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'Irish Traditional Music'


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"it is unique to find so many drawn to something so boring." :lol: I sometimes wonder why anyone who wasnt born into it would ever pay it any attention.

 

:lol: Clearly, ITM isn't boring to those who play it. But for many on whom it is inflicted in a pub, ITM players are much like iPhone and mobile yakkers - background noise over which one must shout to carry on a "quiet" conversation. :rolleyes:

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"it is unique to find so many drawn to something so boring." :lol: I sometimes wonder why anyone who wasnt born into it would ever pay it any attention.

 

:lol: Clearly, ITM isn't boring to those who play it. But for many on whom it is inflicted in a pub, ITM players are much like iPhone and mobile yakkers - background noise over which one must shout to carry on a "quiet" conversation. :rolleyes:

 

We kept 2 live music pubs for many years in Sheffield and people came for the varied styles. ITM was as popular as pop, blues or franglonavian. It was the inclusiveness and crack that appealed, good session leaders are essential and act as 'chairpersons'

 

Any one style ad nauseum gets on people's nerves and also bad musicianship and arrogance. The best pub was The Harlequin. The sessions were in the back room and other customers stood at the bar or played pool etc. Everyone got along. Other events went on upstairs in rooms with closed doors e'.g. poets, chess club, tin whistle class, Union meetings, amateur dramatics etc sadly that pub was pulled down by the pub company rather than doing refurbs. Now another landlady has done the same with another old pub and renamed it The Harlequin! The Red House is still a live music venue but the new tenants have turned it into a jazz type pub as the area was redeveloped into trendy lofts etc.

 

Best place for obsessive stuff is a private room, in a public bar the customers take precedence

 

 

At the moment we have a session where the pub was empty because of unruly yobs who were thrown out. Now the customers are the musicians and others who come to listen. That's Sunday lunchtime, at other times it's business as usual.

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I also noticed that people who have a natural love for dancing on "simple" music are interested in listening to irish music, it wakes up their passion for dancing and often I'll see some people walk in a pub, listen a bit, smile and sit close to the musicians while having a few pints... mostly women in my experience. I also think it's one of the main purpose of irish music and also gets forgotten behind walls of egos and competition.

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I think it's that ITM has become more widespread than other western traditional musics, and has also become a catch all term for any diddly dee music that is mainly jigs and reels (and the like) suitable for fiddle (and the like).

 

I go to a session every couple of months where the informal rule is "no Irish" just so that we get to play some traditional English and Scottish tunes as well as a few random "songs from the shows", American tunes, TV themes (Pugwash, Blue Peter, etc.) and music hall. At most sessions, someone makes a comment that assumes we are Irish.

 

I dance Morris every week (English traditional dance) and it is not uncommon for people to assume we are Irish (or Bavarian!).

 

I guess that in a lot of nominally Irish sessions, many of the tunes are not strictly (or at least exclusively) Irish. A good tune is a good tune.

 

So if there is more Irish (or perceived to be Irish) folk music than any other sort, then an instrument associated with folk music will tend to be associated with ITM.

 

But back to the original post, "an instrument as versatile as...". Thanks. I have a limited repertoire (20 - 30 tunes after a couple of years) but I work hard at variations in the accompaniment with alternative chords, bass runs and the like. If instead I had chosen to play in a predominantly single note style I believe I would have a far wider but less rewarding repertoire as each individual tune would be quicker to learn (whether Irish, English or anything else).

 

The Anglo was cheaper and simpler than the English, and has superficial similarities to the melodeon (diatonic button accordion, call it what you will) and the harmonica, which both feature in folk music and ITM - originally no doubt because of their cheapness and simplicity. Now they are expensive, and people with more time and musical knowledge have also made them complicated! ;0)

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"Unique" is too categorical claim!

 

i think he meant unique as in "it is unique to find so many drawn to something so boring." :lol:

So Bluegrass isn't boring, in your opinion? <_< :lol:

seriously, as an irish music fanatic, i sometimes wonder why anyone who wasnt born into it would ever pay it any attention.

And as an Irishman, I wonder the same thing. Especially those jigs and reels that all sound alike! ;)

 

At least the people from over the water leave us to enjoy our much richer store of "sung literature", which they probably wouldn't understand anyway.

 

Cheers,

John

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Although ITM is not the be-all-and-end-all, the development of cross-fingering techniques has got us a bit further from the bass-and-chord style of the Morris et-al.

Hopefully players will start using the cross-fingering lark and not be limited to playing all English tunes in G and D and complaining when a tune in C turns up.

 

For me, I can't work out why the English concertina hasn't taken off in ITM - cheaper, just as well made, easier to play fast in more keys, ornaments are just as easy, bellows just as good at putting some "pump" into it. I sometimes wish a Simon-Thoumire-type would appear across in Ireland and show people what you can actually do without an anglo.

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I can't work out why the English concertina hasn't taken off in ITM - cheaper, just as well made, easier to play fast in more keys, ornaments are just as easy, bellows just as good at putting some "pump" into it.

The EC is "cheaper"? Really? :ph34r:

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Hopefully players will start using the cross-fingering lark and not be limited to playing all English tunes in G and D and complaining when a tune in C turns up.

 

If you're referring to "English-style" players here, many players use cross-fingering extensively to fit the melody to the most appropriate chords. The preference for G and D is mostly due to the ubiquitous D/G melodeon, which in turn was introduced to play along with fiddlers, who favour those keys. Most anglo players are delighted when a tune in C turns up.

 

However it is true that playing chordal-style is best around the home keys of the instrument - playing in other keys is possible but may severely limit the options for chords and bass runs.

 

For me, I can't work out why the English concertina hasn't taken off in ITM - cheaper, just as well made, easier to play fast in more keys, ornaments are just as easy, bellows just as good at putting some "pump" into it. I sometimes wish a Simon-Thoumire-type would appear across in Ireland and show people what you can actually do without an anglo.

Being based in England, I know far more people who play Irish music on EC than who play Irish-style Anglo. However, I suspect they chose EC first and then looked for music to play on it. The Irish style is based on Anglo, so people wanting to play Irish concertina naturally gravitate to that instrument. There are also more opportunities to get tuition in that style on the Anglo.

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I also noticed that people who have a natural love for dancing on "simple" music are interested in listening to irish music, it wakes up their passion for dancing and often I'll see some people walk in a pub, listen a bit, smile and sit close to the musicians while having a few pints... mostly women in my experience. I also think it's one of the main purpose of irish music and also gets forgotten behind walls of egos and competition.

 

Joe Cooley said " It's the only music makes people come to their senses' Danny Meehan said 'It sustains us'

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