Every now and then the topic of a post here bridges the two areas of cultural activity that have been the main focuses of this blog. This time, the link is the dedication of a recording of an Irish dance tune by the fiddler Fergal Scahill: “Here’s a tune for any fellow knitters out there, ’tis the knitting season after all!”
There are a few more words to it in the video and I’m passing the dedication onward a while after it was first made, but the sentiment remains the same. This rendition is used below, with other recordings of the same tune, to illustrate specific aspects of the native performance practice of Irish traditional music (ITM). This is also a major source of tunes played on the autoharp; another topic of intense recent attention on this blog.
The Irish segment of that instrument’s repertoire is usually approached from a musical perspective rooted in the US. This post calls attention to a few of the dissimilarities. It replaces an earlier one that dealt with the same issue but has been extensively revised. The title of the tune provides an apt heading for the new version.
Readers whose curiosity about the autoharp may have been piqued by its frequent mention here, but are otherwise unfamiliar with it, will find an excellent introduction in an episode of the NPR program All Things Considered. It describes general perceptions of the instrument in the US, how it gained popularity there, and the genesis of an album titled Masters of Old-time Country Autoharp, which is online as a YouTube playlist. This recording illustrates the origins of an American style of autoharp playing that I have been using as a point of comparison with a speculative more idiomatically Irish style.
The following text is inversely intended to provide a bit of introductory detail about Irish performance style for autoharp players who may be new to it. This post is a substantial revision of one initially titled The Autoharp in Irish Music — Part 2 (now offline with its URL redirecting here). The corresponding Part 1 remains where it has been all along but has also been revised significantly in the interim. In summary, it begins with the filmed appearance of several autoharps at a traditional music festival in Ireland, in 1967.
It ends by considering a question posed by the Irish fiddler Kevin Burke — the first to make a studio recording of ITM with autoharp accompaniment — about differences between the American and Irish national styles of fiddle playing. I paraphrase this as, “How could an autoharper who plays Irish tunes American style sound more like an Irish musician?” The subsequent exposition in the former Part 2 ended by noting that the post might benefit from being restructured. This is the upshot and includes new recorded examples.
The one above illustrates many of the expressive devices that distinguish the Irish style of fiddle playing from the American. Perhaps the most important is a characteristic rhythmic swing in the execution of what are conventionally written as even sequences of eighth notes, and acceptably played as such in American-style rendition. Another is the more extensive use of ornamentation in Irish playing, but at least one device Scahill applies is common to both national styles. It replaces an eighth note with two sixteenth notes and is termed a “treble” or “triplet” in the Irish glossary (either synonymously or with varying distinctions).
This ornament is relatively easy to execute on many instruments in the traditional Irish line up. The autoharp’s closest relative among them is the harp. The treble is the primary decorative device heard in the following solo performance by Gráinne Hambly, taken from her 2006 album The Thorn Tree. She supports the melody with a bassline and an occasional chord, notwithstanding the harp’s ability to provide a rich chordal accompaniment throughout.
This light-handed self accompaniment typifies the things worth keeping in mind when using an autoharp to play ITM in a native manner. In the next video, Kieran Hanrahan restricts ornamentation on the banjo to trebles and never plays more than one note at a time despite the ease with which chords can be played on that instrument. Tony Linnane also plays trebles on the fiddle, together with the more elaborate “roll” discussed in detail below. Eamonn Cotter plays rolls on the flute, as well as ascending and descending trebles (the same-note form of which requires a type of articulation that traditional flutists normally avoid).
Geraldine Cotter uses the piano for accompaniment without a hint of melodic participation. The same applies to Carl Hession’s piano playing in the next snippet.
Michaela Cunningham plays only the melody on the concertina, tapping into none of its harmonic potential. Hughie Kennedy similarly restricts the use of his left hand on the button accordion to a bass reinforcement of the start of selected phrases. This is equivalent to extraordinarily spartan use of the thumb on an autoharp. Irish accordion players often take the sparse-bass and no-chords approach even when playing solo. Concertina players commonly distinguish categorically between melodic and harmonic playing styles.
This all reflects major concern in the native performance of ITM with limiting anything that might offset the clarity of the melody. There is a fair amount of artistic latitude but many feel that accompaniment is best forgone entirely. Self accompaniment in solo performance is a matter of individual preference, pretty much by definition. Nonetheless, there are traditional norms against which a performance on a given instrument is judged.
Unfortunately, there are none specifically for the autoharp. Anyone wishing to use that instrument for playing ITM on its own terms can only begin by adapting practices from the established traditional instruments. As already noted, the present discussion is intended to do nothing more than point out things to consider when plotting a course through these waters (which I’m still learning to navigate).
Another part of the task is recognizing and avoiding techniques that are second-nature in American-style performance but lie outside the ITM mainstream. For example, the piano accompaniments heard above move almost entirely in quarter notes with only an occasional passing eighth note. There is no “boomchucka” thrust or other rhythmic “fill” that is otherwise commonplace on the autoharp.
Autoharpers in either the accompaniment or melodic role should be able to glean much of what they need to know about traditional Irish performance simply from listening to it. As already noted, rhythmic effect is an overriding, if not definitive musical concern. Another important nuance is the way rolls are used for melodic embellishment.
This ornament is a sequence of five notes consisting of a principal note, a rapid auxiliary note played above it, the principal note again, a quick auxiliary note below it, and ending with the principal note. Its execution varies significantly from instrument to instrument, with further nuance reflecting the preference of individual musicians. Willie Clancy demonstrates the “cut-and-tip” variant (aka cut and tap, strike, or pat; so-called from common labels for the upper and lower grace notes) on the uilleann pipes in this recording.
Janet Harbison discusses traditional Irish ornamentation on the harp. She uses the cut, treble, and rolls heard above, and adds a “run” to them. Its arpeggiated form is, in fact, what the autoharp was built for. The other ornaments are also practicable on it with about the same relative degree of ease (or difficulty) as on the harp. The core demonstration of them takes eight minutes from the linked point of entry into the video. The full presentation includes an equally worthwhile discussion of self accompaniment.
Of these ornaments, the same-note treble and arpeggiated run can be played on an autoharp without requiring a chord change, or a bar to be raised to make one or more damped strings available for plucking without changing the chord. They are therefore equally accessible regardless of the player’s familiarity with the latter technique —“open noting” — or how the instrument is strung and tuned. In contrast, a bar needs to be raised and lowered again for a cut, glissando run, multi-note treble, or triplet roll.
A distinct cut-and-tip roll requires the bar to be raised and lowered twice. Harbison says the execution of that ornament on a harp is “fiendishly hard but worth the practice.” Rolls are also viable but tricky on other instruments in the established ITM line up, such as the tenor banjo and button accordion. Many players of them who can execute either ornament equally convincingly still make preferential use of the treble, often forgoing all other ornaments.
This leaves a question about the approach to ornamentation that might be best suited to the autoharp. Similar considerations attach to the instrument when restricted to an accompanying role. I’m not campaigning for its admission into the traditional Irish instrumental ensemble in either capacity but feel that the amenability of the autoharp to the idiomatic rendition of ITM merits exploration nonetheless. The development of accompaniment as a facet of such performance, in both historical and practical regards, is discussed further in a separate post.