Amhrán agus Damhsa ar an Sean-Nós

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    Although it is often claimed that sean-nós singing is at the very heart of traditional Irish music, this revered position does not translate easily into popular acclaim. Sean-nós is difficult to fit into a modern idiom with its emphasis on highly polished studio recording. The ‘raw bar,’ as one singer famously called it, has an integrity that is not easily breached. Therefore sean-nós song can often be ignored in the accelerated modernization of Irish music since the nineteen seventies.
  Sean-nós Milwaukee, established in 2003 by Brian Hart and John Gleeson, is therefore a unique event. It is the only festival of its kind in North America and the first in the United States to give sean-nós singing a central position.
    Sean-nós in America is an interesting idea. Generations of immigrants to the States laid aside their traditional singing in favor of more popular accompanied forms, just as they laid aside their language. The music hall songs became the standard items in the Irish-American repertoire with songs such as ‘Danny Boy’ and ‘MacNamara’s Band’ topping the popularity stakes. These songs arguably represent Irish immigrants’ twin needs – to assimilate and to retain some measure of ethnic identity.
   These are not the kind of songs sung [here]. Instead are songs in Irish from recognized practitioners of sean-nós singing from Ireland and from Americans who have become amazingly and heart-warmingly fluent in both the language and the musical idiom of sean-nós. Perhaps they could be said to represent the globalization of sean-nós to some extent. These are interpretations that defy the technical ideal of perfect polished performance. However, despite their lack of technical lustre, they reveal the intimacy and friendliness that has characterized Sean-nós Milwaukee from the start. They admit the listener to the comfort of that atmosphere and to the spontaneous community that forms during the day and half of the Festival’s events, with participants travelling long distances to attend and catch up on the news since last year. Brian Hart, John Gleeson and the other hard workers at Sean-nós Milwaukee are to be congratulated for producing this original and important [event].

Lillis Ó Laoire
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