Research Seminar: Prof. Tríona Ní Shíochain, Maynooth University

Composers and Recomposers – a reassessment of womens’ voice in the Irish song tradition

Wednesday 24 April 2024 | 13:00
Seòmar Shomhairle, Sabhal Mòr Ostaig
Livestream will also be available

This paper explores creative process in sean-nós song, focusing on (re-)compositional techniques shared by singers and song poets in the oral tradition, both in respect of words and music. The traditional aesthetic practices underpinning Irish-language song point to a re-creative dynamic in song performance and transmission, which in turn allows to re-assess the role and meaning of women’s voices in Irish traditional song repertoire. It is here argued that, from the refashioning of song airs and diverse articulations of singing style to the re-composition of multiform versions of songs, Irish-speaking women’s mastery of recompositional creative practices allowed them to engage adeptly with the living ‘relays of power’ of society, thereby resisting and undermining patriarchal and societal control.