One thing I noticed about John Mckenna and other 78 era ITM greats is that they often repeat tunes without much obvious melodic variation. (unlike Willie Clancy, Kevin Crawford, and most people ourside the 78 rpm era) Was it fashionable in the time to play tunes like that? They seem to be playing the same thing over and over, albiet in a good style. Or am I not listening properly?
El - I don’t have a comment directly related to your question, but thought I’d pass on something I found interesting regarding 78RPM recordings of Irish music tunes.
I understand that Irish emmigrants who came to the USA to find work, avoid the famine, etc., were largely responsible for the revitalization of the “tradition.” The recording media at the time was 78 RPM vinyl, and the producers saw logic in filling the available space, which was generally enough time to play three tunes, back to back, three times. The person who passed this on to me didn’t state is as absolute fact. Rather he suggested that something we all seem to have accepted as part of the tradition may have had it’s origins in a commercial logic. That’ll send the pure droppers to drink, if they’re not already there.
Vynil? Do you think? Try dropping one.
Right. 78s were made of shellac. It was vinyl that made LPs possible. The duration of a single side of a 10 in 78 was about 3 min. I think they could do almost up to 4 min. There were also some 12 in 78s but I doubt that many trad artists made them. It seems to me that three reels or jigs each played twice would be stretcing the limits of a 78.
Steve
Sorry Peter and SteveK. I should have paid better attention to the statement of chemical composition of the media, been much more specific, or perhaps more ambiguous in the initial statement regarding materials. Of course you are correct and I am wrong, unless the chemical composition of the media was berliner vulcanite, diamond disc, velvet-tone, acetate, etched aluminum, vitrolac, etc.
Peter to clarify the point, in case you missed it, was regarding the way tunes possibly came to be played in sets, the way we commonly hear them. Any comments on that? I’d appreciate them.
SteveK - What is your understanding of the 78RPM media that was sent back to Ireland and helped revive the tradition? Or, are we even in agreement this occured?
And, I’d be very interested to hear what you have for the orignal question posed by E as well.
Actually I thought they could get near 5 min… oh well, as bad as it was for Trad music, can you imagine what it must have been like for the early symphoney recordings… how many disks would it take to play a single movement of a symphony? 
–
Bill