{"id":11344,"date":"2020-08-20T17:01:36","date_gmt":"2020-08-20T17:01:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/?p=11344"},"modified":"2021-03-18T20:48:51","modified_gmt":"2021-03-18T20:48:51","slug":"riverdance-traditional-irish-dance-and-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/riverdance-traditional-irish-dance-and-music\/","title":{"rendered":"Riverdance &#8211; Traditional Irish Dance and Music"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Haigh a chairde! <\/em>Hi friends!<\/p>\n<p><em>Bridgette<\/em><i> is ainm dom,\u00a0<\/i>and I am the new Irish blogger.\u00a0<em>Deas bualadh leat go l\u00e9ir, <\/em>it is nice to meet you all even if it is just virtually.<\/p>\n<p>I wanted to start off our time together with a cultural blog, especially since it is something I hold dear to my heart. So first, a little background story:<\/p>\n<p>My grandmother was born and raised in Belfast, Northern Ireland. She came over to the US when she was 28 and met my Sicilian grandfather, and the rest is history as they say. Now, I am extremely proud to say that I am an Irish citizen myself, and I have been delving deep into Ireland&#8217;s culture, language, and heritage.<\/p>\n<p>One particular memory seems to have really begun to resurface as I discover my new nationality, and that is of the theatrical show <em>Riverdance. Riverdance\u00a0<\/em>has been touring and performing since 1995, and it depicts traditional Irish music and dance. When I was a kid spending the night at my grandmothers, we would always watch <em>Riverdance; <\/em>she had a seemingly endless amount of their shows on VHS. This was something that I thought was completely normal: that everyone was mesmerized by Irish dance and musical performances at their grandparents house. I now realize that this is just one of many things that were very specific to my childhood and my grandmother&#8217;s love of her heritage. It is something I did not understand or maybe I even took it for granted then, but I have a deep appreciation of it now.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In honor of this, I would like to share with you a 1995\u00a0<em>Riverdance<\/em> performance, one that I remember watching many times, as well as some background information and some vocabulary.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Riverdance 1995\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/R9KkbU4yStM?start=837&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>As you can see, traditional Irish step dance includes a rigid torso and steps performed high on the balls of the feet. In the late 19th century <i>Conradh na Gaeilge,<\/i>\u00a0the Gaelic League, took steps to preserve and promote Irish step dance as a nationalist movement. <i>Conradh na Gaeilge, <\/i>abbreviated<em> CnaG<\/em>,\u00a0is still active today and has been since 1893, promoting Irish culture and language throughout Ireland. (I have also had the pleasure to learn Irish with them!)<\/p>\n<p>Here are some instruments that you hear in Irish folk music:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong><em>Fidil<\/em> &#8211; Fiddle (violin)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The most important instrument, <em>Fidil\u00a0<\/em>has been played in Ireland as long ago as the 8th century.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong><em>Cl\u00e1irseach<\/em> &#8211; Harp<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Cl\u00e1irseach <\/em>is a symbol of Ireland and a key for Irish traditional music. An ancient instrument, played as long ago as the 10th century.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong><em>Fead\u00f3g mh\u00f3r &#8211; <\/em>flute<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Used in Irish traditional music since around the middle of 19th century.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong><i>P\u00edoba\u00ed uilleann &#8211; <\/i>Uilleann pipes\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Literally called &#8220;Pipes of the Elbow&#8221; this notoriously difficult instrument traditionally demands seven years learning, seven years practicing, and seven years playing before one can claim to have mastered <i>P\u00edoba\u00ed uilleann. <\/i>It is a type of complex bagpipe, and what makes it unique from other bagpipes is that it is filled with air by a bellows held by the musicians elbow and side, as opposed to their lungs.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong><em>Caird\u00edn<\/em> &#8211; accordion<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Since the late 19th century, the accordion is integral to more modern Irish music.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong><em>Bainse\u00f3<\/em> &#8211; banjo<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>You may be surprised to hear that a banjo has become common in Irish traditional music, seeing as how it evokes a thought of the American south. That is because the banjo was an instrument that was brought from the USA to Ireland by returning Irish emigrants.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Rewatching <em>Riverdance<\/em>\u00a0today and hearing the traditional Irish folk music makes me a bit emotional. The sounds of the rhythmic tapping of the feet and the melody of the <em>fidil<\/em> brings me right back to when I was young drinking tea with my Irish grandmother in front of the <em>tacar teilif\u00edse,<\/em> TV set. I am happy to say that I was lucky enough to see a <em>Riverdance<\/em> show live years ago!<\/p>\n<p>Have you ever watched or seen a <em>Riverdance<\/em> show live? If you grew up Irish-American, what were some of your memories that were directly related to your Irish heritage?<\/p>\n<p><em>Sl\u00e1n go f\u00f3ill!<\/em> Bye for now!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<img width=\"350\" height=\"233\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2020\/08\/violin-5209008_1280-350x233.jpg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2020\/08\/violin-5209008_1280-350x233.jpg 350w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2020\/08\/violin-5209008_1280-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2020\/08\/violin-5209008_1280-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2020\/08\/violin-5209008_1280.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><p>Haigh a chairde! Hi friends! Bridgette is ainm dom,\u00a0and I am the new Irish blogger.\u00a0Deas bualadh leat go l\u00e9ir, it is nice to meet you all even if it is just virtually. I wanted to start off our time together with a cultural blog, especially since it is something I hold dear to my heart&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"post-item__readmore\"><a class=\"btn btn--md\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/riverdance-traditional-irish-dance-and-music\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":166,"featured_media":11357,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[535717],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11344","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/166"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11344"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11489,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11344\/revisions\/11489"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}