The mythology concerning the ethnic roots and characteristics of the Irish jig, the Scotch reel and the English hornpipe, just as much as the stock joke about the Englishman, the Irishman and the Scotsman, owes as much to the national stereotypes created in the theatre of elite society during the eighteenth century and maintained in the music halls and variety theatres of the nineteenth century. The early record industry, on both sides of the Atlantic, perpetuated these ideas in its catalogues, and many companies issued 'Irish' records - comic songs and sketches, sentimental and patriotic parlour ballads and medleys labelled as Jigs and Reels - directed at a general, not specifically Irish, buying public. In fact, for well over three decades the combination of the imagined Irish favourites, The Irish Washwoman - Jig and Miss MacLeod's Reel, played by any combination of studio musicians, on opposite sides of a single disc was a record catalogue cliche. Apart from some obscure early examples by Thomas Garaghan, Patsy Touhey and James C. McAuliffe, the first two at least being professional union pipers in show business, the nearest any records came to Irish traditional music before the Great War were made by non-Irish musicians, namely, John Kimmel, a German-American accordeon player from Brooklyn, and a number of Scottish accordeon players, Peter and Dan Wyper, Pamby Dick and James Brown among them, who included Irish material in their recorded repertories.
The main body of Irish dance-music recording was begun in 1916, when a New York music seller and travel agent, Ellen O'Byrne de Witt, contracted Columbia Records to produce a record of accordeon and banjo duets by Eddie Herborn and James Wheeler, thereby alerting the record industry to the needs of the Irish immigrant consciousness in the wake of the Easter Rising. Nationalist anticipation of independence, expressed significantly as far as Irish music and was concerned in the formation of the M. & C. New Republic Irish Record Company in New York in 1921, was thwarted by the unexpected outbreak of civil war in Ireland. By 1922, however, the major American record companies were pursuing an Irish immigrant market, and shortly after that date Columbia and Victor each launched as extensive Irish series. At home in Ireland, even after the establishment of the Free state, there was no independent Irish record industry. Irish records were, in fact, issued by British companies, initially in their domestic lists and later in catalogue supplements aimed at the Irish trade. These labels called largely upon American source material, which included many recordings by immigrants recently over from rural Ireland, who were finding new semi-professional outlets for their music-making in New York, Boston, Chicago and Philadelphia. The earliest home-produced recordings, made in London in the 1920s, were of a different nature, being of musicians closely associated with the Gaelic League, such as Billy Andrews, Liam Walsh, Seamus O'Mahoney and Leo Rowsome, and were aimed at the Gaelic revivalist minority of the Irish public. While some provincial and rural musicians were recorded in Dublin in 1929, 1930 and 1931, recordings from America, especially those on Decca of Michael Coleman, Paddy Killoran and Hugh Gillespie, continued to dominate the catalogues into the late 1930s. However as a consequence of the economic war with Britain and the national policy of promoting Irish manufacture, EMI (Ireland) Ltd. was formed as a breakaway from its British parent company in 1936, and, in its initial burst of cultural independence, explored native talent, calling on East Coast and Midlands musicians within easy reach of studios in Dublin, who had previously proved themselves on 2RN national radio.
The source of early twentieth-century Irish instrumental music and dance was in the house-dancing tradition of rural Ireland that had taken shape in the 1880s. Many of those who recorded in America, and later in Ireland, came from that background, and they had played for the sets, couple dances and solo stepdances that comprised the bulk of the rural dance repertory. To some extent this dance repertory was transported by emigrants to America, and immediately after the Great War was promoted alongside American dancing in the new Irish-American dance halls and by the Country Association in the northern cities. On this side of the Atlantic the situation was different. Domestic music-making and dancing flourished in rural Ireland into the 1940s, but, in the towns and cities, in the media and in public life, Irish dancing was the province of the Gaelic League, Irish figure dancing, having been invented within the Gaelic League in London in 1898, was promoted initially as dancing for competition and as the social dances for the League's limited membership. In the 1920s, however, in the face of the world-wide phenomenon of commercial dance halls, ceilidh or Irish dancing, as figure dancing was then more commonly called, was presented by the League to a wider Irish dancing public in Ireland as an alternative to the intrusion of what they called "jazz". In America, the Irish nationalist movement accepted mainstream American dancing at its social events, and there was no ideological embargo on native Irish musicians playing waltzes, onesteps and foxtrots and adopting American instruments and band formations. In London, however, Irish nationalists felt quite differently about the culture of the host nation, and the party line disapproved of the rural dance repertory from back home, because it was believed to have been of British origin, and thus the Gaelic League repertory prevailed among the London-Irish.
While a minority of records in the Irish lists were of dance tunes, the record companies did not generally tailor their issues for an Irish dancing public, and the industry appears to have had little knowledge of the dancing habits of its Irish customers. Once it was realised that there was a pool of talent available and that some musicians had exposure and reputations within their own community, they were engaged to do their stuff, whatever it might be. The standard format was selections of jigs, reels and hornpipes played in the style, rhythm and tempo and any other idiosyncrasies favoured by the performer. In America, some couple dances, notably The Varsoviana, the Stack of Barley and the barndance, which had made a successful journey from rural kitchen to urban dance hall, were represented on record, and P.J. McNamura, Joseph O'Leary and Dan Sullivan recorded selections for the Cashel Set and the Irish Dance Set. However, there was a remarkable absence of ceilidh dance titles in the record lists on both sides of the Atlantic, with an odd exception or two, until Liam Walsh recorded The Walls of Limerick, The Haymakers' Jig, the Fairy Reel and Roge an Fhile and Frank Lee recorded The Siege of Ennis, The Walls of Limerick, the Waves of Tory, and The Bridge of Athlone in London in 1933 and 1935 respectively. similarly, the stepdance repertory of the Gaelic League was unrepresented until the Comerford Trio from Dublin recorded for British Decca in 1932, earlier recordings of The Blackbird, St Patrick's Day and Jockey to the Fair, for example, having been unsuitable in terms of tempo and number of bars for Gaelic revival stepdancers. In the absence of a retrospective survey of how the record buyers used the records they bought, the circumstantial evidence points to records having been produced and used largely for listening to or for other domestic recreation. Records in strict tempo, notably by Fred Hanna's Band and the Gallowglass Ceili Band, appeared only at the end of the 78 rpm era.
The recordings selected here illustrate a wide range of traditional dance-music repertories, styles and contexts found in Ireland, Britain and America in the first half of this country. the most glaring omission is the waltz, which was both one of the most popular dances and the least well represented in the record catalogues. Apart from the need to be representative, the criteria for inclusion in this anthology were that the music should satisfy the basic requirements of good traditional dance music. Timing and phrasing are essential. All the performers here, however, also display the indefinable emotional qualities that excite dancers and listeners alike, with varying degrees of lift and swing, pulse and beat, and controlled surges of propulsion. Lstly, of course, these are all fine tunes, many being superbly crafted and well honed.
track 1 FRANK QUINN The Westport Chorus Frank Quinn, fiddle, lilting and shouting; P Crowley, button accordeon New York, 21 October 1926; matrix BVE26850-2;Victor 78133
This record, perhaps more that any other of the period, recreates the music and the atmosphere of the country-house dance in rural Ireland, where family and neighbours gathered together of a winter's night. The illusion is created by a blast of good reels, played as tightly yes as freely as any duet could possibly imagine, and cries of 'Up Mayo', 'Hold 'em up, Tony' and 'Swing out, you devil, swing out' to encourage the dancers in the set. Frank Quinn was born in 1893 on a small farm in Greagh, Drumlish, Co. Longford and emigrated with his family to New York in 1903, where he later worked as a policeman. He recorded prolifically as a singer and fiddle and accordeon player, making over 180 sides from 1921 to 1936, and the wide range of his talent will be represented on a forthcoming issue Viva Voce issue.
track 2 MICHAEL J. CASHIN Jigs: Ginger's Favourite/ Bogs of Allen Michael Cashin, fiddle; Tom Doyle, flute; unidentified, piano Chicago, 13 July 1928; matrix BVE4640-1; Victor 21594
This duet, Michael Cashin from Co. Leitrim and Tom Doyle from Co. Mayo, playing jigs commonly known as The Butchers' March and Paddy in London or The Geese in the Bog, has the rhythmic thrust of the best West of Ireland country-house dance music. The piano, a stranger to music-making in the country, was well established in urban Irish dance music by 1928. The arrangement, where the flute drops out leaving the fiddle to play solo, however, was a passing requirement of the studio manager, and was not the way these musicians would have played at a social gathering. Though the flute playing is rough, the instrument being inevitably out of tune with itself, and there is a slight rhythmic tension with the piano vamp, the music these three musicians make is powerful and exciting. Michael Cashin on his own, however, would have been a force to contend with at any house-party.
track 3 TOM MORRISON & JOHN REYNOLDS Sweet Flowers of Milltown/ The Boys of Knock - Schottische Tom Morrison, flute; Jack Reynolds, tambourine New York, c July 1927; matrix W108272-2; Columbia 33210F
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track 4 MICHAEL COLEMAN O'Dowd's Favourite Reel Medley Michael Coleman, fiddle; John Muller, piano New York, c April 1922; matrix 8754; Vocalion 14541
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track 5 BART HENRY'S TRADITIONAL QUARTET ORCHESTRA Ah! Surely and The Maid on the Green, Jigs Batt Henry & unidentified, fiddles; Jakes Cawley & probably Willie Mulligan, flutes; unidentified, piano Jury's Hotel, Dublin, c 9 July 1930; matrix E359-1; Parlophone E3756
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track 6 McKENNA & GAFFNEY Maids of Galway/ Over the Moor to Peggy - Irish Reels John McKenna, flute; Michael Gaffney, tenor banjo; unidentified, piano New York, November 1925; matrix W106092-2; Columbia 33075F
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track 7 K. SCANLON Medley of Old Time Fiddling Reels: Bonnie Kate/ Swallow's Tail/ Molly Brannigan K. Scanlon, fiddle; Mel Bernard, piano New York, 25 March 1929; matrix 148023-2; Diva 2867-G
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track 8 MICHAEL J. GROGAN Off to California, Hornpipe/ Dunphy's Hornpipe Michael Grogan, button accordeon Dublin, 18 June 1931; matrix WAR714; Regal MR387
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track 9 MICHAEL J. GROGAN & JOHN HOWARD Reels: Drunken Tailor/ Teetotaler John Howard, fiddle; Michael Grogan, button accordeon CDublin, 25 March 1946; matrix CAL356-2; Regal Zonophone IZ1285
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track 10 GEORGE HALPIN & M. STANFORD The Maid of Ballinatra - Reel George Halpin, fiddle; two unidentified women, lilting; unidentified, piano New York, June or July 1927; matrix W108214-2; Columbia 33216F
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track 11 FLANAGAN BROTHERS Frieze Breeches/ The Cook in the Kitchen/ Lannigan's Ball - Medley of Irish Jigs Joe Flanagan, button accordeon; Mike Flanagan, tenor banjo; Louis Flanagan, harp-guitar New York, c 1 October 1925; matrix W105921-1; Columbia 33073F
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track 12 J. FLANAGAN Scotch Mary Medley - Irish Reels Joe Flanagan, button accordeon; unidentified, fiddle, piano & lilting New York, c 1 October 1925; matrix W105921-1; Columbia 33073F
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track 13 McCONNELL'S FOUR LEAF SHAMROCKS Medley of Polkas - Babes in the Wood/ Moore Favourite Adam McConnell, fiddle; unidentified fiddle, cornet, piccolo, piano & drums New York, 25 October 1924; matrix B31122-1; Victor 19539
These musicians, whose background is not known, owe little to the country-house dance tradition. The construction of the band is essentially urban, with a style leaning towards what might be expected of a group of literate and/or semi-literate musicians organised for the spate of fund-raising nationalist and country association balls held in New York and other American cities during the Troubles. The bouncy rhythm, aided by percussive piano and drums, and the gentle pace were ideally suited for dancing the old-fashioned, unhurried sets. Moore's Favourite is better known as The Rose Tree or Rose Tree in Full Bearing.
track 14 THE FOUR PROVINCES ORCHESTRA The Pride of Ulster; Maggie Pickens/ Cameron's Wife - Folk Dance John McGettigan & John McCormack or John Kennedy, fiddles; Thomas Jacob, piccolo; Sam Moore, button accordeon; Jimmy McDade, banjo; Ed Lee, piano, leader New York, March 1928; matrix W109106-2; Columbia 33262F
Ed Lee, born in Kensington, West London, of Irish parents in 1889, was brought up in an atmosphere of Gaelic revivalism and nationalism, taking part in the Gaelic League programme of Irish language and dance at the United League branch in Ladbrook Grove. In1914, he was recommended by another branch member, the Michael Collins, to lead the volunteers for the impending rebellion that were formed at that branch, and in 1916, shortly after the Easter Rising, he emigrated to America. He became a founder member of the Irish Musicians' Union in Philadelphia in 1918, as his brother put it, 'taking the music from the bar-room into the ballroom' and professionalising the public performance of Irish music. The Four Provinces Orchestra played in a dance hall at 16th and Arch and broadcast regularly on local radio, allegedly making the world's first broadcast of Irish music on St. Patrick's Day, 1924. McGettigan from C. Donegal was the only musician here known for certain to have come from a rural music-making background, although Moore, McDade (Donegal) and Jacobs (Tipperary) were native Irish, and McCormack and Kennedy were both Philadelphia-born. Ed Lee's piano style, a new and unique voice in Irish dance music, was evolved within the London-Irish community, and his controlled and poised vamping and skillful choice of harmonies contributed to the band's character. Curiously mislabelled as 'folk-dance' by the record company, these highlands or flings were suitable for the Ulster country-house couple dance, Maggie Pickens. Columbia recognised the rare qualities in the band's playing of flings and schottisches, and used them to specialise in such material, while other artists, particularly from the West of Ireland, were engaged to record the reels and jigs.
track 15 PAT ROCHE'S HARP & SHAMROCK ORCHESTRA Boys of Blue Hill/ Stack O'Wheat - Hornpipe Medley Jim Donnelly & Jimmy McGreevy, fiddles; Pat McGovern, flute; Packey Walsh, button accordeon; Eleanor Kane, piano; Pat Richardson, drums; Pat Roche, stepdance Chicago, 25 October 1934; matrix C938A; Decca 12007
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track 16 ERIN'S PRIDE ORCHESTRA Stack of Oats/ Shannon Waves - Barn Dances Tommy Caulfield, fiddle, leader; Ed Reavy, fiddle; Al Payne, tenor saxophone; Tony Pelzar, piano accordeon; Jimmy McDade, banjo; Jimmy O'Brien, drums Philadelphia, 1948; matrix 8116; Shamrock 1
Of all the performances in this collection, this, with the tenor saxophone in the melody line, will sound the strangest to modern ears. In many ways it is typical of the hybrid dance-hall bands playing in the 1930s and 1940s in America, and it has a punchy yet relaxed drive and great swing. Ed Reavy, an accomplished fiddle player and a remarkable composer of dance tunes, is the best known of the musicians in the band. Born in 1898 on a farm at Burnagrove, near Cootehill, Co Cavan, he was brought up in a community of music-making and house-danci9ng. He emigrated to Philadelphia in 1912, where for the next sixty or so years he took an active part in the full range of Irish music-making in that city's dance halls and social clubs and on records and local radio. The barndance, a rural variant of the ballroom schottische, was popular in the heyday of country-house dancing in Ireland, and, like Ed Reavy himself, was transplanted successfully in the dance halls and clubs or Irish-America.
track 17 FRANK LEE'S TARA CEILIDH BAND Irish jigs: Kitty's Rambles/ the Merry Old Woman/ the Humours of Ballinafad Probably: Richie & Paddy Tarrant, fiddles; probably Joe Hann, piccolo; Frank Lee, piano; possibly Bill Smith, drums Hayes, Middlesex, September 1932; matrix OY3828-1; Zonophone 6241
Frank Lee, born of Irish parents in Kensington in West London in 1889 [?] and brought up like his brother Ed [track 14] within the influence of the Gaelic revival and the nationalist movements, was a member of the IRA during the Troubles and a political activist all his life. Having played at Gaelic League, United Irish League, Irish-Self Determination League, Sinn Fein and Gaelic Athletic Association ceilidthe all over London during the 1920s and 1920s, he was by the early 1930s playing weekend ceilidh bookings for the Tara Football Club in Hammersmith. He took his band in Dublin in 1932 to compete at Aonach Tailteann, a week-long Gaelic festival, where it came second, narrowly missing first prize allegedly playing too fast. On the strength of that success, the band recorded for Zonophone and Frank embarked on a semi-professional career in recording, dance-band work and Irish dance-hall promotion in London.
The personnel of the band on this recording is not known for sure, but it almost certainly included Richie and Paddy Tarrant and Joe Hann, The Tarrant brothers, born in East Dulwich in South London in 1908 and 1910 respectively, were the nephews of Dinny Tarrant, a fiddle player from Ballydesmond (Kingwilliamstown), Co. Kerry, who had played for the Gaelic League in London at the turn of the century. They were taught at school by Brother John O'Gorman just after the Great War, specifically to play for ceilidh dancing at Irish Self-Determination League branch meetings held in a storeroom behind Bolger's tailor's shop at 5 Queen's Road in Peckham. Joe Hann, who played the piccolo, flute and saxophone, was from Dublin. The band played in a straight, undecorated manner, applying the technique of reading musicians, although they probably played from memory, and Frank Lee is reported as having been a non-reader. Without the tonal textures, the ornamentation, the rhythm and the timing of rural musicians, the Tara Ceilidh Band, at this time at least, played with spirit and drive, and they had the ability to propel and excite ceilidh dancers in a dance hall filled to capacity.
track 18 SIAMSA GAEDHEAL CEILIDHE BAND Irish Reel Medley: The High Road to Galway/ The Groves Reel/ The Salamanca Reel Tom Page, fiddle, leader; Dave Page, uilleann pipes; unidentified fiddles, piccolo, piano & drums Dublin 19 June 1931; matrix WAR721-1;Regal MR383
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track 19 BALLINAKILL (Co. Galway) TRADITIONAL DANCE PLAYERS Carraroe and Lambert's Jigs Jerry Malonoey & Tommy Whyte, fiddles; Stephen Moloney & Tommy Whelan, flutes; Anna Rafferty, piano St John's Wood, London, 17 November 1931; matrix CE4359;Parlophone E3947
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track 20 JERRY MOLONEY & TOMMY WHYTE The Old Bush Reel Jerry Moloney & Tommy Whyte, fiddles; Anna Rafferty, piano Jury's Hotel, Dublin, c 4 July 1930; matrix E3466-1,Parlophone E3722
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track 21 MOATE CEILIDHE BAND Reels: The First House in Connaught/ The Green Gate Pepper Adamson, fiddle, leader; Willie Jordan & Mick Kincaid, fiddles; John Joe Gannon, button accordeon; Billy Donnelly, piano Dublin 27 May 1945; matrix CAL367-2;Regal Zonophone IZ1278
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track 22 LOUGH GILL QUARTET Jigs: Mill Pond/ Mist on the Meadow Sarah Hobbs, fiddle; Jakes Cawley, flute; Bill Harte & Sonny Brogan, accordeons Dublin, c 1941; matrix OEL202-1; HMV IM949
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track 23 BELHAVEN TRIO Reels: Ash Plant/ The Merry Harriers/ The Hut in the Bog Joe Liddy, fiddle; Ned O'Gorman, uilleann pipes chanter; Tommy Liddy, button accordeon Jury's Hotel, Dublin, 14 March 1938; matrix CAL107-1; Regal Zonophone IZ864
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track 24 KINCORA CEILIDHE BAND Reels: Lasses of Carracastle/ Maid of Mt Kisko/ St Ruth's Bush Kathlenn Harrington, fiddle, leader; Pat O'Brien & Mick Loughman, fiddles; John Brennan & John Egan, flutes; Kathleen O'Connor, piano Dublin 28 May 1945; matrix OEL364-2; HMV IM1108
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Last updated on 27/05/2007