Customer Reviews

The Companion to Irish Traditional Music

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the work that those of us who have been studying Irish traitional culture have been waiting for years for. As far as I know, there has never been a work like this published. This is an amazing encyclopedia of articles that are very thorough and are written by people with impressive professional expertise. If you've ever come across a term or topic in Irish music or dance that you wished for more information about, this is the place to find it. The extensive appendix is a very valuable collection of sources from every facet of the genre. This reference work is essential for any serious student of Irish culture. It is well worth the price.

As an avid enthusiast of Irish Traditional Music, I regard this volume as a stunning achievement. I was enthralled by the amount of carefully researched material as well as the balanced presentation. The care and devotion to this momentous task was evident on every page. Nowhere in the literature of Irish Music is there a comparison. This volume stands alone as the pinnacle of standards and will remain so for a long long time.

No other book comes close to providing the breadth and depth of information about Irish traditional music.

The A-Z format is ideal for covering the subject matter, making it quick to look topics up and cross-reference them. I have found no important topics missed out in this truly encyclopedic work. And like other good encyclopedias, it is hard to put down once you start looking things up because one topic leads to another - and so on.

The book is well written and easy to read. At the same time it contains important details such as the musical tempos and modes that are characteristic of different types of Irish tunes - reels, jigs, hornpipes, etc. This is especially useful for those who actually want to learn to play Irish music as well as listen to it with greater understanding. (Most books claiming to explain Irish music actually miss out the musical details altogether and take the easy option of just rehashing the familiar historical stuff.) There are also many examples of tunes provided in conventional musical notation.

Key biographies are included of important and influential musicans - past (e.g. Michael Coleman) and present (e.g. Jackie Daly) - including their major recordings. This would also be very handy for anyone wanting to build a worthwhile CD collection as well as looking out for live performances of exceptional artists.

Details of all the main instruments used in Irish music are given, i.e. accordions, concertinas, fiddles, flutes, pipes and whistles.

The editor and writer Fintan Vallely clearly knows his subject extremely well and he has chosen other true experts for their valuable contributions. (This contrasts with certain other books that claim to be written by experts who really don't know what they're talking about.)

I have personally found this book essential reading and I am extremely grateful to Fintan Vallely for providing so much good quality information in one volume.

(In case anyone should be thinking, "Is 'The Companion to Irish Traditional Music' in any way too expensive?", then the answer is simply this: this book provides so much it is actually very good value for money - you could easily waste a lot by buying several other books that don't give you anything like the information you need and that furthermore seriously mislead you about the subject.)

If you want a genuinely complete guide to Irish traditional music then this is it. I recommend it highly.

This is a really great reference for people who love Irish traditional music, and I am unaware of any other available source that offers so much information. It is admirable in that the coverage is so very broad, and many times there is in-depth information, but I must admit that I would have liked to see more on many of the topics. The topics are arranged alphabetically, which makes it seem a bit like a dictionary. While this is not necessarily a bad thing (easy to find what you're looking for), I prefer the continuous reading style of some other books. The competition generally comes up short on both amount and depth of coverage though. Also it would be unfair for me to give this less than 5 stars when it is designed to be a good reference rather than something to read with continuity from cover to cover. As a reference for Irish traditional music, I know of none better.

it's an achievement, indeed, and Valley is a well respected scholar of Irish music. the choice of material to cover, the depth of coverage in individual artciles, and the choices of example within them, is, really, not comprehensive or all that focused. that said it is a useful work, just not by any means the limit or the definition of what there is to be known about the subjects it covers, and there many it does not touch as well. I imagine Vallely did not intend it to be the last word, but some reviewers have made more if it than need be, I think. depending on what topic one is seeking to learn of it is varyingly helpful, frustrating, or of little use. the bibilographies and discographies are interesting though. refer to it, yes, just don't make it your only source of reference material for Irish music.