Irish Music Questions:

1.
The Belfast Harp festival of 1792 was to prevent the harping tradition from
dying out. They arranged to have older Harper’s play and have the tunes
notated by Edward Bunting and have them preserved for generations to come.
This was a very important development and allows us to hear what tunes
were played many centuries ago.

Edward Bunting was a 19 year old trained organist when he was employed to
notate at the Belfast. He also wrote some valuable notes on the background of
Irish Music. He was a close associate of the McCraken family and the United
Irish Society, who organised the festival. Bunting had a life long interest in
collecting Irish Tunes. He travelled around the country collecting tunes, dances
and airs for publication. He published three volumes of music, The Ancient
Music of Ireland. Volume 1 (1796) contained 66 tunes, which he had notated
form the performances at the 1792 Belfast Harp Festival. Volume 2 was
published in 1809 and Volume 3 was published in 1840.

Turlough O’Carolan was born in Niger, Co. Meath. As a child, he moved to

Roscommon, where his father was employed by the McDermott-Roe family. He
contracted smallpox when he was 21, which caused him to go blind. This
meant he could not work as a labourer. Mrs McDermott-Roe provided him
with an education, including harp lessons. She then provided him with a guide
and horse and he began life as a travelling musician. O’Carolan is known for his
compositions which were influenced by the music of Italian composers, such
as, Corelli, Geminiani and Vivaldi. He heard this music when he visited Dublin.
Dean Swift was one of his friends there. He also played traditional dance tunes
and airs.

2.
Over the years Irish song tradition has developed influenced by political and
natural events, in both the English and Irish language. Listening to the
traditional songs passed down from generation to generation can deepen our
understanding of Ireland’s social history.

Communities often heard of recent events in song when they gathered in

houses for céilí evenings. The songs told news, gossip and political stories
among many other themes. Irish traditional songs may be in Irish or English
language and some are macaroni (bilingual) with some parts of the song in
Irish and some English.

One important type of Irish Song is the Lament (Goltraí). Laments are usually
slow, sad and plaintive songs that tell of loss. This may be sadness at the loss of
a person from death or emigrating to another country. In some songs the
laments tell of people who are evicted from their homes. An example of a
lament is ‘An Mhaighdean Mhara’. It tells the story of a fisherman who falls in
love with a mermaid who has to return to the sea.

Another important type of Irish song is Sean-nós. Unaccompanied singing is

the hallmark of the Sean-nós style. Traditionally, the setting in which they were
performed in, was an intimate gathering of friends and neighbours, where tiger
would be a special connection between the singer and the audience. The
events described in the song would be familiar to singers. The audience would
have also understood the emotions expressed in the song. Features of a Sean-
nós song include; free-rhythm, ornamentation, nasal-like singing, and some
words would be lengthened as words are more important than the music in
Sean-nós singing. An example would be ‘An Lacha Bacach’ sung by Nell Ní
Chróinín.