W2A-008 Fairy lore-0.txt
MUSIC LEARNED FROM THE FAIRIES

R&/IONACH U&/I &/Og&/AIN

Legends of music learned from the fairies are well-documented in oral tradition in Ireland and serve to illustrate many aspects of our folklore, in particular the prominence of the belief in the otherworld and the direct involvement of that otherworld with music and musicians of exceptional quality. In addition, as the legends are part of the living tradition, they illustrate in a striking way, some features of Irish traditional music today. A number of tunes played by musicians are said to have originated from the fairies.

Before turning to the legends themselves, it is important to consider briefly the role of music within the general context of fairy lore and supernatural lore. The fairies are said to dance, to play music and to sing. Singing, however, is not mentioned very often. In music then, they seem to amuse themselves in the manner of humans. The fairies'musical pastimes occur in places closely associated with other fairy activities such as games or races. Generally these places are forts, raths, old moats, crossroads, ruined castles or caves. Accounts of fairy music indicate, therefore, that those who are familiar with a locality will know the time and the place chosen by the fairies for their music and they may go and listen to the music or join in the dancing.

Usually fairy music is heard and fairy dancing is seen by human beings late at night. Such words as 'midnight' and 'moonlight' are used constantly in the accounts and increase the mysterious, unearthly aspect of the music. The instruments played by the fairies are usually the pipes or the fiddle and, with far less frequency, a harp or a fife and drum, or in one or two cases, a flute. The pipes preceded the fiddle in Ireland as the instrument most commonly used for providing dance music. The fiddle seems to have been played in Ireland by traditional musicians from the middle of the sixteenth century and its use had become widespread by the eighteenth century. The prominence of the pipes and of the fiddle in fairy lore is of interest, in that these are instruments closely identified with Irish traditional music; they can produce an unearthly sound, evocative of the otherworld and they are also instruments very well suited to dancing and to dance music.

As with so many other aspects of fairy lore, the music of the fairies is in the paradoxical position of working for good and evil in the human world. For a human merely to hear fairy music may be an omen of great good fortune, or it may, on the other hand, be a portent of great evil or sorrow or even death. Whatever the result of hearing fairy music, an aspect central to it, and to the legends associated with it, is the compelling nature of the music of the fairies. We are told on several occasions of people hearing fairy music and being drawn towards it by its very nature. The music is so powerful that mortals find themselves compelled to dance to it and when they do, they dance without rest, for an hour or perhaps even for a whole week, night and day. There is a combination of motifs here in relation to fairy music and its essence; the supernatural lapse of time is an integral part of fairyland and music has the power to create this lapse. When the fairy music stops, the mortal dancer is exhausted and very often becomes ill and dies a short time following his return to the ordinary world. So powerful is the music of the fairies that frequently it sends people to sleep. But the fairies obviously enjoy music a great deal and can themselves dance for a night and a day or longer.

The identification of a changeling by mortals is often achieved by fairy music. If the person suspected of being a changeling plays unusually fine music, this is taken as proof that he or she is, in fact, a changeling. To this end, pipes or another instrument, were left beside the changeling and when the sweetest and most wonderful music imaginable was heard coming from the room, the mortals realised that the changeling was playing. There is a story told of Garrett Barry, a famous piper, that he was left to mind a one-year-old child while the child's parents were away. Garrett thought that the child was asleep and started to play his pipes. The child spoke from the cradle to Garrett, saying: 'You 're good, but I 've heard better.' When the child's parents came home they couldn't believe what had happened, but the child is supposed to have died a short time later. Fairy music is so beautiful that it defies description. It is called 'the finest music anyone ever heard on this earth'," 'the grandest music in the world'," or 'the nicest music that he ever heard'."

The nature of the fairies and the quality and power of their music must be borne in mind in examining the legends telling or music learned from the fairies. This paper is merely a preliminary investigation of such legends. The investigation will centre on legends in which the point of the narration is that music is given by the fairies to a mortal. There are tales in which this motif is peripheral or semi-peripheral. These will not be dealt with in the present study of the legend. In this study, twenty-nine narratives have been examined although many other accounts, statements and tales have been consulted as background material and it may be said with certainty that further versions of these legends will come to light. The sources for this material are the manuscript and sound archives of the Department of Irish Folklore, University College Dublin, field recordings by Harry Bradshaw of Radio Telef&/is &/Eireann and some published material, including commercially recorded audio material.

II

The legends I deal with are for the most part quite short and straightfoward in style of narration. There are certain elements which may be identified as fundamental to them. The first of these is the context in which the contact is made between the natural and supernatural. In the example studies, with one exception, the principal role is played by a mortal man; in the one instance, where a woman is concerned, there is no reference to a musical instrument but rather to lilting or puss music. In most instances, the person who receives the music is a musician of some kind though it is often specified that he is not a very good musician. In more than half the material it is stated that the encounter occurs late at night or in the early hours of the morning; otherwise no time is specified with a single exception where it is said to have happened during the day. The mortal musician is on his way home, usually from a wedding or from visiting, or 'rambling' as it is called. The encounter takes place at a locality associated with the other world, at a lios or fort, a meadow, a bush, a bridge, on the beach, near the hills or near the woods. The musician is inevitably tired and may have been drinking so that he sits down to rest or falls asleep. It is interesting that in two instances we are told that the adventure occurred on 'Hallowe'en Night' or on 'Bonfire Night' or 'Midsummer's Night', times at which human contact with the otherworld is to be expected. In one instance the encounter occurs at milking time in the evening, a time when the fairies would be going about their business. The musicians are either pipers or fiddlers and there would appear to be an equal distribution of each. In one case we are told that the person owned a flute but was unable to play it although he wanted to do so. In two other instances we are told that the person had never played music before. And so the scene is set for the encounter between mortal and otherworld and the transmission of music.

III

Central to the encounter and the learning of music is the purpose in the transmission of the music. It is not always said that the human wants to learn music, or if he does, why he so wishes or if he wants to learn a particular tune, but this information, where it is given, serves as an important introduction to the actual encounter and in many instances is the reason specified for the encounter. Sometimes the fairies bestow the gift of music on the human in order to have him serve as musician to them. In most instances, however, there is no particular reason given for fairy music being learned by humans except that the quality of the music is so unusually beautiful and sweet that the mortal musician is drawn to it and learns it. In a few cases, the human being gets the gift so that he can make money by playing music, and in other cases it is said that the musician was never poor afterwards, as he was in constant demand because of the quality of his playing after the encounter with the fairies. In still other instances the musician may have only one or two tunes before the encounter and where this occurs, he is on his way to a wedding or a dance and is afraid he will be mocked because he will have to play the same tune or tunes throughout the evening. Sometimes the name of the only tune known by the musician is specified as 'An R&/ogaire Dubh', [The Black Scoundrel], a well-known and often played jig.

There are a few narratives where the musician is about to enter a competition, the standard of fairy music of course being far higher than that of the human competitors. Occasionally, the mortal musician is borrowed by the fairies for a specific purpose, and is brought to a fairy feast because they lack a musician of their own. An interesting point here is the dichotomy apparent in the situation where the fairies are renowned for their wonderful music and musicians, but have to send for a mortal musician to provide the music for them. There is a strong sense of compulsion in many of the narratives where the mortal musician is not given any choice as to his involvement in the fairy world, and this lack of choice is particularly strong in those stories in which the musician is brought into the fairy world to assist the fairies.

IV

The supernatural beings in these legends are generally described as fairies or fairy men who seem to have the same appearance as humans, as nothing to the contrary is specified. Sometimes a fairy horseman is mentioned and this occurs, logically, in those narratives where the human musician has to be carried off to the fairy feast to play music for them. In some instances the fairy is called the p&/uca and may have horns. Infrequently, the supernatural creature is described as a small man or small red-haired man, or the supernatural being may be the lutharach&/an, a dialect term for the leipreach&/an.

Another feature which is central to these legends is the method in which the music is transferred. In most cases the human musician hears fairy music and memorises it so that he can play it again. The music is coming from a fairy haunt or travels through the air, perhaps over water. One account tells how a man when he heard the fairy music, put his thumb in his mouth and as a result, remembered the music. This motif of the thumb of knowledge calls to mind Fionn mac Cumhaill and the way he received his gift of knowledge by sucking the thumb he had burned on the magical salmon of knowledge. It happens in certain cases that a magical instrument is given to the mortal to play and that it is the particular instrument rather than the musician's talent which enables the musician to play wonderful music. A fairy appears and gives a man a new set of pipes with which he wins a music competition or a fiddler takes his fiddle and gives it to a man who strokes the fiddle a few times, or runs his fingers across the strings and hands it back to him so that the fiddle is afterwards able to play any tune in the world. In about half of my material, the gift of music is a magical gift of playing music which is of far superior quality to the music of human beings. The gift is given to musicians and non-musicians alike, although in most cases the person has some musical skill. In those instances where a human musician is borrowed to play at a fairy feast in the west of Ireland, the man is given a magical set of pipes and is also told that he will never be poor as he will always have the gift or talent of music.
