Irish Music, Song and Instruments :: Irish Culture.ie : A Guide to Irish Culture on the Web

A Guide to Irish Culture
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Music, Song & Instruments

A History of Irish Music by WM. H. Grattan Flood. Preface dated Enniscorthy, November 1st, 1904. Dedicated to Edward Martyn, Esq, The Founder of the Palestrina Choir and Munificent Patron of True Church Music in Ireland. Library ireland

Ancient Music of Ireland mainly inspired by the collections of Edward Bunting, who had attended the famous Belfast Harp Festival in 1792 and had been engaged to note down the music from the last harpers, before it would vanish with them for ever. morbic.com

Ancient Irish Tunes including anonymous airs, the music of Rory Dall O’Catháin (c1570-c1650), Gerald O Daly, Thomas Connellan (c1640-c1700), William Connellan (c1640-1720), Cornelius Lyons (c1670-1740), and David Murphy (c1670-1746) morbic.com

Susan and her bodhran
Photo owned by Irish Philadelphia Photo Essays (cc)

The Secrets of the Bodrán and How to Play It The Bodhrán fails into the category of a ‘Frame Drum,‘ made from a circlet of wood (e.g. ash) which is easily bent and upon which is stretched a treated skin of an animal, usually, a sheep or a goat. Roundstone Musical Instruments

Carolan MIDI Tunes Turlough O Carolan (1670-1738) takes up a special place in the succession of itinerant harpers, being one of the last composers in the great oral tradition. He "never excelled as a performer", as said Bunting, but showed as a composer an amazing gift of creating melodies of his own, of which over 200 have survived. morbic.com

Catherine Hayes, Prima Donna Catherine Hayes’ career developed during a time when recording was not yet invented. This is very unfortunate. However there exists in national and international newspapers an extensive archive of written accounts that testify to the excellence of Catherine’s performances and to the raptuous aclaim which she received from her aaudiences. A Limerick Trust Project

Planxty In 1972 Planxty was born out of the recording of Christy Moore’s second album Prosperous. The core members were Christy, his old school mate Donal Lunny, piper extraordinaire Liam O’Flynn, and Andy Irvine who was a founding member of the groundbreaking Irish group Sweeney’s Men in the mid-sixties. Tara Music

Christy Moore ‘As I recall today my first gig was in the original Embankment in Tallaght in 1965. I was booked by the late Peggy Jordan to play in this great venue, then being developed by Mick McCarthy (The real Mick McCarthy). I was paid ten shillings. I bought a shirt for 7/6 and went to town on the balance‘. Christy Moore website

Comhaltas Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann is the largest group involved in the preservation and promotion of Irish traditional music. Ceoltas website

Index of Irish Composers introduces the music of Irish composers of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It is intended as a good starting point for anyone not familiar with Irish contemporary music. Contemporary Music Centre, Ireland

Features on Irish Music Features from the Contemporary Music Centre in Dublin from 1992–2009 Contemporary Music Centre

Fintan Vallely, Flute Player and Writer Fintan Vallely is a musician and writer on traditional music. From Co. Armagh, he has taught flute at the Willie Clancy Summer School in Co. Clare since 1986, and was the author of the first tutor for Irish flute - Timber, the Flute Tutor - in 1986. imusic.ie

Frank Corcoran, composer Born in Tipperary in 1944, Frank Corcoran studied at Dublin, Maynooth, Rome and Berlin. He was a music inspector for the Irish government Department of Education from 1971 to 1979, after which he took up a composer fellowship at the Berlin Künstlerprogramm. He is the only Irish composer whose 1. Symphony ( “Symphonies of Symphonies of Wind” ) was premiered in Vienna. Frank Corcoran

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A Guide to Irish Culture on the web

A Guide to Irish Culture
on the web