Civic and Urban Performance of Song

Abstract

Abstract This chapter considers songs written and performed in Cork during the politically contentious period 1750-1850. Following a turbulent century from 1640 onward, major demographic resettlements in the city resulted in two distinct communities, divided according to religion, class, and language. The songs reflect these divisions. While art songs were based on European models, new popular and vernacular songs were created through engagement with source airs from diverse traditions and genres, resulting in hybridized musical and textual forms, which proliferated in Irish urban centres from the late eighteenth century. In this chapter, sample songs will be examined in terms of adaptation process, intertextuality, and parody. Exploration of the reception and subsequent transmission of the songs indicates a multiplicity of meanings and associations, channelled through theatre performances, nationalist anthologies, commercial publications as well as oral tradition.