Download or read book Narrative Singing in Ireland written by Hugh Shields and published by . This book was released on 1993 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Narrative Singing in Ireland is a definitive account of Irish traditions of singing as a storytelling art. Of interest to scholars and general readers, this book examines the varied associations of song and story in Ireland and why people sing as they do. It ranges from ballads in English, through Irish Heroic songs - of Fionn mac Cumhaill, Deirdre, the Big Fool and others, sung from earliest times to the present - to ballads of European tradition with the lyric songs of Irish. Written in a lively and entertaining style, it includes chapters on: Irish narrative singing in general, Lays, Ballads - old and new, the lyric songs of Irish and their stories, Singers and songmakers, Traditional singing and the media and Narrative singing today.