Irish folk music and song

Elena Abou Mrad Università degli Studi di Torino Culture e Letterature del Mondo Moderno- Curriculum Comparatistico Irish Folk music and song When people are asked about Irish folk music, their first thought usually goes to Pub drinking songs , or to the dancers all dressed in green that show rapid dance steps. However, Irish music is much more: its origins, its development across the centuries and its themes show that this is a fertile field of research and an incredible source of lyrical and musical expression of the Irish population. Origins and early sources Irish music, as the folk music of any country, is the expression of the genius, the character and spirit of an entire population it’s the common heritage of all the Irish-speaking Ireland. The musical qualities of Irish people were praised by Giraldus Cambrensis in the 12th century, but we can’t assign a precise date to the beginning of Irish song. Above all, it is important to state that any song, until it is crystallized in an official form by being written, is subjected to modification and addition, depending on the singers, the players, the occasion and many other elements. The earliest Irish tune is probably the one found in the manuscript entitled William ”allet’s Lute ”ook, which is in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin. This manuscript is said to have belonged to King James VI of Scotland, thus it has to be previous than 1600. The title of the song contained in this tablature book is Callino, and we can find it in a music book printed in London about as Calen o custure 1 me . This expression is used by Ensign Pistol in Shakespeare’s Henry V, in response to a French prisoner on the field of Agincourt. When the Frenchman says Je pense que vous êtes le gentilhomme de bonne qualité , Pistol answers Quality! Calen o custure me . This phrase, apparently nonsense, has been clarified only in the 20th century by Professor Gerard Murphy: he discovered an Irish song, dating not later than 1600, of which the first line is Cailìn ò chois tSiùre mé , meaning I am a girl from beside the [river] Suir . The bizarre phrase in Shakespeare, thus, is an approximation of the pronounce of the Irish verse. The first volume consisting entirely of Irish traditional music was published about 1726 in Dublin by John and William Neale of Christ Church Yard. In the 18th century, the English ballad opera played an important role in the publication of Irish airs, such as the ones of Charles Coffey’s ”eggar’s Wedding and William Shield’s Poor Soldier (1782).1 The great collectors We couldn’t have at our disposal such a vast documentation on Irish folk music nowadays, if there hadn’t been the great collectors, who made a systematic gathering of traditional tunes between the 18th and the 20th century. Edward Bunting (1773-1843) Towards the end of the 18th Century Belfast was the theatre of the awakening of National consciousness: in this cultural climate, in 1792 the revolutionary Society of United Irishmen was founded, and in the same year the famous Harp Festival took place. 1 Donal O’Sullivan, Irish folk music and song, Colm O Lochlainn, Dublin 1952, pp.8-10 2 The Festival, promoted by James McDonnell and Henry Joy, was held in the Assembly Room of the Belfast Exchange on the 11th, 12th and 13th July. Ten old harpers - six of whom blind - played their instruments, while the young Edward Bunting, an eighteen-year-old organist, annotated their repertoire on a small notebook, which is the oldest manuscript of Irish tunes. After this experience, Bunting decided to make the study and preservation of our Irish melodies the main business of his long life ; his first volume, containing sixty-six tunes, was published in 1796. In 1802 he made a tour of Connacht and part of Munster; since he didn’t know Irish, he employed Patrick Lynch, a schoolmaster of Loghhinisland, County Down (an Irish-speaking district) to go with him. The results of this experience are two sets of notebooks ”unting’s with the music and Lynch’s with the poetry. Edward Bunting was the first musician to notice that the verses sung in folk tunes are no less important than the tunes themselves. ”unting’s second volume, with seventy-seven airs, was published in 1809, and, after a long gap due to his settlement in Dublin, in 1840 his third volume, a large book collecting one hundred and forty-three tunes, appeared.2 Henry Hudson (1798-1889) Henry Hudson was a dental surgeon who worked in St. Stephen’s Green, but his passion for Irish music brought him to collect melodies since he was only fourteen years old: his first manuscript is dated 1812. 2 Ibid., pp.10-13 3 Before he was twenty, he learned Irish from Edward Farmer, a retired country school-master; through Farmer he came in contact with Edward O’Reilly, the Irish scholar and lexicographer. Farmer and O’Reilly had collected all the folk tunes they knew, and Hudson, who copied them in his notebooks, preserved hundreds of melodies from oblivion. From 1841 to 1843 Hudson worked at the Dublin magazine The Citizen as a musical editor: in this way he published a hundred and six airs from his manuscripts, drawn from the Farmer and O’Reilly collection and many other sources, including melodies that he personally noted in Connacht between 1840 and 1842. His published tunes must be read with caution, though: in fact he included in his collection some melodies of his own, composed on the folk model. These melodies were so good to be considered genuine Irish songs, and to be included in later collections of folk tunes. At the end of his life, he left a huge quantity of melodies: in his manuscripts can be found eight hundred and seventy tunes, of which seven hundreds and fifty-seven are original Irish folk songs, and the remaining one hundred and thirteen were composed by himself following traditional models.3 George Petrie (1790-1866) George Petrie, a Dubliner of Scottish origin, was a man of many talents: in his youth was a gifted painter; later, he was a member of the Council of the Royal Irish Academy, whose collection of Irish manuscripts was realized widely for his initiative; finally, he worked as an archaeologist, studying the Round Towers on the Hill of Tara. His main interest, however, was Irish folk music: since he was a teenager, he collected country tunes that he sent to 3 Donal O’Sullivan, Irish folk music and song, Colm O Lochlainn, Dublin 1952, pp.14-16 4 Moore, who included them in his Irish Melodies. Petrie also contributed to the composition of ”unting’s third volume (1840), with a scholarly essay in the harp and eleven airs. In 1851 he had an important role in founding the Society for the Preservation and Publication of the Melodies of Ireland, which issued his Ancient Music of Ireland in 1855. This monumental work contains one hundred and forty-seven airs, furnished with historical and analytical notes and with the indication of the where the air was obtained; many of the tunes have their original Irish words, with an English translation in verse or prose. Among the other melodies, in this volume can be found the famous The Snowy-Breasted Pearl and the Londonderry Air. Three important volumes of his music appeared after his death: in 1877, F. Hoffman arranged one hundred and ninety-six volumes from Petrie’s manuscripts, but without any notes; in 1882 a selection of thirty-nine airs, annotated by the scholar was published. The monumental Complete Petrie Collection was produced in 1905 by Sir Charles Stanford, who was given further material from Petrie’s daughter although the collection is accurate, it lacks Petrie’s invaluable notes and a systematic arrangement.4 William Forde(c.1795-1850) He lived in Cork, where he gave lecture-recitals about popular music from the entire world, in the Clarence Hall of the Imperial Hotel. Forde lectured on Irish music too, since he was a tireless collector of tunes and an incomparable scholar of the subject. 4 Donal O’Sullivan, Irish folk music and song, Colm O Lochlainn, Dublin 1952, pp.17-19 5 He annotated a huge number of tunes not only in the province of Munster, but also in many counties of Connacht: Sligo, Leitrim, Galway, Roscommon, and Mayo. His rich collection included hundreds of unpublished airs from the professional fiddler of ”allinamore, Hugh O’”eirne. Forde adopted a method never tried before to deal with his material: he copied in a large blank music-book al the versions of a particular tune that he knew, irrespective of title; when one tune had been fully been dealt with, he passed to another. When the book was completed, it contained between three and four thousand entries. Unfortunately, this monumental work wasn’t published, because it didn’t reach the number of 250 subscribers needed to go to press. Forde, disappointed, went to London, and he died at Ealing in 1850.5 John Edward Pigot(1822-1871) John Edward Pigot, native of Kilworth, County Cork, was the son of a lawyer who became Lord Chief Baron of the Court of Exchequer. Young Pigot joined the Young Ireland movement, founded in 1841 and whose leader, Thomas Davis, became Pigot’s best friend. They published advertisement on the newspaper The Nation , the organ of communication of the Young Irlanders since October 1842, asking the readers to send the Irish tunes they knew to their office. In this way the vast Pigot’s collection began however, he personally noted tunes from Munster, Connacht and even London. Moreover, 5 Ibid., p.20-22 6 the collection was enriched by the songs composed by the poets of The Nation , including Denny Lane of Cork and Michael Doheny of Tipperary. In Pigot went to London with his friend John O’Hagan to study for the Irish Bar. He became friends with the sculptor Patrick MacDowell, who was an ardent collector of Irish airs: Pigot was given many tunes by MacDowell, and in the artist’s house he noted melodies from Irishmen in London. In “pril, , Pigot, O’Hagan and Charles Gavan Duffy were introduced by Frederick Lucas (Editor of The Tablet ) to Thomas Carlyle and his brilliant wife, Jane Welsh, who wrote witty words about the Irish collector. In the same year, a tragic event happened: Pigot came back to Ireland to visit Davis, but his friend soon died of scarlet fever. Pigot, who could no more think about politics after Davis’ death, focused on the cultural aspects of nationality. He helped John O’Daly in the composition of his Poets and Poetry of Munster ( , was one of the two Honorary Society who published Petrie’s work, wrote the annual catalogues for the Royal Hibernian Academy’s art exhibition, and finally was involved in artistic and educational projects. Disappointed for the course of Irish politics after the end of the Young Ireland movement, in 1865 he moved to Bombay, where he practiced at the Indian Bar; he had success and made an independent fortune, but at the cost of his health. He came back home in 1871, and died soon afterwards. At his death, his collection contained more than two thousand airs.6 James Goodman (1828-1896) James Goodman, a son of the Rector of Dingle, was born in 1828 in Ventry Strand, County Kerry, at that time an Irish-speaking district. 6 Donal O’Sullivan, Irish folk music and song, Colm O Lochlainn, Dublin 1952, pp.22-24 7 He graduated at Trinity College, followed his father’s profession and was appointed to a curacy near Skibbereen. In 1860 he moved to Ardgroom, near Castletownbere, where he accomplished his monumental collection of Irish tunes. A peerless contribute was given by Tom Kennedy, a piper and old friend of Goodman’s, from whom the Canon noted hundreds of melodies; furthermore, many singers and players collaborated in the collection. From 1866 until his death, Goodman was Rector of Skibbereen and Canon of Ross, and in the last twelve years of his life he was a Professor of Irish at Trinity College, spending six months in Dublin and six months in Skibbereen: in both places he used to play Irish music, for the delight of his friends, neighbors and colleagues. He died in poverty in 1896, leaving to posterity his precious manuscripts, containing almost two thousand airs, marches and dances of all kinds, coming from a part of Munster untouched by other collectors.7 Patrick Weston Joyce (1827-1914) P.W. Joyce, born in 1827 in the Irish speaking village of Glenosheen, County Limerick, knew a great number of traditional airs of his native place, but he wasn’t aware whether they had been published or not. When he found the prospectus of the Society, who asked for contribution of Irish tunes, he decided to go to Petrie’s house in Rathmines Road, Dublin. The scholar was surprised by the melodies whistled and hummed by Joyce, and asked him to 7 Donal O’Sullivan, Irish folk music and song, Colm O Lochlainn, Dublin 1952, pp.25-27 8 write down about twenty airs and come back again. Visit after visit, Joyce’s collection, at first made entirely from memory, began: he handed his manuscripts to Petrie, who included the airs in his 1855 volume. “fter Petrie’s death, Joyce had to publish his Ancient Irish Music (1873) on his own account; this book is a collection of one hundred tunes previously unpublished, all of them learnt by Joyce in his native place or in the surrounding villages. Joyce’s interest in the traditions of his country led him to publish works on the social history of the older Ireland, but his main occupation was the study of folk music; he was considered such an expert in this field that even W. B. Yeats wrote to him in 1888 for advice on a Gaelic song.8 In 1909, he published his volume Old Irish Folk Music and Songs: the book contains eight hundred and forty-two airs, of which almost one half was transcribed by Joyce from the unpublished manuscripts of Pigot and Forde, and the remaining part taken from his childhood memory, noted from country people or received from correspondents. The main defect of this book is the inclusion of a considerable number of songs of English and Scottish origin; but Joyce was a collector rather than a scholar.9 The total number of airs collected by Bunting, Hudson, Petrie, Forde, Pigot, Goodman and Joyce exceeds ten thousand, and the recent collections are increasing the number of printed tunes, justifying Moore’s description of Ireland as the land of song . 8 Paul Muldoon, To Ireland, I, Oxford University Press, 2000, p.12 9 Donal O’Sullivan, Irish folk music and song, Colm O Lochlainn, Dublin 1952, pp.27-29 9 Folk songs Themes The prevalent theme of folk songs is of course love; however, we can also find humorous songs, lullabies, drinking songs, religious songs, laments and songs of occupation for many kinds of rural activity. Only two types of songs are absent: carols and boat-songs, which are very common in the Gaelicspeaking highlands of Scotland. The main characteristics, shared by all types of songs, are tenderness, an incredible ability to move, a naturalness that disdains artifice, a deep and passionate sincerity, a profound sensibility for poetry, and a catchy assonance that makes every song singable. Love songs are usually sad, focused on the travailed nature of true love which a sensitive and hurtful soul has discovered. The melodies that follow the verses are perfectly in accord with this theme, being mournful, passionate, moving. Another interesting type of songs is the religious one: in Ireland vernacular hymnology doesn’t exist, since, in the period of the penal laws, corporate acts of worship were forbidden. Thus, religious songs arose among the population: people created songs for personal use, to be sung during their work at home or in the fields or as part of the daily prayers. These songs can be divided in two types: the ones produced among the peasantry and the ones readapted from known authors. The former obviously lack the complexity of Irish traditional verse, but are full of passionate devotion; the latter were taken by people from famous sacred songs and placed in the general folk stream. It is curious that many religious songs follow the melody of airs associated, in the popular mind, with extremely secular words: it may be the confirmation of 10 Rowland Hill’s witty words they did not see any reason why the devil should have all the good tunes .10 Titles and tunes There are divergent opinions about the titles of Irish tunes: someone thinks that they mirror the mood of the melody, others argue that they are just labels associated to a tune by tradition and not by a direct link to the song. Among the former there is Barbara Gallaghan, who asserts that an air like The Lark in the Morning couldn’t be the same without that title, which reflects the moves of the little bird portrayed in the song.11 The Lark in The Morning12 Chorus: The lark in the morning she rises off her nest She goes home in the evening with the dew all on her breast And like the jolly ploughboy she whistles and she sings She goes home in the evening with the dew all on her wings Oh, Roger the ploughboy he is a dashing blade He goes whistling and singing over yonder leafy shade He met with pretty Susan, she's handsome I declare She is far more enticing then the birds all in the air Chorus One evening coming home from the rakes of the town The meadows been all green and the grass had been cut down As I should chance to tumble all in the new-mown hay Oh, it's kiss me now or never love, this bonnie lass did say Ibid., pp.38-45 Treoir (the official organ of the Irish Musician’s “ssociation , Vol. 12 Celtic-lyrics.com 10 11 , , No. 11 Chorus When twenty long weeks they were over and were past Her mommy chanced to notice how she thickened round the waist It was the handsome ploughboy, the maiden she did say For he caused for to tumble all in the new-mown hay Chorus Here's a health to y'all ploughboys wherever you may be That likes to have a bonnie lass a sitting on his knee With a jug of good strong porter you'll whistle and you'll sing For a ploughboy is as happy as a prince or a king Chorus Ciaran Carson, on the contrary, argues that this analysis doesn’t consider the difference between a tune and an air, since a tune is just a melody without words; thus the lack of link between tune and title. This vision is confirmed by the fact that there may be many titles for the same tune for example, Rolling in the Rye-grass is known with twenty-two other names! 13 Furthermore, a definitive version of a song doesn’t exist, since every tune is susceptible of modification in the words and the music, and even the same tune may sound different according to the place, the player, the instrument. Anglo-Irish songs Irish folk songs in English can be divided in two classes: those imported from England and Scotland and those written by Irish people when they became English-speaking. As far as the former are concerned, there has always been contact between the UK and Ireland, thus of course the two countries influenced each other’s musical tradition. The contact became more and more 13Ciaran Carson, Last Night’s fun: a book about Irish traditional music, Jonathan Cape, London 1996, pp.7-9 12 close as, since the time of Queen Elizabeth, English and Scots settled upon lands expropriated from the Irish; moreover, the Irish who went to England for seasonal labour probably learned indigenous tunes and played them when they came back in their homeland. When Irish declined as a spoken language, folk songs in English appeared. They were mostly sung to the native Irish airs, and show a great difference from them, lacking their poetic fancy and variety of themes. Lullabies and songs of occupation almost disappeared, and, apart from love songs, the themes of the ballads seem trivial by comparison. Despite the decreasing of the formal and thematic value, a new type of songs appeared: patriotic airs, which became more and more passionate after the insurrections of 1798 and 1803. Among the songs composed in this period we can find The Boys of Wexford, Bold Robert Emmet, Te Shan Van Vocht, Billy Byrne of Ballymanus, The Croppy Boy and The Wearing of the Green, the most famous.14 This song represents a re-writing of the folk words by Dion Boucicault, and the tune comes from a Scottish composed air dated from the middle of the 18th century. Its patriotic theme revolves around the color green, worn by the Irish revolutionaries as it will be later written by Yeats in his poem Easter 1916.15 The Wearing of the Green16 O Paddy dear, and did you hear the news that's going round? The shamrock is by law forbid to grow on Irish ground! No more Saint Patrick's Day we'll keep, his color can't be seen For there's a cruel law against the Wearing of the Green." I met with Napper Tandy, and he took me by the hand 14 Donal O’Sullivan, Irish folk music and song, Colm O Lochlainn, Dublin 1952, pp.46-48 15 William B. Yeats, Quaranta poesie, traduzione di Giorgio Melchiori, Einaudi, Torino 1983, p.144 16 www.ireland-information.com 13 And he said, "How's poor old Ireland, and how does she stand?" "She's the most distressful country that ever yet was seen For they're hanging men and women there for the Wearing of the Green." "So if the color we must wear be England's cruel red Let it remind us of the blood that Irishmen have shed And pull the shamrock from your hat, and throw it on the sod But never fear, it will take root there, though underfoot 'tis trod. When laws can stop the blades of grass from growing as they grow And when the leaves in summer-time their color dare not show Then I will change the color too I wear in my caubeen But till that day, please God, I'll stick to the Wearing of the Green. W.B. Yeats, Easter 1916 (vv.74-80)17 "I write it out in a verse MacDonagh and MacBride And Connolly and Pearse Now and in time to be, Wherever green is worn, Are changed, changed utterly: A terrible beauty is born." Ibid., p.44 17 14 Bibliography  Ciaran CARSON, Last Night’s fun: a book about Irish traditional music, London, Jonathan Cape, 1996  Paul MULDOON, To Ireland, I, Oxford University Press, 2000  Donal O’SULLIVAN, Irish folk music and song, Dublin, Colm O Lochlainn, 1952  William B. YEATS, Quaranta poesie, trad. it. Giorgio Melchiori, Torino, Einaudi, 1983 Sitography  Song lyrics: celtic-lyrics.com  www.ireland-information.com  Pictures: www.google.it 15