Lorcan Mac Mathuna – An Bhuatais & The Meaning of Life
Independent – Out Now
It’s all well being sucked down a rabbit hole, one I have commented on once or twice recently, but once in, however hard you try to climb out, you get pulled back. Or perhaps you don’t want to get out. Perhaps the rabbit hole analogy gets too difficult. What it does do is allow you to become totally immersed in something that is, typically, a new experience or set of experiences, like drink-me liquid, eat-me cake and croquet using flamingoes. Well, nothing that weird for me, at least not what I’ll admit to here, but the variety, scope and brilliance of traditional Irish music and its modern-day iterations have really inspired me.
Perhaps inspired suggests something more, but let me say that I have been learning more about this aspect of the Irish cultural make-up than I ever knew existed before. And the more I find out, the more I know there is a lot more I don’t know. However, enough of this. Sean nós, the traditional Irish singing style is as important today as ever and the new album by Lorcan Mac Mathuna – An Bhuatais & The Meaning of Life – is just the thing to take the temperature of where it is at and where it might go.
I say ‘might go’ as there are any number of ways the thing can go but the challenge is to keep it sufficiently within the tradition whilst exploring what it might mean in a contemporary setting. And this is what Lorcan has set out to do here with this project. The accompanying 116-page booklet comprises an extremely comprehensive set of discussions on the nature of the style, together with details about the songs themselves and musings on some of the recurring themes. Central to this project was the search for the ‘eidos’ of sean nós:
It may be something that you intuit rather than describe, but by going through the process….we strip it [the song] of its characteristics until you can no longer call it Sean Nós [sic], maybe we have located the eidos.
Having identified the eidos this became the ‘convention of arrangement’ and from that point Lorcan looked at how the songs can be worked in a manner that both keeps the tradition and also feeds the future. In effect this essence of sean nós became the central pillar around which the song, the melody line, the use of instrumentation, the presentation, all helped to rebuild the tradition for now.
The stories have deep meanings, deeper than time in some instances. Other stories are more modern but equally fit the style, the narrative structure. The themes of the songs often carry the pains and the triumphs of Irish history from the celebrated battle of Clontarf extolled in Pláit agus Domhnaill, through the Catholic persecutions of the 16th and 17th centuries, the overall suppression and poverty of the indigenous people in the 18th and 19th centuries, the Famine and then into the 20th century and the fight for freedom of Home Rule.
Clontarf was an epic battle in 1014 with very heavy casualties on both sides, the Irish and the Norse, but the song is a celebration of the valour of the two warrior leaders, locked in combat ‘even after death’. Doubly significant in that not only did the Irish win, it was the freeing of the land from external rule – a focus point for subsequent chapters in its history. A Seán Mhic Mhurcgadh Gléigeall, written by poet, Tomás Rua Ó Súilleabháin, is about the suffering of the very poor in Ireland before the famines that took hold in the mid 19th century. An Bhuatais is a plaintive sound, emphasised by the pipes that extend the emotional response to this song about an itinerant teacher, setting up ‘hedge schools’ to teach the pupils of the farmers at a time when the teachers were amongst the poorest of the population.
The language is fascinating and beautiful, though I confess to only understanding the words with the help of the translations. However, in a way, the words without their information carrying ability take on a more ethereal role, the sounds that they are, are somehow nearer the expression, the emotion. It is the same effect as if listening to Sufi singers, African griots or Indian classical singers; the sound is as important, often stands by itself, and seldom is the underlying emotion lost on the listener.
Perhaps this is part of the nature of sean nós, the ability to tell the tale without necessarily understanding the words. The structure of these songs add to this. They tend to follow the flow of the narrative and are not bound by the traditional versified structure of song. Many have their origins in poetry and so the meter and the versification can influence the singer much more than looking for a good rhyme or regular rhythmic structure.
For non-Irish-speaking, this comes across really well with Pied Beauty and The Windhover, both poems by Gerald Manley Hopkins. Written in English, they offer the opportunity to pick out the clear signs towards understanding the style. Here the form and structure offer an insight into how sean nós not so much ‘works’ but uses the language to drive the tune almost as an incantation, or plainsong.
In the search for the contemporary, there is the use instrumentation and technology, the quality of the sound space as important as the sound itself, correctly balanced so as not to overpower but also not to distract. In radio, a well-used way of defining an empty room is to have a clock ticking with that tell-tale echo of no-one there. Similarly here, the space we go into at the start of a song is described by the opening. An raibh tú an an gCaraig has a light reverberating pulse immediately giving a sense of depth, the space in which the voice will sing. It is a large space, yet the voice fills the void; when the singing stops, a saxophone continues to define the boundaries before the voice returns. The instruments, provided by Martin Tourish, Daire Bracken and Éamonn Gallubh, have a number of roles: at times they provide background, at others a reflection of the the words, or perhaps become a physical part of the whole, extemporised rivulets, raindrops running down the window or tears flowing down the face. The effect adds to the whole ‘feel’ of the song.
An Bhuatais & The Meaning of Life is a great album to listen to. The range of songs exemplify the sean nós tradition and beautifully continues it along its path. The subject range is not just limited to the lament of Irish history. There is Cúcúín, a lullaby for a mother cuckoo’s chick and Michtam Daibhí (Pslam 16) that is simply stunning. You can also dig deeper, read about the songs, or travel further into musings about the myths, ‘the hope, longing and fire’. But first of all, enter the space and just listen. Excellent.
The complete presentation which includes the CD and 116 page publication costs €20 with postage nationally at €6. You can purchase An Bhuatais and the Meaning of Life here: http://www.lorcanmacmathuna.com/
The tracks will also be available on all streaming and download platforms, such as Apple itunes, Spotify, Amazon Music etc. and Bandcamp – https://lorcanmacmathuna.bandcamp.com/album/an-bhuatais-the-meaning-of-life
Supported by An Chomhairle Ealaíon. This album launch was supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sports and Media.