Traditional Music
Kept alive by a combination of historical, political and cultural forces, Irish traditional music remains one of the richest musical cultures in the Western world. In Ireland itself, the growing interest in traditional music is further evidence of a national maturity that allows Irish people to be more relaxed about aspects of their traditional culture. Consequently, traditional music is neither seen as backward, rural and something shameful, nor is it a stick of cultural purity for fending off the twenty-first century. Long after much traditional music in the industrialized West has ceased to exist in any meaningful way, Irish music continues to refashion itself, not as introverted, stagnant, and nationalistic, but as an evolving and progressive part of a common, universal oral folk tradition. Most of the instrumental music the visitor will hear in Ireland is dance music (such as reels, jigs and hornpipes), originally played in kitchens, barns and at crossroads, usually to mark an occasion, such as a wedding or a wake. The melody of any dance tune is but bare bones to a traditional musician; it's dependent on performance for flesh, blood and soul. Through ornamentation, decoration and embellishments the performer breathes life into the music and this controlled extemporization allows the player to re-create a tune with each rendition.
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