Throughout history, people have used song and music to convey their messages.
Older than the written word, storytelling has always held an important role in society. Stories were meant to entertain as well as to tell and immortalize historic events. They were cautionary tales, and family histories passed down orally from one generation to the next. One of the ways this was done was through song.
Harpists and poets would travel the countryside, telling their tales and singing their songs to kings and noblemen. These songs were silly, they were tragic, and they were entertaining. Family histories were put to song, and remembered long after written records were destroyed.
Illiterate peasants who passed on stories and legends through song. Farm …show more content…
They are our fears, our desires, our hopes, our dreams, our losses, our celebrations, our sorrows, our joys, our memories, our experiences. They are our history.
Irish history is a story of conquest, war and protest. Its story has been told through one of the richest existing musical traditions. In 1169, Anglo-Norman colonists landed on the island, beginning the centuries-long cycle of Irish persecution and massacre. From 1691, when the English Protestants took control of Catholic Ireland, to 1916, when the Irish stormed the British General Post Office to claim the formation of the Irish republic, to 1972, when "Bloody Sunday" began direct British rule of Northern Ireland, the Irish have been attacked and oppressed.
Through all that time, though, the Irish used music to maintain their identity during periods of struggle. Musicologist Helen O'Shea wrote that the Irish held firmly to authentically old Irish music in order to keep their national identity together. "The greatest achievement of the Irish people is their music," Irish poet Thomas Davis wrote in the 19th century. "Music is the first faculty of the Irish, and scarcely anything has such power for good over
Older than the written word, storytelling has always held an important role in society. Stories were meant to entertain as well as to tell and immortalize historic events. They were cautionary tales, and family histories passed down orally from one generation to the next. One of the ways this was done was through song.
Harpists and poets would travel the countryside, telling their tales and singing their songs to kings and noblemen. These songs were silly, they were tragic, and they were entertaining. Family histories were put to song, and remembered long after written records were destroyed.
Illiterate peasants who passed on stories and legends through song. Farm …show more content…
They are our fears, our desires, our hopes, our dreams, our losses, our celebrations, our sorrows, our joys, our memories, our experiences. They are our history.
Irish history is a story of conquest, war and protest. Its story has been told through one of the richest existing musical traditions. In 1169, Anglo-Norman colonists landed on the island, beginning the centuries-long cycle of Irish persecution and massacre. From 1691, when the English Protestants took control of Catholic Ireland, to 1916, when the Irish stormed the British General Post Office to claim the formation of the Irish republic, to 1972, when "Bloody Sunday" began direct British rule of Northern Ireland, the Irish have been attacked and oppressed.
Through all that time, though, the Irish used music to maintain their identity during periods of struggle. Musicologist Helen O'Shea wrote that the Irish held firmly to authentically old Irish music in order to keep their national identity together. "The greatest achievement of the Irish people is their music," Irish poet Thomas Davis wrote in the 19th century. "Music is the first faculty of the Irish, and scarcely anything has such power for good over