I am curious to know what music was played back in the periods of the renaissance and medieval times in Ireland. From what I gather, ITM didn’t come about until after these periods; or did it??
The oldest stuff I know of is Turlough O’Carolan music. Supposedly there was a huge tradition of harp playing in Gaelic courts. But, I haven’t found too much information on this honestly.
I’ve been told that most of the current tunes were written during the 1600s when the fiddle was introduced to Ireland. But, again, I haven’t found too much information on this either.
Oh, ITM has always been around, it just was completely different 400 years ago than it is today.
…and it was much less traditional.
Someone told me that similar tunes to what we play today have been around for thousands of years… This doesn’t mean they were the same, but still similarities should exist.
Oh for sure. O’Carolan was no doubt inspired by all the other Irish Harp music that was going on at the time, and there was certainly a lot of it. It’s difficult to say how cutting edge his tunes were, but I’m going to wager they leaned more to the side of Irish music tradition than Art music. And Seeing as how O’Carolan’s tunes are not all that different than many of the more recent tunes in the cannon, I’m willing to wager Irish Music has been fairly similar to what we have now for a long while.
I would imagine reels, jigs polkas and anything else fast would have been rarely, if ever played, in part because of the limitations on the instruments at the time and in part because what I have heard from the rest of Europe at that time leads me to believe such music wasn’t really in vogue, but this could be misrepresentation because for the most part the only music to really have been written down was ecclesiastical in nature.
The instrumentation of medieval music really fascinates me, and I think it is safe to say that there can be no way we can accurately imagine what it must have sounded like. Harp, Percussion and Voice we’re the main instruments in Ireland according to Gerald of Wales:
“Scotland, because of her affinity and intercourse [with Ireland], tries to imitate Ireland in music and strives in emulation. Ireland uses and delights in two instruments only, the harp namely, and the tympanum. Scotland uses three, the harp, the tympanum and the crowd.”
Also, not Irish, but a fine example of Welsh medieval music here:
http://www.bragod.com/bragodvideo.html
Finally, an article on Irish Music, that gives approx. dates that instruments entered the tradition:
I’m not sure about that. I believe (of course don’t know for sure due to having actual proof) many Estampies were played relatively fast. They have timed recorders to be in these periods and they had a couple more semitones that the whistle does. Of course the renaissance times showed many dances to be relatively “lively”. Jacob Van Eyck variated many folk tunes with some lightning riffs.
Hmm, thousands? We hardly have music notation from thousands of years ago, and what we do have is very fragmented and unclear. Hundreds maybe, but certainly not thousands- leastways nothing we can document.
Anyone who who has lived and culturally engaged in a variety of third world societies should be forgiven for this speculation about olden Irish music:-
Other than the Norman European Art music in the aristocratic halls which had a restricted audience, the majority experience of music was through
- church song on Sundays, religious festivals and key life events
- hearth song (in family homes and clan gatherings) popular folk songs sung in melodies derived from church songs and pre-Christian indigenous pentatonic modes.
See also sean nos.
Modern tunes came from somewhere, and people have been playing music for thousands of years. There must be some influence.
Modern tunes came from somewhere, and people have been playing music for thousands of years. There must be some influence.
There is, but it’s not exactly what you are thinking of.
The predominant musical form before around 1100 c.e. was modal plainsong.
Every form of Western music, be it folk or “classical,” pop or trad, secular or sacred is based upon the modal forms laid down by those early chants.
Thus, all forms of Western music share common ancestry in plainsong, including ITM.
–James
What am I thinking of? My statement was broad and it was meant to be. I wasn’t thinking of anything in particular.