Sky is the limit for traditional music and musicians

FOR hundreds of years traditional music has been a huge part of Irish culture. With the exception of a period of decline in the 1940s to 1960s driven by the Church exerting control over ‘too much enjoyment’ of the people, it has largely been in a healthy state. In the past 30 or so years there has been a massive surge in terms of quality and quantity. With this in mind, the question is really how far can and will it go?

The Eurovision song contest these days might not seem like an obvious home for traditional arts. The event is known for showcasing the overt and often divisive artistic visions, which you really either do love or hate—either way, it doesn’t take itself too seriously. That wasn’t always the case though.

In 1994, Ireland were the hosts following on from Niamh Kavanagh’s victory the previous year in... Ireland. It was in the time when the Irish needed only appear in the competition to be hot contenders to win.

Once the songs had been sung and the voting was imminent, few could have anticipated what they were about to see as merely an intermission piece.

It was the debut of Riverdance (above). To a stunned audience in the theatre, to millions watching at home, they were watching a cultural rebirth happening, a healthy modernisation that felt like it belonged in their present time. Yes, of course the Riverdance main focus was dancing, but the music by Bill Whelan was revamped and just like the dancing, it felt modern, yet still unmistakably Irish.

Since then, Riverdance has continued to evolve through various iterations and, indeed, so has the music. As educational institutions began to offer courses in traditional music and festivals such as Celtic Connections and Tradfest Dublin started to establish themselves—not in the shadows, but pushing towards the mainstream—and as the internet became more accessible, so too did access to traditional music, resources and teaching. This has fed a new generation who just about have the sky as their limit.

Yes the ‘Regional’ variations in music still exist within the traditions. The famous Sliabh Luachra music from the South-West of Ireland is still as rich in that region as it ever was. But now, you might well hear a set of authentic Sliabh Luachra polkas being hammered out in a pub in Glasgow from musicians that never lived in that area. Something like that would have have been unfathomable 20 years ago, but it is alive and well and we’re all better for it!

Community supported websites like www.thesession.org have been amazing resources in collecting tunes, the history behind them and as well as being a great archival tool, have proven to be great educational aids too. What the modern-day musicians have at their disposal is the ability to learn a range of tunes and styles not just from their own home region, but from many other regions, and regional variations all from the comfort of their own home.

The old adage of ‘The next generation are always better’ is very much true in traditional music. With so many resources at their disposal, access is certainly not inhibitive to development. When you see so many traditional acts playing in the largest venues—I counted six ‘trad music’ events in the Ovo Hydro, the largest event space in Scotland in the past year alone—young up and coming musicians can see role models perform in mainstream arenas.

Then you look at the band Beoga. Plucked from the trad world and thrown into mainstream fame by arguably one of the most successful artists of all time in Ed Sheeran, Beoga continue to perform with Ed all over the world to tens of thousands of people each time.

It’s hard to imagine that kind of exposure for trad music even a decade ago let alone in 1994 when Riverdance was in its infancy. but that is very much where we are now.

Where will it get to next?

Paddy Callaghan is the Operations Manager of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann in Britain. You can follow him on Twitter: @paddy_box and Instagram: paddy_box and contact him via e-mail at: paddy@comhaltas.co.uk