About Traditional Irish Music
About the Tunes

About Irish Traditional Music

Siúcra plays Irish music (vs. the altogether vague and often meaningless term 'Celtic' music, which can often refer to music that is not necessarily rooted in a specific Irish or Scots tradition).

Traditional Irish music, in a broad sense, embodies Irish tunes and slow airs (instrumental), sean nos ('old style' unaccompanied) singing, and accompanied songs (vocal ballads, etc.).

Irish music is a melodic tradition and Irish musicians spend a great deal of time learning and honing these many tunes and songs. Knowing the stuff is a life's work. And for players and listeners alike it's also a powerful way to connect with Ireland and Irish culture.

Irish music has been called the cultural lifeblood of Ireland. Indeed, for many people, playing Irish music or listening/dancing to it can create a profound link to Ireland.

While this can mean forging a connection to a wistful or mythical sense of Ireland the country (especially on that crazy American holiday in March), in its deeper sense, this means connecting with Irish *people* -- with people who play the music, and write the music, and continue to tell the stories behind the tunes and the songs.

For Irish musicians, playing and singing the music with others (especially in the form of a group setting like a session) is a way to continually refer to and to deepen connections with this culture and its traditions.

This is why nowadays you're as likely to see a great traditional player from the United States - or even Germany or Japan - as from Ireland. The music and the musicians are connected to Ireland and to Irish culture through the powerful body of shared songs, tunes and stories.

It would be impossible to play Irish music without a strong sense of place - of Ireland, of course, the music's country of origin; but also of the particular place or region from which each individual player learned the music.

Just as legendary fiddle player Michael Coleman would be associated with Sligo, accordionist John Williams would be associated with Chicago. And while Coleman spent a great deal of his life in Ireland, and Williams has spent a good deal of his in the States, both players have the same connection to Ireland, by nature of playing Irish music. Coleman has the Sligo dimension, though; and Williams has those Chicago influences (in addition to his Clare insights, because his father is from that county and he spent many summers in Doolin).

This sense of place is merely a reference - but it's an important one, and affects the way these players approach their music from a musical and a psychological perspective.

Shannon Heaton

About the Tunes

There are no improvisational 'solos' in traditional Irish music - it's all based around the tunes. The way the tunes are played vary from place to place, and person to person. Each musician has a great deal of freedom in the way he interprets a tune. Melodic variation, ornamentation, the particular setting of the tune, the tempo and rhythmic feel and even the volume can vary wildly from one player to the next - and from one performance to the next (of the same player). The mood, the other musicians around, the general ambience of a room, whether there's a pint waiting on the table, or even the weather might change how a musician plays a tune.

In fact, when turn of the (20th) century Chicago Police Chief (and flute player) Francis O'Neill was collecting tunes for his famous compilation of Irish trad tunes, he was often frustrated when musicians would play tunes for him to transcribe -- often, they would seem to be playing a similar but different tune on the repeat!

This is why it's funny to hear people try and play the music after learning it only out of a book - they play it the same way every time, and they don't play with that distinct, strong rhythmic feel.

Traditionally, the music is learnt by ear, without the aid of written music. Though favorite tunes might differ from region to region, there is a broad base of 'common' tunes. The common repertoire is reinforced in each little enclave of traditional music (from Chicago to Clare to Colorado) through organized and impromptu sessions between musicians.

Sessions are mainly, then, for the players. Even when they occur in public settings, they don't look like formal performances. You're likely to see folks in a session sitting around in a circle, playing with and talking with each other. There are no mikes (usually), and there's little or no banter with the spectators. There's no expectation of applause. The sets of tunes that get played are (usually) not rehearsed sets - there's spontaneity, there's socializing, there are tunes & sometimes songs (and usually everyone gets quiet for the songs).

The music is also learned through recordings of the music (there are a number of historical as well as modern recordings internationally available). Some players even use books of Irish tunes to learn the music (perhaps reading the melodies, memorizing them and then going to sessions to play them with other people to loosen them up?)

The tunes are built around eight measure phrases (Irish stepdancers call them "half-steps") -- in the case of the common (double) reel, these same eight measures are played, then repeated (for a "full step"); and then it's on to the next eight bars which occur twice as well.

If the tune has just two parts (a lot of them do), you've played the whole tune at this point and will probably repeat the entire tune several times before moving on to the next tune. Most people put at least two tunes together at a time (to make a set of tunes). It's rare to hear just one, strong, fine tune by itself - but it can happen. Two tunes can make a set -- or you could string six tunes together in a set. You might not put loads of tunes together if you're, say, playing tunes with 5 parts to them. Or you might. Depends on the night, or the dance, or whatever.

Irish trad tunes are often named after the player who's associated with writing or playing the tune (Micho Russell's, Paddy Taylor's, Coleman's). Sometimes the names refer to things that were happening while the tune was written, or were a private (or even public) joke (like Hag You Have Killed Me, Boil the Breakfast Early, or Ask My Father). Sometimes the names don't mean or refer to much at all. And oftentimes a player will know a tune well without ever having known its name. Or two players might have two different names for the same tune. This may be due, in part, to different settings, failing memories, general confusion or a host of other unimportant factors.

There are different types of Irish tunes which each have corresponding dances: reels, single reels, double jigs, single jigs (or slides), slip jigs, hop jigs, hornpipes, marches, and polkas, to name a few. Each has its own specific time and feel.

Many of the instruments played in Irish circles are common in other traditions as well. The fiddle, the (wood) flute and the tin whistle are among the oldest instruments used in Irish playing. Other instruments such as the button (b/c) accordion, concertina and tenor banjo have been introduced into Irish playing in the last century or so and are now completely accepted into the tradition. Most recently is the addition of accompanying instruments like the guitar and the bouzouki. The bodhran (frame drum), while not new to Ireland, has become a regular accompaniment to the tunes only quite recently.

The only instrument which is unique to Irish music is the uilleann (said 'illin') pipes. The Irish pipes are related to other types of bagpipes but with some key differences: they are bellows (not mouth) blown, the chanter has a wider range than other types of pipes, and regulators allow the player to add harmonies beyond the usual drone.

So, the instruments and the tunes are the building blocks of Irish music. The important finer points that further distinguish and elevate the music (like the rhythmic feel, the tune settings and the myriad ways of varying the tunes) all come from people playing together and sharing the music. The group expression of the music transcends individual abilities and ideas.

Peter Woods, in his book The Heartbeat of Irish Music (p. 45), writes about this very energy:

"After a while I found a tempo, settled into it, and the man beside me took up the flute and joined in. The dancers took the floor again. They battered and thundered, and for a while it was like the house was about to heel over. The teacups were rattling where they stood. It was like, with the door closed there, it might go on forever, as if the force of the music could stop time itself. When the tune did come to an end, they gathered around me panting with exhaustion. The old woman of the house said I was every bit the fiddler my uncle who disappeared to America was... But it wasn't me at all. It was there in the room with me. It was everybody else. It was all of us."

Shannon Heaton