'Others can do beautiful things with my little tunes'

New ways of passing on traditional music – by CD, by book and online – are helping Irish musicians to share their sound with trad-lovers all over the world, writes SIOBHAN LONG

PLAYING BY ear is one of the great cornerstones of traditional music. It’s thanks to the players’ finesse that tunes can be picked up purely from listening, with scant reference to written notation. It’s a reflection of where traditional music has sprung from, that musicians rarely burden themselves with sheet music. But in keeping with the laws of perpetual motion, the tunes are being passed on in many other ways too, which in particular, is a boon for players with a hunger to add newly composed tunes to their repertoire.

Over the past decade, online music tuition websites have sprung up, where musicians the world over can learn a tune from an Irish musician without ever having to set foot in this country. The Irish Traditional Music Archive and Na Píobairí Uilleann have both embraced the internet, making tunes available in notation form, as well as in fully interactive MP3 formats, all the better to make them accessible to anyone who wants to listen, play, analyse or interpret them in all their three dimensional beauty.

Lately, players have been getting their hands on the fully notated collections of original tune compositions from musicians whose reputations are pristine in the world of Irish traditional music. Late last year, Chicago fiddler and this year's TG4 Traditional Composer of the Year, Liz Carroll published her first tune book, Collected. And recently, Galway box player, Máirtín O'Connor brought out his own debut collection of tunes, aptly titled Inside The Box Outside The Box. O'Connor is a man renowned for his keen wit, so it's no surprise that his publishing debut includes a plethora of stories, photographs and illustrations, which render his 56 tunes into three dimensional shapes from the get-go.

“It happened as a result of people asking me for the sheet music for some of my tunes,” Máirtín O’Connor says, “and more so, people outside Ireland.”

Funded by the Arts Council, O’Connor soon realised that what he had envisaged as a relatively straightforward enterprise proved to be a whole lot more complex. “It’s so much easier to go into a studio and record a CD. That seems so natural to me, whereas the book is a whole different world that evolved into more than just a book of tunes. It’s a combination of anecdotes and illustrations, and stories that indicate a parallel world that resonates with the tune as well. For example, the tune Around The Hearth is about a visit I paid to a village in Nigeria, which resonated very deeply with me because it was like visiting my grandparents. It gave me the same feeling, and there was something very deep, very primal about the experience.”

Many of O’Connor’s tunes don’t fit neatly into the shape of a reel, jig or hornpipe. They’re freewheeling dervishes with their own explosive internal combustion engines that ooze personality.

The book’s inclusion of the stories behind these tunes bears testament to Máirtín O’Connor’s rich emotional investment in his music.

“I think every tune is related to some life experience,” he says. “You’d have to have lived to write a particular tune in a particular way, so the tunes are more of a natural process in relation to my own life.”

Does O’Connor have any qualms about releasing his tunes to the mercy of faceless musicians scattered across the globe? “At the end of the day, music is made to be shared,” O’Connor smiles. “It’s as simple as that. I enjoy playing with other musicians much more than playing on my own. It’s much more fun, and makes life all the more interesting. When I’ve heard other musicians playing my tunes, I’m fascinated by their interpretations. They can do beautiful things with my little tunes: things that I wouldn’t even think of, and that’s where it takes on a life of its own.”

When I’ve heard other musicians playing my tunes, I’m fascinated by their interpretations

Tunes for hire

Other traditional tune collections worth checking out

Liz Carroll: Collected

Breanndán Ó Beaglaoich and Niamh Ní Bhaoill: Ceol Duibhneach

Online collections

Na Píobairí Uilleann: Irish Music Collections Online (IMCO) pipers.ie/imco Irish Traditional Music Archive, with interactive music scores: itma.ie

Online tuition

The Online Academy of Irish Music, oaim.ie