ABSTRACT
Part I offered an historical account of Irish music, as well as an introduction to the basics of contemporary performance practice. Part II took a broader view of “Celtic” music, explored Irish music in the diasporic settings of North America and elsewhere, and began to narrow the field of inquiry by examining Irish instrumental music, its forms, and some of its stylistic issues. Part III-Focusing In-takes us deep into the vocal practices of Irish music in both Irish and English, and brings us to the present and future of what is now called Irish traditional music in a climate of modernization and globalization. The current chapter examines the Irish language song traditions, particularly sean-nós, the solo, unaccompanied song style, together with other Irish language (and macaronic or bilingual) song types.
