County Donegal Fiddle Music

Irish Traditional Music

as reflected in County Donegal Fiddle Music

by Sandy Freiberger

D503 A Geographic Appreciation of Music
Dr. Peter Galvin and Sidney King

Indiana University Southeast

Fall 2000

Link to Map

Ethnic Identify – Intrinsic to that particular culture; learned by word of mouth; traditional rural communities.

1)What is Irish Traditional Music?

a)http://www.itma.ie/home/leaf1a.htm (Class Handout)

b)http://www.ceolas.org/ref/what.is.celtic.html

c)http://www.sirius.com/~ststones/cmaoitm.html

2) What makes County Donegal fiddle music unique?

a)http://www.geocities.com/Athens/6464/intr.html(Class Handout)

b)http://www.sirius.com/~ststones/caoimhin.htm

c)http://www.ceolas.org/Regions/

3)The Irish “Session”

a)http://www.sirius.com/~ststones/session.html

b)http://www.itma.ie/home/leaf2a.htm

c)Molly Malones on Bardstown Road in Louisville, KY, Sunday afternoons beginning around 4:00 p.m.

Five Themes of Geography Applied

1)Location – envisioned by dot on map. Donegal County, Ireland

a)Proximity to Scotland and area now referred to as Northern Ireland

b)“Like an Ireland in miniature, County Donegal embraces heathery moors, vast peat bogs, mountains, and 230 miles

of sea-torn coastline, which varies from golden beaches to Europe’s high ocean cliffs at Slieve League. Living on the

island’s far fringe has fostered an independent spirit among Donegal’s people, many of whom cling proudly to Gaelic,

Ireland’s native language.”National Geographic Traveler, July/August 1990, p. 98.

2)Place – inner-play between natural and cultural

a)Turbulent History and Religious Factors Influenced by Place

i)The many musics of the Celtic tradition have occupied a complex and influential position in the musical history of the West, but the ancient roots of this tradition are obscure and scattered. Communities from Galway to Skye, Brittany to Cape Breton, and beyond, know and love the jigs, reels, and songs of the modern Celtic folk tradition; yet the long history of colonization and conquest in Ireland and the British Isles, the violent encroachments of foreign overlords on the old Gaelic communities, the impact of prosletyzing religion, and the shattering social changes of the Industrial Revolution struck at the heart of Celtic folklore, folk religion, and vernacular musics. As a result, most of what we moderns think of as "Celtic music" is actually a phenomenon of instruments, tunes and songs generally dating no earlier than the 16th century C.E.

From: http://www.indiana.edu/~smithcj/cjsne109.html

ii) If no actual music of the Celtic Church has been spared by the hand of decaying time, at least the words of a few hymns have come down to us, although even these are, with one exception, of Irish provenance. Some of these hymns, attributed to saints of the 6th and 7th Centuries, are to be seen in the Antiphonary of Bangor (7th Cent.), the Second Vision of St. Adamnan (7th Cent.), the Book of Mulling (9th Cent.), and the Irish Liber Hymnorum (11th Cent.), as well as in some Continental codices. These hymns of the Celtic Church are extremely interesting, for some of them contain what seem to be old pagan ideas in a Christian dress. …In other words I suspect that some of the chants may have been a residue of pagan vocal incantations.

Henry George Farmer

A History of Music in Scotland
London, 1947
pp. 28-29From:http://www.sirius.com/~ststones/irishem.html

3)Movement – ideas, diffusion of music, concert circuit of band

a)Poor farming region, pattern of seasonal migration to Scotland for work continued well into the 20^th century

b)Diffusion oftraditional Celtic music to Appalachian Mountains by Irish, Scottish, and Welsh immigrants

4)Regions of Celtic Music – area distinctive from other areas

a)Brittany

b)Isle of Man

c)Spain

d)Wales

e)Ireland and Irish Regions

f)Regional Irish Fiddle Styles