United Kingdom Music: Traditional Forms
Traditional Music of England
We don’t know a lot about what English folk music sounded like in the Middle Ages. What has come down to us is mostly religious and court music, and a few fragments of folk song.
English religious music influenced Continental musical trends, even as the English did things their own way with the Contenance Angloise, or English style of singing, introduced by John Dunstable, the most important English composer of the period.
As the late Middle Ages grew into the Renaissance, English music was well represented by Thomas Tallis and his magnificent compositions for choir, such as the Lamentations of Jeremiah, and by William Byrd, especially his motets and keyboard pieces. Lutenist and songwriter John Dowland was perhaps the best of a very active group of Elizabethan composers.
Folk Songs
Some of the oldest English songs we have left declaim the adventures of Robin Hood, legendary outlaw of Sherwood Forest. The historical Robin Hood—or several—lived sometime in the 12th or 13th century. The Robin Hood ballads were extremely popular for some centuries. Even now, an occasional artifact with Robin Hood’s brand on it washes up on the shores of popular culture.
The Borders ballads are a song repertoire shared across the border with Scotland. They tell of wars and outlawry, murder and supernatural visitation, and sometimes all of the above at once. Historical events referred to in the ballads allow us to date some of them to the 13th and 14th centuries.
At one time academics thought that English folk song had been extinguished by the Industrial Revolution, but Cecil Sharpe, a great folksong collector of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, proved them wrong. Aside from the ballads, he found a vast store of folk songs about love, war, murder, ghosts, and more love in England.
Christmas, then as now, was an occasion for much music. Carols were originally sung to be danced to; they were perhaps introduced by the Norman invaders. Formerly sung and danced anytime, they are now associated only with Christmas. An unimpeachably Anglo-Saxon song is the wassail, (be you whole; your health), a begging song sung door to door during the holiday season by groups of singers.
Sea shanties (from the French chantez) were sung to help seamen work together more easily. French, West Indian, or other sources may have originally suggested them, but the seagoing work songs of the English came to influence the sailor songs of most nations.
Bringing Tradition Back to Life
Since Cecil Sharpe revealed the richness of English folk song, many singers have carried on the tradition. Some of the best known are the Watersons, the Cooper Family, Shirley Collins, Frankie Armstrong, and Anne Briggs.
Brass Bands
Brass bands became popular in the 19th century, spread by the military, but also encouraged by factory owners and landlords, who thought that band practice might keep the men from forming unions. Brass bands associated with towns and workplaces still exist, and regional and national band competitions have kept them in practice.
Dancing in Barns and Elsewhere
English traditional dance as we know it today dates back to late Elizabethan times. The contra dance, in which dancers stand in rows facing one another, was apparently elaborated in the 17th century English court in imitation of country dancing. Publisher John Playford in the 17th century printed many dance tunes, with somewhat sketchy instructions. These books were extraordinarily popular, and are still in print. They are the foundation of modern English country dancing.
English country dancing is done today at get-togethers known as barn dances (whether or not they take place in barns). English ceildh dancing is a more recent development, wilder and less formal than English country dancing, with more elaborate stepping and more vigorous rhythms.
Dancing with Bells On
A special form of ceremonial dancing found only in England (though similar traditions do exist in other countries) is Morris dancing. Particularly to mark certain times of the year (May Day, Christmas week), the dancers wear white uniforms, bells on their shins, and dance with handkerchiefs or long sticks. The origin of the name (perhaps related to “Moorish”) and the actual age of the tradition are controversial and much argued over: the practice dates back at least to the late Middle Ages, was considerably developed in the 18th century in competitions between village dancers, and nearly died out in the late 19th century, but now has been revived and is performed throughout Britain, and in the former colonies as well.
The hornpipe is a step dance of English origin, named after the eponymous single-reed folk clarinet. It is supposed to have originated in Lancashire, and was formerly always in 3/2 time. As a 4/4 dance, it spread to Ireland, Scotland, and North America. Another step-dancing development is clogging, developed in northern factory towns, perhaps in imitation of factory machinery.
Rapper sword dancing is performed in heavy wooden clogs, and imitates factory machinery. Long sword dancing is an older tradition, probably brought by the Danes or Norse, since it is found in areas settled by them.
Music Hall
Music hall developed in the mid-19th century. It was a variety show of music, dancers, comics, and other entertainers. It looks back to the jugglers and musicians of medieval marketplaces, and forward to American vaudeville. Music hall has had long-lasting echoes throughout British entertainment culture, affecting early television, turning up in rock and roll of the British Invasion period, and still likely to be heard at any time.
Classical Music
English classical music has always taken a path slightly apart from the main trends in Europe. Vaughan Williams and Benjamin Britten, the two most important composers in the first half of 20th century, both used folk song as inspiration for their works, and managed, by being insistently local and national, to create an English music known throughout the world. Britten’s Ceremony of Carols, a choral work made from folk song and medieval carols, was an admitted influence on the “mystical minimalists” Henryk Gorecki of Poland and Arvo Pärt of Estonia.
In the later 20th century and into this century, John Tavener has written important English music. His music tests the limits of consonance and form but is emotionally and spiritually satisfying.
Traditional Music of Scotland
Scottish folk song includes both the Scots song of the Lowlands and Borders, and the Gaelic songs of the Highlands and the islands. The heart of Lowland folk song is found in the Borders ballads. The Traveller singer Jeannie Robertson had many ballads in her memory, and her singing of them is definitive. Beginning in the 1960s, singers in Scots and English brought new approaches to the old store of song. One of the great Scots singers is certainly Dick Gaughan.
Gaelic songs come from a still older tradition, and include types not found in the Lowlands, such as waulking songs (work songs sung by groups of women as they prepare wool cloth), spinning songs, rowing songs, and “big songs,” ancient lyric songs sung in a wild, free style, similar to Irish sean-nós singing. Puirt à beul (mouth music) is a vocal imitation of instrumental music, using nonsense syllables and meaningless lyrics.
A central figure in the continuance of Scottish folk music was Hamish Henderson, poet and song collector, who brought the likes of singers Jeannie Robertson and the Gaelic singer from the Hebrides Flora Macneil to the attention of the world. Henderson’s famous song the “Freedom Come All Ye” has become the unofficial anthem of Scotland.
Many singers and musicians have brought Scottish traditional music into the 21st century, sometimes changing it, sometimes preserving it more or less intact. Gaelic singers include Christine Primrose, Catherine Anne MacPhee, and Eilidh MacKenzie. Singers and groups that mix Gaelic songs with Scots and English lyrics include Síleas and Runrig.
Big Music
Pibroch (in Gaelic, piobaireachd) also called ceol mor, or “big music,” is the most elaborate and formal style of bagpipe playing. It is distinguished from the ceol beg, the “little music” of dance and marching tunes. Pibroch can fairly be called the classical music of the bagpipes. The form and ornamentation of pibroch is rigidly prescribed, and players are judged by how precisely they can render the music within these requirements. Musical historian Francis Collinson believes that pipers adapted pibroch from the music of the old court harpers.
Folk Rock
Like the English, the Scots have been very creative in finding ways of mixing their traditional music with contemporary sounds. The only thing louder than a Highland bagpipe is an electric guitar turned up to 11. The Tannahill Weavers were the pioneers; more recent ensembles like Wolfstone have kept up the tradition of the new.
Traditional Music of Wales
Wales is known as the land of song, and the Welsh have been singing harmony in large groups since there was anyone to hear them. Medieval chronicler Geraldus Cambrensis noted the Welsh tendency to sing in harmony as long ago as the 12th century.
While many other musical forms exist in Wales, massed voices singing in part harmony make up most listeners’ first idea of Welsh music. The big choral groups are indeed popular, but there are other kinds of singing as well.
Hymn singing has been very popular in Wales since the Methodist revival in the 18th century. Hymns are sung in four-part harmony at cymanfa gani, or song festivals. Plygain, or carol singing in close harmony, derived from the church practice of holding an early morning carol-singing service at Christmas.
Harp Songs
The Methodist church suppressed folk music wherever it could, but was unable to end the custom of penillion singing (also known as cerdd dant, “string music”). Penillion singers sing Welsh poems against a melodic harp accompaniment. But the tune played by the harper is different than the melody sung by the singer. Sometimes even the time signature differs. The art of the singer is to improvise a countermelody to the harp, yet bring the song to a consonant resolution at the end.
The ancient Welsh court poets were known as bards, and in the 19th century cultural revival, the Welsh reinstated the eisteddfod (“ice-teth-vote”), a medieval festival of bardic song and poetry. Contemporary eisteddfodai include dancing, choral singing, penillion, and harping along with the recitation of verse.
Merry Nights
The Methodists didn’t like dancing much, and traditional dance was nearly driven out of Wales. Like other traditional forms, though, there is a revival of the old dances under way. Welsh folk dancing is similar to traditional dancing in England; the Welsh have their own individual dances, however, and folklorists have preserved some of them.
A Welsh dance party is called a twmpath—the Welsh form of a barn dance. A noson lawen (merry night) is more like a ceilidh in Scotland or a seisun in Ireland, a round robin of performances by singers and players and dancers.
Welsh Morris and Clog Dancing
The Welsh have their own form of step dancing, clocsio. Danced in heavy wooden clogs, this style of dance developed in stone quarries, where workers would dance on pieces of slate, making as much rhythmic noise as possible.
Morris dancing is found in Wales as well. The Border Morris style features wild costumes and dancing styles; other traditions bear more resemblance to Southern English Morris.
A note should be made of the strange New Year’s custom of the Mari Lwyd (Grey Mare)—it is not something anyone should have to encounter unprepared. The Mari Lwyd is a larger-than-life figure put together from a horse’s skull and a bedsheet. This apparition leads a group of costumed figures begging from houses and pubs, where they sing at the door to gain entrance. Formerly there was a sort of song contest between the Mari Lwyd group and the people inside; nowadays entry is granted without a struggle.
Traditional Music of Northern Ireland
The distinctive Northern Irish fiddle style is strongly influenced by Highland bagpiping and fiddling, both in ornamentation and repertoire. John Doherty was perhaps the greatest fiddler of this tradition in recent years. There is a gaeltacht, or Irish-speaking region in Northern Ireland as well (well-known band Altan is from this region, as is the singer Enya), and the sean-nós (old-style) singing here is also distinct from the regional traditions of the Republic of Ireland—Northern Irish singing tends to be more straightforward rhythmically, and more sparsely ornamented.
Also distinctive (though not unique) to Northern Ireland are the flute bands found in the cities. These, which pair piccolos with the big lambeg drums, resemble fife-and-drum corps in both their sound and their martial comportment, and are strongly identified with specific groups among the religious and political fractures of the North.
Article written for World Trade Press by Marc Lecard.
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