Influence of traditional Irish Music on the Music of North America

Irish traditional music is popular in the USA and Canada today and it has greatly influence the folk music of the USA and Canada. There are many reasons for this with the major contributing factor being emigration. Hundreds of thousands of Irish emirgarated to North America and went to places like in the Appalachian Mountain regions, Newfoundland, nova Scotia an Cape Breton and along the West Coast. they had Irish music in hands and hearts and they interacted with the North American music they found so Irish traditional music had great Influence on American folk music such as Square Dance Music and Blues.

We can see similarities between traditional Irish and American music. Irish structures and forms can be found in American tunes such as ‘Fred Finn’s Polka’. Similarities exist between Irish and Athabaskan music such as Ornamentation like slides and double stops and also set dancing. Similarities between Irish and Appalachian music include double stopping in fiddle playing, modal ornamentation and singing similar to sean nos with a nasal quality and vocal improvisation. Versions of Irish tunes can be found in Amercan traditional music also. Songs brought over by immigrants and a shared repertoire of music now exists between Itish, Amreica and Canadian folk performaers. ‘Rose Connolly’ an American folk song was originally noted down by Edward Bunting in Derry in 1811 know as “Rosey Collolly”. The American cowboy ballad “The Streets of Laredo” uses the same tune as “The Bard of Armagh”.

The Fiddiling tradtion of Newfoundland an Quebec in Canada has been greatly influenced b the Sligo fiddiler Micheal Coleman. He recorded music in America for gramaphone and his fiddiling style can now be heard in Nova Scotia. The piper, Patsy Touhey, also recorded irish music. Versions of tunes played in Ireland feature in the North American fiddiling traditions such as “St. Anne’s Reel”. Many jigs in Cape Breton date back to Irish settelers and their fiddle plaers still ornament jigs, reels, marches and slow airs with grace notes, trebling and double stopping.