Sean O Riada and Ceoltoiri Chualann: The collaboration that changed the sound of Irish music | Helen O'Shea

Summary: Collaborations: creative partnerships in music | Helen O'Shea <strong>Sean O Riada and Ceoltoiri Chualann: The collaboration that changed the sound of Irish music</strong> In 1960, modernist Irish composer Sean O Riada gathered together a group of largely traditional musicians and singers, initially to provide music for a play. It was a turning point for the composer, for the musicians and for Irish traditional music. Contrary to the convention of unison playing, O Riada’s arrangements of Irish tunes had the musicians performing solo or in varying combinations, sometimes using harmonies. Soon the ensemble, Ceoltoiri Chualann, developed a repertoire for concerts, radio performances and recordings that were immensely popular among Irish art-music audiences. Within three years, members of the group had formed The Chieftains, which became the most popular and enduring of Irish music performance groups and which are still recording and touring the world. O Riada, on the other hand, retreated from Dublin and from the art-music world to immerse himself in rural life and traditional music. This paper explores the collaboration between these musicians from the art-music and traditional-music worlds and their mutual influence, arguing that the sound of Irish traditional music changed from this point, with a new performance practice and a new aesthetic, and illustrating the ways in which the musicians’ collaboration changed from musical director and guest performers to an intensely innovative creativity.