Do You Hear it Calling? An Analysis of Select Early Recordings of Irish Traditional and Fusion Music

The traditional music of Ireland has a rich and storied history that manifests in numerous fascinating ways throughout its early recording history. In the process of describing some of the features of select early recordings, I will give a brief overview of the history of Irish traditional music and some of its characteristics, such as its form, harmonies, notation, textures, and compositional processes. I will then dive more specifically into the history and associated performance practices of the Gaelic harp, the uilleann pipes, and sean-nós singing. Lastly, I will discuss in this paper how some of Irish traditional music's features map onto fusion music in the Western classical idiom, specifically in Thomas Moore and John Andrew Stevenson's work, as performed by the late 19th-century opera/concert singer Barton McGuckin.

Ireland's history is very long indeed, though not as ancient as other parts of Europe. Archeologists believe that Mesolithic hunter-gatherers may have migrated to the island as long ago as 7,000 BCE. As this predates the written word by about 3,500 years, not much is known about the culture of Ireland's early inhabitants. However, as time went on, and as the Celts established themselves as the dominant culture sometime around 500 BCE, these first peoples came to be remembered as a mytho-historical tribe called the Tuatha De Danann (Mark, 2015).

History would have to wait until the third century CE for more reliable accounts of Irish musical life. Specifically, records indicate that there were many minstrels throughout the country and that they employed about nine different instruments. (Grattan Flood, 1905, Chapter 1).  These included the cruitt/clairseach (harps), the timpan (a bowed string instrument), the Buinne (an oboe or flute-like instrument), the corn/bennbuabhal (hornpipes), the Cuislenna (a bagpipe), the Feadan (a fife), the Guthbuinne (a bassoon-like horn), the stoc/sturgan (trumpets), and the pipai (a pipe) (Grattan Flood, 1905, Chapter 3).

During this time, there is also evidence to suggest that the Celts had a system of notation and their own scales (likely pentatonic, with various modes), though any means by which to interpret these writings has been lost. Early Irish musicians were similar to the troubadours or meistersingers in that they were poets first and musicians second – the distinction between the two being somewhat blurred. Throughout its history, Ireland was also particularly well-known for its battle marches and dance tunes – something that is still synonymous with Irish music today (Grattan Flood, 1905, Chapter 1).

Though the Irish have a rich tradition of musical notation, first with something called ogham music-tablature, then with neumes, then with staff notation, Irish traditional music has always been a predominantly aural tradition (Grattan Flood, 1905, Chapter 6). As a result, not much Irish traditional music from before the Renaissance has survived in notated form, as it wasn’t until 1724 that the first full collection of Irish tunes was printed (Irish Traditional Music Archive, A Collection of the Most Celebrated Irish Tunes).

Irish music’s aural nature also entails less emphasis on “composers” than there is in Western classical music – things like melodies and techniques are shared from performer to performer.  The fact that it’s an aural tradition notwithstanding, elements of the past are constantly being reinterpreted in contemporary performance. As a result, music printing has done much to inform the tradition since the 1700s. For instance, the same poem (most frequently a ballad) may be set to music by various people throughout time, or a popular tune may be adapted to multiple texts, etc. Irish traditional music is also relatively conservative, meaning that stylistic changes take place slowly over time (Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, Cooley-Keegan Branch of San Francisco, 2020).

In terms of how performance practices are passed down, traditional musicians mainly learn through emulation of their predecessors rather than formal teaching. This custom may partly be attributable to the fact that the bulk of performers throughout history weren't paid for their services. They frequently performed at social functions and small gatherings, but very few did so full-time for profit, so it wouldn't make sense to invest a lot of money into a formal education in the field. However, some traditional musicians do perform popular or classical music, which can be more lucrative, so it's not as if there are no professional Irish music players (Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, Cooley-Keegan Branch of San Francisco, 2020).

As for the music itself, at the heart of this tradition lies unaccompanied performance. Irish traditional music is also usually not polyphonic, and any harmonic accompaniment tends to be relatively sparse. However, group performance is common, though the parts tend to be homorhythmic and at fixed intervals (albeit with different ornaments on each given instrument). Another feature of Irish music is that the scales that performers employ tend to be modal and can include anywhere from 5-7 notes, the bulk of which are borrowed from the classical tradition's old church modes. Furthermore, melodies tend not to exceed two octaves in range. There also tends not to be much dynamic variance in the music (Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, Cooley-Keegan Branch of San Francisco, 2020). All of these characteristics, except those pertaining to group performance, are at play in the recordings under discussion.

Additionally, most instrumental music is lively, isometric dance music. Common examples are jigs, reels, and hornpipes. Most music also tends to be small-form. This feature is partly a consequence of the tradition's aural nature, as the longer a piece gets, the more difficult it is to remember without notation. Aerophones and idiophones predominate in the genre (Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, Cooley-Keegan Branch of San Francisco, 2020).

Perhaps the country’s oldest and the instrument most synonymous with Ireland is the Celtic/Gaelic harp. Because it’s such an ancient instrument, it has taken many forms over the millennia. The earliest records of Gaelic music speak of something that was called a cruit – what was likely a small lyre or another type of composite chordophone. Eventually, the cruit came to mean a 6-stringed harp intended to be played resting on a knee. The other form of Gaelic harp that began to develop was the Clairseach – a large harp with 30 strings or more. Chiefs, bards, and noblewomen most frequently played this instrument. (Grattan Flood, 1905, Chapter 3).

The Gaelic harp tradition continued to flourish throughout Ireland for much of its recorded history but began to wane towards the 18th century. By the beginning of the 19th century, the medieval practice of playing the Gaelic harp, which was brass and wire-strung, had all but died out. Among the last harpists to be trained in the old ways was Patrick Byrne, who was also the first Irish traditional musician ever to be photographed. Their waning popularity was partly a consequence of new developments that a harp maker named John Egan made to the instrument. He redesigned both larger and smaller harps to resemble the European concert harp, resulting in what is now known as the “Celtic harp,” which is made with gut strings, as opposed to wire (Chadwick, 2007, 19th Century).

At this point in history, Mabel Dolmetsch comes into play. Mabel was the wife and frequent musical partner of Arnold Dolmetsch – an instrument-maker who pioneered the first Western classical early music revival at the beginning of the 20th century. The Dolmetsches were also very interested in medieval Celtic harp music. Arnold attempted to recreate the Gaelic harp of the past and did his best to transcribe early harp music notation into modern staff. On the other hand, Mabel played the harps that he reconstructed and tried to interpret its repertoire as faithfully as possible. The songs that she plays in the attached recording, "Bille Buadhach, Is Im Bo, & Eiriu," are from a collection called Ancient Music of Ireland, published in 1809 by Edward Bunting, who was arguably the most significant collector of Irish folk music in history (Chadwick, 2007, Early 20th Century).

Note, in this performance, the wide pitch and timbre range that the harp possesses and how crisply and quickly Mabel articulates each of the notes in these pieces. When assessing her technique, it is fascinating to compare her playing style to that of her husband, who recorded Western classical music on the clavichord. Arguably, neither Dolemetsch possessed a musical skill that offered an improvement on/predated that of their contemporaries. However, as demonstrated by this recording, both at least attempted to play in a pre-Lisztian style, wherein the emphasis wasn’t so much on how fast one could play challenging passagework. Rather, like the earliest-born instrumentalist on record, Carl Reinecke, the Dolmetsches tried to use micro-delays in their articulation of notes to make the various melodies of a piece stand out as clearly as possible.

Regarding the piece that Mabel plays, harmony does feature more prominently than in the other works under discussion because of the harp's chordal capacities. There are also many instances of relatively simple polyphony, such as in the motivic figure that she employs at 1:55. Like many of the melodies of the other pieces mentioned in this paper, Mabel also implies secondary voices while technically playing monophonic passages by quickly changing registers, for instance, in the phrase beginning at 1:31.

Perhaps the other instrument most synonymous with Irish music is the uilleann pipes. A reeded aerophone, this instrument is a relatively new one on a historical scale. However, it should be mentioned that the instrument from which it is derived, the bagpipe, is an incredibly ancient one. Several features distinguish the former from the latter, which was first constructed towards the beginning of the 18th century. Though designs for the pipes are still not standardized, typically, the uilleann pipes' range is nearly twice that of the bagpipe. Additionally, the mechanism that produces the drone in the bagpipe was modified to allow its players to change its pitch. An additional pipe (sometimes more than one) was also added to the instrument to enable the player to play a variable inner voice. As a result of its numerous modifications, the uilleann pipes allow its player to have considerable freedom of articulation, note length, and tonal color, which are not afforded to those who play the bagpipes. Consequently, this instrument is considered by many to be the most sophisticated iteration of the bagpipe, and its most challenging to master (Moylan, 2018).   

As was the case with the Gaelic harp, the uilleann pipes' popularity began to wane towards the middle of the 19th century. A few decades earlier, they were abandoned by the upper class, who had, up until that point, been their primary consumers. They subsequently became a folk instrument – though one that required an enormous amount of training. After a generation or so of particularly prominent folk pipers, the instrument started to become seen by the public as somewhat old-fashioned. The uilleann pipes retained a passionate fanbase, however, and in the last decade of the 19th century through to the first of the 20th, significant efforts were made to preserve the playing styles of the old master pipers (Moylan, 2018).

In order to achieve that end, the Gaelic League founded an annual event called the Feis Ceoil, which held its first meeting in 1897. This festival was an attempt to revive interest in the older styles of Irish traditional music on a broader scale – not just with pipers. In the process, organizers gave posterity the first-ever recordings of Irish traditional music (Hamilton, 1996).  One such recording is of Denis “Dinny” Delaney,” who recorded the piece under discussion at the festival’s second annual meeting.  Delaney was one of  Ireland’s most esteemed pipers and, along with Martin Reilley and Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin (aka Micí 'Cumbá), is one of the few on record who can lay claim to being among that older generation of legendary players. Born in 1836, he is also one of the earliest-bron Irish traditional musicians to have his playing preserved in recording (The Traditional Tune Archive, 2019).

This recording is of an upbeat piece introduced as “The Repeal of the Union.” This impression may be a consequence of the work’s mode, as it sounds like it is either in the Ionian, Lydian, or Mixolydian scale, all of which are considered major modes. This characterization is also likely a consequence of the fact that the tempo is relatively brisk, the primary melody continuously flowing in a florid fashion, and the accompaniment provided by the pipe sounding just above the drone has a lively ostinato figuration that predominates throughout.

One of the most remarkable features of this performance is the speed and seeming ease with which Delaney moves from note to note in the primary melody, all while playing a drone and, for the instrument, a comparatively dense accompaniment in much the same manner. The section from 0:50-1:17 is a perfect example of his skill, as he sustains an excellent legato, all while playing fast accompaniment figures (mostly towards the end of the phrase) and tossing off blindingly swift grace notes/turns throughout a significant portion of the instrument’s compass.

No conversation about Irish traditional music would be complete without a description of sean-nós singing, as it is considered by some to be its most complex and beautiful form. While initially an exonym meant to differentiate between the Western classical and traditional Irish aesthetic, sean-nós translates to “in the old style.” It denotes a kind of heavily ornamented, unmetered, and unaccompanied style of singing in the Gaelic language. Other characteristic features on the part of the singer include a lack of vibrato, a certain harshness to the sound, and an emphasis placed on consonants. Additionally, most sean-nós songs are strophic, though singers are expected to vary each verse extemporaneously. There are furthermore three different regional versions of this kind of singing: that of Connemara, which tends to be heavily ornamented, Munster, which is characterized by nasalization and the use of the glottal stop, and Donegal, which usually is on the simpler and more lyrical side (Ardscoil Na Mara).

Not much is known about the performer in the recording under discussion, but his name was Walter de Poer, and he recorded this song, along with a few others, in 1905 for who was, along with Francis O’Neill, one of the most significant collectors of early Irish wax cylinders, Richard Henebry. These "Henebry Cylinders" constitute the first known recordings of sean-nos singers. Based on some scant biographical info and an appraisal of his singing, Poer likely hailed from Donegal or thereabouts, as the piece in this recording, "Éamonn an chnoic," is comparatively un-ornamented. He also is almost certainly the earliest-born sean-nós singer on record, so his performance style gives one invaluable insight into the old ways of traditional Irish singing (Irish Traditional Music Archive, Henebry Cylinder Recordings 1, 1905).

From the outset of his performance, something that is readily apparent is the aforementioned harshness of his tone. Poer likely achieves this by incorporating quite a lot of chest action – something that is evident in the brightness of his sound and the small delays that one can perceive where the sound he produces persists even after he has finished phonating, as in at 0:31. In fact, Poer employs so much chest action that it sounds like he is overblowing his vocal folds (albeit intentionally). What this means is that he exerts more air against the folds than they can easily regulate, resulting in irregular oscillation (what is commonly referred to as a shout). His frequent use of glottal onsets at the beginnings of phrases, as in at 0:43, and emphasis on consonants, as in at 0:20, furthermore contributes to his harsh effect.

One other point of particular note is that, in the phrase starting at 0:58, Poer switches into a more falsetto-dominant registration configuration than was common in the singing of his successors. Though he is still in a more chest-predominant modality than, say, his contemporary classical singers in the Western tradition, this shift mirrors a broader movement in the singing styles across the sea. Typically, the earlier a classical singer was born, the less squeamish they were about using robust falsetto action. Poer's employment of falsetto only aids in the accuracy of his intonation, though, and produces a very pleasing timbre in the process. Like the playing of the other musicians under discussion, there is also noticeably little dynamic variance throughout his performance. However, Poer’s use of falsetto indicates that this was a stylistic choice, for the falsetto is responsible for regulating dynamics. If one's falsetto is well-developed, it means that one can reduce their dynamic intensity, particularly at the top of their range, which, if you are singing in pure chest voice, has to be loud in order that the vocal tract doesn't collapse.

In turning to Irish fusion music, it is essential to note that Ireland's music has been closely tied to the broader Western classical tradition since its earliest recorded history. In the medieval era, Irish musicians were early adopters of neumes, they incorporated Irish tunes into plainchants, possibly informing the genre, and they seem to have employed some form of harmony and polyphony before it became popular throughout continental Europe (Grattan Flood, 1905, Chapter 2).  

Ireland’s ties to the classical world of Europe continued throughout the rest of the millennium. In fact, Handel premiered one of the most famous works in the Western canon in Dublin: the Messiah. It was also a popular stop on concert tours throughout the 19th century and hosted musicians such as Franz Liszt, Giuditta Pasta, Ignaz Moscheles, Sigismond Thalberg, Giovanni Battista Rubini, Jenny Lind, Pauline Viardot, Giulia Grisi, Luigi Lablance, Giovanni Matteo Mario, and Nicoló Paganini (Walsh, 2014).  

Ireland was also the birthplace of many accomplished classical composers who incorporated traditional Irish elements into their work. Particularly notable names include Michael Kelly, John Field, Thomas Moore, John Andrew Stevenson, Michael William Balfe, George Alexander Osborne, and William Vincent Wallace. The song "Avenging and bright fall the swift sword of Erin," was composed jointly by Thomas Moore and John Andrew Stevenson and is part of their broader 10-volume collection of songs known as Irish Melodies, which they completed in 1834. Moore wrote the ballad's text and adapted its melody from a traditional tune documented by Edward Bunting in 1792 while attending the Belfast Harp Festival. John Andrew Stevenson wrote its piano accompaniment (Walsh, 2014).

The performer in this last recording is another Irish native, Barton McGuckin. McGuckin was a very accomplished singer that excelled in the performance of everything from opera, to oratorio, to art songs (Ward, 2019). As is to be expected, “Avenging and bright…” has several decidedly Western features and some traditional Irish ones. One of the main characteristics that make this song one in a Western classical idiom is that Stevenson wrote an accompaniment that uses functional tonal harmony. The piece also begins with a short ritornello, which ends in a half cadence – something characteristic of classical songs at the time. The scoring of this piece for piano and voice and the fact that its performers are meant to play it as notated is also anachronistic to traditional Irish music. The lyrics of this piece are also in English, as opposed to Gaelic, and the accompaniment is homophonic, both of which distinguish it from sean-nós songs.

However, this song's melody does bear much in common with that of, for instance, "Éamonn an chnoic." Though it is more syllabic than the latter, it does make use of frequent melismas and grace notes, both of which are characteristic of sean-nós singing. Additionally, McGurkin delivers the piece in a similar fashion to Poer – namely, he makes use of frequent glottal onsets. In fact, he executes three particularly emphatic ones in a row at 1:02. Like Poer, he also uses quite a bit of chest voice throughout the song, as is evidenced by the fact that his volume levels frequently result in overmodulation for the primitive phonograph, most notably in the phrase starting at 2:04. Like Poer, however, he doesn't shy away from using his falsetto when the music calls for it, as he significantly decreases his dynamic for the section starting at 1:28 – something that, again, can only be achieved by engaging falsetto action. Like Poer, he also sings this piece in a relatively straight tone, meaning without much vibrato. However, it bears mentioning that this was fairly common in other classical singers of McGurkin's generation and before, so the degree to which this is an allusion to the sean-nós style is unclear.

There is plenty more to say about the early recording history of Irish traditional music -- I haven't even touched upon the Francis O'Neil cylinders, which constitute what is arguably the most comprehensive collection of recordings of 19th-century Irish musicians, or the other recordings made of the legendary pipers previously mentioned in the early days of the Feis Ceoil. As I hope I've made apparent, though: Irish traditional music is an utterly fascinating subject – one that is as old and varied as the country itself. Early recordings of Irish traditional musicians can give us invaluable insight into this magnificent tradition's performance practices and provide much of great aesthetic value along the way.

Appendix

Traditional. Bille Buadhach (The Victorious Tree), Is Im Bo & Eiriu (Irish Lullaby) - Take 1, 12-Inch [Recorded by Mabel Dolmetsch]. (1937).

http://www.earlygaelicharp.info/Dolmetsch/irish.htm

Traditional. Repeal of the Union [Recorded by Dinney Delaney] (1898).

https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/music/index.html

Traditional. Éamonn an chnoic [Recorded by Walter de Poer]. (1905).

https://www.itma.ie/playlists/henebry-digitised-cylinders/

Bunting, E. & Stevenson, J.A. (1852). Irish Melodies, Volume 4: Avenging and bright fall the swift sword of Erin [Recorded by Barton McGuckin & Anonymous Pianist]. (1905).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OrWeFmNRfs

Works Cited

Ardscoil Na Mara. Traditional Irish Music: Sean Nós Singing. Ardscoil Na Mara Tramore Leaving Certificate Website. https://leavingcertmusic.weebly.com/sean-noacutes-singing.html

Chadwick, S. (2007). Gaelic Harp History. Early Gaelic Harp Info. https://www.earlygaelicharp.info/history/

Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, Cooley-Keegan Branch of San Francisco. (2020, Sep. 09). What Is Irish Traditional Music? Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, Cooley-Keegan Branch of San Francisco. https://sfcooleykeegancce.org/music/what_is_itm.html

Grattan Flood, W. H. (1905). A History of Irish Music. Library Ireland.  https://www.libraryireland.com/IrishMusic/Contents.php

Hamilton, S. C. (1996). The role of commercial recordings in the development and survival of Irish traditional music 1899-1993 (Version 1). University of Limerick. https://hdl.handle.net/10344/391 

Irish Traditional Music Archive. Henebry Cylinder Recordings 1, 1905. ITMA. https://www.itma.ie/playlists/henebry-digitised-cylinders/

Irish Traditional Music Archive. A Collection of the Most Celebrated Irish Tunes. ITMA. https://www.itma.ie/shop/a-collection-of-the-most-celebrated-irish-tunes-proper-for-the-violin-german-flute-or-hautboy-john-william-neal-eds-facsimile-edition-by-nicholas-carolan/#close

Mark, J.J. (2015, Sep. 11). Ancient Ireland. Ancient History Encyclopedia. https://www.worldhistory.org/Ancient_Ireland/

Moylan, T. (2018, Aug.)  A Short History of the Uilleann Pipes. History Ireland. https://www.historyireland.com/a-short-history-of-the-uilleann-pipes/

The Traditional Tune Archive. (2019, May 6). Annotation: Dinny Delaney’s (1). The Traditional Tune Archive. https://tunearch.org/wiki/Annotation:Dinny_Delaney%27s_(1)

Walsh, B. (2014, May). Ireland’s ‘Magnificent’ Seven – Irish Music Pioneers of the 19th Century. Irish Classical Music Pioneers. https://basilwalsh.wordpress.com/2008/05/25/rish-classical-musicians-seven-pioneers-of-the-19th-century/

Ward, J. (2019, Nov. 5). The Rosa Troupe: Barton McGurkin. The Carl Rosa Trust. https://carlrosatrust.org.uk/troupe/troupe_McGuckin.html