two octaves. Pitch is fixed only when instruments
which are manufactured to a fixed pitch, such as the whistle or accordion, are
played; instruments such as the fiddle are tuned at a level that sounds
pleasant to the player. Intonation is like that of the modern scale, but the
notes C and F especially fluctuate when played on instruments which are not
fixed in pitch. Dynamics were little used in the past but have been gaining in
popularity in recent years. While strong regional styles can still be heard in
the case of the fiddle, most instrumental styles are now based on the influence
of individual players and personal taste rather than on locality. The pace of
playing began to increase in the 1980s partly to cater for dancers in a new
revival.
The
main types of dance music in order of popularity are the reel, jig and
hornpipe, all of which can be played for solo dancers, groups of dancers or for
listeners. Less common are the polka and slide, which are played for group
dancing, and the set dance, played for solo dancing. There are some other minor
types of dance tunes of localized currency such as the barn dance and the
fling.
The
reel (ríl) is performed in a fast forward-moving style, in 4/4 rhythm.
The typical bar has eight quavers divided into two groups.
The
jig (port), the oldest form of dance music now played, is usually
performed at a more moderate speed and in a more relaxed manner. There are
several types of jigs, each deriving its name from dance movements, and
distinguished from one another by rhythm. The double jig is in 6/8 rhythm, the
typical bar having six quavers in two groups. The single jig is also normally
in 6/8 rhythm, but the typical bar has two crotchet-quaver figures. Single jigs
in 12/8 are called slides. The slip jig or hop jig is in 9/8 rhythm and the
typical bar has nine quavers in three groups. Some jigs were once ancient
marches.
The
hornpipe (cornphíopa), like the reel, is in 4/4 rhythm, but it is played
more slowly and deliberately, and is more heavily stressed. The typical bar has
eight quavers in two groups, and triplets are a common feature.
The
polka is in 2/4 rhythm, with a fast infectious dance sound, and the typical bar
contains two groups of two quavers. Many of the ‘polkas’ played in Ireland,
especially in Counties Kerry and Cork, are not of the 19th-century European
ballroom type but are simpler tunes, some of which were originally song airs.
A
group of slow-paced dance tunes, about 30 in number, are used for special solo
exhibition dances, called ‘set dances’ because fixed or ‘set’ steps accompany
each tune. Set dances can be in 6/8 time like the double jig, or in 4/4 time
like the hornpipe, and can be unusual in having parts of different lengths,
from six to 12 bars. They should not be confused with a type of quadrille-based
group dance called ‘set dances’ which are performed to ‘sets’ or groups
of different tunes.
There
is no musical connection between a tune and its title (or titles), if it is
titled at all. Song airs are named from the title of the Irish or English song
lyrics with which they are associated. Older instrumental melodies often took
their titles from the name of a patron (for instance, Ye Lord Mayo's Delight),
but dance-tune titles, which are most commonly in English, refer to the
ordinary lives of people, such as their occupations, pastimes and locales (for
instance, Trim the Velvet, The Humours of Cloyne, The Dairy
Maid's Wish).
Ireland, §II:
Traditional Music
6. Instruments.
The
primary musical instruments are international melody instruments, some of which
have developed specifically Irish forms: wind instruments, such as the pipes,
whistle and flute; string instruments, especially the fiddle, but also the
banjo and mandolin; and free-reed instruments, such as the accordion,
concertina and harmonica. Percussion instruments were not played much until
recently. Even when harmony can be produced, as on the uilleann pipes and
accordion, only simple harmonies are used, and often none at all. But the trend
in the 20th century has been towards increased harmonization and the
introduction of accompanying instruments such as the piano and guitar.
Musicians also ignore many of the other potentialities of instruments: players
of the fiddle, for instance, rarely move from the first position on the
fingerboard.
The
triangular, wooden Irish harp (cruit or cláirseach; see Irish
harp) was, in
its earliest known form, of medium size strongly constructed of willow, and
with metal strings plucked with the finger nails. Its size and the number of
strings have varied greatly over the centuries. Today it averages about 90 cm
in height, and is strung with about 30 gut or nylon strings plucked by the
fingertips. It normally rests on the player's right shoulder. Most harpists are
now women, although formerly they were mostly men. Mostly song airs and
moderately paced instrumental harp pieces are played, but fast dance tunes are
becoming more popular. There are no old harp styles and little old traditional
technique remains.
Two
types of Bagpipe are in use: the mouth-blown ‘warpipes’ and the
bellows-blown uilleann pipes. The former, particularly important in Northern
Ireland but not widely played, is the outdoor Scottish Highlands bagpipe
introduced in the late 19th century partly as an imitation of an obsolete
medieval Irish type. It is learnt and played in clubs which organize marching
bands and competitions, and solo performance is not the central feature of this
music culture. The indoor uilleann pipes (píb uilleann) are a uniquely
Irish form of the bagpipe, and are more widespread in the south and midlands
area than in the north (see illustration). They were
originally known as the ‘Irish pipes’ or ‘union pipes’; the present term was
coined only at the turn of the 20th century and comes from the Irish word uille
(‘elbow’). Distinguishing features are a wooden chanter with a two-octave range
(usually D–D''), a bag blown by bellows held under the elbow, and three closed
chanters called regulators which can provide harmony or counterpoint when their
keys are pressed. The instrument also has three continuously sounding drones.
The pipes are expensive and, with seven double or single reeds, difficult to
keep in tune. They are played as a solo instrument more than any other
instrument, and most pipers are male. There are two basic styles of piping on
the chanter: open style (flowing and fast, with notes produced by putting down
the fewest possible fingers); and tight or closed style (staccato and fast,
with alternative fingerings that offer moments of silence between notes). Most
players mix the two styles. Special techniques include ‘cranning’ (playing of
multiple grace notes in quick succession) and sliding from one note to the
next.
The Fiddle (fidil or veidhlín),
with its bow, is identical to the modern violin. Traditional musicians prefer
the term ‘fiddle’ to ‘violin’ to distinguish their music and their style of
playing from other musics. Probably the most popular traditional instrument, the
fiddle is played equally by men and women, and is felt to be particularly
compatible with the flute, button accordion and uilleann pipes. It is played
with a relaxed left-hand grip on the neck of the instrument. Bow strokes are
generally short and light, producing a quiet mellow tone. Local styles range
from the northern Donegal style (usually quick, with little ornamentation and a
different bow stroke for most notes) to the more relaxed and ornamented
southern styles such as those of Counties Sligo and Clare (where several notes
can be sounded with each movement of the bow). Many contemporary players
develop their own personal styles. Special techniques include double stopping
and bowed triplets.
The
Irish Tin whistle (feadóg stáin) is a short
end-blown duct flute of metal alloy with six finger-holes, and a light, pure
tone. Originally conical in shape with a wooden duct, it has been almost
replaced since the 1960s by a cylindrical type with a moulded plastic mouthpiece.
Two octaves are available; the higher octave is produced by blowing harder.
Whistles come in several keys, from B to G; those in D are the most popular.
Relatively inexpensive and the common beginners' instrument, the tin whistle
has a relatively low status, but is perfectly suited to the music, and some
players have brought it to a virtuoso level. Special techniques include
tonguing and sliding from one note to the next.
The
flute (fliúit or feadóg mhór) used for the playing of Irish
traditional music, known as the concert or wooden flute, is the simple-system
cross-blown wooden flute developed in France in the late 1600s. Most flutes
played in late 20th-century Ireland were English or German 19th-century
instruments, but modern Irish-made flutes are also now played. Normally in the
key of D, it can also have one or more padded metal keys to produce flat or
sharp notes, and it usually consists of three sections that are fitted
together. Traditional playing styles range from a hurried, puffing choppy
northern style, found mostly in Counties Sligo and Roscommon, to one that is
smooth and rolling, centred on Counties Clare and Limerick, but the flute is
now widely played throughout the country, and the styles are generally mixed.
Special techniques include tonguing and sliding from one note to the next.
Flute and drum marching bands playing flutes in different keys and in harmony,
a tradition derived from 18th-century British military bands, are found in
Northern Ireland.
The Accordion (cairdín or bosca
ceoil) that is normally played is the double-action button accordion with
two rows of melody keys. Often known as the ‘box’, it comes in different basic
keys. Instruments with rows tuned to B and C are currently the most popular,
though some prominent players favour C
and D instruments. An earlier form of the
instrument, the diatonic ten-key melodeon, has been popular in Ireland since
the late 19th century, and has been revived in recent years. Most accordions
were made in the 20th century and imported from Germany, Italy and Britain, but
French accordions have been gaining in popularity recently. The accordion's
loud rhythmic sounds are particularly suited to dance music. Special techniques
include the production of long notes by pulling the bellows and use of the
left-hand basses to add colour to the melody. Piano accordions enjoyed a vogue
for about 30 years beginning in the mid-1930s.
The Concertina (consairtín) popular
in Ireland is the double-action Anglo-German concertina with about 30 buttons,
which has undergone a revival in recent years. Traditionally, the instrument
has been associated with women more than men. Its relatively small, delicate,
rhythmic sound is well-suited to dance music. Some special effects such as
‘droning’ and ‘chording’ are employed.
The Bodhrán (from bodhar,
‘dull-sounding’ or ‘having a deafening sound’), a circular hand-held drum, is
the principal Irish percussion instrument and is sometimes referred to as a
tambourine. The instrument, which may at one time have been a winnowing tray,
was used for centuries as a drum by men taking part in seasonal rituals, and it
has only become widespread for music accompaniment since the 1950s. The most
common size is approximately 46 cm in diameter. It is shallow, with a single
skin attached to the wooden frame or rim. The skin may be of goat or other
animal, and it is struck with a short wooden beater or with the fingers. Held
by the rim or a crossbar with the left hand and struck with the right, when
played sitting it is rested upright on the knee. The rhythms played by the bodhrán
sometimes double or triple the beats of the music. Apart from the different
sounds produced by the stick and the hand, the sound can be changed by striking
the rim occasionally with the stick. A new bodhrán tradition has come
into existence in the late 20th century, and modern techniques include altering
the skin tension with left-hand pressure to produce different pitches, damping
the skin with the palm of the left hand and playing cross-rhythms.
Several
instruments are less widely accepted. Some are not felt to be fully in
character with the nature of the music, while others are not portable or are
hard to obtain. The four-string plectrum tenor Banjowas taken up as a melodic
instrument by Irish musicians in the USA early in the 20th century, especially
as a band instrument, and spread in Ireland beginning in the 1930s. It has a
strong, driving sound. The eight-string Mandolin had a brief vogue in the
1960s and 70s for accompanying singing and for the playing of slow airs. The
guitar was introduced into traditional music during the 20th century, at first
among Irish musicians in North America to accompany melodic instruments, then
in the song revival of the 1950s to accompany singing. It is now commonly used
to accompany dance music, and is played fairly percussively using a pick.
Keyboard instruments, chiefly the piano, but also the harpsichord and
electronic keyboards, have been adapted to Irish music since the 1700s. In the
1960s the Greek Bouzouki was introduced into Irish traditional music and has been
generally accepted. A playing style has evolved which is a mixture of chords
and melodic runs, and flat-backed Irish forms of the instrument and different
tunings are found. The free-reed mouth organ (orgán béil) has been
played in Ireland since the 19th century. It requires considerable physical
effort to play, but it is very suitable for dance music. The fife and piccolo
are played in a variety of keys. They are used with drums in marching bands in
Northern Ireland, and occasionally in dance bands. Lesser-played percussion
instruments include: the giant ritual Lambeg drum, beaten with canes and played
in parades across the north of Ireland; the bones, two sections of cowbone held
in the hand and clacked against each other; and the domestic spoons, held with
backs together in one hand and played against the other hand and the knees. The
bones and spoons are used to accompany dance music.
Ireland, §II:
Traditional Music
7. Groups and bands.
In
spite of the respect accorded the solo player, Irish traditional music is
primarily a social music, and traditional musicians frequently play together in
different combinations, in unison. The earliest groups were small, playing in
small venues such as farmhouses or taverns for small numbers of dancers and
using whatever instruments were available locally. But as the music began to be
played in larger venues such as dance halls, from the end of the 19th century
in Irish North America and from the beginning of the 20th century in Ireland,
the groups became increasingly larger and rhythm instruments were introduced so
that dancers could hear the beat more distinctly. Tenor banjos, double basses,
pianos and drum kits formed part of the line-up together with the older
fiddles, flutes and accordions. Sound recordings of these groups influenced the
structure of groups in Ireland. By the early 1930s these dance ensembles, which
remained popular until the 1960s, were known as ceili bands because they played
for ceili dances (from céilithe or social occasions of the Gaelic
League). They went into decline in the 1960s with changes in dancing fashions,
although they underwent a small revival in the 1990s; their playing is
especially in demand for social set dances.
Session
playing – large and small informal groups of musicians playing for their own
enjoyment for hours on end, often in a pub – spread in popularity during the
1950s. It continues strongly to the present and has become a standard social
setting for the performance of music. The instruments used depend on the
musicians present. The composer Seán Ó Riadaintroduced a new style of group playing
in the early 1960s when he formed Ceoltóirí Cualann, a ‘folk orchestra’, with
traditional melody instruments paralleling the strings-woodwind arrangement of
an orchestra, and using the bodhrán. Also in the early 1960s three- or
four-member ‘ballad groups’ developed. Under the influence of the North
American folk revival, these singing groups specialized in English-language
songs and accompanied themselves on guitars, mandolins, whistles and banjos.
The Clancy Brothers, Tommy Makem and the Dubliners were among the most famous
groups of this type. As instrumental playing gained ground again in the 1970s,
most ballad groups faded away, but some added traditional melodic instruments
such as fiddle and uilleann pipes and became mixed vocal and instrumental
groups. Electronic instruments such as electric guitars and keyboards were
increasingly introduced into traditional group playing from the 1970s onwards,
and acoustic instruments were amplified. Among groups using this
instrumentation, Planxty and later the Bothy Band enjoyed great popularity,
especially in continental Europe and North America. Although both groups have
disbanded, they continue to have an influence through their recordings. Some
professional groups, for example Clannad and Altan, have moved from playing
traditional music to playing popular music with traditional roots.
Ireland, §II: Traditional
Music
8. Dancing.
Traditional
dance has always been intimately connected with traditional music in Ireland,
but there is no information on the nature of Irish dancing (damhsa or rince)
until recent centuries, although it seems to have resembled European dance in
general. Some Irish country dances of the 1600s were performed at a rapid pace
and employed sticks and swords. Jigs were also danced from as early as the
1600s, as were open-air long dances or dances involving lines of people, and
open-air ring dances with large groups. From the 1700s to the present the main
traditional solo dances have been step-dances: jigs of various kinds, reels,
hornpipes and special solo set or exhibition dances. Old open-air group dances
were generally replaced by indoor European group dances such as minuets and
cotillions in the late 1700s and quadrilles in the 1800s. There developed Irish
forms which were also danced to the music of the jig, reel and hornpipe and
other measures. Quadrilles evolved into the present-day set-dances, danced in
squares by four couples. Versions of these survive and have had a huge revival
since the 1970s.
Group
dances called ceili dances were developed along traditional line-dance models
from the 1890s to the 1930s during the Gaelic Revival, but are no longer as
popular as formerly. Traditionally, dancing took place outdoors in fields and
at crossroads during the summer, and indoors in the larger farm houses during
winter. In 1935 a national Public Dance Halls Act required all public dances to
be licensed, and effectively ended the small country-house dances which had
already begun to decline.
Competition
has always been a feature of traditional step-dancing. It has been highly
regulated since 1931 when An Coimisiún le Rincí Gaelacha (the Commission for
Gaelic Dances), a division of the Gaelic League, was founded to establish rules
and standards and to organize competitions. This movement gave rise to a large
number of professional Irish dancing schools in Ireland and abroad and led to
an elaborate formal development of steps, dances, costumes and competitions.
World championships attract thousands of competitors. The majority of teachers
and pupils in these schools are female, a contrast with the dancers of the past
who were both male and female. Ballet and tap dance techniques have
increasingly been incorporated into competition step-dancing in recent decades
which has caused controversy. In the late 1990s, the stage shows Riverdance
and Lord of the Dance, based on this type of dancing with newly composed
music based on traditional idioms, have achieved an extraordinary degree of
international popularity. Unregulated traditional step-dancing survives in
pockets, especially in the west of Ireland, and lively upper body and arm
movements are often part of this tradition which began to experience a revival
during the 1990s.
Ireland, §II:
Traditional Music
9. Collecting and publishing.
The
first collection of Irish music was A Complete Collection of the Most
Celebrated Irish Tunes, published in Dublin in 1724. Several other
commercial collections appeared during the same century. The earliest surviving
manuscripts of Irish traditional music belong to the late 1700s, when they were
compiled by musicians for their own use. The first person to collect Irish
traditional music systematically for preservation was Edward Bunting
(1773–1843), an Armagh organist who notated and published the music of the last
of the traditional harpists. Other collectors followed Bunting's example during
the 1800s, among them George Petrie of Dublin (1789–1866) and Patrick Weston
Joyce (1827–1914) of Limerick. Large manuscript collections such as those by
the Cork musician William Forde (c1795–1850) and Dublin dental surgeon
Henry Hudson (1798–1889) have not yet been published; the collection of the
Kerry clergyman James Goodman (1828–96) was published in 1998. A great deal of
Irish music was also published commercially during the 19th century in Ireland,
Britain and the USA. Captain Francis O'Neill of Cork (1848–1936) gathered
thousands of tunes from his fellow emigrant musicians in Chicago and from rare
books and manuscripts, and published these during the early years of the 20th
century. He was followed later in the century by Francis Roche (1866–1961) of
Limerick and Breandán Breathnach (1912–85) of Dublin. Large-scale institutional
collecting has been undertaken from the 1930s to the present time by such
bodies as the Irish Folklore Commission (now the Department of Irish Folklore,
University College Dublin) and Radió Éireann, the national radio station. In
the second half of the 20th century there was an explosion of book publications
of songs and tunes.
Ireland, §II:
Traditional Music
10. Sound recording, radio and television.
The
recording of Irish traditional music began on cylinders and discs in the 1890s,
but little was recorded until the 1920s when hundreds of musicians and a few
traditional singers were recorded on 78 r.p.m. discs in the USA. As these
recordings filtered back to Ireland, notably those of the Sligo fiddle player
Michael Coleman, they profoundly influenced the course of traditional music.
Little was recorded in Ireland until the 1930s, and even then it was material
largely in non-traditional arrangements. In the late 1950s, many commercial
recordings were issued on LP by new, small companies, and some authentic styles
of traditional performance such as sean-nós singing in Irish were heard
on disc for the first time. Interest in this material grew and has continued to
the present time, along with an interest in new styles of performance and
record production. In the 1990s audio cassettes and CDs became the standard
formats. Reel-to-reel magnetic tape, in use since the 1950s, has been almost
entirely confined to use in radio and in archival field recording. Large
collections of these recordings survive and they represent the nature of
traditional performance more accurately than commercial recordings. Hundreds of
thousands of private performances have been recorded on audio cassette tape
since the 1970s. Cassettes are extensively used for learning music, and they
have been important in the modern transmission of the music.
In
the USA and Canada, commercial ‘Irish Hours’ with popular and traditional
performers have been a regular radio feature since the 1920s in most cities
along the East Coast. In Ireland, where radio was completely state controlled
until the 1980s, broadcasting began in Belfast in 1924 and in Dublin in 1926.
The Belfast station, part of the BBC network, rarely broadcasted traditional
music until the 1950s, but the Dublin station, 2RN, later Radió Éireann,
featured it every second or third night from its inception as policy. All radio
performances were broadcast live from the studio until the introduction of
field recording, on discs in the 1940s and on tape in the 1950s, for both
stations. In the 1970s the establishment in the Republic of gaeltacht-based
national Irish-language radio widened the availability of Irish-language song,
and some local commercial and community stations set up in the 1980s feature
traditional music prominently. Field recordings have had a powerful educational
influence in reviving interest in traditional music and have closely documented
the music in the second half of the 20th century.
Although
Irish television programmes were first produced in Belfast in the late 1950s,
traditional music was not a regular feature of the medium until Raidió Teilifís
Éireann, the state television of the Republic, began broadcasting in Dublin in
1962. Typically, programmes were filmed in a studio and had a recital format
with a presenter and an invited audience. Location filming, more expensive, has
been far rarer. Production and direction was the preserve of RTÉ employees
until the 1990s when independent production companies became involved.
Ireland, §II:
Traditional Music
11. Research.
Irish
traditional music research has been confined mostly to a small group of
interested individuals. An increasing number of third-level graduate and
postgraduate studies are being carried out, especially in University College,
Cork, and in the Irish World Music Centre of the University of Limerick. The
larger libraries in Ireland, and also in Britain and the USA, hold important
collections of printed traditional music. Public multimedia archives in Dublin
include those of the Department of Irish Folklore of University College Dublin,
Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann and the Irish Traditional Music Archive.
Ireland, §II:
Traditional Music
BIBLIOGRAPHY
general
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F. O'Neill: Irish
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P. Ní
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R. Ní
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Music of Ireland: 1850 Melodies (Chicago, 1903/R)
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Folk Music and Songs (London, 1909/R)
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