Irish Music
Traditional FeaturesNon traditional features
SoloGroup performances
No harmonyHarmony
OrnamentationAccompaniment
Flattened 7thNon traditional instruments
Wide rangeNoted music
MonophonicHomophonic
No dynamicsFusions
Not expressiveSyncopated rhythm
Repeat final noteDynamics
Traditional instrumentsNo ornamentation
Aural tradition – passed down by ear
Modal keys and gapped scales
Form dictates what way the dances go
Traditional InstrumentsNon traditional instruments
FiddleGuitar
FluteMandolin
Tin whistlePiano/keyboard
Uilleann pipesSynthesiser
ConcertinaBouzouki
Melodeon/button accordionDrums
HarpHarpsichord
Piano accordionOrchestral instruments
HarmonicaEthnic instruments
Bodhrán
Bones
Spoon
Tenor banjo
Musicians:
Harp- Derek Bell, Laoise Kelly, Máire Ní Chathasaigh.
Fiddle- Frankie Gavin, Tommy Peoples, Paddy Glackin
Flute- Matt Molloy, Seamus Tansey
Whistle- Mary Bergin, Geraldine Cotter, Paddy Maloney
Uilleann Pipes- Seamus Ennis, Willie Clancy, Pady Maloney
Bodhrán- Kevin Conneff, Mel Mercier
Sean Nós
SoloFree rhythm
UnaccompaniedNo dynamics
In irishGlottal stop
OrnamentationModal tonality
MelismasNasal tone
Glissando/slidingRegional Differences
Examples:Úna Bhán
Anach Cuain
An Droimeann Donn Dílis
Caoine na dTír Mhuire
Regional Differences
Donegal / Connemara / MunsterScottish influence / Narrow range / Wider range
Regular rhythm / Nasal tone / Vibrato, pronounced nasal quality
Least Ornamenation / Lots of ornamentation, very melismatic / Rhythmic variation
Singers: Lillis Ó Laoire,
Salí Gallagher / Singers: Róisín Elsafty, Seosamh Ó hÉanaí / Singers: Iarla O’Lionair, Séamus Begley
Irish Dance Music
Type / Time / Rhythm / Tempo / Info / ExampleJig:
Double
Single
Slip jig / 6
8
6
8
9
8 / Fast and lively / Most native, some English,
Most from 18th& 19thcentury / The Ten penny Bit
Smash the Windows
Hardiman the fiddler
Reel / 4or2
42 / Fast and flowing / Most common,
Scottish origin / Bonnie Kate
Cooley’s reel
Hornpipe / 4
4 / Slower than reel / English origin, strong accent on 1stand 3rdbeats / The harvest home
Rights of man
Polka / 2
4 / Fast / West Munster, set dancing in sliabh Luachra / Britches full of stitches
Kerry polka
Slide / 12or6
88 / Fast / A fast single jig / Denis Murphy’s slide
Song Tradition
§ Sean-nós
§ Ballads (old and new)
§ Macaronic songs (in 2 languages)
§ Anglo-Irish songs
Type of songs
Type / Features / ExamplesLove songs / Expressive, often sad / Úna Bhan
She moved through the fair
Laments / About loss, death, eviction, emigration of friend, longing for better times / Anach Chuain
An Mhaighéan Mhara
Drinking songs / Lively rhythm, celebratory, social events / Whiskey in the jar
Preab san Ól
Níl sé ‘na Lá
Working songs / For tasks like working in the fields, kitchen, forge, steady rhythm to match the work / Ding dong Dédero
Amhrán na Cuiginne
Lullabies / Gentle rockinig rhythm, sleep songs, / Deirin Dé
Dún o Shúile
Religious songs / Sorrowful, grief, focus on religious topics, usually slow, not common due to penal laws / Wexford Carol
Caoineadh na dTrí Mhuire
Humorous songs / Light hearted, lively rhythm, / The holy ground
An Poc ar Buille
Dandling songs / For small children, bouncy rhythm, repeats words and melody / Dílín Ó Deamhas
Patriotic songs / Ashling – dream/visions song,
Rebel/nationalist and famine songs / Boolavogue
Four Green Fields
Táimse im’ Chodladh
Macronic / Alternates between English and irish, Some patriotic in the irish parts / Siúil a Rúin
One day for Recreation
Ballads / A narrative lyric song, often on political or social life, love, alcohol, emigration,the sea / The Foggy Dew
Finnegan’s Wake
The Croppy Boy
The Fields of Athenry
Anglo-Irish songs / Composed by irish in English language, many are ballads as well / The Last Rose of Summer
The Mountains of Mourne
Essay Topics
All Essay topics and the years they have appeared.
Sean Nós
The Term sean nós is used to describe unaccompanied solo singing, usually I the irish language in which the words and the music are of equal importance.
Sean nós is a singing style developed over the centuries in Irish speakingIrelandand Gaelic speakingScotland. It has been passed on from generation to generation. The style is deeply rooted in the rhythms of the Gaelic language and in the metres and rhythms of Gaelic poetry.
Songs are sung with free rhythm, the singer speeds up or slows down to suit the words which may sometimes sound distorted. Dynamics are not used. The singer ornaments the tune to convey emotion. No two performances of a song by the same singer will be identical.
Melodic ornamentation used may be melismatic, where a note is replaced by a group of adjacent notes, or intervallic, where additional notes are used to fill intervals between notes in the tune. Rhythmic variation also is common where the notes may be lengthened or shortened. Sean nós singing tends to have a nasal tone quality. Glottal stopping is use which interrupts the flow of air through the wind pipe. Extra meaningless syllable are sometimes added to words and some singers slow down at the end while others speak the final line of the song.
There are three regions associated with sean nós singings;Munster, Donegal andConnemara. These are all Gaeltacht areas and each has it’s own distinctive spoken dialect and sean nós style.In Donegal ornamentation is not use very often and it has a very regular rhythm. Salí Gallagher is a performer of the Donegal sean nós style. InConnemaraa lot of ornamentation is use and it is very florid. The songs also tend to have a narrower range. Seosamh Ó hÉanaí is a sean nós singer inConnemara. The range tends to be much wider inMunsterand many use vibrato so it is most similar to classical singing.
The Harping Tradition
The harping tradition inIrelandflourished from medieval times until the seventeenth century. It was fostered and developed among the powerful and wealthy Irish and Anglo-Irish families. Harpers were employed along with poets and orators, known as reacoirs, to provide entertainment for the families. As the families acted as patrons to the harpers, they would often have solo pieces, known as planxties, written in their honour by their harper. One famous song is Planxty Kelly. The occupation of a harper was a very prestigious one. The harping tradition was passed on, father to son, for many years and was one of very few viable career options for blind boys at the time. However, after 1600, as the great families went into decline, there was a loss of patronage and harpers were left unemployed. The harping tradition then became a nomadic one, as harpers would travel from county to county, playing for money and food.
There were two styles of harp: the Bardic harp and the Neo-Irish harp. The Bardic harp had between 29 and 31 strings made of wire, which were played with the nails. Usually around 70cm in height with a curved pillar and a hollow soundbox, the Bardic harp was the more resonant of the two. The Neo-Irish harp typically had 34 strings made of nylon or cat gut, which were played with the pads of the fingers. They were taller (about 91cm in height) than the Bardic harp, but less resonant.
In 1792 the Belfast Harp Festival was setup with the aim of preventing the decline of the harping tradition. It consisted of eleven harpers from the age of 15 to 97, playing pieces in their own particular style. One player that was the light of the day was Denis Hempson, age 97, being the oldest player there. Edward Bunting was commissioned by the Belfast Harp Society to record the lifestyles of the harpers as well as recording and writing down the music from the festival to preserve it for future generations. This method, unlike the oral tradition which had existed up until then, did not allow for particular nuances in style and some of these were lost. There was a harping revival in the second half of the twentieth century. The role of the harp as a traditional instrument was led by Máire Ní Chathasaigh, who had solo albums such as “The New Strung Harp” and Laoise Kelly who release the album “Just Harp”
Seán Ó Riada:
Use for Irish composer
Sean O Riada (1931-1971) was born inCorkand grew up in Bruff, Co.Limerick, where he learned to play the traditional fiddle. He studied music in University College Cork. He also learned to play piano and played it in both jazz and dance bands. He was assistant Director of music in Radio Éireann until he left forParisin 1955. After a further study inParis, where he became involved with Jazz and Greek musicians, he was appointed Musical Director of the Abby Theatre inDublinin 1957 and also returned to work with Radio Eireann. O Riada first came to prominence in 1959 when he was commissioned by Gael Linn to write the Music for the movie ‘Mise Eire’. In 1963 O Riada took up a post lecturing in Music atUniversityCollege,Cork, and he continued to work there until his death in 1971.
Throughout his life O Riada was a much renowned Irish Music Composer. But he also composed Classical music. He was also a very talented Bodhran player – giving this instrument a new lease of life in Irish Music. Ó Riada was quite critical of ceilì bands and he formed a “folk orchestra” called Ceoltoirì Chulann in 1960. He wanted to create a popular audience for traditional music and give it the dignity it deserved. He hoped that his new band could revolutionize the arrangement and performance of Irish Music. There imaginative arrangements involve interweaving melodies a classical-style harmonies.
The bodhrán had been seen as a primitive rhythm instrument but once O’Riada use it in Ceoltóirí Chualann is became a mainstream traditional Irish instrument in many groups. He also wanted to revive the 18thcentury Irish Harp music so he played the harpsichord in order to replicate the sound. Despite not giving many concerts they had a large following. Their last performance was recorded on the album “O’Riada sa Gaiety”. When the group broke up in 1969 many of them joined The Chieftains, whose style was greatly influenced by O’Riada.
The use of traditional airs such as “Róisín Dubh” and patriotic tunes like “A nation once again” in his orchestral scores made him a national celebrity. His soundtracks include; “Mise Éire” and “Saoirse” and also the film “The Playboy of the Western World”. He also wrote many liturgical works including “Ag Críost an Síol”. O’Riada also composed choral works, a symphony, and pieces for solo instruments and chamber groups. These include, Hill Field, Four Holderlin songs and Five Epigrams from the Greek Anthology.
Mícheál Ó Shuilleabháin:
Use for: Irish composer and solo fusion of styles.
Mícheál Ó Shuilleabháin was born in 1950 and he is an Irish performer, arranger, composer and musicologist. He is a piano player And combines traditional music with both classical and jazz in his arrangements of dance tunes, airs and harp tunes. Ó Shuilleabháin plays traditional tunes on piano and improvises them in a jazz style, know as “Hiberno Jazz” such as “The Fox Chase”.
His album “Idir Eatarthru” which means between worlds, features a classical orchestra, as well as harp, fiddle, piano, flute, harpsichord, bodhrán and saxophone. The first track “Christmas Eve” begins with an introduction, which is a classical feature, on piano and bodhrán. The piano plays chords and improvises, a jazz feature, and it leads into a reel, which is the traditional
Irish feature.
Another track “Crispy” contains features of modern art music as it contains changing time signatures and two motifs being repeated, which are two short melodies that are taken from Irish tunes and are repeated constantly. It contains both classical and traditional instruments with the piano, strings and bodhrán.
His other compositions include works for both classical orchestras and traditional instruments such as “Oileán/Island” which features the Irish Camber Orchestra as well as the traditional flute. He also composed the 1995 Eurovision interval piece “Lumen” which was for voices, orchestra and traditional instruments.
Céilí Bands:
The word “Céilí” means “a gathering of people for dance”.Céilí bands play solely for dancing. A céilí band must play loud enough so it can be heard by everyone in a large hall over the noise from dancing feet. All the instruments that play the melody play in unison. A standard céili band consists of ten players. Instruments used include, accordion, concertina, harmonica, uilleann pipes, banjo, fiddle, mandolin, flute, tin whistle, drums and piano. The position of the instruments on the stage is important for balance. Generally the fiddles and flutes are in the front with the banjo a little behind them and the accordion and concertina further back as they are the loudest. Drums and piano are always furthest from the dancers. Well known bands include the Kilfenora and Ballinakill Céilí Bands.
The first céilí was organised in 1897 inLondonby the Gaelic League. It included music for jigs, quadrille sets and waltzes. There was long rows of dancers facing each other which is a practice that still continues today. Fr Tom Larkin set up the Ballinakill Céilí band in 1926/27 as at that time the clergy wished to get rid of jazz music. They played tunes which were suited to a blend of flute, fiddle and piano. The band was very influential and remained active until the 1960s. They inspired many others who heard them play on radio or live at céilís and feiseanna such as their 1930 recordings of The pipe on the hob, Queen of the Rushes, The old bush reel and the copperplate reel.