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Sean Nos & Regional Styles - Coggle Diagram
Sean Nos & Regional Styles
Sean Nos
The first and most obvious thing to explain is the term ‘Sean-nos’.
This does not necessarily refer to any musical terminology but to a way of life as experienced by our people who witnessed many forced changes to the old ways.
It is a rather vague way of describing their daily routine at work and play.
Songs were made to accompany the work inside and outside the home, to express the many emotions-love and sadness of daily existence, to record local and other historical events and to often mark the loss of family and friends whether by death or by emigration.
‘Sean-nos’ is generally understood to refer to songs in the Irish Language.
The term ‘Sean-nos’ (in the old way) as applied to traditional singing in the Irish Language, encompasses a style of singing, which is rooted in the Gaeltacht regions of the country.
There are three main styles of Sean-nos, corresponding to the three areas where Irish is still spoken as a community language, the Gaeltachtai of Munster, Connacht and Ulster.
Munster Gaeltachtai includes parts of Kerry, Cork and Waterford, the Connemara region of Connacht and the Ulster Gaeltacht in Donegal.
Features
Solo performance
Ornamentation
Lack of dynamics
Free rhythm
Nasalisation
Lack of outward emotion
Glottal stop
Words the most important element
Regional styles
Donegal
Scottish influence
Regular rhythm
Melodic ornamentation is restrained
Singers: Lilis O’Laire, Maighread Ni Dhomhnaill
Munster
Wider range in songs
Some use of vibrato and a more pronounced nasal tone quality
Rhythmic variation
Singers: Iarla O Lionaird, Seamus Begley
Connemara
Narrow range
Nasal tone quality
A lot of ornamentation
Singers: Roisin Elsafty, Seosamh O hEanai