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What is Irish traditional music?  I
RECENTLY came across the following definition of traditional Irish music
which readers of this page might find useful:
IRISH traditional music is best understood as a very broad term that
includes many different types of singing and instrumental music —
music of many periods, as performed by Irish people in Ireland or outside
it and occasionally nowadays by people of other nationalities.
The different types however do have in common an essentially oral character.
That is they belong to a tradition of popular music in which song and
instrumental music is created and transmitted in performance and carried
and preserved in the memory — a tradition which is essentially independent
of writing and print.
It is impossible to give a simple definition of the term.
Different people use it to mean different things.
The music shares characteristics with other popular forms and also with
classical music and as traditional culture changes so does the form showing
varying features at varying times.
Irish traditional music does however have some generally agreed characteristics
which help define it.
It is music of a living popular tradition. While it incorporates a large
body of material inherited from the past this does not form a static repertory
but is constantly changing through the shedding of material, the reintroduction
of neglected items, the composition of new material and the creative altering
in performance of the established repertory.
It is nevertheless music which is conservative in tendency. Change only
takes place slowly and in accordance with generally accepted principles.
Most new compositions are not accepted into the tradition and only a relatively
small amount of variation takes place. Elements of the repertory perceived
as old are held in esteem.
Being oral music it is in a greater state of fluidity than notation-based
music. Versions of songs and tunes proliferate and skilled performers
introduce variations and ornaments as the mood takes them while the same
melody can be found in different metres.
Much of the repertory is known to have been current in the 18th and 19th
centuries. Some is earlier in origin and it is likely that some very old
melodies and lyrics survive adapted to modern forms.
It is handed down from one generation to the next or passed from one performer
to another more by example than by formal teaching.
The traditional learner normally acquires repertory and style through
unconscious or conscious imitation of more experienced performers.
But nowadays learning also takes place in groups organised for teaching
and occasionally within the formal education system.
Printed and manuscript song and music has had an influence on the tradition
since at least the 18th century. Throughout this century books, sound
recordings, radio and television have played an important part in the
transmission of the music and there are always traditional performers
with experience of popular and classical music.
Although items of the repertory are initially produced by individual singers
and musicians they are changed as they pass from performer to performer
and they eventually become the production of many hands — a music
of the people.
The original producer normally receives no financial reward and is forgotten.
Words of songs are often written to existing tunes. Repertories and styles
have originally evolved in given regions but natural processes of diffusion
and especially the modern communications media have spread them more widely.
It is music of rural more than urban origins — a reflection of earlier
population distribution.
But many items and forms of the repertory have come from towns and cities
or through them from abroad.
Much traditional music is now performed and commercially produced in urban
areas.
It is performed almost entirely for recreation by people who are normally
unpaid. There are relatively few full-time professional performers.
Solo performance in which subtleties of style can best be heard is at
the heart of the tradition but group performance is common.
Singing is normally unaccompanied. Unison singing — in duet especially
— is heard. Instruments are played in unison in combinations of
any number.
It is played in the home, in the public house and at other social gatherings
— parties, weddings, dances, festivals — and latterly at concerts
and on radio, television and record.
Written words or music are only used as an aid to memory if at all and
never in performance. Most singers cannot read music but many players
make some use of staff or other kinds of notation.
Within them are found variations and embellishments of text, rhythm, phrasing
and melody but rarely of dynamics.
Songs are performed in Irish and English but those in English —
the more recent — are the more widespread.
Songs can be quick or slow, strict or relaxed in rhythm.
The bulk of the instrumental music played is fast isometric dance music
— jigs, reels and hornpipes for the most part.
Slower listening pieces composed for an instrument or adapted from song
airs form only a small proportion.
The dance music has associated solo and group dances.
String, wind and free-reed melody instruments predominate — especially
fiddle, whistle, flute, uilleann pipes, concertina and accordion —
and percussion instruments are of minor importance.
Certain timbres are considered traditional and certain stylistic techniques
are used which arise from the nature of the instruments.
The term traditional music which lays emphasis on transmission is nowadays
preferred to the term folk music which emphasises origin and circulation.
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