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It Was Mighty
''"It Was Mighty!" The Early Days of Irish Music in London'' (TSCD679T) is the first album in the fourth series of ''The Voice of the People'' from Topic Records and comprises three CDs. The selections are taken from Topic Records back catalogue, the Peter Kennedy archive in the British Library and many private collections. Introduction Topic records have issued compilations in the series ''The Voice of the People'' since 1998. The compilation has been selected by Dr Reg Hall who has selected all but four of the series so far. The theme of this and its companion volume, '' It Was Great Altogether'', is the Irish music of London. Reg Hall in the accompanying booklet defines the London-Irish as a distinct ethnic community of settled migrants and their offspring with topping up from a constant trickle of immigrants from Ireland. On this first compilation most of the musicians were raised in Ireland with a few from London, some of whom travelled to Ireland for holidays. The Compil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Topic Records
Topic Records is a British folk music label, which played a major role in the second British folk revival. It began as an offshoot of the Workers' Music Association in 1939, making it the oldest independent record label in the world.M. Brocken, ''The British Folk Revival 1944-2002'' (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2003), pp. 55-65. History The label began as an offshoot of the communist led Workers' Music Association in 1939, selling Soviet and left-wing political music by mail order. After a period of relative inactivity in the Second World War, production resumed in the later 1940s, moving towards traditional music for the emerging revival market. Up to 1949 the composer Alan Bush was involved with choral and orchestral music released on the label. Topic also produced some of the first American blues records to be commercially available in Britain. From about 1950 the two key figures of the second revival, Ewan MacColl and A. L. Lloyd, became heavily involved, producing several records o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hornpipe
The hornpipe is any of several dance forms played and danced in Britain and Ireland and elsewhere from the 16th century until the present day. The earliest references to hornpipes are from England with Hugh Aston's Hornepype of 1522 and others referring to Lancashire hornpipes in 1609 and 1613. It is suggested that the hornpipe as a dance began around the 16th century on English sailing vessels. However, the dance does not seem to have become associated with sailors until after 1740 when the dancer Yates performed 'a hornpipe in the character of a Jack Tar' at Drury Lane Theatre, after which, in 1741 at Covent Garden we hear of "a hornpipe by a gentleman in the character of a sailor". Movements were those familiar to sailors of that time: "looking out to sea" with the right hand to the forehead, then the left, lurching as in heavy weather, and giving the occasional rhythmic tug to their breeches both fore and aft. Folk hornpipes The hornpipe is an Irish, Scottish and English d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Irish Set Dance
Irish set dancing, sometimes called "Irish sets", is a popular form of folk dancing in Ireland danced to irish tunes in groups of eight or four dancers. It is also sometime named set dance, but this name refers more often to a kind of dance in irish stepdance. History Set dancing is based on quadrilles, which were court dances. These were transformed by the Irish into a unique folk dance of the Irish rural communities. When the Gaelic League was formed in 1897, it sought to discourage set dancing, because it was perceived as being of foreign origins, and consequently at odds with the League's nationalist agenda. In its place, the League promoted ceili dance, a process which continued during the 1930s and 1940s with the support of the Catholic Church in the form of the Public Dance Halls Act 1935. The rise of rock and roll in the 1950s caused the popularity of set dancing to fade. However, in the 1980s a revival started and many sets that have not been done for forty years or more a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mandolin
A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 strings, although five (10 strings) and six (12 strings) course versions also exist. There are of course different types of strings that can be used, metal strings are the main ones since they are the cheapest and easiest to make. The courses are typically tuned in an interval of perfect fifths, with the same tuning as a violin (G3, D4, A4, E5). Also, like the violin, it is the soprano member of a family that includes the mandola, octave mandolin, mandocello and mandobass. There are many styles of mandolin, but the three most common types are the ''Neapolitan'' or ''round-backed'' mandolin, the ''archtop'' mandolin and the ''flat-backed'' mandolin. The round-backed version has a deep bottom, constructed of strips of wood, glued togethe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Accordion
Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed in a frame), colloquially referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist. The concertina , harmoneon and bandoneón are related. The harmonium and American reed organ are in the same family, but are typically larger than an accordion and sit on a surface or the floor. The accordion is played by compressing or expanding the bellows while pressing buttons or keys, causing ''pallets'' to open, which allow air to flow across strips of brass or steel, called '' reeds''. These vibrate to produce sound inside the body. Valves on opposing reeds of each note are used to make the instrument's reeds sound louder without air leaking from each reed block.For the accordion's place among the families of musical ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Uilleann Pipes
The uilleann pipes ( or , ) are the characteristic national bagpipe of Ireland. Earlier known in English as "union pipes", their current name is a partial translation of the Irish language terms (literally, "pipes of the elbow"), from their method of inflation. There is no historical record of the name or use of the term ''uilleann pipes'' before the 20th century. It was an invention of Grattan Flood and the name stuck. People mistook the term 'union' to refer to the 1800 Act of Union; this is incorrect as Breandán Breathnach points out that a poem published in 1796 uses the term 'union'. The bag of the uilleann pipes is inflated by means of a small set of bellows strapped around the waist and the right arm (in the case of a right-handed player; in the case of a left-handed player the location and orientation of all components are reversed). The bellows not only relieve the player from the effort needed to blow into a bag to maintain pressure, they also allow relatively dry ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Willie Clancy (musician)
Willie Clancy (24 December 1918 – 24 January 1973)Sleeve notes by Peter Brown, from ''The Gold Ring'' CD, (RTÉ 276CD), RTÉ 2009 was an Irish uilleann piper, flute player and whistle player. Early life Clancy was born into a musical family in the outskirts of Milltown Malbay, County Clare. His parents (Gilbert Clancy and Ellen Killeen) both sang and played concertina, and his father also played the flute. Clancy's father had been heavily influenced by local blind piper Garret Barry and passed much of Barry's music on to Willie.Mac Mathúna, Ciarán (1980) "Willie Clancy" (sleeve notes from ''The Pipering of Willie Clancy''; volume I). Career Willie started playing the whistle at age 5, and later took up the flute. He first saw a set of pipes in 1936 when he saw Johnny Doran playing locally. He obtained his first set of pipes two years later. His influences included Leo Rowsome, Séamus Ennis, John Potts, and Andy Conroy. Clancy won the Oireachtas competition i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tin Whistle
The tin whistle, also called the penny whistle, is a simple six-holed woodwind instrument. It is a type of fipple flute, putting it in the same class as the recorder, Native American flute, and other woodwind instruments that meet such criteria. A tin whistle player is called a whistler. The tin whistle is closely associated with Irish traditional music and Celtic music. Other names for the instrument are the flageolet, English flageolet, Scottish penny whistle, tin flageolet, or Irish whistle (also ga, feadóg stáin or feadóg). History The tin whistle in its modern form is from a wider family of fipple flutes which have been seen in many forms and cultures throughout the world. In Europe, such instruments have a long and distinguished history and take various forms, of which the most widely known are the recorder, tin whistle, Flabiol, Txistu and tabor pipe. Predecessors Almost all primitive cultures had a type of fipple flute, and it is most likely the first pitched flu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Julia Clifford
Julia Clifford (19 June 1914 – 18 June 1997) was a fiddler and Irish traditional musician. Julia Murphy was born at Lisheen, Gneeveguilla, County Kerry, part of an area in west Munster known as Sliabh Luachra. Her father Bill played flute, fife and fiddle, and had a fife and drum band. Both she and her brother Denis Murphy, also a musician, were taught the fiddle by the noted travelling fiddler and fiddle teacher from the same area, Padraig O'Keeffe. Clifford, her brother, O'Keeffe, and other musicians from the Sliabh Luachra area are regarded as a significant influence on Irish traditional music and have given rise to the term ''Sliabh Luachra style''. In the late Thirties she emigrated to Scotland and then to London where she worked as a hotel maid before marrying John Clifford in 1941. He was an accordion player, also from Kerry, and they had two sons, John and Billy. In the Forties they played the Irish dance halls in London. In the 1950s they returned to Irela ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Drum Kit
A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player ( drummer) typically holds a pair of matching drumsticks, one in each hand, and uses their feet to operate a foot-controlled hi-hat and bass drum pedal. A standard kit may contain: * A snare drum, mounted on a stand * A bass drum, played with a beater moved by a foot-operated pedal * One or more tom-toms, including rack toms and/or floor toms * One or more cymbals, including a ride cymbal and crash cymbal * Hi-hat cymbals, a pair of cymbals that can be manipulated by a foot-operated pedal The drum kit is a part of the standard rhythm section and is used in many types of popular and traditional music styles, ranging from rock and pop to blues and jazz. __TOC__ History Early development Before the development of the drum set, drums and cymbals used in military and orchestral m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polka
Polka is a dance and genre of dance music originating in nineteenth-century Bohemia, now part of the Czech Republic. Though associated with Czech culture, polka is popular throughout Europe and the Americas. History Etymology The term ''polka'' referring to the dance is derived from the Czech word ''Polka'' meaning "Polish woman" (feminine form corresponding to ''Polák'', a Pole)."polka, n.". Oxford University Press. (accessed 11 July 2012). Czech cultural historian Čeněk Zíbrt also attributes the term to the Czech word ''půlka'' (half), referring to both the half-tempo and the half-jump step of the dance.Čeněk Zíbrt, "Jak se kdy v Čechách tancovalo: dějiny tance v Čechách, na Moravě, ve Slezsku a na Slovensku z věků nejstarších až do nové doby se zvláštním zřetelem k dějinám tance vůbec", Prague, 189(Google eBook)/ref> The word was widely introduced into the major European languages in the early 1840s. Origin and popularity The polka' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Piano
The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboard, which is a row of keys (small levers) that the performer presses down or strikes with the fingers and thumbs of both hands to cause the hammers to strike the strings. It was invented in Italy by Bartolomeo Cristofori around the year 1700. Description The word "piano" is a shortened form of ''pianoforte'', the Italian term for the early 1700s versions of the instrument, which in turn derives from ''clavicembalo col piano e forte'' (key cimbalom with quiet and loud)Pollens (1995, 238) and ''fortepiano''. The Italian musical terms ''piano'' and ''forte'' indicate "soft" and "loud" respectively, in this context referring to the variations in volume (i.e., loudness) produced in response to a pianist's touch or pressure on the keys: the grea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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