This third edition of Fintan Vallely’s Companion to Irish Traditional Music brings with it some welcome enhancements. The expansive content of its 2011 predecessor offered a comprehensive overview of Irish traditional music, but this new arrival brings further reflection to bear on what is a gargantuan endeavour. Capturing the essence of any art form is, some might suggest, an act of folly, and casting a net around the many tentacles of Irish traditional music (music, dance, performers, organisations and so on) demanded the involvement of an eclectic mix of contributors including Terry Moylan, formerly of Na Píobairí Uilleann, fiddle player and academic Liz Doherty, and dancer and musician Catherine Foley, among others.
Editor Fintan Vallely’s introduction is considerably expanded and more reflective, a more focused snapshot of a point in time than its predecessor.
For this writer, The Companion to Irish Traditional Music (2nd edition) has been like a knowledgeable companion, something to lean on when a question arises in conversation or when a fact needs to be checked. Arranged in alphabetical order, it’s unsurprising that the comprehensive entries on musicians and dancers lend it a certain who’s who quality, but this doesn’t take away from the fact that this is even more than ever, a go to tome for anyone with more than a passing interest in our national music and dance.
Key additions include entries on Fair Plé, the volunteer-led initiative to achieve gender equality in traditional music, entries on groundbreaking artists such as Lankum and a more considered approach to the role of gender and social norms in the evolution of the music and its role in society.
Inevitably it leans towards the academic and occasionally suffers from a dryness in style. The description of step dance as “a precise, technical, rhythmic performance genre ... with kinaesthetic activity occurring predominantly in leg movements” pays little attention to the social mores that informed its rigid arm positions, and would have benefited from a more considered entry, comparing it in more depth to the more free-flowing movements of sean-nós dance.
Such reservations don’t detract, however, from what is an essential resource for, as Vallely suggests, performers, creators, thinkers, educators and artists in traditional music. Digging ever deeper into the well of the tradition.
