An Historical Typology of Irish Song: Transmission, Performance and Cultural Memory

The project will establish a typology of Irish song based on evidence of transmission, performance and cultural memory. The main problem in interrogating this archive is the dearth of written musical documents which might bridge the gap between pre-18th-century sources and the activities of field collectors of oral-tradition song during the 18th-20th centuries. Also to be taken into consideration are the intellectual and methodological challenges posed by the overlay of several generations of editorial hands.We accept that we cannot necessarily trace the longer-term historical trajectory of a given song text or melody for which earlier evidence is absent. Therefore we propose to develop a typological method which unlocks information on continuities of tradition, and discloses possibilities for developing a theory of cultural practice. An example is the funeral elegy which was kept up in both Ireland and Scotland until the mid-20th century and keys into a pattern of singing and social ritual well attested throughout medieval Europe (and still continuing in parts of Central and Eastern Europe today). A given elegy may in itself not be particularly old, but its 'type', i.e., melodic elements and textual topoi, are unchanging and thus recognisable as belonging to an older style of singing (and social expression). Such melodies are characterised typologically as formulaic or cellular in structure and relate to oral-tradition performance for which the earliest European textual evidence survives in ninth-century French and German sources (the date of the oldest surviving manuscripts containing Latin song texts with neumatic music notation). The work of composers and arrangers which survives in manuscripts and printed sources of the 17th-20th centuries in Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man compensates in part for the rupture in historical evidence. It suggests links to an earlier era and to living practice, thus providing important material for testing the typology (albeit at one remove) and for closing historical gaps. Furthermore, the census of primary sources and the resulting typology will present an opportunity to interrogate these materials in a completely new way. By establishing criteria for identifying historical layers in the collecting, editing and arranging of oral-tradition song, these processes themselves will come under scrutiny - processes such as the standardisation of melodic nuances which might have been alien to outside observers, errors in recall, or indeed re-arrangement of materials to suit other environments, such as harmonic settings for piano accompaniment in urban salons and concert halls. The engagement of 21st-century sensibilities challenges us to re-evaluate older world-views.The approach involves collaboration between an historical musicologist / ethnomusicologist, a critic and scholar of poetry who studies literary ideas about music in the period 1750 to 1832, and a postdoctoral specialist in Gaelic song texts who will also be a performer in the oral traditon. It engages performance as part of the research enterprise, thus generating new methods of enquiry in the evaluation of (historical) evidence. It crosses temporal and geographical boundaries; it introduces new case studies and categories of material usually examined separately - often as literary texts only, isolated from their musical and social contexts. It also offers for the first time a possibility for the systematic study of Irish song in its European context, thus promoting its comparative study at an international level through specialist publications. The resulting materials will be accessible also to professional performers, creative artists, and the interested public through the latest online electronic means, lectures, live performances, new CD-recordings, and radio and television documentaries.

The project accords particularly well with the AHRC initiative to open up opportunities for research that has intellectual and wider cultural, social, and economic urgency. Its uniqueness lies in its synthesis of musical creativity and literary-historical research. And because of its very innovativeness, it runs the risk of falling outside of the mainstream of musicological enquiry and the interrogation of (literary) texts as traditionally perceived. The research will promote interaction between the academy and non-academic audiences by virtue of its focus on a topic with which the wider public is already actively engaged - including critics, performers, archivists, the broadcasting and recording media, and creative industries. In addition to a symposium for academic researchers (with edited essays as output), the publication of the materials of the project (including CD recordings and an online database of song texts), the production of documentary programmes for radio and television, lectures, and live performances will further guarantee its impact on the wider public. Many myths still prevail concerning the history of song in Ireland, and the cultural associations of its different manifestations. This typology, never before attempted, will assist in clarifying such issues, and should also impact upon the way in which the Irish heritage in music is taught and written about in textbooks as well as in the scholarly literature, in both parts of Ireland and internationally. Nor is this a solely insular (or 'British Isles') topic: Irish cultural studies is well established in educational institutions throughout the anglophone world and in many parts of continental Europe.The influence of the project will reach far beyond the confines of academia. It has particular social, political, and potential economic value in its contribution to issues of community identity, and of shared and contested pasts. It addresses one of the most vital aspects of Irish artistic expression, that of the role of song as an imagination-driven carrier of identity and historical memory, its capacity to reconnect people with a ruptured past, and the consequences for the collective memory of long-term social and political upheaval. The political dimension is also critical in an immediately contemporary way: the cultural complexes that constitute Irish society have often been simplified, and polarised, according to language, religious affiliation, and presumed cultural cleavages in order to serve particular strategic aims. An examination of the song tradition challenges received ideas and re-opens them for public debate. It has particular resonances in the context of Northern Ireland, as also in relations between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland (not least in the context of a 'hidden Ulster' which Padraigin Ni Uallachain has uncovered in her recent book), between Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man, and indeed between the islands of Ireland and Britain. More broadly it will contribute to the discourse on multiculturalism, regionalism and regional identities, and devolved political administrations in these islands. An important dimension here is the opportunity it offers to mediate between minority Gaelic-speaking communities and the English-speaking majority, providing historical depth to a vibrant culture with which the general public is widely engaged, thus fostering the collective memory and enhancing local pride and identity. In revisiting in a new way this body of material, the research will also contribute to the wider cultural ecology by providing a deeper understanding of the characteristics and historical development of a vital part of Irish cultural heritage.