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  Origins of Irish MusicIreland shows its respect for its ancient music by being one of the few countries in the world to have an instrument, the harp, as its national emblem, appearing on government documents, coins and flags.Irish music goes back a long way: in this short article we present background information, so you can have an idea of how old the Irish music tradition is and the great influence it had on Europe and other parts of the world. Music is said to have been first brougt to Ireland by the Tuatha De Danann in approximately 1600BC. The first reference to music in Ireland was made by the great geographer, Hecataeus of Miletus. Quoted by Diodorus, he describes the Celts of Ireland (c.500 BC) as singing songs in praise of Apollo and playing melodiously on the harp. In his book History of Irish Music, Grattan Flood wrote: 'In ancient Ireland the systems of law and medicine were set to music, being poetical compositions.' This quote negates the common misconception that writing did not exist before St Patrick – he certainly introduced a form of Roman script but there existed before him an ancient Celtic alphabet based on Ogham. This was called 'Bethluisnin' or Birch Alder tree, and is derivable from a tree or branch. These Irish letters (sixteen in number, although looking in a dictionary today it says there were twenty) were unique in their kind – interestingly, the trees were called after the letters and not the letters after the threes as some have alleged. The Ogham inscriptions, which have survived the hurly-burly of seventeen centuries, are mostly stone, though they were also written on rings, wooden tablets, ivory, bone, silver, lead, crystals, twigs, etc. When some of them are decidedly Christian, the greater number are pagan. Music pupils in pre-Christian Irish schools would have been equipped with music staves. These were squared staves which were used for walking or defence when closed and, when open in the shape of a fan, for writing on. Flood quotes Constantine Negra: 'The first certain examples of rhyme are found in Celtic soil and among Celtic nations, in songs made by poets.'It is important to note that the Irish of the sixth century had knowledge of scale, harmony and counter-point, whilst the plain songs of Rome were very elementary. Irish monks, who were very skilled music masters, travelled all over Europe teaching and setting up music schools and monasteries. One example was the world-renowned monastery of St Gall in Switzerland. It was founded in the year 612 by St Gall (or Gallus), whose name has been Latinized from Cellach. This great Irishman, a student of Bangor, County Down and friend of St Columbanus, died on 16 October 646. The fame of his music school became known far and near. In the late seventh and early eighth centuries, Irish music masters had a very strong influence on European music. Kessel, a learned historian, said of the Irish monks: Every province in Germany proclaims this race as its benefactor. Austria celebrates St Colman, St Virgilius, St Modestus and others. To whom but the ancient Irish was due the famous 'Schattenkloster [monastery]of Vienna'? Salzburg, Ratisbon, and all of Bavaria honour St Virgilius as their apostle… The Saxons and the tribes of Northern Germany are indebted to them to an extent which may be judged by the fact that the first ten bishops belonged to that race. So we see that from a very early age Irish music was healthy and strong. To find out how today's dance music was preserved and developed we must look at the great composers and music collectors of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries like Bunting, Petrie, Pigot, Joyce, O'Farrell, Hudson and Francis O'Neill. As far as dance music is concerned, the most colourful was O'Neill, who ended his career as Chief Superintendent of Police in Chicago. Due to their work and the Society for the Preservation and Publication of The Melodies of Ireland, which was founded in 1851, Ireland inherited a rich legacy of dance music. A conservative estimate puts the figure at over 6,000 individual pieces - reels, hornpipes, jigs, and hundreds of tunes for polkas, slides, marches, waltzes and many other dances. From The Complete Guide to Irish Dance by Frank Whelan, published by Appletree Press. |
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