Accompaniment in Irish Traditional Music

Omtale

Adrian Scahill's seminal study traces the evolution of the accompaniment of instrumental Irish traditional music from its roots in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to the highly refined and classicized music of the contemporary tradition. A key theme of the text is that the hybridity evident in accompaniment is not novel in itself, but related to the hybrid nature of the melodic tradition. The book is structured in two parts: the first concentrates on printed sources; the second on the recorded repertoire. Part one considers printed sources of Irish music from the eighteenth century, where the addition of accompaniment was a result of the music's translation from an oral to a literate form. However, the construction of these accompaniments did not simply involve a superimposition of pianistic textures, but incorporated elements from the accompanimental practices of harp and uilleann pipes players. It was also in this period that a repertory of dance music began to crystallize, with printed collections facilitating the assimilation of music from Britain. Scahill investigates the antiquarian collections of the nineteenth century, revealing how the inclusion of accompaniment was a constituent of the preservation of the music, and was perceived by the collectors as a natural extension of the tunes. The second part of the book traces the development of the first formal ensemble of traditional music, the céilí band, in which the piano came to prominence. At the same time in the United States, the instrument was widely used on 78 rpm recordings, both for solo and small group recordings, and was an essential part of the Irish-American dance band. It was also in America that the palette of accompanying instruments was first broadened, with the assimilation of guitar and banjo by some musicians for recordings. The scope of the book broadens in its investigation of the most recent ensemble to emerge, the traditional group, as here accompaniment became just one facet of arrangement, and several new instruments and techniques became quickly established within the form. Here again the study reveals how the groups' distinctive sounds and styles result from processes of assemblage or bricolage. The final portion of the book shifts in focus away from the musical text and onto the performer, and draws on the author's experience as a musician in its investigation of the process of accompanying, examining how the contemporary 'backer' creates an accompaniment in the course of performance.