Musical Repertoire

Music session

Seisiún Ceoil at the 'Music Under the Mountains' festival

Courtesy of 'Music Under the Mountains'

Music session
Courtesy of 'Music Under the Mountains'

Music session

Seisiún Ceoil at the 'Music Under the Mountains' festival

Courtesy of 'Music Under the Mountains'

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The repertoire in Irish traditional music has also benefited from outside influence. The reel, strathspey and highland can be traced to Scotland, the jig and quadrille to southern France and Italy and the hornpipe to England. Polkas, mazurkas and waltzes have their origins in central and Eastern Europe. Our traditional set-dances were imported from France and the themes for many our great love songs such as Róisín Dubh, Grá mo chroí thú and Bean an Fhír Rua have their origin in the courtly love movement in the Provence area of southern France in the 11th and 12th centuries.

It goes without saying that our traditional song in the English language includes a large repertoire of classic ballads, many of which were composed in England and Scotland. However, the ballad tradition can also be traced to late-medieval France where it was originally a dance form.

 Having established significant outside influence on instrumentation, song, repertoire and dance, it is important to identify what makes traditional Irish music 'Irish'.

It could be argued that the traditions of a country are affected by, or reflect the social history and experiences in the recent past.