Music of Ireland

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The bodhrán, a traditional Irish drum.
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Irish music is music that has been created in various genres on the island of Ireland.

The indigenous music of the island is termed Irish traditional music. It has remained vibrant through the 20th and into the 21st century, despite globalising cultural forces. In spite of emigration and a well-developed connection to music influences from Britain and the United States, Irish traditional music has kept many of its elements and has itself influenced many forms of music, such as country and roots music in the United States, which in turn have had some influence on modern rock music. It has occasionally been fused with rock and roll, punk rock, and other genres. Some of these fusion artists have attained mainstream success, at home and abroad.

In art music, Ireland has a history reaching back to Gregorian chants in the Middle Ages, choral and harp music of the Renaissance, court music of the Baroque and early Classical period, as well as many Romantic, late Romantic and twentieth-century modernist music. It is still a vibrant genre with many composers and ensembles writing and performing avant-garde art music in the classical tradition.

On a smaller scale, Ireland has also produced many jazz musicians of note, particularly after the 1950s.

Early Irish music

Irish Warpipe
player

By the High and Late Medieval Era, the Irish annals were listing native musicians, such as the following:

Modern interpretation

Early Irish poetry and song has been translated into modern Irish and English by notable Irish poets, song collectors and musicians.

Old Irish: Int én bec; Irish: An t-éan beag) has been notably translated by poets such as Seamus Heaney, Ciaran Carson and Frank O'Connor. Notable recordings of modern interpretations of early Irish music include Pádraigín Ní Uallacháin's Songs of the Scribe, various music albums by choral group Anúna, and the recordings of Caitríona O'Leary with Dúlra and the eX Ensemble.[2]

Early Irish musicians abroad

Some musicians were acclaimed in places beyond Ireland.

psalmody to her nuns at Nievelle. Tuotilo
(c.850–c. 915), who lived in Italy and Germany, was noted both as a musician and a composer.

Roman chant to Cologne. His contemporary, Aaron Scotus (died 18 November 1052) was an acclaimed composer of Gregorian chant
in Germany.

Elizabeth I
.

Early modern times

Give Me Your Hand
Instrumental featuring viola da gamba and recorder, performed by Dancing Willow
Problems playing this file? See media help.

Up to the seventeenth century, harp musicians were patronised by the aristocracy in Ireland. This tradition died out in the eighteenth century with the collapse of

Turlough Carolan (1670–1738) is the best known of those harpists,[3][4] and over 200 of his compositions are known. Some of his pieces use elements of contemporary baroque music, but his music has entered the tradition and is played by many folk musicians today. Edward Bunting collected some of the last-known Irish harp tunes at the Belfast Harp Festival in 1792. Other important collectors of Irish music include Francis O'Neill[5] and George Petrie
.

Other notable Irish musicians of this era included

Donnchadh Ó Hámsaigh (1695–1807); poet and songwriter Eoghan Rua Ó Súilleabháin (1748–1782); Arthur O'Neill (fl. 1792); Patrick Byrne (c.1794–1863); world-renowned piper Tarlach Mac Suibhne (c. 1831–1916); poet and songwriter Colm de Bhailís
(1796–1906).

Traditional music

Main article: Irish traditional music
A traditional music session, known in some circles in Irish as a seisiún, a word invented in the 1990s.

Irish traditional music includes many kinds of songs, including drinking songs,

Set dancing may have arrived in the eighteenth century.[8] Later imported dance-signatures include the mazurka and the highlands (a sort of Irished version of the Scottish strathspey).[9]

The Irish fiddle was said by one nationalist researcher to have been played in Ireland since the 8th century, although this has never been proved by texts or artifacts.[10] The bagpipes have a long history of being associated with Ireland Great Irish warpipes were once commonly used in Ireland especially in battle as far back as the 15th century.[11]

A revival of Irish traditional music took place around the turn of the 20th century. The button

céilís, organised competitions and at some country houses where local and itinerant musicians were welcome.[13] Irish dancing was supported by the educational system and patriotic organisations. An older style of singing called sean-nós ("in the old style"), which is a form of traditional Irish singing was still found, mainly for very poetic songs in the Irish language.[14]

From 1820 to 1920 over 4,400,000 Irish emigrated to the US, creating an Irish diaspora in Philadelphia, Chicago (see

Michael Coleman, James Morrison and Paddy Killoran did much to popularise Irish music in the 1920s and 1930s, while Ed Reavy
composed over a hundred tunes that have since entered the tradition in both Ireland and the diaspora.

Brian Boru's March with traditional flute performed by the U.S. Marine Band.

After a lull in the 1940s and 1950s, when (except for

Clannad in the 70s. Later came such bands as Stockton's Wing, De Dannan, Altan, Arcady, Dervish and Patrick Street, along with a wealth of individual performers.[19]

More and more people play Irish music and new bands emerge every year such as Téada, Gráda, Dervish, and Lúnasa.[citation needed]

Classical music in Ireland

John Field, one of Ireland's foremost classical composers.

There is evidence of music in the "classical" tradition since the early 15th century when a polyphonic choir was established at Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, and "city musicians" were employed in the major cities and towns, who performed on festive occasions. In the 18th century, Dublin was known as the "Second City" of the British Isles, with an active musical life culminating in, among other events, the first performance of

Beggar's Opera, has left noticeable traces in Ireland, with many works that influenced the genre in England and on the continent, by musicians such as Charles Coffey and Kane O'Hara
.

Composers of note

Apart from the harper-composers of the 16th century, composers in the 16th and 17th century usually came from a Protestant Anglo-Irish background, as due to the discrimination of Catholics no formal musical education was available to them. Composers were often associated with either

A.J. Potter (1918–1980), Gerard Victory (1921–1995), James Wilson (1922–2005), Seán Ó Riada (1931–1971), John Kinsella (1932–2021), and Seóirse Bodley (1933–2023). Prominent names among the older generation of composers in Ireland today are Frank Corcoran (b. 1944), Eric Sweeney (1948–2020), John Buckley (b. 1951), Gerald Barry (b. 1952), Raymond Deane (b. 1953), Patrick Cassidy (b. 1956), and Fergus Johnston (b. 1959) (see also List of Irish classical composers
).

Performers of note

Performers of note in classical music include

Barry Douglas.[20] Douglas achieved fame in 1986 by claiming the International Tchaikovsky Competition gold medal. Mezzo-sopranos Bernadette Greevy and Ann Murray have also had success internationally.[21]

Choral music

Anúna.

Choral music has been practised in Ireland for centuries, initially at the larger churches such as Christ Church Cathedral, St Patrick's Cathedral, and St Mary's Pro-Cathedral, as well as the University of Dublin Choral Society (founded in 1837).

Founded and directed by composer Michael McGlynn in 1987, Anúna contributed significantly to raising the profile of choral music, particularly through their contributions to Riverdance which they were a part of from 1994 to 1996. They were nominated for a Classical Brit Award in the UK and appeared at the BBC Proms series in the Royal Albert Hall in 1999. In 2012 they featured as the voices of Hell in the video game Diablo III.[22] In February 2018 the group won the Outstanding Ensemble category of the Annual Game Music Awards 2017 for their contributions to the video game Xenoblade Chronicles 2.[23]

The

Arts Council of Ireland. Their artistic director is Paul Hillier.[24] The choir has produced a number of CDs with international (including Irish) repertoire. There are many semi-professional choirs in Ireland at local level, too. Many perform and compete at the annual Cork International Choral Festival
(since 1954).

Opera

Although Ireland has never had a purpose-built opera house (the

Vincent Wallace
were the most prominent representatives of mid-19th-century English-language operas.

The Celtic Renaissance after 1900 created works such as Muirgheis (1903) by Thomas O'Brien Butler, Connla of the Golden Hair (1903) by William Harvey Pélissier, Eithne (1909) by Robert O'Dwyer, and The Tinker and the Fairy (1910) by Michele Esposito. Muirgheis and Eithne have librettos in Irish, as have a number of works by Geoffrey Molyneux Palmer and several 1940s and '50s works by Éamonn Ó Gallchobhair. Most of the Irish operas written since the 1960s have a contemporary international outlook, with important works by Gerard Victory, James Wilson, Raymond Deane, Gerald Barry, and a number of young composers since the turn of the century.

There have been subsequent attempts to revive the Irish-language tradition in opera. A brother-sister team previewed sections of the opera Clann Tuireann publicly,

Evening Echo that he was then working on a Gaelic opera to be titled Legends of the Lough.[27][needs update
]

Wexford Festival Opera is a major international festival that takes place every October and November.

Popular music

Early popular performers

Performers of popular music began appearing as early as the late 1940s; Delia Murphy popularised Irish folk songs that she recorded for HMV in 1949; Margaret Barry is also credited with bringing traditional songs to the fore; Donegal's Bridie Gallagher shot to fame in 1956 and is considered 'Ireland's first international pop star';[28] Belfast-born singer Ruby Murray achieved unprecedented chart success in the UK in the mid-1950s; Dublin native Carmel Quinn emigrated to the US and became a regular singer on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts and appeared frequently on other TV variety shows in the 1950s and '60s. The Bachelors were an all-male harmony group from Dublin who had hits in the UK, Europe, US, Australia and Russia; Mary O'Hara was a soprano and harpist who was successful on both sides of the Atlantic in the 1950s and early 1960s; Waterford crooner Val Doonican had a string of UK hits and presented his own TV show on the BBC from 1965 to 1986.

Showbands in Ireland

Main article: Irish showband

Irish

Céilidh music and a few included self-composed songs.[29]

Country and Irish

Main article: Country and Irish

With the rise in popularity of American country music, a new subgenre developed in Ireland known as 'Country and Irish'. It was formed by mixing American Country music with Irish influences, incorporating Irish folk music. This often resulted in traditional Irish songs being sung in a country music style. It is especially popular in the rural Midlands and North-West of the country. It also remains popular among Irish emigrants in Great Britain. Big Tom and The Mainliners were the first major contenders in this genre, having crossed over from the showband era of the 1960s. Other major artists were Philomena Begley and Margo, the latter even being bestowed the unofficial title of Queen of Country & Irish.[30][31] The most successful performer in the genre today is Daniel O'Donnell, who has garnered success in the UK, US and Australia.[32] O'Donnell's frequent singing partner Mary Duff has also had success in this genre and most recently County Carlow native Derek Ryan has enjoyed Irish chart hits doing this type of music.

Fusion

Traditional music played a part in Irish popular music later in the century, with

Afro-Celt Sound System achieved fame adding West African influences and electronic dance rhythms in the 1990s while bands such as Kíla fuse traditional Irish with rock and world music representing the Irish tradition at world music festivals across Europe and America. The most notable fusion band in Ireland was Horslips, who combined Irish themes and music with heavy rock. The Shamrock Wings is a Colombian band that fuses Irish music with Caribbean rhythms.[citation needed
]

Riverdance is a musical and dancing interval act which originally starred Michael Flatley and Jean Butler and featuring the choir Anúna. It was performed during the Eurovision Song Contest 1994 as "Riverdance". Popular reaction to the act was so immense that an entire musical revue was built around the act.

Pop/Rock

Main article:
Irish rock

The 1960s saw the emergence of major Irish rock bands and artists, such as Them, Van Morrison, Emmet Spiceland, Eire Apparent, Skid Row, Taste, Rory Gallagher, Dr. Strangely Strange, Thin Lizzy, Gary Moore, Mellow Candle.

Thin Lizzy in concert, 1981

In 1970 Dana put Ireland on the pop music map by winning the Eurovision Song Contest with her song All Kinds of Everything. She went to number one in the UK and all over Europe and paved the way for many Irish artists. Gilbert O'Sullivan went to the top of the charts on both sides of the Atlantic in 1972 with a string of hits, and the all-sister line-up of The Nolans gained international chart success in the late 1970s. Chris de Burgh achieved international acclaim with his 1986 hit "Lady in Red".

Some groups who formed during the emergence of

Aslan, Gavin Friday, and Stiff Little Fingers. Later in the 80s and into the 90s, Irish punk fractured into new styles of alternative rock, which included That Petrol Emotion, In Tua Nua, Fatima Mansions, My Bloody Valentine and Ash.[33] In the 1990s, pop and rock bands like The Corrs, B*Witched, Boyzone, Westlife and The Cranberries emerged. In the same decade, Ireland also contributed a subgenre of folk metal known as Celtic metal with exponents of the genre including Cruachan, Primordial, Geasa, and Waylander.[34]

In recent decades Irish music in many different genres has been very successful internationally; however, the most successful genres have been rock, popular and traditional fusion, with performers such as (in alphabetical order): Altan, The Answer, Ash, Aslan, B*Witched, Bell X1, Frances Black, Mary Black, The Blizzards, The Bothy Band, Brendan Bowyer, Boyzone, Paul Brady, Jimmy Buckley, Chris de Burgh, Paddy Casey, The Cast of Cheers, Celtic Thunder, Celtic Woman, The Chieftains, The Clancy Brothers, Clannad, Codes, Rita Connolly, The Coronas, The Corrs, Phil Coulter, Nadine Coyle (of Girls Aloud), The Cranberries, Peter Cunnah (of D:Ream), Dana, De Dannan, Cathy Davey, Damien Dempsey, The Divine Comedy, Joe Dolan, Val Doonican, Ronnie Drew, The Dubliners, Mary Duff, Duke Special, EDEN, Enya, Julie Feeney, Fight Like Apes, Mick Flannery, The Frames, The Fureys, Bridie Gallagher, Rory Gallagher, Lisa Hannigan, Glen Hansard of The Frames, Keith Harkin, Gemma Hayes, The High Kings, Niall Horan (of One Direction), Horslips,

The Hothouse Flowers
,
Hozier
, In Tua Nua, Andy Irvine, Laura Izibor, Gavin James, Jape, Jerry Fish & The Mudbug Club, Siva Kaneswaran (of The Wanted), Dolores Keane, Sean Keane, Luke Kelly, Dermot Kennedy, Keywest, Kíla, James Kilbane, Kodaline,
Jack L
, Johnny Logan, Dónal Lunny, Phil Lynott and Thin Lizzy, Tommy Makem, Imelda May, Eleanor McEvoy, Christy Moore, Gary Moore, Van Morrison, Moving Hearts, Samantha Mumba, Mundy, Róisín Murphy, Ruby Murray, My Bloody Valentine, Declan Nerney, Maura O'Connell, Sinéad O'Connor, Daniel O'Donnell, Annmarie O'Riordan, Declan O'Rourke, Gilbert O'Sullivan, Picturehouse, Picture This, Pillow Queens, Planxty, Carmel Quinn, Republic of Loose, Damien Rice, The Riptide Movement, Dickie Rock, Derek Ryan, The Saw Doctors, The Script, Sharon Shannon, Pa Sheehy (of Walking on Cars), Snow Patrol, Something Happens, Davy Spillane, Stiff Little Fingers, Stockton's Wing, The Strypes, Tebi Rex, Therapy?, The Thrills, The Undertones, Walking on Cars, The Wolfe Tones, Two Door Cinema Club, U2, VerseChorusVerse, Villagers, Westlife, Bill Whelan, Finbar Wright, all achieving success nationally and internationally.

Best selling Irish acts of all time

Irish acts Sold Genre Years active Notes
1. U2 170 Million + Rock 1976 – present (46 Years) [35]
2. Enya 80 Million + Celtic/new-age 1986 – present (36 Years) [36]
3. Westlife 55 Million + Pop 1998 – present (24 Years) [37]
4. The Cranberries 50 Million + Rock 1990–2003, 2009–2019 (23 Years) [38]

Top 5 'most standout' Irish acts of all time

In 2010,

albums up to March 2010.[41]

Irish act Percent Genre
1. U2 68 Rock
2. Westlife 10.5 Pop
3. Van Morrison 10 Soul
4. Boyzone 7.5 Pop
5. The Cranberries 4 Rock

See also

References

  1. ISBN 978-1847185693
    .
  2. ^ O'Leary on the Beethovenfest Bonn website Archived 2 March 2014 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ Sawyers, June Skinner (2002), The Complete Guide to Celtic Music, London: Aurum, p 28.
  4. ^ Yeats, Gráinne, The Rediscovery of Carolan, Harpspectrum.com, retrieved 25 April 2008
  5. ^ Haggerty Bridget, Francis O'Neill – The Man Who Saved Our Music, Irishcultureandcustoms.com, retrieved 25 April 2008
  6. ^ "Whistle Workshop". Whistle Workshop. Archived from the original on 21 June 2012. Retrieved 2 April 2012.
  7. ^ Sawyers, June Skinner (2002), The Complete Guide to Celtic Music, London: Aurum, p 48-49.
  8. ^ "Inside Ireland". Inside Ireland. Retrieved 2 April 2012.
  9. ^ Sawyers, June Skinner (2002), The Complete Guide to Celtic Music, London: Aurum, p 48.
  10. ^ William H. Grattan Flood: A History of Irish Music, chapter III: "Ancient Irish musical instruments" (Dublin, 1905).
  11. ^ Donnelly, Seán: The Early History of Piping in Ireland (2001), p. 9.
  12. ^ "Concertinas in Ireland". Concertina.com. Retrieved 2 April 2012.
  13. ^ "Country House music". Setdancingnews.net. 14 January 2006. Archived from the original on 7 February 2012. Retrieved 2 April 2012.
  14. ^ "Sean nos". Mustrad.org.uk. Retrieved 2 April 2012.
  15. ^ "Irish emigration". Spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk. Archived from the original on 14 May 2011. Retrieved 2 April 2012.
  16. ^ "Dunn Family Collection". 18 June 2017.
  17. ^ Clarke, Gerry (2006), Oldtime Records Vol 1, Galway: Oldtime Records, Liner notes to CD.
  18. ^ "My Music: When Irish Eyes Are Smiling". 1 March 2010 – via IMDb.
  19. ^ Geoff Wallis: Rough Guide to Irish Music
  20. Grove Music Online, [1]
    . Retrieved 12 August 2007.
  21. ^ "A Remarkable Voice of Remarkable Longevity", in: The Irish Times, 30 September 2008.
  22. ^ "Exclusive: Meet Diablo III's sound team, samples included". www.destructoid.com. 9 May 2012.
  23. ^ "Annual Game Music Awards 2017 – Artists of the Year". www.vgmonline.net. 7 February 2018.
  24. ^ "Ireland's flagship professional choral ensemble conducted by Artistic Director and Principal Conductor, Paul Hillier". Chamber Choir Ireland.
  25. ^ Axel Klein: "Stage-Irish, or The National in Irish Opera, 1780–1925", in: Opera Quarterly 21:1 (Winter 2005), p. 27–67.
  26. ^ "Oct 27th 2012 – Irish language Opera in Dublin". www.deirdremoynihan.com.
  27. ^ "Johnny go to the Lough for new John Spillane opera". Echo Live. 13 April 2017.
  28. ^ "Bridie Gallagher: Ireland's 'first international pop star'". BBC News. 9 January 2012.
  29. ISBN 0-86278-777-7
  30. ^ Advertiser.ie (8 August 2008). "Emotional anniversary for Margo, the 'Queen of Country and Irish' in Castlebar". Advertiser.ie. Retrieved 2 April 2012.
  31. ^ "The queen of Country and Irish". The Irish Times. 11 November 1998.
  32. ^ "COUNTRY 'N' BESTERN Daniel O'Donnell, Popular Irish Singer and Performer from Donegal, Ireland, writes about music, life and more for the Sunday World". Sundayworld.com. Retrieved 2 April 2012.
  33. ^ "Irish Rockers – History of Irish Rock Music".
  34. ^ Bowar, Chad, What Is Heavy Metal?, About.com, retrieved 25 April 2008
  35. ^ Vallely, Paul (13 May 2006), "Bono: The Missionary", The Independent, London, archived from the original on 10 October 2008, retrieved 25 April 2008
  36. ^ "FAQ". Enya.sk. Retrieved 2 April 2012.
  37. ^ "Westlife Return With 'The Twenty Tour'". Croke Park. Retrieved 19 October 2018.
  38. ^ "The Cranberries' Dolores O'Riordan on surviving success and finding new happiness – 3am & Mirror Online". The Mirror. 7 August 2009. Retrieved 2 April 2012.
  39. ^ "News from Northern Ireland". U.TV. Retrieved 2 April 2012.
  40. ^ "New survey reveals best Irish band! – Men's Room". Supanet.com. Retrieved 2 April 2012.
  41. ^ "Music: Top 5 sell over 341 million albums". Funkyfogey.net. 16 March 2010. Archived from the original on 25 April 2012. Retrieved 2 April 2012.

Bibliography

External links

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