Chat 2: Lilting
Marianne McAleer lives in Somerset in England. She performs traditional Irish songs in folk clubs and has won competitions in the All-Britain Fleadh 27 times.
Link: Marianne sings Irish folk songs in these videos.
She was a prizewinner at the All-Ireland 2022 Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann in Mullingar, where we heard her performing in a ‘portaireacht’ (‘lilting’) competition.
In this audio clip, Marianne lilts a reel for us. Reels are hard to lilt.
Marianne joined us for a Zoom meeting to tell us about lilting. She gave us a great insight into this style of singing and demonstrated her explanation with lovely examples.
Further Development
Write down three points that Marianne makes about lilting techniques.