Folk Tradition : Cainntearachd, Diddling & Chin Music

[Seamus616]

we have lilting in Ireland.

i play scottish piobaireachd though, and can clearly just how difficult it must be to recreate that style in the voice. very interesting

[UISTMAN59]

Thanks for your comment Seamus . I called the Irish style of mouth music diddling but some folk call it lilting - I thinks its the same thing is'nt it? :-)

[affenarschfeli]

xDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

[UISTMAN59]

Cainntearachd lilting and chin music are all quite different but yet have something in common. I enjoy them all. Hope you do too. Thanks, Iain.

[nacho1560]

I've heard diddling before, but nothing like this. Amazing!

[UISTMAN59]

Thanks :-)

[urikadoori]

The first sample is not "ordinary" lilting. It's called Cainntaireachd (Gaelic for "singing"), and it uses specific vocables to mark the different notes of the scale, like the classical "Solfeggio". It can also mark specific embellishments that are played/sung on a specific note.

[UISTMAN59]

As I have entitled this "Cainntearachd, Diddling & Chin Music" I thought it was obvious enough that this was not 'ordinary lilting' . I had already put enough notes in the description notes on the upper right. Secondly canntaireachd certainly does not mean singing , and is most often taken as meaning "chanting" and it is derived from the word "cainnt" which means "language" as in Cainnt nan Eun (The Language of Birds) and also Cainnt mo Mhàthair (My Mother's Language).

[nacho1560]

Why spoil it by being too technical. lol!

I'm sure in the old day when folks diddledt they knew nothing about scale, embellishments or vocables.

[nacho1560]

Don't spoil it by being too technical!

I'm sure the diddlers themselves know nothing about lilting, vocables, embellishments or scales.

[UISTMAN59]

Thanks for your comment but I don't think that this can be spoilt . It is what it is and it will always stand on its own merits. Just because they didn't write it down doesn't mean they did n't know the technicalities and exactly what they were about. I'm inclined to think that a statment like " the diddlers themselves know nothing about lilting,..." is like Cicero didn't know about oratory. :-)

[nacho1560]

Isn't that a bit like saying you can't write unless you know all about grammar? Or you can't create music without knowing all about notes and things.

Original diddlers surely weren't highly educated and such words would have been double dutch to them. That's all I was saying.

[UISTMAN59]

I don't think you can create good music without intuitively "knowing all about notes and things" whether you are talking about the pentatonic scale or the heptatonic (seven note) scale such as the major scale. :-) The "Nether Lorn" or "Campbell Canntaireachd" is a written source of classical bagpipe music written in the late 18th c and is very structured. It is possible to write without knowing all about grammar and Youtube has many examples of this - it doesn't always make easy reading. :-)

[nacho1560]

I'm not trying to knock what you're doing my friend. You know much more about this subject than I do.

Again, quite simply, all I'm saying is that the ordinary highlander diddling on a winter's night in front of a roaring fire would not have had much knowledge of notes,it would all be quite spontaneous. I wasn't talking about bagpipe music though a lot of pipers probably play by ear.

Keep up the good work.

[sxmcwhi]

Thank you for the detailed explanation of the differences. I've not heard of Cainnt nan Eun or Cainnt mo Mhathair, and I'll be looking out for them now. I thought the only chanting done in the Highlands and Islands was the Gaelic Metric Psalm singing which I've always loved. I'm pleased to find out I'm only scraping the barrel with my knowledge of it so far.

[00JTM]

Good music!!!

[UISTMAN59]

Thanks :-)

[PennyPaola]

It's indeed really good! I've never heard a thing like this, thanks for posting! :)

[UISTMAN59]

Thanks Paola . I hadn't posted anything for a while so I thought I'd do something a bit diifferent. Glad you liked it :-)