Irish traditional music

1. Irish traditional music Structures and Contexts

2. Lecture Plan: • History and social context • Musical structures • Performance contexts • Australian contexts

3. Irish music • Irish history • English/British colony : English control gradually developed from 1100’s onwards • After reformation most of Ireland maintained Catholic religion and political allegiance • Series of national movements from 1798 uprising, • National movement continues through 1800s, war of independence 1917-1922

4. Independent Ireland • New state established in Southern part of Ireland, protestant northern province of Ulster remains within United Kingdom • Sense of national unity continues in South and with Northern catholic “republicans” • Nationalist ideology and politics receding with incorporation into Europe and transnationl politics

5. Socio-political place of Irish traditional music • Irish traditional music key symbol of Irish nationalism. • Large group of aficionados and enthusiasts in Ireland, supported in principle by the population • Combination of conservative social tradtion and musical innovation and adventurousness • Cf “Country and Irish” • Cf Irish rock, boy bands, Corrs, etc

6. Irish traditional music in the Irish soundscape • Minority interest of enthusiasts • Given high social and national status by larger group: perhaps majority • Often claimed by many musicians as “basis” or “influence”

7. Genres of “traditional music” • Irish traditional dance tunes • Reels, jigs,hornpipes, set dances etc • Songs • Irish language songs : “sean nos” = old style • English language: traditional narrative ballads: • Local songs, comic songs, love songs, political and topical historical songs • Modern “folk” songs in this format

8. Irish dance music • Repetoire of “tunes” • Binary structure: • A=“tune” • B=“turn” • Rhythmic forms: • Reel: 4/4, AABB, 32 bars, qqqq qqqq • Jig: 6/8, AABB, 32 bars, qqq qqq • Hornpipe: as for reel but slower and more unequal • Slip jigs 9/8 qqq qqq qqq • Set dances: various rhythms with unequal section lengths: eg 16 bars + 20 bars

9. Instrumental resources • Melodic instruments: • Uilleann Pipes: (pron “illun”) • Bellows blown bagpipe, drones, Keys drones called “regulators” • Possibility of staccato playing by “closed fingering”

11. Fiddle: Playing style • Fiddle: =violin , seldom retuned • Playing mainly first position, hence G-b’ range • Loose shoulder support, bowed “on the string”, some “trebling”, much slurred playing, usually offbeat phrasing, some finger slides, much finger ornamentation

12. Flute and Whistle • Flute: baroque wooden flute: 6 primary finger holes, • Whistle: 6 holes, 2 octaves • Almost no tonguing, articulation through ornamentation

13. Secondary instruments • Accordion: button “single action” accordion (different note press and draw, hence phrasing implications) • Plectrum stringed instruments: • Tenor banjo • Mandolin: imitate fiddle tuning and ornamentation, especially “trebling”

14. Accompanying instruments • Piano (now “old fashioned” sound) vamped bass chord alternation • Guitar: modern style often in modal DADGAD tuning: open chords, sus chords, open drones etc • Bodhran: (pron bow’-rawn): circular frame drum, played with short two-ended stick

15. Melodic style Tune range; generally d-b’ D or G major scales, finals of D,E,G,A,B “Modal” melodies: eg notes c(#),f(#) variable “dorian” with major 6 more common than “natural minor” D drone often retains a presence against other modal finals

16. Ornamentation • “Style” as most valued characteristic • Phrasing, ornamentation • Ornaments: • Pipes and flute influenced • Cuts =interrupting upper grace note • Rolls = combination of upper and lower grace notes, rhythmically executed • Trebles: based on stringed instrunment techniques • Principle of imitating other instruments: especially Pipes

17. The Silver spear: Typical reel

18. Variation • Highly valued, but controlled • Integrity of tune must be maintained • Substitution of longer notes, neighbour groups, filling in scalar gaps etc • Tunes sometimes in extended “theme and variation” form:

19. Social and performing contexts • Historically: rural Ireland social dancing: • Much solo step dancing • Group dancing • Crossroads dances • Post independence: national symbolic education and display • Emigration esp USA: social dances, nostalgia, cultural maintenance

20. Modern developments • Recording of emigrant players esp in 1920s-1930s in USA • Vigorous revival movement in Ireland in 1950s-1960s greatly expands social reach. • Breakthrough groups form in 1970s, typical small instrumental folk group, inspires Irish music performance globally • “Session” playing develops esp from 1960s-

21. Global Irish • Session: • Model of cooperative social music making • Leaderless individualism, but strict musico-social control • Rounds of tunes, 2-3 times each • Depends on shared repertoire • Performance without audience, practice, sociability, sub-cultural status • Cf Jazz “jam session”

22. 1990s: Irish goes Global • Irish Pubs , Guinness promotion from early 1990s. Imitates “real” immigrant community Pubs, local rural and Dublin Pubs • Popular Culture: • Riverdance: from 1996 • Film music: Titanic, Lord of the Rings • Irish or “Celtic”?

23. Australia • Irish immigration to Australia in 19th C approx 25% • Influences on vernacular popular song (traditional folk music) • Folk movement in 1970s bases Australian group performance on contemporary Irish performance >> “Bush Band”

24. Irish trad music playing in Australia • Players in Irish immigrant communities, national organisations, dancing classes • Irish emigrants for 1960s immigration “discovered” by Australian folk and roots enthusiasts • Bands and session scenes develop in Australia

25. Current bands and sessions in Melbourne • Sessions: • Father Flanagan's (Nth Fitzroy) • Railway Hotel (Nth Fitzroy) • The Quiet Man (Flemington) • Bands- eg Triskel, Conundrum, The Beanies, Trouble in the Kitchen and others • Extension of repertoire: asymmetric “Balkan style” tunes,