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Ireland’s case, a whole country have a knock-on effect to all aspects of their traditions.
 
In Ireland in the seventeenth century the pattern of society was changing drastically. The old patrons of poetry and music were exiled or reduced in power and wealth. The poorer Gaelic-speaking people had less to lose from the disruption of the older Irish society. They allied themselves to and intermarried with the English and Scottish settlers and formed the beginnings of a middle class, prosperous enough but lacking the cohesive traditions, grandeur and of pre-Cromwellian Ireland. We cannot be sure how much of the old truly Irish musical tradition survived the seventeenth century. Just as elaborate syllabic court poetry disappeared and simpler verse was composed, so it seems likely that much of the intricate high art of the earlier Irish harpers was lost. We know more about the Irish harpers of the eighteenth century than about any earlier players and it is obvious that their instruments, technique and musical style were subject to many non-Irish influences. Their repertoire consisted mainly of tunes of Irish association, simply but movingly played on harps which retained enough of the tonal charm of the older Irish harp to have still a special character and quality. Judging from material published first in the eighteenth century, some of the tunes were probably very ancient, perhaps drawn from the old aristocratic repertory and from popular usage. A few were of Scottish, English or Italian derivation. But it is probable that the style of some of what we now consider traditional Irish music evolved in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries as a hybrid of largely unrecorded indigenous music and imported foreign styles. This phenomenon has been common enough in other art forms throughout Irish history.
 
In conclusion it is apparent that much of what we know as Irish traditional music today actually still bares a strong resemblance to the music of the 17th, 18th and 19th century’s. Yes, there are also many features of that music which have been altered or all but died out in many parts but the fact that we know of them and recognise them as being the traditional music of Ireland at the time surely makes them the traditional music we recognise today. Its popularity today takes accreditation from the fact that it has been so widely spread throughout the world. The Napoleonic wars saw much of the Irish population join the British army fighting against the French in the latter 18th and early 19th century’s. This of course leads to the distribution of at least some of the music of Ireland throughout Napoleonic Spain, Portugal and France and of course much of Europe.
 
Similarly, the spread of this music to America has had great influence on what we enjoy about Irish music. During the potato famine in Ireland, many upped sticks and left for North America. Now, in the 21st Century, what better way to advertise the popularity of anything, including music, than to have roots in what is one of the world’s superpowers? It is largely down to the commercialisation of the music today that it has reached such a high degree of popularity throughout the world. Of course it would seem that it takes most of its regard and recognition in the British Isles at it naturally holds historical and patriotic qualities, which of course makes anything holding these merits “popular”. “Traditional” Irish m本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。