Key Signature in Irish Music
When looking at the sheet music for a garden variety Irish session tune, seeing one sharp in the key signature does not tell me that the tune is in G, just like seeing two sharps does not inform me that the tune is in D. What one sharp can tell me is that some or all of the following notes are expected to be in the tune: D, E, F#, G, A, B and C. What two sharps lets me know is that some or all of the following notes should be present: D, E, F#, G, A, B and C#.
The notes D, E, F#, G, A and B are pretty much expected to be there, so what I’m really looking for is whether the sheet music thinks the tune is more reliant on a C or a C# note within its melody. You might even observe C natural accidentals within the notated music when there are two sharps in the key signature, since it’s not unusual for a tune to have both a C and a C#.
On the rare occasion that the key signature shows three sharps, I check the notation to see if that’s really true. Does the tune really use the notes D, E, F#, G#, A, B and C# or are there G-natural “accidentals” present? If you see three sharps in the key signature but then G-natural “accidentals” throughout the tune itself, it might just mean that the person writing the score was trying to convey an A modality.
Another thing the key signature does not explicitly tell you is what drone note is going to sound the most correct for the duration of the tune, and this is important for understanding the modal aspect of Irish music. This is more of an ear thing. Generally speaking, the tonal center could be either D, G, A or E. I recommend separately playing each of those four home notes - D, G, A and E - over a recording of the tune to decide for yourself which one resonates the best.
One sharp could mean D-Mixolydian, G-Ionian, A-Dorian or E-Aeolian and each of these have different feels despite having the same key-signature. Two sharps could mean D-Ionian, A-Mixolydian, or E-Dorian. You can kind of rule out G as a home base when the key signature has two sharps because, you know, there ain’t gonna be no Lydian up in there. This is Irish music we’re talking about, not the Disco Biscuits!
Another thing I’d like to mention is that Irish tunes can be hexatonic, which means a six-note scale. (I had to look up what a six note scale is called). And the funny thing is, when only six different notes are required to play the basic tune, the note which gets omitted is often C/C# or F/F#! Think on that for a minute. This is another indication that the key signature chosen by the transcriber/arranger doesn’t tell the whole story.
el fin
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