The Irish Musical Tradition

Public Lecture Series at Spring Garden Library, Halifax

Textbook:
Ó hAllmhuráin, Gearóid ["Ga-ROAD O-hal-ver-awn"]. A Pocket History of Irish Traditional Music. The O'Brien Press, Dublin (Irish American Book Company).
OR
Ó hAllmhuráin, Gearóid. O'Brien Pocket History of Irish Traditional Music. The O'Brien Press, Dublin (British edition).
The two editions have different pagination but either one is fine. The pagination listed below is for the British edition, with pages for the American edition in parentheses.
A copy of the British edition will be on reserve at the Spring Garden Library.

The focus of the lecture series will be on Irish Traditional Music (ITM) but we will also look at some other aspects of music in Ireland. For some thoughtful definitions of Irish Traditional Music, see the introduction to the textbook, and the following web pages:

Lecture 1, 7th January 2009: Stone Age and Bronze Age Instruments in Ireland.

Topics for this week: bone flutes/whistles; bronze horns and new discoveries as to how they may have been played.

References:

Lecture 2, 14th January 2009: Iron Age and Medieval Irish Music.

Topics for this week: the Loughnashade Trumpa and the Deskford Carnyx; the Sutton Hoo Lyre; the Loch Erne and Bekan Horns; music and its power in Medieval Irish literature; Aonach Carman ["ANE-och" (ch as in "loch") "KAR-mun"] = an 11th c poem about The Fair of Carman that mentions instruments; the crwth and the vielle; the harp and pipes on Muireadach's Cross; lyres and four-sided harps before triangular harps; Giraldus Cambrensis (Gerald of Wales) and his Topographica Hiberniae (1188); the unflattering woodcut of the feast in Derricke's Image of Ireland (1581) featuring the chief, poet, reciter, and harper (with harp strings attached incorrectly to the forepillar of the instrument); the high status of the harper.

Three categories of music are featured in Medieval Irish tales:

References:

Lecture 3, 21st January 2009: Early Irish Music.

Topics for this week: early pipes; low-headed and high-headed harps; laws restricting and prohibiting Irish music; the demise of Gaelic Irish society; Turlough O'Carolan; Edward Bunting and the Belfast Harp Festival.

References:

Lecture 4, 28th January 2009: Special Guest: Glenn Coolen, Uilleann Pipes and Whistles.

References:

Lecture 5, 4th February 2009: Collections and Collectors of Irish Music.

References:

Lecture 6, 11th February 2009: Collectors continued, plus the Influence of Seán Ó Riada

Last week I did not make it past 1855 (George Petrie's important collection). This week's talk starts off with a brief inquiry into the sources of "Danny Boy" (since its tune, Londonderry Air, makes its first appearance in Petrie's collection). Then the focus will move to American collections including those of the fascinating "Chief" O'Neill, and from there into the age of the collection of sound recordings.

My second major subject for the day -- while we are looking at the work of influential people in Irish music -- is composer/musician Seán Ó Riada (John Reidy), who was active in the fields of art music, traditional music, and liturgical music. Ó Riada put together the musical group Ceoltóirí Cualann, which was the basis for The Chieftains.

References:

No Lecture 18th February 2009

This is Reading Week for SMU students.

Lecture 7, 25th February 2009: Instruments

Instrument classification: the Hornbostel-Sachs system, diatonic versus chromatic.
The Fiddle, degree and kind of articulation as one indicator of regional style in Ireland, similarity between bowing in Donegal and Cape-Breton fiddling.

References:

Lecture 8, 4th March 2009: Instruments continued

Fiddle ornaments bowed and fingered, Flutes and Whistles, The Free-Reed family: "Box" (Accordion), Melodeon, Concertina, Harmonica

References:

Lecture 9, 11th March 2009: Irish Tune Types and Structure

Two part/strain dance tunes are most common.
Repetition of short themes (blocks) is important as an aid to remembering tunes.
Duple versus triple meters.
Jigs (double, single, slipjigs, slides), reels, hornpipes, strathspey relatives (flings, Highlands), polkas.

Lecture 10, 18th March 2009: Irish Song Types

Traditional ballads as categorized by Francis Child, broadside ballads, Come-all-ye's, sean-nós (old-style songs), laments, love songs, northern songs influenced by Scottish Gaelic, keens, mouth-music, lilting.

[Aisling, dandling songs, lullabies, milking songs (and other occupational songs), macaronic songs, sea songs (shanties), religious songs, rebel songs, pub ballads, drinking songs, American-Irish popular songs, etc.]

References:

Lecture 11, 25th March 2009: Irish Dance

Lecture 12, 1st April 2009: Irish Music and Dance in the New World

This is the last lecture.

I will add some links for the last two classes shortly.