ibstudent wrote:
Hello! Am currently doing a research essay on Irish traditional folk music and am wondering if any of you know any pieces that have polyphonic/heterophonic texture and ornamentation in the melody. Thxs!:)
Hello, ibstudent. As previously pointed out, one cannot really look to particular pieces for established polyphonic/heterophonic/ornamental textures. One has to look instead to particular traditions within the tradition, such as Gaelic psalmody, as Peter Duggan noted (and well worth checking out on YouTube, I might add). But in general, in Trad most instruments themselves are considered solo melody instruments first, so polyphony isn't considered germane, but extraneous to performing on them, while ornamentation is a matter of the performer's choice. However, closest to choral singing is the harp, so you would naturally find polyphony there, but that too is subject to the player's interpretation and personal style. Further complicating that issue is the stylistic division between playing the wire-strung and gut-strung harp; the more so-called "Italianate" approaches of the 17th cent. onward were completely unsuitable to the earlier wire harp simply by virtue of the sustained ring of wire strings. In accompanying singing or melody, a wire harper would do best with the simplest of polyphonies, or possibly a light contrapuntal approach rather than the lush chords that sit so well on the gut-strung harp. But the whole point is that wherever you look, in the end there's no one way everyone does the same, if at all.
From Cambrensis, we do know that complex polyphony in Irish/Highland Scottish/Welsh traditional music (at least with the harp and choral singing) goes easily as far back as the 12th century and was no doubt already a very sophisticated tradition long before the Normans even thought of invading Ireland, but how it was expressed at the time is nowadays at best a matter of educated guess.
Not sure if this adequately explains the sheer scope of the issue facing you, but I hope it does. If I've misinterpreted the question, perhaps you could clarify?