Irish Immigration History
My great-grandmother, Margaret Brogan, immigrated to the United States from Ireland when she was twelve years old. When speaking to her about her musical traditions, she was very proud to claim that her Irish descendants laid the groundwork for what is known as today’s country music. This was a little known fact to me and I decided to explore her claim further.
Irish Immigration to the United States
As early as 1717, waves of Scots-Irish immigrants were making their way into North America. By 1790, three million of these immigrants called America home. The Scots-Irish, also known as Scotch-Irish or Ulster-Scots, were Presbyterian Scots who had previously settled in Ulster as a result of Britain's plan for a Protestant plantation in Ireland. …show more content…
To clarify, a fiddle is physically the same instrument as a violin. The difference between the two instruments is a matter of perception: most classical violinists get offended when you call them fiddlers, as they consider fiddling to be an informal, inferior type of playing.
Scottish and Irish immigrants brought fiddles with them to North America and successive generations in the South morphed their Celtic jigs and reels into tunes of their own. Many of the founding fathers of country music, such as Fiddlin' John Carson and Eck Robertson were solo fiddlers. Apart from bringing fiddles and fiddle music to the American South, the Scottish and Irish brought highly energetic and interactive dancing styles to accompany fiddling, which formed the basis for country square dancing.
The banjo, featured in American Bluegrass and Country music, does not have Celtic origins. African slaves brought the tradition of building banjos with them when they were transported to the New World; a tradition that required stretching strings across animal-skin drums. However, when musically-inclined inhabitants of the Appalachians got their hands on banjos, they used them to play the fiddle tunes that they had learned from the Scottish and Irish. In the 19th century, musicians in Ireland and Scotland began incorporating the African-American instruments into traditional Celtic music. The Dubliners are a great example of a Celtic …show more content…
Singing sorrowfully about the heartbreaks we suffer in life may not have been a distinctively Irish or Scottish creation, but Irish and Scottish immigrants certainly brought a tradition of sob stories with them when they showed up in America. Subject matter included longing for love (“Black Is The Color”), losing children (“The Wife of Usher's Well”) and leaving behind a troubled home only to encounter new troubles abroad (“By The
Irish Immigration to the United States
As early as 1717, waves of Scots-Irish immigrants were making their way into North America. By 1790, three million of these immigrants called America home. The Scots-Irish, also known as Scotch-Irish or Ulster-Scots, were Presbyterian Scots who had previously settled in Ulster as a result of Britain's plan for a Protestant plantation in Ireland. …show more content…
To clarify, a fiddle is physically the same instrument as a violin. The difference between the two instruments is a matter of perception: most classical violinists get offended when you call them fiddlers, as they consider fiddling to be an informal, inferior type of playing.
Scottish and Irish immigrants brought fiddles with them to North America and successive generations in the South morphed their Celtic jigs and reels into tunes of their own. Many of the founding fathers of country music, such as Fiddlin' John Carson and Eck Robertson were solo fiddlers. Apart from bringing fiddles and fiddle music to the American South, the Scottish and Irish brought highly energetic and interactive dancing styles to accompany fiddling, which formed the basis for country square dancing.
The banjo, featured in American Bluegrass and Country music, does not have Celtic origins. African slaves brought the tradition of building banjos with them when they were transported to the New World; a tradition that required stretching strings across animal-skin drums. However, when musically-inclined inhabitants of the Appalachians got their hands on banjos, they used them to play the fiddle tunes that they had learned from the Scottish and Irish. In the 19th century, musicians in Ireland and Scotland began incorporating the African-American instruments into traditional Celtic music. The Dubliners are a great example of a Celtic …show more content…
Singing sorrowfully about the heartbreaks we suffer in life may not have been a distinctively Irish or Scottish creation, but Irish and Scottish immigrants certainly brought a tradition of sob stories with them when they showed up in America. Subject matter included longing for love (“Black Is The Color”), losing children (“The Wife of Usher's Well”) and leaving behind a troubled home only to encounter new troubles abroad (“By The