Music and storytelling in the countryside

Story and Song in the countryside

When you aren’t at school or helping out at home, how do you spend your free time?

How did people spend their downtime in Ireland in the 1800s and early 1900s?

Most people living in rural Ireland were involved in agriculture in some form or other. Some were farm labourers or cottiers, and others had their own small farms. Some were blacksmiths and wheelwrights. 

Even if you didn’t work outside on the farm, there was plenty of work to do in the home, and this is where women and children spent much of their time. People got up when the sun rose, and worked until the sun set again in the evening. This meant that different work depended on the season: there were longer days in the summer so more work could be done, and shorter winter days so there was little outdoor work that could be done in the evenings. 

Irish country dwellers spent a lot of time being social with friends and family when they weren’t working. Socialising was a big part of leisure time.

Before television or radio, people visited their neighbours a lot more than they would today. They would hear all the news from around the local area and share news too.

People sang, played musical instruments, danced and told stories.

How do you think people learned to do these things?

People were taught how to play music and how to tell stories by family members or even from travelling tradespeople. There might have been a musical instrument shared by multiple households and they were valued by the community.

Dancing was a big part of life too, it was a way of socialising and the sound of dancing footsteps added to the music being played in the home too.

Storytelling

Storytelling is a tradition that is deeply associated with Irish culture. As people visited their neighbours, storytelling would have featured regularly, with the man of the house beginning the evening with a story. Tales could be about legends, the adventures of mischievous fairies, or the recounting of historical events, each having its own meaning and lesson for the listener. Storytelling was a talent in itself: the storyteller had to be dynamic and draw the listener in. These skills were passed down from generation to generation.

What fairy tales do you know?

Music

It was important for someone in the local area to be able to play so that music was provided for social events.

Learning tunes was done by ear and little was written down at the time although academics began to write down the notation and make recordings when people realised the culture might die out with the rise of other past times and entertainment such as radios and television.

Fairy tales that we all learn as young children have a similar purpose to the traditional storytelling of old Ireland.

 

In the past storytelling was used to show people how to live their lives. There was always a moral to the story. A moral is a lesson that teaches about right and wrong, good and bad.

An example of an old Irish story is Finn and the Salmon of Knowledge.

Can you name some traditional Irish instruments?

Fiddle

Flute

Tin whistle

Uillean pipes

Harp Bodhran

Concertina

Guitar

Accordion

Here are some instruments we would commonly associate with Irish traditional music. Can you match the images with their name?

Traditional Irish music comes in different forms, mostly according to what style of dance its accompanied. 

Some of these are:

Polka, Mazurka, Horn pipe, Jig, reel, slip jig, waltz.

These different forms are of different time signatures and that is what matches them to different dances.

What is a time signature?

A time signature indicates rhythm in music. It represents the strong beats in a piece of music and are commonly 2, 3, or 4 beats per bar with different tempos (speeds).

Reels and hornpipes: 4/4 (4 beats per bar) But the hornpipe can feel more swung so sound a little different to reels.

Jigs are 6/8 (6 beats per bar but quick beats). If you say rashers and sausages this gives you the correct rhythm.

Slip jigs are 9/8. If you say rashers and sausages, sausages.

Polkas are 2/4. They are played fast but with a 1,2 feel.

Mazurkas are fast dances in ¾.

Waltzs are also ¾ but slower.

Match the tune to the time signature: