Traditional Irish Folk Music 12 Song Styles 3 Metre, Tempo and Structure

Metre and Tempo

Here we have a breakdown of common metre and tempo in traditional Irish folk Music.

Jig                   6/8 time          80 to 126 bpm (slow jig to double jig 12/8 time)

Reel                4/4 time        112 to 120 bpm

Hornpipe         4/4 time         54 to 84 bpm for slow, up to 92 bpm for standard

Polka              2/4 time        132 to 138 bpm

Slip-jig            9/8 time        144 bpm

Slide              12/8 time       132 to 138 bpm

Waltz              3/4 time          96 to 160 bpm  airs are at the lower end of the tempo

Mazurka         4/4 time          63 bpm

Highlands        4/4 time         88 bpm

 These are generalizations and tempo can vary from performance to performance. It is not uncommon for musicians to speed up or slow down a tempo dependent on dancers ability so for example a waltz may be played 20 bpm slower for a less sprightly audience.


Structure
Traditional Irish folk music on the whole has a very simple structure, though there are always exceptions.

1. Generally a tune is split in to two parts A and B, occasionally a third part C is present.
2. Each part is played twice so AABB or AABBCC
3. Each part is generally eight bars long so an AABB tune totals 32 bars
4. Each eight bar section is split into 4 two bar 'phrases'

So learning an AABB tune can be broken down into a total of eight two bar 'phrases'.Making them easy to learn by learning each 'phrase' of section A and adding it to the previous 'phrase'. Then doing the same with section B, and C if present.

Reference:
 Potterton Andrew, 'Copy of Irish Folk Music' 17 July 2013 (Presentation) [online] available at <http://prezi.com/voxb28vnlc5u/copy-of-irish-folk-music/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy> (accessed 5 October 2013)