They're Reelin' In The Syllabus

Flings, reels, single and double jigs, slow airs, set dances, clan marches and barn dances have been ringing through sitting rooms, parish halls and smokey kitchens this winter. Young people are mastering the tin whistle, the fiddle, the flute and the accordeon and their dedication is evident.

They want to play traditional Irish music. They want to be in events such as the Fleadh Cheoil. They want to perform, but especially they want to make music.

This year, for the first time, each student will be able to go forward for a formal exam in his or her chosen instrument. They have never been able take individual exams in traditional Irish music like this before.

In a welcome departure, Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann (CCE) and the Royal Irish Academy of Music (RIAM) have developed a syllabus for a traditional Irish music exam. President Mary McAleese formally launched the syllabus in Dublin last month.

Students will be able to go undergo a structured set of exams from beginner to advanced level. The first set of exams will be held between Monday, May 10th, and Saturday, June 5th, this year. Entry forms are available from the RIAM. The closing date is Thursday, April 1st.

Seamus Mac Mathuna, a timire ceoil with CCE, says "there are hundreds of classes going on right through the country." Classes started shortly after Comhaltas was set up in 1951, but since the late Sixties, he says, "we've organised teaching in a fairly big way. Hundreds are coming on steam."

Annette Andrews, senior RIAM examiner, and Micheal O hEidhin, music inspector with the Department of Education & Science, worked together on the syllabus. "We know children like the challenge of an exam," says Andrews. "There are a whole lot of kids that have no marker - it will give them a goal."

Some children compete at Slogadh, Scor or Fleadh Cheoil competitions but many do not and many are left without any formal or certified recognition of their musical ability. Devising the syllabus was, says Andrews, "very exciting because we were starting from absolutely nothing."

It came about, she explains, because Dr John O'Conor, director of the RIAM, and Senator Labhras O Murchu, director general of CCE, "trusted each other from the beginning."

O hEidhin lists up to nine different instruments which will be examined. There are three levels at which students can be examined - elementary, junior and senior. The syllabus was devised over two years under the direction of a committee of academics, musicians and experts in the traditional field. They met up to 32 times in all. "We had a lot of fighting," he recalls. "You can appreciate how tough it was."

In the performance element of the exam, says Andrews, higher-level students will be expected to make variations and to embellish the music. "That's how it will differ from classical music. Traditional musicians are quite creative in that way."

The syllabus is in four parts - performance, aural awareness, informal musical discussion and literacy. In aural awareness, many traditional musicians "would probably be better than classical musicians" in this area, she suggests. This part of the exam will examine the musician's ear. The informal discussion will expect students to know about other aspects of the music, its history and its instruments.

There was "a lot of resistance" to the introduction of the literacy element because, Andrews explains, traditional music is generally passed from one generation to the next by ear and not in a formal way.

The syllabus is also available overseas - this is in anticipation of people abroad allied to CCE who will want to do the exams.

Over the coming months, O'Conor and O Murchu will be travelling around the State, with the support of PMPA Insurance, to music, culture, community and art centres to promote the new syllabus.