Sean-nós singing
[2] The musician and academic Tomás Ó Canainn said:[3]: 49 ... no aspect of Irish music can be fully understood without a deep appreciation of sean-nós singing.
The Irish antiquarian Thomas Crofton Croker described an elderly female sean-nós singer he encountered in the early 1800s known for her "skill in keening":[6] This woman, whose name was Harrington, led a wandering kind of life, travelling from cottage to cottage about the country, and though in fact subsisting on charity, found everywhere not merely a welcome, but had numerous invitations on account of the vast store of Irish verses she had collected and could repeat.
Her memory was indeed extraordinary; and the clearness, quickness, and elegance with which she translated from the Irish into English, though unable to read or write, is almost incredible.
Before she commenced repeating, she mumbled for a short time, probably the beginning of each stanza, to assure herself of the arrangement, with her eyes closed, rocking her body backwards and forward, as if keeping time to the measure of the verse, She then began in a kind of whining recitation, but as she proceeded, and as the composition acquired it, her voice assumed a variety of deep and fine tones, and the energy with which many passages were delivered, proved her perfect comprehension and strong feeling of the subject.
The most notable of these was the Connemara singer Seosamh Ó hÉanaí (Joe Heaney),[5] who toured America, performing at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965 before then settling in New York City.
[12] The use of the term "sean-nós" ("old style") to describe traditional Irish language singing was coined in the early 1940s at the Gaelic League Oireachtas.
[16] The ethnomusicologist Joan Rimmer suggested that the music of the Arab world, Southern Europe and Ireland are all linked.
[16] The famous folklorist Alan Lomax said:[16] [I] have long considered Ireland to be part of the Old Southern Mediterranean-Middle Eastern family of style that I call bardic – highly ornamented, free rhythmed, solo, or solo and string accompanied singing that support sophisticated and elaborate forms.
The writer and singer of Luar na Lubre Belém Tajes, highlighted the similarities between the sean-nos singing and Galician alalás.
[16] The "black Irish" appearance is often attributed to Spanish Armada shipwrecks[18] or ancient trade routes with Berbers.
It is unaccompanied and has a highly ornamented melodic line....Not all areas have the same type of ornamentation—one finds a very florid line in Connacht, contrasting with a somewhat less decorated one in the south, and, by comparison, a stark simplicity in the northern songs ... Alternatively, the term simply refers to "the old, traditional style of singing" and encompasses non-ornamented regional styles.
[23] Decorative elements common in sean-nós singing fulfill aesthetic purposes to connect the text to the singer's interpretation of the melody and to enhance a sense of continuity by filling the gaps between phrases.
[3]: 80 Tomás Ó Canainn observed:[25] Ornamentation gives the movement between main notes a logicality and inevitability which it would not otherwise have: it smooths the musical texture and, while indispensable, its overall effect should be so subtle.
This nasal tone may have originated as an attempt to reproduce the sound of the uilleann pipes, or to aid in the implementation of melodic ornaments.
Seosamh Ó hÉanaí (Joe Heaney) said the nasal effect, which he gave the onomatopoeic term neá, provided a quiet drone in his head to keep him on pitch and represented "the sound of a thousand Irish pipers all through history".
[27] Sean-nós songs use Ionian, Dorian, Mixolydian and Aeolian modes, and scales are hexatonic and pentatonic, indicating that the style is a survival from prior to the standardisation of temperament and key.
[3]: 74 Sean-nós singing seems to always have been performed without accompaniment, as added instruments would restrict the freedom of the singer to vary ornaments and rhythm.
There are three main styles of sean-nós, corresponding to the three areas where Irish is still spoken as a community language, the Gaeltachtaí of Munster (parts of Kerry, and Cork and Waterford), Connacht (Connemara), and Donegal (Ulster).
[1] While sean-nós singing varies around Ireland, with ease of travel and the influence of recording media, these distinctions have become less definite since at least the early twentieth century; singers sometimes adopt different styles from various parts of the country.
Donegal sean-nós has a more consistent pulse and it is much less ornamented, which can make it stand out from other regional styles; these features seem to have come from Scottish Gaelic singing.
Themes frequently found in Gaelic music include the great beauty and spiritual qualities of nature and laments for lost loved ones, the latter being nearly always sung from the female perspective.
[citation needed] A number of traditional sean-nós songs are macaronic, combining two or more languages, such as Siúil a Rún, the popular version of which was taken from Elizabeth Cronin, who sang in Irish and English.
Many of the English language songs sung in sean-nós style are those found on broadsides, including the famous Child Ballads.
[33] Sean-nós songs were written to express emotions, including the love and sadness of daily existence and the loss of family and friends by death or emigration, but also in order to record significant events.
