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This is a collection of 350 + traditional tunes.
Types of tunes are the jig , slip jig, slide, reel, slow air, pibroch,
strathspey, highland fling, planxty, hornpipe, march, wedding march.
If you are looking for books of tunes then
any of the O'Neill books are a good start. However there is no substitute
for listening . There are many ways to play a traditional tune, especially
in the Irish style. Scottish style is more formalised due to the influence
of competitions and classical music. Cape Breton style is closer to
Scottish than Irish and the ornaments as used in Irish style are not
used . Cape Breton fiddlers use vibrato which is avoided in Irish
traditional music. Some of the ornaments (especially for Uilleann
pipes) cannot be written down using conventional notation. The notes
of an 'Irish Roll' are the same as the 'Turn' in classical music.
The effect of the roll however is different, and sounds nothing like
a turn. These ornaments can be difficult to learn, but are essential
to the sound and must be mastered. The main ornaments are the ROLLS
(various types) and the CRAN (piping) as well as many GRACENOTE types.
The effect of these is sometimes the sound of notes being percussed
by the previous note, which demands great accuracy to achieve the
effect. As stated above, these ornaments cannot be musically notated
using classical notation and must be learned from other players. So
what you see written is often only a rough guide as to how it actually
sounds and sometimes no guide at all! At first reading,the tunes look
simple enough, but acquiring the skill to execute them in the traditional
style is not so simple. You can replace a roll or cran in several
ways. For example an A roll can be replaced with the three quaver
notes A,B,A or A,A,A or whatever sounds good. Traditional Irish music
was handed down orally for centuries and the attempt to collect and
notate them is a fairly recent occurance (18th century). The Slow
Airs generally are not in any strict time , that being up to the performer's
discretion or mood at the time. Hornpipes are written with even quavers
but played in a dotted rhythm . A similar convention is also encountered
in jazz music.
Click
for Celtic Orbis iTunes
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