I am interested to know what some of the oldest known tunes would be within the Irish musical tradition, regardless of how common they are these days. Or, atleast the oldest known tunes that some of you are aware of. What are some tunes that can be traced back the farthest in time?
I am interested in this information for a couple of reasons.
First, I am curious about getting an idea of how the overall style of the tunes has changed over time. Of course I realise a lot of change has come about in recent decades. I would also not assume that an old tune has necessarily remained in a form that is revealing of how it was commonly played in the past. However, I am still curious as to which tunes can date back the farthest, as I would like to see if any major differences can be noted as to the overall structure and style of these tunes, in comparison to ones from later years.
Second, I want to know simply to learn some of these, as I think the farther back the tunes go chronologically, the deeper of a root they are to what is played within the tradition in modern times, as it all has sprouted forth from or evolved from these. I would like to include some very old tunes in my repertoire for this reason, and especially if the tune has perhaps fallen out of being a common thing anymore, as I think these are parts of this sort of music that should especially be sought after with intent to continue keeping them around and alive. I realise that many changes have come about in the actual playing of the tunes, but with this post I am interested in the tunes themselves.
Of course it is hard to put a date on many tunes, however for some tunes a minumum historical date can be determined by finding when they can first be noted to have been played or mentioned.
I am not very informed when it comes to the further history of traditional Irish music, so I am hoping to broaden my knowledge of the tradition as it was farther back in history, in regards to the music that was played.
You could trawl your way through the old collections on the ITMA site here and the Irish Music Collections On-line (IMCO) which will give you music published from the early part of the 18th century through the 19th century right up to the early 20th.
O’Farrell’s Pocket Companion is included in IMCO but is also available in other places for exampel as PDF : : Vol 1, Vol 2, Vol 3, Vol 4.
Enough to keep you busy for a while.
The Fiddler’s Companion allows you to visualise a publishing history of tunes, in print you can work Aloys Fleischmann’s Sources of Irish Traditional Music, if you want to go off the deep end anyway.
It may not be a bad idea to first come to grips with and develop an understanding of the current repertoire first, it’s connections in the oral tradition etc.
It will help understanding the older stuff, timelines etc. It’s also good to remind yourself the old collections are being mined for recordings all the time and tunes are put back in circulation that way. Eg. the Re-Joyce recording:
I have to echo (and hopefully reinforce) what Mr.G said - it’s probably more important to become very familiar with the current repertoire and style of the tradition. Southern Indiana isn’t too far from some places with a good community of traditional musicians - for instance Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis. (The St Louis Tionol is coming up in April!) Once you understand how things are played now, you can go through the old collections and understand the differences - if you aren’t well versed in the tradition, you’ll just see dots on a page and not really gain any understanding.
Besides the Re-Joyce recording (which I need to get - any tips on that Mr G?), there’s also Jerry O’Sullivan’s “O’Farrell Meets O’Sullivan” (I guess there are two volumes now - it’s all music from the O’Farrell’s collection that Mr Gumby linked to) and a new one of music from the Goodman collection: http://claddaghrecords.com/WWW/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=3557 and also many individual tracks on many recordings over the last few years. Sometimes people even record tunes from old collections without knowing they are that old
Once you have a solid foundation in the music as it’s played today, you’ll be able to have a better understanding of the filters all musicians bring to their recreation of this old music.
No luck at the usual places? The local newsagent here has it
, for mail order OAC.ie will probably have it too (support a worthy cultural organisation that buys directly and at reasonable rates from the, mostly local, artists).
I thought I’d looked it up and found it to be out of print a couple years ago… I will add it to the purchase list (and I need to get a hardcopy of the source…)
