Last week there was a thread about two whistles playing together, implying that playing harmony would be more interesting than playing in unison. That got me thinking about harmony in Irish music and I realized that I haven’t heard vocal or instrumental harmony in Irish Trad music. It seems that IrTrad singing is solo and instruments play in unison. (Disclaimer: I am no expert in IrTrad music) so maybe I just haven’t come across harmony yet. I listened to a bit of bluegrass and American mountain music this past weekend and, knowing the obvious links that this music has to Irish and Scotts music, I was impressed by the vocal harmonies. I am inclined to think that the harmony in bluegrass and mountain music may have been borrowed from the choral singing of African slaves whose direct descendent is Gospel music. I don’t know if this is true but I hope there are some music historians on the C&F board who might feel inclined to contribute their expertise to the subject.
Mike
Bill Monroe was trained in shapenote Gospel singing (see my web site http://www16.brinkster.com/arminian/Rudiments/Rudiment.htm ), and incorported its harmonies into Bluegrass. Quotes from Bill Monroe on the subject can be found in the book “Bluegrass.”
I was the culprit in this other thread, let’s state that an instrument will not play harmony to another, some instruments do use harmonies playing with themselves, concertinas play octves and chords, fiddle use double stopping pipers [some at least] use their regulators.
Some rare examples of harmony singing exist, Sarah and Rita Keane of Caherlistrane Co Galway are a wellknown example of this.
I also saw some footage of stange harmonies sung in some remote scottish churches. So some sub-divisions are in existence but harmonising is definitely not mainstream.
There’s very little harmony in the Old Time string band music of the southern Appalachians. (It is, of course, used in vocal duets.) Often there is only one fiddle, one banjo, and one guitar (and sometimes a bass fiddle). When there is more than one fiddle, they play (or attempt to play) in unison, although the better fiddlers sometimes provide some harmony with double stops. (At least this is what I have observed here in northwest NC and southwest VA.)
I have a tape of a record album recorded in 1976 by The Wild Geese, called The Quays of Goretown. The instrumentals are straight trad (as much as Planxty or Bothy Band are). However, they sing several songs where they harmonize voices. The also play a harmony to the song on bflat whistle. I’ve never been able to find a recording of group. It seems it was of very limited release.
Tony