As I've been following this subject with
great interest, I've become curious. Is there a significant difference
between the Scottish and the Irish genres? I play Celtic Music (mainly
Irish) on the hammer dulcimer and play a lot of fiddle tunes, generally
preferring the slip jigs and tunes with a rhythmic or melodic twist...not much
into waltzes and aires.
I'm glad you posted this to scots-l rather than Irtrad-l,
otherwise we'd be suffering the fallout for weeks. Most traditional musicians
dislike the term "Celtic Music" as it conjures up visions of vapid synthesiser
tunes which have very little to do with any
tradition.
With regard to the Scottish - Irish issue, you're going to get a
variety of responses. I tend to regard both traditions as pretty intermingled,
but others will no doubt disagree, normally on political or philosophical
grounds, rather than musical ones. Scotland and Ireland are only about
fourteen miles apart at the closest point. Half the population of
Western Scotland is of Irish descent and half the popuIation of Northern
Ireland (a geographical rather than a political distinction) is of
Scots descent. When you add this to trade links, particularly
fishermen and migrant agricultural workers, it's hardly surprising that the
two traditions are pretty mixed.
However, we can make some generalisations, all of which have
their exceptions. Most Irish tunes are in D or G, whereas
many Scottish tunes (particularly those derived from the highland pipes)
are in A. (note to purists: Yes, I do know about modes - I'm trying to keep
this simple.) However, musicians in Donegal also play a fair number of tunes
in A.
The Reel is generally reckoned to have originated in Scotland
and many of the older Irish reels are of Scottish origin. Slip Jigs and
Hornpipes are commoner in Ireland than in Scotland, although both exist in
Scottish music. Scots play more strathspeys, but fewer polkas, though, oddly
enough, many of the tunes played as polkas in the South of Ireland are of
Scottish origin.
I am looking forward to summarizing all
of your suggestions on the books. My library includes O'Neill's.
Would anyone want to suggest some neat Scottish tunes from that
book...or perhaps, just send some of your playlists to serve as a source list
for the individual titles.
I've no doubt that many of the tunes in O'Neills
would be of Scottish origin, but I've never seen a list. One obvious way
of finding outwould be to check the tunes against Fleishmann's "Sources of
Irish Traditional Music", which would give an indication of where a tune was
first published. However, this isn't always a reliable guide to the actual
origin of the tune.
I've no doubt others (Nigel?, Jack?, Toby?) whill
wish to chime in with their comments.
Regards,
Ted
