10-Dec-08 1:00 PM CST

Irish Music and Dance

By Rick Mitchell

Music and dance play a vital role in virtually all of the world's cultures. But of the European countries, Ireland arguably is the most musically inclined.

In 1183, the Welsh scholar Giraldus Cambrensis visited Ireland not long after the island had been claimed by Norman conquerors from Britain. Giraldus, who had studied philosophy and theology in Paris and wrote in Latin, was largely unimpressed by the rural "barbarians" he encountered there. He criticized everything about the Irish from what he considered their lack of a strong work ethic to their practice of animal husbandry.

But he came home raving about the music he'd heard; "I find among these people commendable diligence only on musical instruments, on which they are incomparably more skilled than any other nation I have seen. Their style is quick and lively. It is remarkable that, with such rapid fingerwork, the musical rhythm is maintained and that, by unfailingly disciplined art, the integrity of the tune is fully preserved through the ornate rhythms and profusely intricate polyphony."

Throughout its history, Irish music has been closely linked to the desire for national independence. In 1541, King Henry VIII of England declared himself King of Ireland. He promptly decreed that Irish harpists and bards (singing story-tellers) should be attacked for subverting the landed gentry in the English-speaking area around Dublin with their "Irish disposition." The king made an exception, however, for the pipers who accompanied Irish soldiers into battle in the English campaigns against the Scots and the French.

Later in the 16th century, Queen Elizabeth I ordered the immediate execution of all Irish bards and harpists wherever found in an attempt to snuff out the cultural autonomy of the natives. By the end of her reign, Elizabeth had extended England's military dominion over Ireland to the entire island. The defeat of the Irish chieftains in the Battle of Kinsale in 1601 led to an exodus of the old Irish nobility. But the futile attempt to suppress the native music only served to reinforce the power of musicians to represent a distinctly Irish identity in opposition to the English occupation.

Irish music has had a profound influence on the music of the New World. To cite two obvious examples, the Appalachian Mountain country song "Wabash Cannonball" is based on a traditional Irish reel, and the Western cowboy ballad "Streets of Laredo" takes its melody from an old Irish ballad.

In the 17^th century, thousands of Irish Catholics were sold into slavery or indentured service in the West Indies following the brutal resettlement of the rural population by Oliver Cromwell's victorious Puritan army. In the 18th century, Protestant Scots-Irish from Northern Ireland began migrating to North America. They landed first on the Eastern seaboard of Canada and what is now the United States and then dispersed into the interior as pioneers on the frontier.

During and after the terrible Potato Famine of the 1840s, millions of Irish Catholic survivors emigrated to the United States. They settled primarily in Northeastern cities such as New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Chicago, but many joined the westward migration in the latter part of the 19th century. (See the chapter on the Irish in Texas.)

Each wave of Irish immigrants brought with them the traditional songs and instruments of their homeland. In America, Irish and Scots-Irish music gradually blended with music from other European nations and, most importantly, with the African-American musical concepts of the slaves and former slaves. Such popular 20th century American forms as country music, blues and rock and roll can trace their deepest roots to the intermarriage of Celtic melodies and song structures with African-derived ideas of rhythm and non-Western harmonic scales.

In the decades following the Famine, traditional Irish music nearly died out in its homeland along with the Irish/Gaelic language, which had been spoken by the majority of the population well into the early years of the 19th century. In 1907, Captain Francis O'Neill -- an Irish-American immigrant who had risen through the ranks to become the chief of police in Chicago -- published his book The Dance Music of Ireland - 1001 Gems. Along with his other books and those of a few additional collectors, O'Neill's monumental work ensured that the old airs, jigs, reels, hornpipes, marches and songs would live on in the hands of future musicians.

In 1921, Ireland finally attained its political independence from England. Still, traditional Irish music was often shunned by the nation's economic and cultural elite in favor of European "art" music and American pop. In the 1960s, the music moved from the kitchens and village halls into the pubs. By the 1970s, a full-scale revival was underway, encompassing both popular ballad-singing groups such as the Dubliners and the Clancy Brothers and virtuosic instrumental bands such as the Chieftains, which performs the ancient repertoire of jigs and reels with the rigorous standards of a classical chamber ensemble.

Most recently, traditional Irish dancing has enjoyed enormous and unprecedented international popularity thanks to the success of touring dance productions such as Riverdance and the Trinity Dance Company. These productions -- which have spawned a flock of imitators -- have taken the traditionally competitive element of solo step-dancing into the commercial world of Broadway shows and Las Vegas casinos.

As any tourist can testify, from north to south and west to east, Ireland is filled with gifted singers, musicians and dancers devoted to keeping their Irish cultural heritage alive. It seems as if every corner pub has its own session, at which musicians will gather to play the old songs for the sheer joy of sharing in the music. With the Irish language again widely taught in public schools, the ancient tradition of sean-nos singing -- solo ballads sung in Gaelic -- is enjoying a creative rebirth.

Traditional Irish music has never been more popular, either at home or abroad. At the same time, Irish artists have entered into a creative dialogue with other world music traditions. Ireland has produced its share of notable rock performers, from Van Morrison to U2, Sinead O'Connor and the cranberries. Meanwhile, more traditional Irish artists such as Sharon Shannon and the band Kila are exploring the connection between Irish music and the African-based rhythms of reggae, salsa and jazz.

Old King Henry's arrogant attempt to suppress the Irish musical soul failed miserably. If that snobby Welshman Geraldus Cambrensis were to visit the Republic of Ireland today, he would be impressed not only with the "profusely intricate polyphony" of the native musicianship, but with the booming economy and political stability. As for animal husbandry, well, that's a different chapter.

Traditional Irish Instruments

The Harp

The oldest instrument identified with traditional Irish music is the harp. It is, in fact, the national symbol used on government stationary, police caps and currency. No other nation has a musical instrument for a symbol.

In ancient Celtic society, the harper held a place of honor next to the poet. A performance might feature a chanted recitation of a chieftain's deeds of honor, or a ritual mourning of the dead, set to musical accompaniment. Because the music played by the harpers was designed to match the length of the poet's lines, it's not surprising that the measures and rhythms of Irish music are closely related to the rhythms and meters of Gaelic poetry. Later, these roles were combined, as harpers traveled between the great clan houses of Ireland and Scotland, playing and singing for the fading Celtic nobility. These traditional airs were passed down orally through the generations. One of the last of the great Irish harper-composers was Turlough Carolan (1670-1738). More than 200 of his airs survive, in some cases with words and music both.

In 1792, Edward Bunting was asked by the organizers of the Belfast Harp Festival to transcribe the traditional airs of the harpers from the medieval modes in which they'd been composed to the system of major and minor keys used in European art music. Though imperfect, Bunting's transcriptions helped preserve the old melodies for future generations. Most harpists today use a modern "neo-Irish" harp with gut strings. An authentic early Irish harp -- known as the "Brian Boru harp" after a mythological hero -- is on display at Trinity College in Dublin, where it is a symbol of national pride.

The Pipes

Since the 19^th century, the instrument most often associated with traditional Irish music is the uillean pipes. Unlike the mouth-blown Scottish bagpipes, which are larger and louder, the uillean pipes are bellows-blown (the player squeezes the air through the instrument by pressing the bellows with an elbow) and can be concert-tuned to accompany other instruments. Ireland also has a tradition of bagpipes, but these were banned as an instrument of war during the long struggle for independence from England, which contributed to the popularity of the quieter uillean pipes.

A key feature of the uillean pipes is that with two full octaves of notes and three droning reeds, it can provide harmony simultaneous with the melody. Many popular piper tunes have been adapted from the old harp airs, but the instrument is also used in ceili (dance) bands playing music for dancers. In smaller pub groups, the fiddle and flute often mimic the instrumental coloring of the pipes. Sometimes, accordions are substituted for uillean pipes, though the instruments also can be played together.

The Fiddle

There are descriptions of Irish musicians playing fiddle-like instruments from as far back as the 7^th century. In 1674, an Englishman named Richard Head reported that he found in Ireland, "in every field a fiddle, and the lasses footing it till they were all of a foam. . ."

The fiddle is used in Irish music primarily for melodic ornamentation involving various fingering and bowing techniques. Fiddle styles vary from region to region, with Donegal, Sligo, Clare and Sliabh Luachra considered the most important of these. For example, Donegal fiddlers are recognizable by their short, single-note bow strokes and a repertoire featuring Scottish-style highlands and strathspeys. Clare fiddlers tend to concentrate more on the melody, with slower tempos and more fluid bowing. Of course, players may also have their own personal styles within and beyond these regional distinctions.

The Flute and Tin Whistle

The simple tin whistle flute is the most popular instrument in Irish traditional music, both because it's inexpensive to buy and comparatively easy to play. Although generally thought of as a beginner's instrument, in the hands of a master such as Paddy Moloney of the Chieftains, the tin whistle can be an instrument of delicate power and grace.

The flute is a relatively recent import in Irish traditional music. Though never as common in the countryside as the pipes or fiddle, it has been gaining popularity in recent years. Most traditional musicians favor the old-style wooden flute with eight keys rather than the modern concert design.

The Guitar and Banjo

These stringed instruments were introduced to Irish traditional music in the 20^th century via recordings of Irish music done in America. The guitar became immensely popular in the 1960s during the ballad-boom, when Irish singing groups such as the Clancy Brothers took their inspiration from the American folk revival. In the 1970s, progressive folk musicians such as Donal Lunny and Paul Brady developed more sophisticated methods of incorporating the guitar into Irish music, although it remains primarily a rhythm instrument rather than a melodic lead instrument.

The banjo, an African-based instrument that evolved in America, also became popular in Ireland during the folk revival of the '60s thanks to ballad-singing groups such as the Dubliners. More recently, some innovative Irish traditional musicians have substituted the Turkish bouzouki for the guitar.

The Accordion

The ten-button melodeon became popular in Ireland in the late 19^th century. Originally referred to as "the poor man's pipes," it was often featured ceili bands because it was easy to carry, it stayed in tune better than the pipes, and it had a clear tone that could cut through crowd noise in the era before electronic amplification. The keyboard or piano accordion is more common in Northern Ireland, though it has never been as accepted as the button accordion. In recent years, the accordion has been featured in many of the most prominent groups playing Irish traditional music, including De Dannan, Patrick Street, Altan and the Sharon Shannon Band.

The Bodhran

An Irish drum made from a circular wooden frame and goatskin, the bodhran (pronounced "bow-ron") dates back to prehistoric times. But its use has only become widespread in Irish traditional music since the 1960s. It can be hit either with a short stick or the bare hand, while the other hand holds the drum sideways in front of the player. Additional hand-held percussion instruments used in Irish music include bones and spoons; only the large ceili bands incorporate a full-sized drum kit. Modern experimental groups such as Kila and Coolfin combine the bodhran with African and Latin drums.

The Voice

Of course, the most basic instrument in Irish music -- as in any form of music -- is the human voice. Traditional Irish solo singing is called sean-nos, which literally means "old-style" in Gaelic Irish. Old-style songs may also be sung in English, but the true sean-nos style is deeply rooted in the poetic rhythms of the Gaelic language. Many of the melodies and lyrics have been handed down from antiquity, and are based on love poems.

The style of folk-singing often identified with Irish music among American audiences -- the boisterous St. Paddy's Day singalong antics of groups like the Clancy Brothers -- actually originated in America. Except for a brief "ballad boom" in the 1960s inspired by the expanding tourist market, this style has never been as popular in Ireland as it is in America.

Traditional Irish Musical Styles and Rhythms

Traditional music in Ireland was originally closely linked to the agricultural work cycle, from the St. Stephen's Day festivities in mid-winter through the sowing and harvesting seasons. Each celebration had its own songs and dances.

Irish music grows out of three interlocking traditions -- instrumental dance music, songs in Irish and songs in English. The most common dance tunes in the Irish tradition are reels, jigs, hornpipes, polkas, slides, mazurkas and highlands. Slow airs, based on old-style sean-nos Irish songs, also can be played instrumentally. While these traditional tunes have fixed melodies and rhythms, musicians improvise instrumental embellishments, so that the tunes sound a bit different each time they're played.

While Ireland is no longer the overwhelmingly agrarian society it was once, the music lives on in pub sessions, social dances, formal concerts and festivals. Up until the late 19^th century, Irish dance music generally was performed by solo musicians. The idea of playing in larger ensembles, known as ceili bands, may have originated among Irish emigrants returning from America.

In its purest form, Irish music is performed in kitchens, living rooms and in agricultural compounds where farmers gather after a day in the fields. The concept of performing music in drinking establishments is a rather recent phenomenon, perhaps introduced by Irish expatriates living in England. Pub sessions initially were strictly amateur affairs. Pub owners generally now hire one or two key musicians to organize the proceedings, while the other musicians take their pay from the tap.

The first artist to successfully elevate traditional Irish music to the status of a concert-hall art form was Sean O Riada, who put together the group Ceoltoiri Chualann in 1960. O Riada's purist approach was adopted by Paddy Moloney and the Chieftains in the early '70s, who have gone on to become "Ireland's musical ambassadors to the world."

Other Irish musicians including Donal Lunny and Paul Brady have gained a measure of international acclaim since the 1970s by combining the progressive and personalized approach of folk-rock and pop with traditional Irish instruments and melodies.

Dance tunes

Reels, the most popular form of dance tunes, arrived in Ireland from Scotland in the late 1700s. Reels are played in 4/4 time with the accent on the first and third beats of the bar. Two or more reels are often grouped into "sets" at pub sessions and dances. Dance tunes typically consist of two eight-bar segments, the second of which is referred to by musicians as "the turn." Each part is played through at least twice before the next tune begins.

The jig, the next most common dance form after the reel, comes in four variants: the double-jig (played in 6/8 time); the single jig (played in either 6/8 or 12/8); the slide (a fast single-jig); and the slip jig (played in 9/8 time and danced primarily in competitions). Most traditional Irish jigs are native in origin and date from the 18^th and 19^th centuries.

The hornpipe arrived in Ireland in the 18^th century from England, where it had been a favorite of sailors at sea. Irish dancers adopted it as a showpiece for the display of intricate footwork. The rhythm is performed in a deliberate manner, with the accent on beats one and three of each bar.

The polka originated in Central Europe and arrived in Ireland in the late 19^th century. It is most popular in counties Cork, Kerry and Limerick, and in a simpler form in Sliabh Luachra. Mazurkas, which were also popular in the late 19^th century, came from Central Europe as well. The highland -- more properly called the highland schottishe -- was brought to Donegal from Scotland by migrant workers. While no longer a common dance, the highland is still a popular type of tune in the Donegal fiddle repertoire.

Songs

There are four major types of songs found in traditional Irish music: Historical and mythological epics, known as "lays"; fictional ballads, ranging from long-winded narratives to clever and bawdy street rhymes; Irish narratives sung in English, known as "come-all-ye's" for their typical opening line; and sean-nos, lyric love songs sung in Irish.

The latter form is notable for its intimate solo singing style, in which the singer subtly embellishes the melody through melismatic ornamentation (holding a single syllable through several notes) and varying the intervals between notes. Sean-nos singing shifts in style and dialect from region to region. These melodic slow airs can also be sung in English, though the rhythm and flow of the music is directly tied to the Irish language.

There are two categories of Irish songs sung in English: traditional songs originally adapted from English and Scottish sources and Anglo-Irish songs, written by Irish people whose native language was English. In the 19^th century, a bilingual form known as "macaronic songs" also became popular.

Traditional Irish ballads have often recalled momentous historical events, from the Battle of Kinsale in 1601 to the experience of Irish troops in the British Army in WWI. Some of these songs originated as "broadsheets" or "broadsides," ballads printed on a single sheet of paper and posted on the wall of a pub or workplace. These could be comically bawdy or politically revolutionary in nature. The best-known broadside-singing group in Ireland today is the Wolfetones, named after the nationalist revolutionary, Wolfe Tone.

Irish living abroad often wrote songs that looked longingly and painfully back at the land and family members they'd left behind. It is not too much of a stretch to surmise that much of the soulfulness of Irish music is based in the country's long history of political oppression, followed by the exodus to America and other lands.

In the United States, the powerful emotion at the core of Irish music -- ranging from profound sadness to transcendent joy -- found a soul mate in African-American worksongs, spirituals and blues. A century and a half later, the popular American music forms born of this marriage have conquered the planet.

Traditional Irish Dance

The success of the theatrical productions Riverdance and Lord of the Dance has introduced Irish music and dance to an enthusiastic international audience that typically has come away delighted by the colorful costumes and astounded by the remarkably quick and precisely rhythmic footwork. While choreographer Michael Flatley has been accused of overdoing the theatrical element in these productions, his high-stepping moves and those of his company are firmly rooted in the tradition of solo step-dancing. With set-dancing and ceili dancing, step dancing is one of the three primary forms of Irish dance.

Interestingly, there apparently was no word for dance in the old Irish language. In translating the Biblical story of Salome's dance before King Herod from Latin into Gaelic, the best the Irish translator could come up with was that she had transfixed the king with "fri lemenda ocus fri hopairecht," or "feats of leaping and activity." (Loses something in the translation, doesn't it?) The two common Irish words for dancing, rince (from the English "rink") and damhsa (from the French "danse") don't appear until the late 16^th century.

Yet, the ancient Celts must have known how to shake their bon-bons. Three bronze figures from the Gallo-Roman era pulled from an excavation site in France depict naked Celtic dancers.

In the 15^th century, the Norman invaders introduced the Celts to French and English carol dancing. These dances -- an early ancestor of American square dancing as well as Irish set-dancing -- were performed in a ring and were popular among all social classes in late medieval Ireland. A dance leader would sing the verses and the group would respond with a refrain.

In addition to courting and recreation, dance had an important ritual function in agrarian Irish culture. Dancing was associated with holiday celebrations -- Bealtane, Lughnasa, Samhain, Imbolg -- and with birth, weddings and wakes. In 1780, the Englishman Arthur Young reported that "dancing is universal among the nation's poor." While the nobility preferred the organized choreography of English court-dances, the common people danced free-form to the sound of the fiddle and the pipes, until as the estimable Richard Head put it, the lasses were "all of a foam. . .."

From the mid-18^th century on, traveling "dancing masters" taught group and solo dances to members of all social classes. These gentlemen -- who also gave lessons in fencing and deportment to the children of the gentry -- would arrive in a rural village and find lodging with a farmer, whose own children might receive free lessons in exchange. Beginners would start with the rising step of the jig and the side step of the reel, as well as group set-dances such as the quadrille. For his star pupils, he would devise solo step dances, to be performed on a platform made from a door taken off its hinges. These more difficult dances are the direct precursor to the flashy style of step-dancing employed by Michael Flatley in Riverdance and by Irish-American dance schools such as the Trinity Academy of Chicago.

Dance masters worked a territorial circuit. When one master encroached on another's territory, they might meet in a "dance off," trading rhythmic steps on an upturned barrel in the village square. This precarious balancing act could explain why virtuoso Irish step-dancers hold their arms rigidly at their sides. (However, sean-nos dancers -- who've maintained the old country style of Irish solo dancing -- often use their arms freely and expressively.)

In the 19^th century, Irish soldiers returning from the Napoleonic Wars brought home the quadrille, a form of French set-dancing. Although frowned upon by religious authorities, set-dancing in general -- and the quadrille in particular -- became very popular in Ireland. After Ireland achieved its independence, the Gaelic League attempted to ban set-dancing as inauthentically Irish. The Gaelic League codified a competitive process for what it considered to be authentic Irish dance. Of course, people who enjoyed set-dancing went right on dancing in blissfully unsupervised fashion. But the national system of solo and group dance competitions initiated by the Gaelic League exists to this day, and has contributed to the development of the virtuoso style of Irish step-dancing seen in Riverdance.

Ceili dancing is a form of figure dancing introduced to Ireland by the Scots-Irish, and by Irish migrant workers who picked up the style from their Scottish co-workers in England. At its peak of popularity in the 1950s and '60s, there were hundreds of ceili bands all over the island, though the style was always more popular in the northern counties. The larger ceili bands included horns and drum sets as well as the more traditionally Irish fiddles and accordions.

In the 1930s and '40s, the Irish Dancing Commission published a description of thirty of the most popular ceili dances. These ranged from such fairly straightforward dances as the four-hand reel, the sixteen-hand reel and the eight-hand jig to the more imaginatively titled harvest time jig, the hay maker's reel and the bonfire dance. The golden age of the ceili bands came to an end with the onset of the troubles in Northern Ireland in 1969. A minor revival has been underway in the past decade.

The colorful costumes worn by male and female Irish step-dancers grew out of the desire for a distinctively Irish style of dress in the years before and immediately after Irish independence. In the regulations set down by the Gaelic League, women were to wear embroidered dresses with inverted pleats, while men traditionally wore woolen kilts and jackets.

Since Riverdance, male dancers have taken to wearing long trousers with tuxedo cummerbunds, while women have switched to lighter fabrics and less elaborate embroidery on their dresses. But whatever they're wearing, Irish dancers have become internationally recognized for their spectacular "feats of leaping and activity."