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Irish Instruments Used with Irish Dancing
The most common instruments played at a feis in North America are the button accordian and fiddle, and on occasion flute and keyboards (on recorded tracks this is often piano).
"Accordian: The smaller kinds of squeeze boxes—with one or two rows of buttons for the right hand—are more popular in Irish music than the larger models with "piano" keyboards. The concertina—with multiple rows of buttons for each hand—is much rarer and highly prized."
"Fiddle: You will recognize this as the standard violin, played in an exuberant variety of styles. The other members of the bowed string family are not often used."
"Flute: The kind of flute most used in Irish music is made of wood, with six finger holes, with or without keys. These antique instruments were available inexpensively when the Irish flute style developed; then the recent popularity of Irish music sparked interest in wooden flutes."
"Piano: Most often used for accompaniment, the piano is rarely used for melody."
Source: Irish Traditional Musical Instruments MurphyRoche.com
Popular Irish Instruments from the 18th Century to Present
Harp
Until the end of the Middle Ages, the Gaelic harp was the highest status musical instrument of Ireland, and harpists were amongst the most prestigious cultural figures amongst Irish kings and chiefs. The harpist enjoyed special rights and played a crucial part in ceremonial occasions such as coronation and poetic recital. The main function of the harp in medieval Ireland was to accompany the recitation of bardic poetry in Irish. The Irish harp appears in the Coat of arms of Ireland, and on the flag of the President of Ireland as well as Irish Euro coins.
As the Gaelic social order collapsed from the 17th century, harpers were no longer retained by patrons. Instead their numbers declined and they became itinerant singer-songwriters. The famous Irish harper Turlough Carolan was such an itinerant singer-songwriter, accompanying his songs on a wire-strung harp. The original Irish harp tradition died out in Ireland in the early 19th century.
In the early 19th century, even as the old Gaelic harp tradition was dying out, a completely new harp tradition was invented in Ireland. This harp had gut strings and was made like a contemporary orchestral pedal harp; this was marketed to aristocratic young ladies. These new instruments were popular and formed the basis of the 20th century revival in Ireland, Scotland and across the world.
Since the 1970s there has been a deliberate revival of the older wire-strung instrument, based on historical principles and using replica instruments and period playing techniques. This movement is characterised by the use of accurate replicas of the museum instruments, fitted with brass, silver and gold wire strings, and using repertory and techniques taken from Edward Bunting's 1792 manuscripts and other historical sources. However, the early harp remains much less popular than its modern rival.
Source: Irish Harp/Clársach, Wikipedia.org
Uilleann Pipes
The uilleann pipes, originally known as the Union pipes, are the characteristic national bagpipe of Ireland and developed around the beginning of the 18th century. The uilleann pipes bag is inflated by means of a small set of bellows strapped around the waist and the right arm. Found in other European bagpipes (ex. Northumbrian pipes, Scottish smallpipes), the bellows not only relieves the player from the effort needed to blow into a bag to maintain pressure, they also allow relatively dry air to power the reeds, reducing the adverse effects of moisture on tuning and longevity. Some pipers can converse or sing while playing as well.
The uilleann pipes are distinguished from many other forms of bagpipes by their sweet tone and wide range of notes — the chanter has a range of two full octaves, including sharps and flats — together with the unique blend of chanter, drones, and "regulators." The regulators are equipped with closed keys which can be opened by the piper's wrist action enabling the piper to play simple chords, giving a rhythmic and harmonic accompaniment as needed. There are also many ornaments based on multiple or single grace notes. The chanter can also be played staccato by resting the bottom of the chanter on the piper's knee to close off the bottom hole and then open and close only the tone holes required. If one tone hole is closed before the next one is opened, a staccato effect can be created because the sound stops completely when no air can escape at all.
The uilleann pipes have a different harmonic structure, sounding sweeter and quieter than many other bagpipes, such as the Great Irish Warpipes, Great Highland Bagpipes or the Italian Zampognas. The uilleann pipes are often played indoors, and are almost always played sitting down.
Source: Uilleann Pipes, Wikipedia.org
Violin/Fiddle
The Irish fiddle is one of the most important instruments in the traditional repertoire of Irish music. The fiddle itself is identical to the violin, however it is played differently in widely-varying regional styles. In Irish fiddling there are few known composers, as many tunes have been taught by ear and passed down from one generation to another. Also, many players adjusted tunes to suit their style and taste, so there can be many variations for a particular tune.
The Donegal fiddle tradition is a type of Irish traditional music, based on a 200-year-old tradition (or possibly set of coexisting traditions) of playing the fiddle in County Donegal, Ireland. Donegal is a partly Irish-speaking highland-county in northwestern Ireland and one of the three counties of the northern Irish province of Ulster that are part of the Republic of Ireland. The tradition has several distinguishing traits, most of which involves styles of bowing and the ornamentation of the music, as well as the rhythm. Another characteristic of the style is the rapid pace at which it tends to proceed.
Sources: Irish fiddle playing, Wikipedia.org & Donegal fiddle tradition, Wikipedia.org
Tin Whistle
The tin whistle, also called the tinwhistle, whistle, pennywhistle or Irish whistler, is a simple six-holed woodwind instrument.
L.E. McCullough notes that the oldest surviving whistles date from the 12th century, but that, “Players of the fealodan are also mentioned in the description of the King of Ireland's court found in the Brehon Laws dating from the 3rd century A.D.” The Tusculum whistle is a 14cm whistle with six finger holes, made of brass or bronze, found with pottery dating to the 14th and 15th centuries; it's currently in the collection of the Museum of Scotland.
The term "penny whistle" was coined on the streets of Dublin in the late 1500s because of the whistles' prevalence among the beggars and vagabonds in Ireland. The word "tin-whistle" was also coined as early as 1825, but neither word seems to have been common until the 20th century. The first record of tin-plate whistles dates back to 1825 in Britain. The first factory-made "tinwhistles" were produced by Robert Clarke (?–1882) in Manchester and later New Moston, England circa 1843.
The most common whistles today are made of brass tubing, or nickel plated brass tubing, with a plastic fipple (mouthpiece). Whistles are a prevalent starting instrument in Irish traditional music, since they are often cheap (under US$10), relatively easy to start with, and the fingerings are identical to those on the traditional Irish flute. The tin whistle is the most popular instrument in Irish traditional music today.
Traditional music from Ireland and Scotland is by far the most common music to play on the tin whistle, and comprises the vast majority of published scores suitable for whistle players. Musicians who play Irish and Scottish music on the tin whistle perform as members of bands. While the tin whistle is very common in Irish music to the point that it could be called characteristic of the genre and fairly common in Scottish music, it is not a "required" instrument in either one.
Source: Tin whistle, Wikipedia.org
Flute
The Irish flute is a name for a wooden flute used in the playing of Irish traditional music. These simple system flutes play a diatonic scale by successively uncovering the toneholes. Irish flutes were originally old simple system flutes that were discarded by concert musicians during the advent of the modern flute in the late 1800s. These "obsolete" flutes were picked up at low cost by Irish traditional musicians.
Today, Irish flutes are being made expressly for the playing of Irish traditional music by many makers. They are now not only made from wood, but also Delrin, PVC and even metal—though wood is still by far the most popular material, and these modern Irish flutes can vary in the number of keys, or have no keys at all. Due to it's wooden construction, characteristic embouchure and direct (keyless) fingering, the simple system flutes have a distinctly different sound from the Western concert flute. Compared with 'typical' classical flautists, most Irish Flute players tend to strive for a brighter, more reedy sound.
Historically, there were two main styles of Irish flute, the Pratten and the Rudall & Rose. The Pratten has wider bore dimensions and provides a louder sound, while the Rudall & Rose has a darker, pure tone and is slightly thinner than the Pratten style flute. Many of these original flutes had a footjoint that allowed the playing of both C# and C with the use of keys. Some modern makers forgo the addition of these keys, but maintain the longer footjoint with two holes where the keys would be, as it is thought to better emulate the pitching and tone of the 19th century originals.
Source: Irish flute, Wikipedia.org
Concertina
The 19th century experienced the instrument’s formative period in Ireland, but there is very little published information about Irish concertina playing then, or about the concertina’s arrival and establishment in the country.
In a sense, the English concertina is a bit of a sideshow to the discussion at hand. Aligned at its beginning with the elite in a country then known for crushing poverty, the English concertina never developed a large following in Ireland, and it was the humble German concertina that eventually won over most of the populace. Nonetheless, the English concertina not only arrived first, but it was through the auspices of an English concertina maker in Dublin that the earliest German concertinas seem to have been imported to Ireland.
The English concertina came to Ireland within a very few years of its invention by Sir Charles Wheatstone in 1829. In its first twenty years it was handmade by Wheatstone’s firm in England in very small numbers, and tended to be played by the wealthy gentry who could afford them.
The German concertina is the direct ancestor of the present day ‘Anglo’, which has become the concertina of choice in Ireland’s current traditional music circles. It was invented by Carl Uhlig of Chemnitz, Saxony in 1834, who appears to have been unaware of Wheatstone’s invention of the English system concertina in London five years earlier. A simple four-sided instrument of one or two rows of single-action keys, it had fewer reeds than the English instrument, and was consequently less expensive to manufacture. Moreover, German makers quickly ramped up production in what became factories for accordion and concertina manufacture, in contrast to English makers who tended to treat their handmade instrument construction as an individual or family craft. German concertinas were soon being built for export in large numbers, and sold for low prices that were affordable by larger segments of society. They were available for sale in England as early as the mid 1840s,32 and were exported to the United States in large numbers by the 1850s. Although they were somewhat fragile, they were inexpensive enough that they could be used by poor street musicians, and easy to learn for a population that was largely illiterate and untrained in formal music notation. A young boy who busked regularly on the London steamboats in 1856 recalled the popularity of these German instruments three years earlier, in 1853:
I was about getting on for twelve when father first bought me a concertina. That instrument was very fashionable then, and everybody had it nearly. I had an accordion before; but … I didn’t take a fancy to it somehow, although I could play a few tunes on it …. I liked the concertina, because it’s like a full band. It’s like having the fiddle and the harp together ….
Period documents show that the 1870s ushered in a golden era for Anglo-German concertinas in Ireland, in both English-speaking and still Irish-speaking parts of the country. Sales of the instruments broadened to all sorts of merchandisers, not just music shops, and expanded to other parts of the country. More importantly, references to concertina players themselves began to appear in newspapers, books, and journals of the time. From these various sources, a picture emerges of a popular boom in the German concertina in Ireland that is unrivaled by any other musical instrument of the era.
Key sources of information on the extent of concertina playing in this period are reports of emigration and immigration. The emigration that had been so heavy during the famine years continued at a fast clip throughout the late 19th and early 20th century, when the concertina craze was at its peak. The local press in countries receiving these immigrants, such as the United States, Canada, Australia and England, were keen observers of this moving mass of humanity, yielding some fascinating accounts of early Irish concertina playing.
Much has been written about the fact that women were frequent players of the instrument; some have said that women were in fact the predominant players in those past times.113 O hAllmhuráin reports that the concertina was often referred to as the bean chaírdín (female accordion), although a count he made of Clare concertina players in the early to middle twentieth century showed approximately equal numbers of men and women.
Almost all of the clippings found in this study as ‘sightings’ of Anglo-German (or suspected Anglo-German) concertinas are from the period 1870-1930 (searches were not attempted for years following 1970, during which the concertina has experienced a resurgence in Ireland). They show that during most of this period, use of the concertina was widespread; oral accounts corroborate this, at least for the early decades of the 20th century. Beginning about 1920, however, its use began to dramatically decline; this paralleled equally steep declines of that time in England and America.127 The leading culprit in those latter two places was the advent of electricity as well as the growing popularity of recorded music (the gramophone) and the radio. With recorded or broadcast music, average people no longer had to learn to play an instrument to be able to have music at home, so usage of all musical instruments went into decline.
Source: Notes on the Beginnings of Concertina Playing in Ireland, 1834–1930, by Dan Worrall
Battering
Sean-nós dance is characterized by its "low to the ground" footwork, free movement of the arms, and an emphasis upon a "battering step" (which sounds out more loudly the accented beat of the music). By its nature, it follows the music closely. In the absence of any musical accompaniment, the rhythmic nature of sean-nós dance results in a percussive music of its own. It frequently is danced by only one person, and even when danced in pairs or small groups, there is no physical contact between the dancers. Because it is a freeform, solo type of dance, it is not necessary for a pre-arranged routine to be decided upon by the dancer, and spontaneous expression is considered normal. Therefore, it is less common to see groups performing synchronized sean-nós dance (which requires choreography in advance). Instead, the dancers may dance in turns, playing off the energy of the other.
Sean-nós dancing is similar to the more formal, competition oriented Irish Stepdance, but is more freeform in its expression. Sean-nós dancers will be wearing their street clothing and their arms will most likely be moving to the rhythm, with the hands optionally nearly meeting either in the front or the back of the person.
Sean-nós dancing is done exclusively with solidly-built shoes. The sound of a sean-nós dancer's footwork has a rhythmic quality unto itself, so it can be danced without musical accompaniment. An audience or a dance partner isn't essential either, as this is a solo form of dance that a person can break out into simply for the joy of dancing—akin to the spontaneity of and Irish Jig.
Traditional sean-nós dance surfaces can vary from a standard dance floor, to a door that has been taken off the hinges, a board placed across two supports, or even the top of a stool. In those cases, the skill of the dancer is shown by how well he can produce the various steps within the narrow bounds of the dance surface.
Source: Sean-nós dance, Wikipedia.org
Instruments Popularized During the 20th Century to Present
Accordion
Modern Irish accordion players generally prefer the 2 row button accordion. Unlike similar accordions used in other European and American music traditions, the rows are tuned a semi-tone apart. This allows the instrument to be played chromatically in melody. Currently accordions tuned to the keys of B/C and C#/D are by far the most popular systems.
The B/C accordion lends itself to a flowing style; it was popularized by Paddy O'Brien of Tipperary in the late 1940s and 1950s, Joe Burke and Sonny Brogan in the 1950s and 60s. Dublin native James Keane brought the instrument to New York where he maintained an influential recording and performing career from the 1970s to the present. Other famous B/C players include Paddy O'Brien of County Offaly, Bobby Gardiner, Finbarr Dwyer, and John Nolan.
The C#/D accordion lends itself to a punchier style and is particularly popular in the slides and polkas of Kerry Music. Notable players include Sharon Shannon, Jackie Daly, Joe Cooley and James Keane.
The piano accordion became highly popular during the 1950s and has flourished to the present day in céilí bands and for old time Irish dance music. Their greater range, ease of changing key, more fluent action, along with their strong musette tuning blended seamlessly with the other instruments and were highly valued during this period. They were the mainstay of the top Irish and Scottish ceilidh bands, including the Gallowglass Céilí Band, the Fitzgerald Céilí Band, the McStocker Céilí Band. Dermot O'Brien, Malachy Doris, Sean Quinn and Mick Foster are well known Irish solo masters of this instrument and were well recorded. The latest revival of traditional music from the late 1970s also revived the interest in this versatile instrument. Like the button key accordion, a new playing style has emerged with a dry tuning, lighter style of playing and a more rhythmically varied bass. The most notable players of this modern style are Karen Tweed (England) and Alan Kelly (Roscommon).
Source: Little Irish Blessings: The Irish Accordion and Concertina
Guitar
The acoustic guitar is used often for strummed chords accompanying other instruments, and rarely for melody, though there has been a “Celtic finger-style” movement afoot. The guitar comes in from the folk boom of the sixties, and is usually a standard acoustic six-string model, though a variety of tunings can be used.
The role of the guitar in traditional music is an ever changing one. Within the Irish and Scottish tradition it is one of the main accompanying choices for instrumental music and is slowly being accepted as a melody instrument as well. It is my hopes with this article to give the reader some insight into the role of the guitar in Celtic music as well as to provide some background on several of the best practitioners of Celtic guitar. I will also briefly touch on the role of the Irish bouzouki, an instrument fast becoming standard in many Celtic groups.
Historical antecedents to the guitar have been in existence since ancient times although it wasn't until the 1300's that an instrument resembling the modern guitar came into being. That instrument evolved and by the 1600's there emerged a five string instrument with the sixth string added some two hundred years later. According to history two instruments were popular at that time which were referred to as guitars. The first of these, the Spanish guitar, would evolve into the modern guitar while the second, the English guitar or cittern, was used less frequently although it has made a comeback in recent years. Celtic music is essentially melodic and hence traditionally the music was a solo art form. Despite this accompaniment has always been part of the music either in rudimentary forms such as tapping the foot to keep time or the more intricate accompaniment provided by the regulators on Uillean pipes.
A standard tuned guitar is tuned EADGBE although within Celtic music the tuning DADGAD is quickly becoming standard for accompaniment. The lowered bass string, from E to D, affords the player a droning sound that is well suited to the tonal qualities of fiddle music as well as the pipes.
Source: Ceolas: Instruments & Ceolas: Celtic Guitar
Bodhrán
The bodhrán is an Irish frame drum ranging from 25 to 65cm (10" to 26") in diameter, with most drums measuring 35 to 45cm (14" to 18"). The sides of the drum are 9 to 20cm (3½" to 8") deep. A goatskin head is tacked to one side (although nowadays, synthetic heads, or new materials like kangaroo skin, are sometimes used). The other side is open ended for one hand to be placed against the inside of the drum head to control the pitch and timbre. One or two crossbars, sometimes removable, may be inside the frame, but this is increasingly rare on modern instruments. Some professional modern bodhráns integrate mechanical tuning systems similar to those used on drums found in drum kits.
There is evidence that during the Irish rebellion of 1603 (Tyrone's rebellion) the bodhrán was used by the Irish forces as a battle drum, or that the drum provided a cadence for the pipers and warriors to keep to, as well as to announce the arrival of the army. This leads some to think that the bodhrán was derived from an old Celtic war drum. Seán Ó Riada declared the bodhran to be the native drum of the Celts, with a musical history that predated Christianity.
There is a close similarity between the bodhrán and Spanish military drums of previous centuries, suggesting the instrument may have been introduced by Irish who had served in the Spanish military or acquired knowledge of the instrument from Spanish comrades aboard sailing ships.
It has also been suggested that the origin of the instrument may be the skin trays used in Ireland for carrying peat; the earliest bodhrán may have simply been a skin stretched across a wood frame without any means of attachment.
Dorothea Hast has stated that until the mid-twentieth century the bodhrán was mainly used as a tray for separating chaff, in baking, as a food server, and for storing food or tools. She argues that its use as musical instrument was restricted to ritual use in rural areas. She claims that while the earliest evidence of its use beyond ritual occurs in 1842, its use as a general instrument did not become widespread until the 1960s, when Seán Ó Riada used it.
There are no known references to this particular name for a drum prior to the 17th century. Although various drums (played with either hands or sticks) have been used in Ireland since ancient times, the bodhrán itself did not gain wide recognition as a legitimate musical instrument until the Irish traditional music resurgence in the 1960s in which it became known through the music of Seán Ó Riada and others. Prior to this, it was primarily used for festival processions only in the southwestern part of Ireland.
The second wave roots revival of Irish Traditional music in the 1960s and 1970s brought virtuoso bodhrán playing to the forefront, when it was further popularized by bands such as Ceoltóirí Chualann and The Chieftains.
Growing interest led to internationally available LP recordings, at which time the bodhrán became a globally recognized instrument. In the 1970s, virtuoso players such as The Boys of the Lough's Robin Morton, The Chieftains' Peadar Mercier, Planxty's Christy Moore, and De Dannan's Johnny "Ringo" McDonagh further developed playing techniques. Current bands using the bodhrán include Kíla, whose lead singer Rónán Ó Snodaigh has developed a technique of rolling a hollow pipe behind the bodhrán to create a wah wah sound; Rónán is regarded as one of Ireland’s best contemporary bodhrán players.
Source: Bodhrán, Wikipedia.org
Bouzouki
The Irish bouzouki (colloquially, the "zouk") is a derivative of the Greek bouzouki.
The bouzouki, in the newer tetraxordo (four course/eight string) Greek version, was introduced into Irish Traditional Music in the late 1960s, by Johnny Moynihan, of the popular folk group Sweeney's Men, and popularised by Andy Irvine and Dónal Lunny in the group Planxty. In a separate but parallel development Alec Finn, later with the Galway-based traditional group De Dannan, obtained a trixordo (three course/six string) Greek bouzouki on his own. Irish bouzouki players tend to use the instrument less for virtuoso melodic work and more for chordal and contrapuntal accompaniment for tunes played on other instruments, such as the flute or fiddle; in response, many or most players changed the octave strings in the two bass courses to unison pairs in order to enhance the bass response of the instrument.
Within a few years of the bouzouki's initial introduction a design built specifically for Irish traditional music was developed. The body was widened and in most cases a flat back with straight sides replaced the round, stave-built back of the Greek bouzouki, or, in the case of English builder [1]Peter Abnett, who was the first instrument maker to build a uniquely "Irish" bouzouki - for Dónal Lunny in 1970 - a hybrid design with a 3-piece dished back and straight sides. All of the initial Irish bouzoukis had flat tops, but within a few years some builders began experimenting with carved, arched tops taking their cue from American archtop guitars and mandolins.
Hardly anyone uses the Greek bouzouki for Irish music today; Alec Finn and Mick Conneely are the only professionals of any consequence who use them. Scots mandolin player Kevin MacLeod uses a "tetraxordo" Greek bouzouki in octave mandolin tuning G2D3A3E4, mainly for melodic work.
The Irish bouzouki has become fully integrated into the tradition over the past forty years, usually (although not always) playing accompaniment (mostly a mix of two note intervals, basslines, and bits of countermelody) rather than the melody. In recent years the Irish bouzouki has been found in the hands of many musicians not affiliated with Irish traditional music.
Source: Irish Bouzouki, Wikipedia.org
Piano
I'm having a bit of trouble finding more information for the use of piano in Irish music, so here are some thoughts from pianists themselves:
I love to play piano for dance because the depth of sound gives a lift to the dancers, I see it and they've told me and I love to dance with a strong piano supporting the music. I've heard piano played with many instruments and in my opinion it not only depends on the players but the ears, experience and taste of the listener. bowandkeys, 9 October 2006
And also:
I have been playing piano for most of my life. My mother, who was a music teacher, began teaching me how to play the piano when I was seven. I didn't become interested in playing Irish music until I attended a workshop in 1981 on Folk Keyboard which was taught by Triona ni Dhomhnaill. This experience opened my eyes and my ears to the possibilities of the piano in this particular genre of music.
I began trying to play Irish music on my piano but I had to play it by myself until some local musicians started an Irish Session here in 1995. I showed up to listen and was asked to bring my genuine imitation piano (a Roland EP-90 Digital Piano) to the Sessions. I usually accompanied the other musicians at the local Irish Session except for the rare occasions when I was the only person there who could do a halfway decent job of leading the Session.
So far as I am concerned, a piano can be an asset to a session if the piano player knows what he or she is doing. Since the volume is adjustable on my genuine imitation piano, I usually try to keep it turned down to a low level so I can hear the other musicians. I don't go to a session to show off how clever I am or how good or how experienced a musician I am. Instead, I go to a session because I enjoy playing music with other musicians and if I can't hear what the other musicians are playing, I don't enjoy myself. fauxcelt, 17 February 2008
Source: The Sesson: “Piano in Traditional Irish Music?”
Hardshoes
Hardshoes, also called jig, heavy, or hornpipe shoes, are the second type of shoe. Many people will ask you if they're like clogging or tap shoes — and they may make noise, but they are not the same.
The tips and heels of hardshoes (not commonly referred to as taps) were made out of fiberglass or wood, and are now made out of various stronger composite materials. This makes them very loud; louder than tap shoes, and much louder than the sturdy leather shoes of old-style dancers.
The Use of Electronic Music
Since the advent of Ronan Hardiman’s soundtrack for Lord of the Dance in 1996, electronically-enhanced music has dominated Irish dancing shows. The Lord of the Dance and Feet of Flames soundtracks and the Bradley Brothers' albums were at one time the most popular music for an Irish dance school’s show. Newer albums include those made by Kin'sha (very popular), Beoga, and Michael McGoldrick.