Notes on Irish Traditional Music

The following notes were written to give composers and delegates to ICMC 2008 some ideas about Irish traditional music, its history, instrumentation, and structure. The author, Martin Dowling, is a fiddle player and is Lecturer in Irish Traditional Music in the School of Music and Sonic arts in Queen’s University Belfast. I hope that these notes will help composers to develop strategies for engaging with Irish traditional musicians in their submissions to the conference. I also hope that they begin a conversation here on the website about how Irish traditional music relates to many conference themes. For example, the themes of geographically displaced performance, place and non-place, urbanity/rurality, and soundscape composition are all alive within Irish traditional music.

This is of course just an initial sketch. Much more can be said and discussed here on the website or by contacting me directly at m.dowling@qub.ac.uk.

Origins

Irish traditional music, like its Scottish and American cousins, developed as a vernacular, popular tradition gradually over the last two and a half centuries. It’s particular character and variety is owing to the mixture, in the eighteenth century and after, of indigenous instrumentation and repertoire dating from even early periods with new influences (in the form of new instruments, and new styles of dancing) which arrived only to be developed in unique ways in isolated districts of the country. The poetic and song tradition embedded in the declining Irish language is a persistent influence, and not only on singing in English, as is the repertoire of eighteenth-century harp players whose music was transcribed and preserved by early nineteenth-century collectors such as Edward Bunting and George Petrie.

An equally important indigenous development in this period was the creation and refinement of the union—later called uilleann (Irish for “elbow”)—pipes. It might be said that the uilleann pipes replaced the harp as the iconic and central instrument as the vernacular tradition evolved in nineteenth century Ireland. Pipers inherited and preserved the repertoire and techniques of the harpers and bards of earlier centuries. They also invented a massive repertoire of tunes and techniques to suit social dancing. The work of collectors shows a virtual explosion of repertoire in the nineteenth century, and commentary on popular music-making in the countryside routinely refers to pipers either playing solo or in the company of fiddlers. Various types of six-holed whistles, fifes, and flutes were in use throughout the country as well. In the nineteenth century, the harp was largely abandoned in vernacular music making, as it was unsuited to the new dance music. In recent years, a number of harp players have added dance music to their repertoire of eighteenth-century material. One of these is Michele Mulcahy from County Limerick. In this clip, she reverses the historical trend, and adapts two piping jigs to the harp - youtube clip.

For some background on the harp in Ireland, and the construction and history of the uilleann pipes, see the following passages from Fintan Vallely (ed.) The Companion to Irish Traditional Music (Cork: Cork University Press, 1999).
{HARP 1 -6 and PIPES 1 -4}

Much more can be said about the harp tradition, the song tradition, both in the Irish and in English languages, and the instrumental interpretation of song-airs. These, along with the early harp repertoire, are essential components of contemporary “Irish Traditional Music.” However, the centre of gravity of the tradition is dance music made for listening and dancing.

Dance Music

The Irish traditional repertoire and the variety of stylistic approaches to it are saturated and constrained by the twin influences of piping and dancing. From dancing comes the eight-bar structure of almost the entire repertoire, and the uniformity and consistency of time signature, tempo, and rhythm. It is a particular feature of Irish traditional music that it lacks a deep tradition of percussion, so that the rhythmic intensity of the music has historically been the sole responsibility of the melody player. (The bodhran, the Irish goat-skinned frame drum, has only become ubiquitous in the tradition in recent decades).

The vast majority of tunes are in two halves, the “tune” and the “turn.” At its most basic, a “tune” will begin with a four-bar phrase ending in an open cadence; to be followed by another four-bar iteration of the opening phrase that resolves on the opening tonic or its triad. The “turn,” usually set in the next highest octave, offers a ramification of the motive of the “tune” and often, particularly in the hornpipe, returns to the concluding phrase of the “tune” in the last four bars. There is a smaller family of tunes with three or four parts. These generally work around a bottom octave triad in the opening part; they move to a middle register working around the fifth of the bottom octave, the tonic and third of the upper octave; the third part resides in the upper octave. Four part tunes may simply repeat the “tune” exactly in an upper octave. Rarer still are those small handful of pieces with five, six or seven parts. Tunes of this length strive to exhaust the possibilities for the iteration of the motive of the “tune”, the first part. All of this dance music is set in a handful of time signatures, either in three (the 6/8 double jig, the 9/8 slip jig, and the 12/8 slides and hop jigs, and the 3 /4 waltz and mazurka) or four (reels, hornpipes, barn dances, flings, highlands, and the 2/4 polka).

The other main influence comes from the structure and sonic properties of the uilleann pipes, and the techniques of ornamentation and embellishment developed by the 19th century pipers. The nature of the instrument dictates that the vast majority of the repertoire is set in the four keys with one or two sharps (D, G, Am, and Em), with music in A major restricted largely to the Scottish-influenced fiddle music of Donegal in the northwest. A number of noted twentieth century composers of dance music have been accordion players and fiddle players, and there is a growing repertoire of music for those instruments that is in key signatures unsuited to the tuning systems of the pipes, flute, and whistle. But while the range of keys and cadences might be widening, the new instrumentation has not changed the patterns of rhythm, expression, and embellishment that characterise the tradition. Various approaches to bowing and breathing give uniqueness to the Irish flute and fiddle, and the free-reed instruments have their own idiosyncratic qualities, but most of the characteristic techniques derive from 19th century piping. Aside from various applications of grace notes to the melody, the performers on all instruments will make use frequent use of rolls and crans in the performance of jigs, and in addition to these will use staccato triplets in the performance of music in common time. Some transcriptions of these are given in the links below.. The first table of embellishments is taken from the manuscripts of the mid-nineteenth century collector James Goodman (See Hugh Shields (ed.) Tunes of the Munster Pipers: Irish Traditional Music from the James Goodman Manuscripts (Dublin: Irish Traditional Music Archive, 1998).
{PIPES 5}

Scholar-pipers Pat Mitchell and Jackie Small have analysed in detail surviving recording of the early twentieth century master piper Patsy Touhey and produced tables of his ornamentations (See Pat Mitchell and Jackie Small, The Piping of Patsy Touhey (Dublin: Na Píobairí Uilleann, 1986). Here are some examples {PIPES 11-14}.

Some Noted Performers in Action

There is a growing stock of traditional Irish material appearing on the “You Tube” site on the internet, much of it of poor quality. However, rare and important broadcast material from Irish television in the 1960s and 1970s is now available that allows for a close examination of an master uilleann pipers at work. Here is a clip is of Seamus Ennis, a piper, singer, collector, and storyteller, and one of the more influential practitioners of the mid-twentieth century. He introduces and plays “The Morning Thrush,” a three part reel in the key of D composed by his father.

Notice the embellishment used on the both the bottom and the first octave D, the repeated rolling of an F in the third part, the separation of notes played in a legato style with grace notes, and the judicious use of the regulators with the right wrist throughout. Liam Ó Floinn, founder member of the group Planxty and a prominent student of Ennis’s, is captured here on a clip playing “The Frieze Britches,” a jig that exhibits many of the characteristics of 19th century piping.

In this tune you see and hear in the first part, the “tune,” the use of a long roll on G, followed by another on F (engaging the G and F regulators to emphasise this cadence), and then the crann on the bottom D. In the turn of the tune the use of staccato ornaments can be heard. He moves into another jig in the key of G, employing similar techniques. Here is Ó Floinn in duet with the renowned fiddle player Tommy Peoples on a 1977 broadcast playing two reels, “The Flax in Bloom” and “The Wind that Shakes the Barley.” Impeccably clear and visible rolls, as well as slightly crunchy staccato triplets, often employed in conjunction with grace notes to imitate the piping crann on the open D string, are hallmarks of Peoples’ highly influential style.

Rhythmically tight but melodically slightly loose duet playing as seen in this clip of Ó Floinn and Peoples is a feature of contemporary practice. Though I have argued that piping techniques are central, pipes and pipers are comparatively rare and styles of duet playing have evolved in isolation from piping. The fiddle-flute combination is very popular, especially in northwest Connacht between the cities of Enniskillen and Galway. Here is a rare clip of one of the most influential fiddle-flute duets of recent decades, Peter Horan on flute and the late Fred Finn on fiddle. Finn’s bowing style and dynamics are tuned closely to the flautists breathing.

The incorporation of more chromatically flexible instruments into the tradition, notably free reed instruments like the melodeon, the concertina, and the accordion, has expanded the palette for the composition and performance of dance music. Contemporary fiddle and flute players play in a wider range of keys and are familiar with a wider range of cadence than previously. For example the deeper sonority of the keys of C and F, and their relative minors, hold an attraction for accordion and concertina players. For a brief introduction to the accordion in Irish music, with a diagram of one of the key systems in wide use, see the following pages, written by Maire O’Keefe and Sean Quinn, from Fintan Vallely (ed.) The Companion to Irish Traditional Music (Cork: Cork University Press, 1999).
{ACCORDION Files}

The accordion/fiddle duet has an established pedigree, and formed one of the essential components of the sound of the group De Dannan, three of the members of which are captured on the following clip. Here they play an interesting four-part tune, “The Monaghan Jig,” set in the key of Em. The turn of the tune is the third part, and the tune is further fleshed out with a second and fourth part composed of rising runs of triads.

Texture and Rhythm

One of the most exciting developments in traditional music in the twentieth century was the perfection of accompaniment techniques. Since the late nineteenth century accompaniment had largely been confined to unimaginative vamping on the piano in the dance hall setting. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, a number of musicians came of age introducing new instruments and strategies. Andy Irvine and Donal Lunny, two founding members of the group Planxty, are credited with introducing the four-course “bouzouki” into Irish music. Alec Finn, seen in the previous clip playing with fellow members of the group De Dannan, developed a unique and understated style on a three course version of the Greek bouzouki. Influenced by Lennon and McCartney, and by English guitarist Bert Jansch and John Renbourn, Michéal Ó Domhnaill and Daithí Sproule were among a generation of guitarists that included Paul Brady and Arty McGlynn who developed a palette of chordal accompaniment out of new tunings and fingerings that is now regarded as essential. Here are Arty McGlynn and Paul Brady in duet, playing a standard piping jig in the key of D, “The Humours of Ballyloughlin,” an example of the state of the art of Irish guitar playing c.1980.

The Bothy Band, a sextet that toured and recorded in the mid to late 1970s, combined the core melody instruments (pipes, fiddle, and flute) with keyboards, bouzouki, and guitar, and set the mould for instrumentation in the modern traditional Irish group. Attentive listeners will notice that the sound of this band is as informed as much by the particular style of the piper Paddy Keenan as it is by the accompaniment textures. Keenan’s playing is distinct from that of Ennis and Ó Floinn, characterised by a more racing tempo and a flowing, legato, “open” style with the chanter.
Here is the group playing a set of reels which pairs each accompanying instrument with a melody instrument in turn before the entire ensemble is engaged.
And another set of reels with an arrangement strategy which gradually thickens the layers of accompaniment and develops the movement of the bass lines under the successive melodies.

The Aesthetic of the Session

Notwithstanding the spread of musical literacy amongst recent generations of practitioners, Irish traditional music remains essentially an oral tradition. Written music is nothing more than a means to an end, and there is a characteristically irreverent attitude to the printed version of a tune and to composer or collector’s intentions. Composers often find their music transformed by the process of transmission. The individual musician’s stylistic tendencies may become more refined and narrow as he or she matures, but their repertoire exists like a cloud or swarm of hundreds of tunes in their heads. Many of these are mentally pre-arranged by the precedent of historic recordings or the demands of concert performance and commercial recording projects. In the paradigmatic contemporary playing context—the unstructured session of two to a dozen musicians—the strict discipline of unison playing combines with a collective, imaginative journey through a vast repertoire of freely associated and remembered tunes, played over a number of times in spontaneous arrangements of three or four, punctuated by discussion of titles, origins, the circulation of bootleg tapes, and associations, which lead into the next selection. The intriguing characteristic of the session is its lack of pre-arrangement or programme. This is the process in which traditional music is preserved and through which it evolves in far-flung micro-cultures. My strongest suggestion to composers and delegates is to find the session nearest you, as they are now spread across the globe, and enjoy!

Resources in Print

Ciarán Carson, Last Night’s Fun: A Book About Traditional Music (London: Jonothan Cape, 1996)

Dorethea Hast and Stanley Scott, Music in Ireland: Experiencing music, expressing culture (New York; Oxford : Oxford University Press 2004)

Gearóid Ó hAllmhuráin, A pocket history of Irish traditional music (Dublin: O’Brien Press, 1998)

Fintan Vallely (ed.) The Companion to Irish Traditional Music (Cork: Cork University Press, 1999)

Fintan Vallely and Charlie Piggot, Blooming meadows: the world of Irish traditional musicians (Dublin: Town House, 1998)

Web Resources

The Irish Traditional Music Archive

The Session.Org

Na Píobairi Uilleann/The Piper’s Club

Claddagh Records

© Martin Dowling
School of Music and Sonic Arts
Queen’s University of Belfast
October 2007