Traditional Irish singing - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Traditional Irish singing is the singing of traditional songs in the native styles such as sean nós

Sean-nós song

Sean-nós is a highly ornamented style of unaccompanied traditional Irish singing. It is a sean-nós activity, which also includes sean-nós dancing...

. Though some people consider sean nós to particularly refer to singing in the Irish language, the term 'traditional singing' is more universally understood to encompass singing in any language, as well as lilting

Lilting

Lilting is a form of traditional singing common in the Gaelic speaking areas of Ireland and Scotland. It goes under many names, and is sometimes referred to as "mouth music", diddling, jigging, chin music or cheek music), puirt a beul in Scottish Gaelic, Canterach, or portaireacht bhéil in Irish...

.

Some of the characteristics of traditional Irish songs might be

Solo singing
Unaccompanied
Unamplified
The audience is focused on the singing

In contrast, Irish ballad

Ballad

A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many...

singing might be thought of as differing in several respects, even if it is also sometimes referred to as 'traditional'.

Ballad singing is almost always accompanied by musical instruments.
It is most often a group activity, not solo singing.
It is performed typically in public areas, the singing is usually amplified, and the performance might be secondary (e.g. as background music in a pub).

Source singers

The term ‘source singer’ is generally understood to describe a singers in the past who received their style and repertoire through the oral tradition, whether that be through a family lineage or social circumstance. In the past, many such 'source' singers were deemed so upon ‘discovery’ by field researches such as Cecil Sharp

Cecil Sharp

Cecil James Sharp was the founding father of the folklore revival in England in the early 20th century, and many of England's traditional dances and music owe their continuing existence to his work in recording and publishing them.-Early life:Sharp was born in Camberwell, London, the eldest son of...

, Alan Lomax

Alan Lomax

Alan Lomax was an American folklorist and ethnomusicologist. He was one of the great field collectors of folk music of the 20th century, recording thousands of songs in the United States, Great Britain, Ireland, the Caribbean, Italy, and Spain.In his later career, Lomax advanced his theories of...

, Hamish Henderson

Hamish Henderson

Hamish Scott Henderson, was a Scottish poet, songwriter, soldier, and intellectual....

, Pete Seeger

Pete Seeger

Peter "Pete" Seeger is an American folk singer and was an iconic figure in the mid-twentieth century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers, most notably their recording of Lead...

, Ewan MacColl

Ewan MacColl

Ewan MacColl was an English folk singer, songwriter, socialist, actor, poet, playwright, and record producer. He was married to theatre director Joan Littlewood, and later to American folksinger Peggy Seeger. He collaborated with Littlewood in the theatre and with Seeger in folk music...

or other song collectors who were prominent in 1950s and 1960s. Although far from precise, the phrase sometimes was used to draw a distinction with so-called ‘revival’ singers, whose style and repertoire were perceived as adulterated by contact with written and other second-hand sources. The distinction today in the 21st century is harder to draw.

Source singers

See also