Sean nós

Sean nós is a highly-ornamented style of solo, unaccompanied singing in the Irish tradition. Sean nós literally means old style, so it is incorrect to refer to "the sean n&oacute

Sean nós is a highly-ornamented style of solo, unaccompanied singing in the Irish tradition. Sean nós literally means old style, so it is incorrect to refer to "the sean nós style" - the correct phrase is simply sean nós. Its importance in the Irish tradition is such that Tomás Ó Canainn writes, "It is the author's belief that no aspect of Irish music can be fully understood without a deep appreciation of sean-nós (old style) singing. It is the key which opens every lock".

Sean nós songs can be relatively simple, but many are long, highly stylised and melodically complex, and a good performance typically involves significant ornamental and rhythmic variation from verse to verse. Canainn classifies most ornamentation into melismatic ornamentation, in which a note is replaced or decorated by a group of adjacent notes, and intervallic ornamentation, in which additional notes are used to fill an interval between two notes of the tune.