"I quite like Irish folk ..." - this declaration is about as precise as the statement that "popular music" is your favorite. And often the start of a heated discussion about what actually is folk music. "Folk" is short for "folklore" (or "folkloristic" ...), the "wisdom" or "traditions" preserved by "folk", the common people.
This was first defined by German philologist Johann Gottfried von Herder. He formed the idea that any ancient wisdom could be preserved in popular, traditional songs. And these songs were commonly handed from generation to generation, especially among the rural population. Hitherto despised as country bumpkins, the romantics lionized them as guardians of the cultural grail - the Brothers Grimm being very active in this respect. The theory was that, "unstained" by academe, the less educated folk were the last representatives of "real culture"
Influenced by the German romantics, Irish writer Thomas Davis (founder of the "Young Ireland" movement) declared the lowly peasant to be the only authentic Irishman. And Irish to be the only true language. Big words for a man who was no peasant and wrote his own poetry in English. Another early folklorist was the collector of fairy tales, Corkman T. Crofton Croker. The word "folklore", however, was created by an Englishman - in 1846 W.J. Thoms first used the word for what he called "popular antiquities". Folklore is more than music, it includes superstitions, herbal medicine, stories and traditions of all kind. But music always played an important part. In 1792 Edward Bunting noted down the melodies played at the Belfast Harp Festival. The performing artists themselves didn't know sheet music from toilet paper.
This started the collection of "traditional Irish music", music not "composed" but handed from musician to musician by ear. These were augmented by compositions in "traditional style", for instance by Seán Ryan or Paddy O'Reilly. "Traditional" soon began to denote a genre rather than an obscure origin.
Over the generations several subsections have been established:
- Lays - a "lay" is an epic or heroic song, praising the deeds of the Fianna or heroes from the Ulster Cycle. Traditional lays are always in Old Irish.
- Ballads - a "ballad" is a song containing a complete story, often pure fantasy and spiked with supernatural elements. Most Irish ballads are in English, the song form having arrived with Scottish settlers.
- Come-all-yes - the name derives from a popular first line, namely "Come all ye ...". Purporting to be glimpses into the singers autobiography or at least to retell actual events.
- Sean-nós - The lyric, Irish song sung in unique traditional way. Origins are obscure at best, Bulgarian folk songs having the same structures.
- In addition to those "classic" groups thousands of popular songs cannot be classified as such - they are lumped together as "folk songs" praising fast greyhounds, lamenting for lost loves or satirizing current events.
By the way - do not even attempt to "travel in the steps of singers", many geographical references in folk songs are nonsensical. Or seriously outdated: the "proud rolling Falls of Doonass" praised in a popular song disappeared in 1927, when the Shannon's Ardnacrusha barrier simply obliterated them.
