04: English Song and other vocal traditions

• Wide variety of songs in English

• Unaccompanied

• Huge variety of themes

• Songs were the basis for the folk music revival and ballad boom in the 20th century

• Today:

  More accompanied

  Loosely termed folk song

  Combining old with new compositions

Portaireacht/Port Béil/Lilting

Macaronic Songs

come-all-yes

ballads

lays

• = vocal performance of dance music

  —>vocalization of instrumental tunes

• original use: to create music for dance, when no instruments were around

• no words/context

• sung on vocables —> articulates set rhythmic patterns

• example: Nora Cleary “The garden of daisies”

Nora Cleary

The Garden of Daisies” ; “Maggie in the Wood”

English Song

Lilting

• song in which both english and irish language are used and mixed

  —> follow grammar and syntax rules

• also used in other cultures

• origin in irish repertoire:

  —> 19th century

  —> influences from medieval europe

• example: cucanandy

1. use of both languages in one line (Example: one morning in June)

2. two languages change in alternate lines

3. two languages alternate in regular patterns (2 lines in irish, 2 in english etc.)

4. macaronic coda: last line of a verse/final couplet is finished in the second language

5. words/phrases are scattered in haphazard fashion

   —> 2nd language as ornamentation to the song

6. macaronic paraphrase: alternating verse and translation

   —> eg. first irish verse, then english verse as repetition

   —> Example: Táim Cortha Bheith “Im Aonar Im Luí / Weary from laying alone”

Eithne Ni Cathain - One Morning in June

macaronic song

type 1 - both languages mixed in one line

• = a narrative lyric song

• origin: south of france, middle ages

  
  

• = old europaea language lyric song

• would have exsisted alongside with the lay (= narrative song in irish language)

• Characterisitcs

  —> verbally composed

  —> non-aristocratic

  —> usually in 3rd person

• example: Lord Gregory / The Lass of Aughrim

Elizabeth Cronin - Lord Gregory

example for an old ballad

Elizabteh Cronin:

• well-known irish traditional singer

• big influence on modern singers

• key constituents of her repertorie have permeated practically the entire present day irish trad. singing world

• mixture of styles and forms

• became widespread during the 18th century because of invention of printing

• adaptation of many native irish airs

• drawn on local environment, events, individuals

• themes: love, loss, war, politics

• they did not mix/influence irish language songs

• two main types: come-all-ye- and broadside-ballad

  
  

• narrative ballad as earliest form of anglo-irish songs

• irish composed narrative song in the english language

• often explicit—> deal with real events/people/places

• structures borrowed from Britain, but developed their own irish idioms

• follow a structure: set a scene, introduce characters and plot, developement, conclusion

• often repetition of one phrase as invitation to join in with the soloist

• writing verses in english to tunes or strains of music generally accepted as Irish

Molly Bawn

Packie Manus Byrne

all-ye-ballad

• supernatural themes

• repetition of phrase “Molly Bawn”

• = single sheet of paper with a ballad on one side

• narrative and told stories relating to politics, war, famous individuals

• comic/satirical

• mostly printed in English

• use: as a medium of vocal politics —> political controvery and action were channeled into a resilient and expressive art form

• purpose: to bring politics to urban and rural lower class (esp. during times of rebellion and revolutions until WW1)

  —> not a high-brow-genre

• The Nation : Newspaper that initiated this new era of irish ballads

  
  

Paddy Tunney

The Rambling Boys of Pleasure

broadside/sheet ballad

Manchester