NOTES

New Zealand Tablet, 11 September 1919, Page 26

NOTES

On Reading Irish Verses A friend of ours remarked to us recently how differently one had to read Irish and English verse, and how much one , lost if the formal, rigid laws for the English were applied to the Irish. Perhaps we did not notice it ourselves, as we think most Irish people who have heard much traditional singing of old songs, or even of popular songs, in Ireland, instinctively read Irish verse with the true feeling. There is no doubt that Irish traditional singing gives us the right key, and that apart from it singers will fail to render Irish songs properly. Our friend discovered that rhythm and stress are of great importance, and that the pause, like the calm on the crest of a wave of feeling, must be marked in reading or singing. As this consideration applies not only to Gaelic verse, but also to verses by Irish poets in the English language, it is worth while to repeat here some notes on broken rhythm contained in an article in the Dublin Leader. Broken Rhythm Seamus Ua Floinn, Sagart, the writer of the article to which we call attention, says that in order to interpret a traditional Irish song we must first seek the' rhythm. “The Arsis and Thesis, that is the growth of the sustained musical sound to the height of the crest and falling away, must be marked down through the song. To this end_the first thing necessary is to mark the Assonance of the song. Put the vowels down on paper; or on a blackboard before the children, if you be a teacher. Show the Assonance, and let these vowels be brought out in the singing. This must be done by contrast. If you shout other vowels than these, how can these be made stand out ? Begin the sustained musical sound at the state just above calm. Then let the storm, brew, showing its developments on the' Assonance, until it reaches the climatic vowel in each line. . . . Always keep a wave-line before the mind, and let the feeling grow through this.” He explains with detail how the strength ought to be in the first part, of the line, and the tenderness in the second ; how the crest of the wave must come at the climatic vowel, like • a big wave rushing on the strand. After that, the return wave, less but proportionately great, falls to the end of the line. The ingoing wave is called the masculine, the outgoing the feminine. After each crest there is a hollow and a smaller crest: “Music moves in thirds”—which is borne out in the wave-line, in crest, hollow, crest. The Assonance must be made the kernel of the rhythm, the highest point of growth on the Arsis, and the point from which the Thesis begins to fall. Again, there is the casadh or turn of the song; that is a new line introduced. “Here the Rhythm is not exactly what we get in the opening line. The Rhythm is now blown about by Passion. But it is the same Rhythm all the while. Keep the same crest and hollow no matter how much ornament you meet with. The ornaments, that is the grace notes, are little waves within waves; but they never disturb the main flow of the Rhythm. . . . Be always on the watch for Rhythm. Recognise it no matter how many turns it makes, and show in your singing that you have not lost it at any part of the song. . . . Assonance is the guide, the heart does the rest.” Rhythms of Irish Music What we have been saying may be caviare to the general, but cognoscentibus loquimur. What follows is a quotation from Father Dick Heneberry, that Gaelic enthusiast and scholar who has gone to his reward. The passage is a long one, but it is worth preserving. Reading it over in the Leader our memory went back to an evening in our Lehrejahren when “Father Dick,” home from his Gaelic questing among the scholars of Europe, told us— the banks of the Barrowof ’ his 1 strange meetings with great Gaelic scholars whom -he had patiently * run to earth; in .scattered - towns on the Continent. Here is what he has to say,:— > - • • r* *• ■ . sat &’■ - -4 • . • • -- \<• «sf fk x *32 35

* :;;" Irish music may be divided into the dynamic and the pensive or quiescent.. The first kind here is represented by dance music" and quick singing tunes, with a strong pendulum, beat. In all those the accent dominates the tonality, and the intervals or note places are easy. Hence they can usually be fairly well imitated by modern singers. But the pensive kind are different. They are never attempted by moderns. They are slow singing airs with all the wealth of Irish ornament and composed on broken rhythm. The last characteristic frees the tonality, and reveals the true, the ineffable artistry of Irish music. : I wish I could express in words some of the qualities of this music. The difficulties are great; some inherent to the subject, others to my own dumbness, while still others arise from a want of the receptive faculty in my auditory. I am sadly encumbered, too, by a prejudice, springing from a habit of vulgar boasting in which my countrymen too often indulge, by reason of which things that make for their pride and are capable of scientific proof are discounted as if they also had only reckless assertion for their support. If it be objected to me that I know only Irish music, I can reply that though I enjoy a vernacular acquaintance with that system, still I have for years been listening to the best modern music that the world could furnish. I would especially mention the number of times I heard Herr Joachim fiddle to the accompaniment of Sir Charles Halle's great orchestra at the Free Trade Hall, Manchester, during the years 1892-6, not to speak of other experiences in the capitals of Europe and the United States of America during the years 1896-1903 : and I have seen in literature and art many of the things that people' regard as the noblest achievements of the race. All those things I have seen and heard unmoved, but to the slow__singing Irish airs with broken rhythm I pay the homage of my mortal dread. There I am held by a power stronger than death; I am borne to heights that pierce the veil, and I hear, as nowhere else, immortal man with a clear cry proclaim himself commensurable with the measureless. This I cannot understand. There is something in the tone, something in the interval system, something in the ineffable tenderness assumed by men's voices, and all the rest doubtless in the thrilling vision of a primal soul, revealed by the patent majesty of the subjective state of the singer. He sits, abashed in a dark corner, often with his hat before his face-, but he is sanctified for the time, the flame of perfect humanity has touched his lips and burned up the dross in him, and the old message that may not be told gushes again from the Keltic or pre-Keltic heart, and calls to us across the void ot ages. And we burst our shackles at the cry and say, 'I come.' I speak to those that know, the vulgar will not understand me. But human endeavor attained to

its most glorious level in. producing our slow singing airs with broken rhythm, it will never reach that height again. "I stand between the musics and can show you the contrasting picture. . Regard the modern woman concert singer in the garish light with her low-cut dress and her carefully-adjusted smile. Her tone has been whitened by the voice producer, and she is filled to the neck with artificiality. Her throat and sense of tune are in protest against the 'scale' she is forced to sing, and she maintains a sort of pitch by a tour tit force. Her technique exhausts all the artificial tricks of the modern singing master, soul is entirely wanting, all-pervading pretence is her subjective state, and God's dearest gift of song is unspeakably coinquinated. When will the Philistine horde recognise that art is truth and that lying kills it before it can get out of the double ?

"Our slow singing airs with broken rhythm constitute the highest cultural asset in the world. Our teachers of music in the Technical School at Cork, Ireland, have plainly shown that they are completely unaware of the very existence of such a music. This highest class that has been considered here is only, obtainable now where Irish is spoken. I leave my readers to imagine from that how circumscribed is its area. It should be collected on the phonograph and taught

directly to children. : The r fact that the powers of darkness who administer our education are not conscious of its existence, is not an adequate reason- for consigning it to eternal oblivion.’’., ....