Puirt à beul (, literally "tunes from a mouth") is a traditional form of song native to
Scotland
Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
(known as ''portaireacht'' in
Ireland
Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...
) that sets Gaelic lyrics to instrumental tune melodies. Historically, they were used to accompany dancing in the absence of instruments and to transmit instrumental tunes orally.
Term
The
Scottish Gaelic
Scottish Gaelic (, ; Endonym and exonym, endonym: ), also known as Scots Gaelic or simply Gaelic, is a Celtic language native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a member of the Goidelic language, Goidelic branch of Celtic, Scottish Gaelic, alongs ...
term ''port à beul'' refers to "a tune from a mouth—specifically a ''cheerful'' tune—which in the
plural
In many languages, a plural (sometimes list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated as pl., pl, , or ), is one of the values of the grammatical number, grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than ...
becomes ''puirt à beul''".
In
Scotland
Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
, they are usually referred to as ''puirt à beul'' but a variety of other spellings and misspellings also exists, for example ''port-a-beul'', ''puirt a bheul'', ''puirt a' bhéil'', etc. These are mostly because a number of grammatical particles in Gaelic are very similar in nature, such as the
definite article
In grammar, an article is any member of a class of dedicated words that are used with noun phrases to mark the identifiability of the referents of the noun phrases. The category of articles constitutes a part of speech.
In English, both "the" ...
''a'', the
preposition
Adpositions are a part of speech, class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in, under, towards, behind, ago'', etc.) or mark various thematic relations, semantic roles (''of, for''). The most common adpositions are prepositi ...
s "of" and "to" which can both be ''a'' and the preposition ''á'' "from" which can appear without the
acute accent
The acute accent (), ,
is a diacritic used in many modern written languages with alphabets based on the Latin alphabet, Latin, Cyrillic script, Cyrillic, and Greek alphabet, Greek scripts. For the most commonly encountered uses of the accen ...
.
Modern
Irish dictionaries give ''port (aireacht) béil'', translated as "mouth music" also referred to as
lilting. Older dictionaries, such as Dinneen, only give ''portaiḋeaċt'', ''portaireaċt'', or ''portonaċt''. Puirt à beul are related to Irish
lilting, Scottish diddling, New Brunswick chin music, and other "Celtic" forms of mouth music. However, whereas these latter forms of mouth music consist of improvised
vocables, puirt à beul lyrics are fixed and almost always consist of "real" (i.e., lexical) words, although sometimes vocables are also present.
Origin
Puirt à beul have sometimes been used for dancing when no instruments were available. They have also been used to help soothe an upset child, or act as a tool for learning the tune on an instrument. Although some people believe that ''puirt à beul'' derive from a time when musical instruments, particularly bagpipes, were unavailable because they were banned, there is no evidence that musical instruments were banned by the
Disarming Act 1715 or the
Act of Proscription 1746
The Act of Proscription (19 Geo. 2. c. 39), also called the Act of Proscription 1746 or the Disarming the Highlands, etc. Act 1745, was an Act of Parliament (UK), Act of the Parliament of Great Britain, which came into effect in Scotland on 1 Aug ...
.
In his book ''Traditional Gaelic Bagpiping 1745-1945'', John Gibson reprints the entire
Disarming Act 1746, which is usually blamed for the proscription of bagpipes, and shows that bagpipes were not banned.
Characteristics
Usually, the genre involves a single performer singing lighthearted, sometimes
bawdy lyrics, occasionally supplemented with meaningless
vocables.
In puirt à beul, the rhythm and sound of the song often have more importance than the rhythm of the lyrics. Normally, puirt are sung in a (reel or
strathspey) or (
jig) metre. Although puirt à beul are traditionally performed by a solo singer, there are many choral arrangements or puirt à beul today, and group performances are sometimes presented at
mods.
Some elements of puirt à beul may have originated as memory aids or as alternatives to instrumental forms such as
bagpipe music.
A well-known example of puirt à beul is "
Brochan Lom", which is sung in the film
''Whisky Galore!'', and occurs as background music in the film
''The Bridal Path''.
A third example, sung by
Kitty MacLeod and her sister, occurs in
Walt Disney
Walter Elias Disney ( ; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer, voice actor, and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the Golden age of American animation, American animation industry, he introduced several develop ...
’s
''
Rob Roy, the Highland Rogue'', during the wedding celebration.
Quadriga Consort has been the first ensemble to bring puirt à beul into
early music revival
An early music revival is a renewed interest in music from ancient history or prehistory. The general discussion of how to perform music from ancient or earlier times did not become an important subject of interest until the 19th century, when Eu ...
.
Mouth music in the Americas
Mouth music was probably once common in areas of North America where Gaelic-speaking Scottish Highlanders predominated, in particular the Cape Fear area of North Carolina and Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia. Nowadays it is largely restricted to the latter, as it was a more homogeneous society with less access to other cultural areas.
See also
*
Crimping
*
Mouth Music (band)
*
Non-lexical vocables in music
Non-lexical vocables, also known as wordless vocals, are a form of nonsense syllable used in a wide variety of music. Common English examples are "la la la", "na na na" and "da da da", or the improvised nonsense sounds used in scat singing. Non-le ...
*
Scat singing
Originating in vocal jazz, scat singing or scatting is vocal Musical improvisation, improvisation with Non-lexical vocables in music, wordless vocables, Pseudoword#Nonsense syllables, nonsense syllables or without words at all. In scat singing, t ...
*
Waulking song
References
External links
Informationon
Education Scotland
Education Scotland () is an Executive agencies of the Scottish Government, executive agency of the Scottish Government, tasked with improving the quality of the country's Scottish education system, education system. Education Scotland is respon ...
website
*
Mouth music: The Hazel by the Riveron archive.org
Spotify Playlist lilting songs from Ireland
{{DEFAULTSORT:Puirt a beul
Vocal music
Scottish Gaelic music