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Illustration | Libby McCrohan
Tommy Peoples was a renowned composer in his own lifetime. He composed many tunes and also some songs. He included 130 of his compositions in his book Ó Am Go hAm, although this is by no means the full extent of his compositions.
He related his pieces to very specific references in his life. His tunes were named for people that he knew (family members, friends, teachers etc.), places he lived or visited, his interactions with the ‘otherworld’ and, at their most simple, fleeting memories about moments in his life or artifacts from the past.
The phrase ‘údar an amhráin’ [‘story behind the song’] describes the idea that, in the Gaelic language song tradition, the artist first gives the audience a context for the story, allowing the listeners to then interpret the song in their own way. This is because many songs in this tradition are metaphorical or ambiguous. This is opposite to the way songs are presented in the English ballad tradition, where-in the story is almost always literal. Tommy’s compositions are intrinsically linked to the context of the Gaelic language song tradition. Reels, jigs and hornpipes, when played purely for listening as was primarily Tommy’s intention in his compositions, are innately ambiguous. By giving the story and background of his tunes in Ó Am go hAm, Tommy informs the listener as to his thoughts and motivations.
Some of his most famous compositions ‘The Green Fields of Glentown’ and ‘La Cosa Mulligan’ were composed when he was only a teenager. Other famous tunes, such as ‘Gráinne’s Jig’ came along in the early 1970s and he continued composing throughout his life. He composed primarily with pen and paper, rather than with the fiddle, and always used staff notation. His detailed manuscripts contain full left-hand ornamentation although he didn’t routinely mark bow directions.
In 2013, Tommy was awarded a Gradam Ceoil by TG4 for composition. This made him the first person to receive two Gradam Ceoil Awards, as he was also the first ever recipient of Gradam Ceoil’s Musician of the Year in 1998. This shows the respect with which Tommy was held within the tradition in his own lifetime as the Gradam Ceoil Awards, which are not competitive, are chosen by an independent panel of peers and experts from the tradition.
Tommy pictured after receiving the Ceoltóir na Bliana in 1998. Also pictured June Nic Chormaic (Ceoltóir Óg na Bliana).
Tommy was elected as a member of Aosdána, the affiliation of creative artists in Ireland, in 2012. Admission to Aosdána for musicians is based uniquely on compositional output, as opposed to achievements in the field of performance or interpretation of traditional melodies. He remains the only musician working solely in the field of Irish traditional music to have ever been elected to Aosdána (whilst Dónal Lunny is also a long time member, he was elected for his contemporary television and film compositional output). In doing so, Tommy’s creative achievements were recognised alongside those of many of Ireland’s internationally leading creatives in western art music, visual art, literature, film and architecture, including people such as Edna O’Brien, Paul Muldoon, Neil Jordan and Linda Buckley. Of all the accolades received by Tommy in his life, this is perhaps the most important, as it demonstrates the way in which he transcended Irish traditional music within his own lifetime.
This section explores Tommy Peoples’ compositional process and output through several examples. These are drawn primarily from pieces cited during the interviews. In all the examples below, the page and number reference given beside the title refer to Ó Am go hAm.
‘The Green Fields of Glentown’ (p.33 no 188) is one of many tunes written in honour of places near to his home town of St Johnston. It was amongst the tunes recorded by Tommy for Breandán Breathnach in March 1968 when Tommy was still a teenager. On the day when asked where he got it Tommy didn’t claim it or say the he had a name for it. It is one of Tommy’s most famous compositions and part of the core session repertoire since that time. It is also a test piece for fiddlers, covering two and a half octaves with each part presenting its own challenges. It is often paired with another of Tommy’s well-known reels, ‘La Cosa Mulligan’, including by Tommy himself on his 1998 album, The Quiet Glen.
Tommy recorded this tune for Breandán Breathnach in March 1968 whilst he was still a teenager although he hadn’t given it its title by then. It went into the common session repertoire quite quickly, being played by Frankie Gavin on his first duet album with Alec Finn (Shanachie, 1977) and became known as ‘Jacksons No.2’. In his notes about the tune, Tommy commented that he didn’t receive anywhere near enough royalties for his compositions, stating ‘…I was involved in two commercial recordings, though not commercial for me (2015, p. 220).’
A jig that Tommy composed early on, it was published in written form in a 1971 edition of Treoir and ‘became an instant hit’ according to Paddy Glackin. Tommy again didn’t name the tune until a few years later, naming it after one of his daughters Gráinne. ‘.. it was played a lot back then. It’s one of those tunes that took off (2015, p. 289).’
This video features examples of some of the other tunes composed by Tommy. These pieces have been selected as they were played or mentioned during the interviews for the project. Included amongst them are ‘Julia Devine’s’ (Tommy’s great aunt), ‘Kathleen McGinley’s’ (Julia Devine’s niece), ‘The Walking Stick’ (one of Tommy’s most famous mazurkas), ‘The Kinnycally Klansmen’ (inspired by the practice of hiring fairs in east Donegal), ‘Black Pats’ (Tommy’s neighbour and cousin), ‘Joe Cassidy’s’ (Tommy’s cousin and first teacher), ‘Jimmy Peoples’’ (Tommy’s grandfather and a leading fiddler in east Donegal) and ‘George Peoples’’ (Tommy’s cousin once-removed).
Tommy Peoples published his opus Ó Am go hAm in 2015. It is a 391-page tome that consists of a fiddle tutor, 130 compositions and accompanying stories. The book is a rare first-hand account of the processes, ideas and journey of one of the most important interpreters of Irish traditional music. In revealing his inner most thoughts on music, family and politics, Peoples opens up in a manner that is rarely seen in the traditional music world, with only a very small number of comparable texts in existence.
Tommy’s compositions can be viewed not just in purely musical terms, but also as a valuable exposition of his lived experience as a traditional musician. Throughout the book Ó Am go hAm we gain insight into the way that he valued the world around him, including its many allusions to family members, friends, former teachers and places of importance to him. Occasionally, his interactions with the ‘otherworld’ are explored, as well as simple, fleeting memories about moments in his life or artifacts from the past.
Tommy carefully curated his compositions and was keenly aware of the historic connection between tune and story in Irish music. This was ingrained in his psyche since childhood, the result of many nights spent at the fireside with neighbours who observed an open-door policy in his locality. Tommy overtly laments the disappearance of this community tradition in many of his writings and interviews. History and politics are also rarely far from the conversation in his writings, topics in which he was well-versed and was unafraid to offer his opinions. It was this mix of politics and history that would serve as the stimulus for perhaps his most conceptual work, ‘The March to Kinsale’.
‘The March to Kinsale’ is a three-part suite, comprising a march, a song and a reel, commissioned in 2007 to mark the four hundredth anniversary of the Flight of the Earls. It combines a new march as the eponymous first movement, a reworking of ‘Farewell to Erin’ as a song entitled ‘Love’s Legacy’, and bright reel, ‘The Celebration’ to conclude the work. In this suite, Peoples grapples with the downfall of Gaelic Ireland and the vanquishing of Ireland’s last Gaelic Lords in the early seventeenth century. His command of the historical detail is evident, including the key moments of Battle of Kinsale itself, and the various political machinations that followed. Tommy writes that ‘Kinsale became the ultimate battle in the conquest of Gaelic Ireland by the English, who figured that, with the defeat of O’Neill and O’Donnell, the Gaelic system would be destroyed forever (2015, p. 145).’
The premiere of the piece was given in Portnamurray, Rathmullen, as part of a concert entitled Ceol agus Cultúr na nGael. The concert featured a range of musicians who represented different parts of the story of the Flight of the Earls. The March to Kinsale featured Tommy, his daughters Siobhán and Neasa, Francie McIlduff and Seosamh Ó Neachtain. A full account of the preparation of the event is given in the above video.
The song ‘Love’s Legacy’ is one of a small number composed by Tommy. Towards the end of his life, he would often sing in performances when he found himself unable to play the fiddle, due to his declining health. The air to the song is developed from the first part of the common reel ‘Farewell to Erin’. The air was obviously chosen not just for the quality of its melody, but for the meaning in the title. Tommy had in fact envisaged this setting as far back as 1974, when he recorded the air as a prelude to the reel on his CCÉ recording An Exciting Session with one of Ireland’s Leading Traditional Fiddlers (CL13, 1976).
Tommy’s song here is a commentary on the Flight of the Earls (1607), a catastrophic event in Irish social history which saw the last remaining Gaelic lords depart the country from Rathmullan in county Donegal.
The song is macaronic, with the middle verse in Gaelic, and its style is reminiscent of early twentieth century ballads in its use of language to praise Ireland and its inhabitants, as well as to espouse grievances against those who disrupted the Gaelic order. Tommy refers to many of the virtues of Ireland, including music, the landscape and the people, as well as citing the remaining vestiges of Gaelic culture.
