In his article, T.F Johnson details the history and modern application of those instruments that are considered "traditional" in Ireland: the tin whistle, the harp, the fiddle, the Uillean pipes, the accordion, and the bodhran.
The usage of the tin whistle (or instruments similar to the tin whistle) dates back as far as the 13th century, when archaeologists have determined bone whistles called feadans were played in Ireland. Today, the most popular form of tin whistle consists of a cylinder of tin with a plastic mouthpiece. The length of the tin whistle is indicative of the set of pitches it is capable of playing, with longer tin whistles being in the keys of C or D and shorter whistles in F. They consist of six holes which are capable of playing the entire series of chromatic semitones, but are usually used in a diatonic fashion due the rapidity of melody playing that prevents key transpositions that require careful "forking" and "half-holing". In the commonly used Sligo style of flute/tin whistle playing, "rolls" are often performed, which consists of using neighbor tones to embellish the main tones of a melody.
The Irish harp, a "major national emblem" of Ireland (47), dates back to the 9th century and are used frequently by contemporary/recent folk-rock bands such as the Chieftains and Clannad. The use of the harp is highly symbolic in that it represents a "traditional", ancient Ireland and attempts at retention and revitalization of such an Ireland.
The Uillean pipes, or bagpipes, date as far back as the 11th century. The pipes utilize a continuous "drone" that underlies the melody of the pipes and serves as accompaniment. Competitive pipe bands flourish in six of Ireland's northern counties as they battle to express "tribal identity" (49); the pipes are associated with Irish national identity. Pipes are not consistenly used in Irish seisiuns due to their expense, finicky tuning, difficulty of playing.
The fiddle (violin) arrived in Ireland sometime after the 16th century. Irish fiddle, though often times the same actual instrument as the orchestral violin, is played very differently from the violin: it is "not held under the chin but drops at a distinct slope from and below the shoulder of the player... the neck is supported in the ball of the left hand... the bow is held rigidly over the nut, and its use is restricted mainly to the upper third of its length (51)." Though there are many regional styles of fiddle playing, all involve "rolls, slurs, glissandi, and other embellishments" that differentiate fiddle playing from violin playing (51). Double-stops, or the playing of two strings simultaneously, are common in Irish instrumental music. The fiddle, because it is fairly affordable, rich in sound, and reasonably loud, is often a prominent lead instrument at Irish seisiuns.
The accordion is generally pitched in C and is capable of spanning over two octaves. The accordion is played by expanding and compressing its bellows, which allows for two methods of playing: altering the direction of expansion/compression with the introduction of a new note, or the continued expansion/compression while many notes are played (which is particularly helpful in faced paced Irish instrumental music).
The bodhran is a type of drum that dates back to the 13th century. The bodhran is "a shallow wooden hoop at the rear of which are two crossbars at right angles. Over this frame is stretch a tough but elastic goatskin" (57). The bodhran is played with a stick in one hand while the other hand moves up and down on the back side to the drum to alter the drum's pitch. The bodhran is one of the most common accompanying instruments in Irish folk music.
In a brief discussion of seisiuns, Johnson notes that instruments are not usually sectioned off instrument type, but rather an intermingling of melody players occurs (who play in unison). Accompanying instruments are grouped together slightly separate from the melody players.
These instruments "represent the Irish nostalgic and sometimes tragic past" and often seen as symbols of Irish identity (58).
Question: instruments like the guitar, mandolin, banjo, and bass are not considered traditional in Irish music but are often utilized in "traditional" seisiuns. What does this suggest about tradition? Are those who value tradition open to changes and alterations? Can something be traditional and new/progressive at the same time?
Friday, April 4, 2008
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Interview Excerpt - Sean Kane
These are excerpts of the interview I did with musician/seisiun leader Sean Kane at the Irish Cultural Center in Canton, MA, on March 29th, 2008:
Ben Nicholson: So I guess my first question is a very general question: what is your experience with Irish music, how’d you get into it, why do you still do it?
Sean Kane: Sure… my mother is Irish, she’s from Westmeath. My father was American but he was also Irish, his family came over about 100 years ago, 160 years ago maybe… I grew up in the US in Brockton, spent my time between there and Westmeath most of the Summer every year until I was 18… The funny thing is the Midlands are not rich in Irish culture… The Midlands would have been part of the “pale”… the ring of safety that had been Anglicized around Dublin once the British rule took over… culture had pretty much been squelched out of that area... The Midlands are rich for cows, cattle, farming, but not really rich in culture so when I went over there all the years I spent in the summers it had nothing to do with… music.
I had no background, or so I thought, in Irish music. When I turned 21, there used to be a phenomenal Irish-American bar in Easton… called the Irish Embassy… I used to go in there four nights a week… There was a song they were playing one night, “Seven Drunken Nights”,… I realized I knew all the words and I didn’t know why… It slowly dawned on me that growing up… I used to spend hours and hours listening to my mother’s LPs…
[The Irish Cultural Center] wanted to turn this place from just a function facility into a place that is actually open and people will come to eat dinner and hear music… Last January we started [seisiuns]… It’s not even a restaurant that people are aware of, it’s set back off against the road, there’s no history of it being open, and we just figured we’d just go for it… It’s been pretty good… a little more than a year into it it’s starting to take off.
They’re trying to build it up and make it a well known destination for music and culture.
BN: Having lived in Ireland, even if it wasn’t necessarily the cultural center of music… what would you say are the differences between the music [in Ireland and America]?
SK: As far as the music itself… we’re pretty egalitarian here because a lot of seisiuns…anywhere really can have that almost “jazz-like” mentality, that the musicians are playing for the musicians and aren’t you lucky that you might be sitting there hearing it. There won’t be any singing and they’re going to do whatever they want to do and that’s the way it is. And even singing… in a really traditional setting there’s probably a bias against it… We just don’t do that… because it’s about building up the night and not just about the music… If you play three hours of jig and reels… I don’t find that to be the most attractive thing for a night out… We’re definitely open, some places call themselves a seisiun but aren’t really a seisiun because a seisiun implies that any musician who can play is invited to play, and that’s just clearly not true in a lot of places.
If you sit in on a very traditional Irish seisiun, especially with Irish people, you would sit there keep your mouth shut and not even attempt to play until you get the look from the person saying, “Yeah, it’s okay, why don’t you join in on this one?” We don’t really do that here, but on the other side of the coin, some people come in and have no concept of good manners.
There is always, not just in music, that conflict of identity between that you’re either Irish and born in Ireland or you’re not. And if you’re not, at some level that’s important…
In terms of the music… there would be … [regional] style[s] of music, but all of that is actually going away because in the modern age, you have the Internet and you have CDs, and so now everybody sounds like Altan instead of everybody sounding like the people that they organically learned from in the oral tradition… It’s not the oral tradition any more, it’s the electronic tradition… The modern era is squelching the playing styles… making it all generic.
BN: In terms of playing here specifically… we talk a lot in the class about what is “traditional” and about “authenticity”… about whether or not authenticity is important…
SK: Yeah, authenticity… I think every seisiun might have its own tradition of what tunes in what order it might play… I don’t think we are necessarily that authentic in that there’s so much of our choices that have come in… I kind of think that authenticity has more to do with identity issue than it does with the music ultimately… it’s like another battle line of whose more Irish… as much as it is about whatever the traditional order of a set is.
BN: So do you feel like here that authenticity isn’t necessarily as big of a deal as it might be…?
SK: I don’t think we worry about it… Sean Connor [fiddle player] is Irish, he’s lived a long time in London. There’s some players that aren’t Irish at all… All of that stuff can be interpreted negatively by… certain Irish people. I’m not going to be Irish enough for someone else, I might pass muster with some people but… you’ve got all of that nonsense going on. So I don’t worry about it, I can’t worry about that kind of thing.
You can only be authentic to your own experience.
If we tried to pretend to be Irish, that’s not being very authentic… I think that identity and what it means to be this, that, or the other thing and what badge will prove that is something that I think the Irish have been experiencing for several hundred years, but is also more and more being experienced… people everywhere in the in the world… Travel, displacement, migration, immigration, all of that stuff is becoming more of a norm than the exception and all of that identity politics, first generation and second generation issues, is a very relevant issue in the world. I think the Irish are way out in front with it because they’ve been doing it certainly since the huge emigration in 19th century.
Third culture people have to make choices about who they are and where they come from and you either get empowered by that and you synthesize it… pick and choose what works for you from the places that you’re from, or you become kind of encapsulated, which is you can’t synthesize that stuff and you’re always pining for some other place and you don’t become empowered by it. And I think all of that is incredibly true, historically, about the Irish.
Guitar is not even a traditional instrument in Irish music… The whole notion of a seisiun is a modern creation, that’s what makes me laugh. The bottom line joke is that seisiuns are not traditional at all. The only reason that music existed was that dancers could dance. The idea that musicians would just play the music without anyone dancing didn’t exist… That’s like a 20th century phenomenon. So then when they try to hit you with what you can and can’t do… it’s not like it’s going back 400 years, it’s going back 40 years. We’re not talking about generations of tradition. So we’ve got a stand up bass player tonight. That’s not traditional at all, but it’s pretty cool.
Ben Nicholson: So I guess my first question is a very general question: what is your experience with Irish music, how’d you get into it, why do you still do it?
Sean Kane: Sure… my mother is Irish, she’s from Westmeath. My father was American but he was also Irish, his family came over about 100 years ago, 160 years ago maybe… I grew up in the US in Brockton, spent my time between there and Westmeath most of the Summer every year until I was 18… The funny thing is the Midlands are not rich in Irish culture… The Midlands would have been part of the “pale”… the ring of safety that had been Anglicized around Dublin once the British rule took over… culture had pretty much been squelched out of that area... The Midlands are rich for cows, cattle, farming, but not really rich in culture so when I went over there all the years I spent in the summers it had nothing to do with… music.
I had no background, or so I thought, in Irish music. When I turned 21, there used to be a phenomenal Irish-American bar in Easton… called the Irish Embassy… I used to go in there four nights a week… There was a song they were playing one night, “Seven Drunken Nights”,… I realized I knew all the words and I didn’t know why… It slowly dawned on me that growing up… I used to spend hours and hours listening to my mother’s LPs…
[The Irish Cultural Center] wanted to turn this place from just a function facility into a place that is actually open and people will come to eat dinner and hear music… Last January we started [seisiuns]… It’s not even a restaurant that people are aware of, it’s set back off against the road, there’s no history of it being open, and we just figured we’d just go for it… It’s been pretty good… a little more than a year into it it’s starting to take off.
They’re trying to build it up and make it a well known destination for music and culture.
BN: Having lived in Ireland, even if it wasn’t necessarily the cultural center of music… what would you say are the differences between the music [in Ireland and America]?
SK: As far as the music itself… we’re pretty egalitarian here because a lot of seisiuns…anywhere really can have that almost “jazz-like” mentality, that the musicians are playing for the musicians and aren’t you lucky that you might be sitting there hearing it. There won’t be any singing and they’re going to do whatever they want to do and that’s the way it is. And even singing… in a really traditional setting there’s probably a bias against it… We just don’t do that… because it’s about building up the night and not just about the music… If you play three hours of jig and reels… I don’t find that to be the most attractive thing for a night out… We’re definitely open, some places call themselves a seisiun but aren’t really a seisiun because a seisiun implies that any musician who can play is invited to play, and that’s just clearly not true in a lot of places.
If you sit in on a very traditional Irish seisiun, especially with Irish people, you would sit there keep your mouth shut and not even attempt to play until you get the look from the person saying, “Yeah, it’s okay, why don’t you join in on this one?” We don’t really do that here, but on the other side of the coin, some people come in and have no concept of good manners.
There is always, not just in music, that conflict of identity between that you’re either Irish and born in Ireland or you’re not. And if you’re not, at some level that’s important…
In terms of the music… there would be … [regional] style[s] of music, but all of that is actually going away because in the modern age, you have the Internet and you have CDs, and so now everybody sounds like Altan instead of everybody sounding like the people that they organically learned from in the oral tradition… It’s not the oral tradition any more, it’s the electronic tradition… The modern era is squelching the playing styles… making it all generic.
BN: In terms of playing here specifically… we talk a lot in the class about what is “traditional” and about “authenticity”… about whether or not authenticity is important…
SK: Yeah, authenticity… I think every seisiun might have its own tradition of what tunes in what order it might play… I don’t think we are necessarily that authentic in that there’s so much of our choices that have come in… I kind of think that authenticity has more to do with identity issue than it does with the music ultimately… it’s like another battle line of whose more Irish… as much as it is about whatever the traditional order of a set is.
BN: So do you feel like here that authenticity isn’t necessarily as big of a deal as it might be…?
SK: I don’t think we worry about it… Sean Connor [fiddle player] is Irish, he’s lived a long time in London. There’s some players that aren’t Irish at all… All of that stuff can be interpreted negatively by… certain Irish people. I’m not going to be Irish enough for someone else, I might pass muster with some people but… you’ve got all of that nonsense going on. So I don’t worry about it, I can’t worry about that kind of thing.
You can only be authentic to your own experience.
If we tried to pretend to be Irish, that’s not being very authentic… I think that identity and what it means to be this, that, or the other thing and what badge will prove that is something that I think the Irish have been experiencing for several hundred years, but is also more and more being experienced… people everywhere in the in the world… Travel, displacement, migration, immigration, all of that stuff is becoming more of a norm than the exception and all of that identity politics, first generation and second generation issues, is a very relevant issue in the world. I think the Irish are way out in front with it because they’ve been doing it certainly since the huge emigration in 19th century.
Third culture people have to make choices about who they are and where they come from and you either get empowered by that and you synthesize it… pick and choose what works for you from the places that you’re from, or you become kind of encapsulated, which is you can’t synthesize that stuff and you’re always pining for some other place and you don’t become empowered by it. And I think all of that is incredibly true, historically, about the Irish.
Guitar is not even a traditional instrument in Irish music… The whole notion of a seisiun is a modern creation, that’s what makes me laugh. The bottom line joke is that seisiuns are not traditional at all. The only reason that music existed was that dancers could dance. The idea that musicians would just play the music without anyone dancing didn’t exist… That’s like a 20th century phenomenon. So then when they try to hit you with what you can and can’t do… it’s not like it’s going back 400 years, it’s going back 40 years. We’re not talking about generations of tradition. So we’ve got a stand up bass player tonight. That’s not traditional at all, but it’s pretty cool.
Critical Review - Handler and Linnekin's "Tradition: Genuine or Spurious"
Handler and Linnekin state that tradition is often constructed as having a "commonsense" meaning in which it "refers to an inherited body of customs and beliefs"(1). This commonsense understanding of tradition is faulty because it implies a permanence that does not exist. Handler and Linnekin argue that tradition is a "wholly symbolic construction" that is always determined by interpretations in the present. Those who view tradition as completely naturalistic believe that there are essential characteristics of a culture that determine tradition as opposed to the culture's conscious decisions as to what is to be considered "traditional". They use naturalistic metaphors to establish boundedness: the collective culture as an entity, the collectivity as a collection of individuals, and the individuals who share fundamental attributes that allow them to carry on traditions. H and L oppose this approach because they believe that "there is no essential, bounded tradition; tradition is a model of the past as is inseparable from the interpretation of tradition in the present (4)." Traditions are fabricated because they are "necessarily reconstructed in the present (7)": elements selected for preservation are displayed in an entirely new context, elements mean new things to those who are viewing them as a sort of audience (by viewing the elements as being "traditional"), and elements included in "tradition" are deliberately chosen and consciously assigned a culturally-representative value. Unselfconscious tradition is actually paradoxical, for tradition requires a present-day "reinterpretation" that, due to temporal discrepancies, can't help but change the tradition in its contemporary context. Ultimately, "tradition is never wholly unselfconscious, nor is it ever wholly unrelated to the past (13)." Tradition is a "process of interpretation, attributing meaning in the present though making reference to the past (15)." Therefore, terms like "genuine" and "spurious" cannot apply to the idea of tradition because tradition is constantly being interpreted in the present and has no more validity at one instance than at another: if it is viewed as traditional within a culture at a given time, then it is traditional to that culture.
Question: what are the benefits of being "traditional"? In what way does being traditional enhance meaning or importance?
Question: what are the benefits of being "traditional"? In what way does being traditional enhance meaning or importance?
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Response to Blog Posts
For those who commented on my posts, thank you very much for all the great suggestions. I think whenever some form of music is labeled as "traditional", it opens up a lot of questions as to what traditional means and to whom. Keeping these themes of "authenticity" in mind, I had many discussions with various patrons at the bar on my second visit and found a range of conflicting ideas regarding the music, some saying that it is "as it would be played in Ireland" while others saying that it sound like "Irish music being played in America". Though I had a lot of details from my first visit, the comments made on my blog got me thinking about why the idea of a traditional Irish seisiun would be important to people in Massachusetts. I asked around on my second visit and found that almost everyone I talked to was either originally from Ireland or believed that they were of Irish lineage. Though there was no consensus on the "authenticity" of the music being played, it seemed to me that those present at the seisiun found something important in the experience, as if the Saturday-night seisiun didn't need to emulate Irish tradition precisely to be a local tradition of their own. It was almost as if the "myth of return" could be accomplished by attending the seisiun, that it was as real to the people there as any mythicological Ireland could ever be. I also tried to pay more attention to the structural elements of the performance, such as how songs were selected, who was deferred to, and how the performers interacted with the audience. With all these helpful things to think about, I noticed a great deal more on my second visit than on my first, which I will detail in my paper and on my blog in the future.
Thanks!
Thanks!
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Field Notes 2
Irish Cultural Centre of New England in Canton, MA (3/8/08)
Several more musicians than last time, though many of the same ones.
Lots of mics, recording equipment, realized fairly quickly that parts of the performance were being recorded.
Photographer showed up at about 9:00 (during the playing), seemed as though performers were really excited about being recorded/photographed.
Lots of musicians’ friends were there, taking pictures and cheering for their musician friends at the ends of songs.
Noticed the way instrumental songs were structure: songs were played in sets of three shorter that blended seamlessly from one to the other, the repetition of each shorter song determined before beginning to play. At one point, the younger fiddle player got wouldn’t play one of the sets of three because he said (jokingly, it seemed) that one of the three songs didn’t go with the other two and that “everywhere else in the world” they played a different third song. The band leader smartly replied “here we do it this way”.
When songs were being recorded, band leader would told people only to play the songs if they knew them. The young fiddle player echoed “if you know it, play it. If you’d fake it, don’t.”
At one point, a different guitar player/singer (not the group leader) took up the chair by the singing mic and started playing a song that sounded Irish, but referenced California. My mom, sitting next to me, pointed out how much American “country” music was based on Irish and Scottish folk music.
While this man was singing about California, he accidentally knocked over his beer near a collection of instruments that weren’t being used. While he rushed off to find a towel, the rest of the musicians kept playing, laughing at the situation, and repeatedly singing the chorus while the man who spilled the beer, quite flustered, tried to clean up the mess. The young fiddle player jumped up from his seat and started dancing and clapping, to which the audience responded by clapping along. When the man was done cleaning the mess, he sat back down and was about to start playing again when the rest of the musicians stopped. Very light-hearted moment.
Younger man seemed to recognize me, my brother, and my brother’s friends from the last time we’d come and swung by our table to ask in his thick Irish accent “how we were holding up”, continuing right along to bar before we could respond.
Just as last time, audience seemed constantly aware of the music while continuing to socialize, indicated a comfort with the setting that didn’t require them to sit somberly and watch the performance in silence (lots of singing along of vocal songs, extremely enthusiastic clapping when each song ended).
I talked to several of the people at the bar about what there thoughts were on the Saturday night seisiuns.
Bartender:
She’s worked every Saturday night for last two months.
Traditional Irish music “as it would be heard in Ireland”
Very social atmosphere, the music creates social ambience, but audience always “becomes silent” whenever a soloist is performing or someone is singing (unless they’re singing along)
Usually groups of twelve or more musicians, many recurring yet many “guests” who are familiar with tunes
When I asked how long the seisiuns usually go for, told me that she usually has to “kick the musicians out by 12:30”, saying they would play indefinitely if they could
Teasingly, told me being twenty-one would have made my experience more enjoyable (yet gave some insight into the “assumed” drinking culture of Irish pubs)
Older Man:
Actually from Ireland (thick accent) but hasn’t lived their for forty years
Quite hard of hearing, said that the music they play on Saturday seisiuns is “okay”, fairly similar to what he used to listen to in Ireland, but still felt as though he was listening to Irish music in America
Hasn’t returned to Ireland much since his parents died
Bodhrán player:
Playing bodhrán for only a year, but by playing at seisiuns three times a week has met over two-hundred musicians
Professionally, she is a high school teacher
One of the reasons she loves to play at Saturday seisiuns is “to have a front row seat to watch the great talent of some of the regular musicians
Said “when you come into one of these rooms, it’s as though the music comes out of the walls and through you”
Said that most of the people who participate in seisiuns (audience and performers) identify themselves with “Irish” if they aren’t actually from Ireland
Told me a romantic tale about the male fiddle player (the young man who greeted us at the door while smoking a cigarette the last time I went): “He’s an Irish citizen who came over during Thanksgiving to visit family, met a girl, and has been here since. Because of his great playing, he’s on the payroll at the Cultural Centre. Everyone who plays at the seisiuns is really excited because of the energy he brings”
Said the “communal” social atmosphere is based on the tradition of Irish farmers, after long days of work, getting together with instruments in their fields and homes and playing for each other and themselves
Told me that Irish folk music is an “oral tradition” with people learning to play from exposure to the music over many years
Proceeded to tell me that the young fiddle player didn’t know the names of many of the songs he was playing, rather he knew the melodies by heart from hearing the songs (he often times would sit and listen to the song that was being played for a moment before joining in, seemingly trying to figure out what song was being played)
Seisiun group leader (guitar player, singer):
Told him about the study I was doing and said he’d love to help, only it would be difficult for the next couple of weeks due to St. Patrick’s day making things a bit crazy in his life.
Told me he’d e-mail me about doing a “formal” interview when he got a chance
Middle-aged woman:
Said she used to attend shows like this when she was in college, always made her feel like she was down in the country: home
Used to have many records (vinyl) of Irish music but had lost them during her divorce, though she recognized many of the tunes that were being played
Said there was something “honest about traditional folk music” that you couldn’t find in other types of music, which explains why it “affects people so much”
Several more musicians than last time, though many of the same ones.
Lots of mics, recording equipment, realized fairly quickly that parts of the performance were being recorded.
Photographer showed up at about 9:00 (during the playing), seemed as though performers were really excited about being recorded/photographed.
Lots of musicians’ friends were there, taking pictures and cheering for their musician friends at the ends of songs.
Noticed the way instrumental songs were structure: songs were played in sets of three shorter that blended seamlessly from one to the other, the repetition of each shorter song determined before beginning to play. At one point, the younger fiddle player got wouldn’t play one of the sets of three because he said (jokingly, it seemed) that one of the three songs didn’t go with the other two and that “everywhere else in the world” they played a different third song. The band leader smartly replied “here we do it this way”.
When songs were being recorded, band leader would told people only to play the songs if they knew them. The young fiddle player echoed “if you know it, play it. If you’d fake it, don’t.”
At one point, a different guitar player/singer (not the group leader) took up the chair by the singing mic and started playing a song that sounded Irish, but referenced California. My mom, sitting next to me, pointed out how much American “country” music was based on Irish and Scottish folk music.
While this man was singing about California, he accidentally knocked over his beer near a collection of instruments that weren’t being used. While he rushed off to find a towel, the rest of the musicians kept playing, laughing at the situation, and repeatedly singing the chorus while the man who spilled the beer, quite flustered, tried to clean up the mess. The young fiddle player jumped up from his seat and started dancing and clapping, to which the audience responded by clapping along. When the man was done cleaning the mess, he sat back down and was about to start playing again when the rest of the musicians stopped. Very light-hearted moment.
Younger man seemed to recognize me, my brother, and my brother’s friends from the last time we’d come and swung by our table to ask in his thick Irish accent “how we were holding up”, continuing right along to bar before we could respond.
Just as last time, audience seemed constantly aware of the music while continuing to socialize, indicated a comfort with the setting that didn’t require them to sit somberly and watch the performance in silence (lots of singing along of vocal songs, extremely enthusiastic clapping when each song ended).
I talked to several of the people at the bar about what there thoughts were on the Saturday night seisiuns.
Bartender:
She’s worked every Saturday night for last two months.
Traditional Irish music “as it would be heard in Ireland”
Very social atmosphere, the music creates social ambience, but audience always “becomes silent” whenever a soloist is performing or someone is singing (unless they’re singing along)
Usually groups of twelve or more musicians, many recurring yet many “guests” who are familiar with tunes
When I asked how long the seisiuns usually go for, told me that she usually has to “kick the musicians out by 12:30”, saying they would play indefinitely if they could
Teasingly, told me being twenty-one would have made my experience more enjoyable (yet gave some insight into the “assumed” drinking culture of Irish pubs)
Older Man:
Actually from Ireland (thick accent) but hasn’t lived their for forty years
Quite hard of hearing, said that the music they play on Saturday seisiuns is “okay”, fairly similar to what he used to listen to in Ireland, but still felt as though he was listening to Irish music in America
Hasn’t returned to Ireland much since his parents died
Bodhrán player:
Playing bodhrán for only a year, but by playing at seisiuns three times a week has met over two-hundred musicians
Professionally, she is a high school teacher
One of the reasons she loves to play at Saturday seisiuns is “to have a front row seat to watch the great talent of some of the regular musicians
Said “when you come into one of these rooms, it’s as though the music comes out of the walls and through you”
Said that most of the people who participate in seisiuns (audience and performers) identify themselves with “Irish” if they aren’t actually from Ireland
Told me a romantic tale about the male fiddle player (the young man who greeted us at the door while smoking a cigarette the last time I went): “He’s an Irish citizen who came over during Thanksgiving to visit family, met a girl, and has been here since. Because of his great playing, he’s on the payroll at the Cultural Centre. Everyone who plays at the seisiuns is really excited because of the energy he brings”
Said the “communal” social atmosphere is based on the tradition of Irish farmers, after long days of work, getting together with instruments in their fields and homes and playing for each other and themselves
Told me that Irish folk music is an “oral tradition” with people learning to play from exposure to the music over many years
Proceeded to tell me that the young fiddle player didn’t know the names of many of the songs he was playing, rather he knew the melodies by heart from hearing the songs (he often times would sit and listen to the song that was being played for a moment before joining in, seemingly trying to figure out what song was being played)
Seisiun group leader (guitar player, singer):
Told him about the study I was doing and said he’d love to help, only it would be difficult for the next couple of weeks due to St. Patrick’s day making things a bit crazy in his life.
Told me he’d e-mail me about doing a “formal” interview when he got a chance
Middle-aged woman:
Said she used to attend shows like this when she was in college, always made her feel like she was down in the country: home
Used to have many records (vinyl) of Irish music but had lost them during her divorce, though she recognized many of the tunes that were being played
Said there was something “honest about traditional folk music” that you couldn’t find in other types of music, which explains why it “affects people so much”
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Critical Review - Tricia Rose
In "A Style Nobody Can Deal With", Tricia Rose describes hip hop as being an "Afro-diasporic cultural form which attempts to negotiate the experiences of marginalization, brutally truncated opportunity and oppression" (71). Rose also notes that hip hop is not entirely resistive, for there are many instances in which hip hop is complicit to the dominant hegemonic white-led society that is partially responsible for the unequal financial and societal circumstances many African-Americans find themselves in. Rose goes on to detail the various historical events that precipitated hip hop in New York City, including the construction of the Cross-Bronx Expressway, which displaced thousands of working class African-American families, and the looting that follow the blackout of 1977. During its early years, hip hop consisted of four distinct practices: graffiti, break dancing, DJing, and rapping. According to Rose, each of these practices operated via the concepts of flow, layering, and rupture, concepts which are analagous to the manner in which African-Americans must operate in America on a day to day basis: African Americans create "sustaining narratives" (flow) and "accumulate them" (layering) as an affirmational practice, but are constantly on the look out for ruptures in the fabric of their culture (racism, poverty, etc.) that they must combat in order to survive (82). In many ways, hip hop revolves around competition, around gaining status and being celebrated for one's skills, ultimately around "having a style nobody can deal with". In her concluding statement, Rose articulates that in providing a forum for "counterdominant narratives", hip hop is the real "urban renewal" that is so needed in communities where there appears to be little hope for improving the quality of life (85).
Question: if we are going to call African-Americans a diaspora group, how must we define the term "diaspora" to incorporate a group whose members may feel alienated from "dominant" society but don't necessarily feel an allegience to a homeland outside of their own community?
Question: if we are going to call African-Americans a diaspora group, how must we define the term "diaspora" to incorporate a group whose members may feel alienated from "dominant" society but don't necessarily feel an allegience to a homeland outside of their own community?
My Research Materials
Here are a bunch of research materials that I'm going to use for my ethnography:
Websites:
http://www.irishculture.org/
http://www.allaboutirish.com/library/music/dir-music.shtm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celtic_music_in_the_United_States
http://worldmusic.about.com/od/newsarticles/tp/WeekConcerts.htm
http://www.bostonirishpubs.com/
http://www.irishmusiccentral.com/
Scholarly Articles:
Two Irish Folk Tunes James Travis The Journal of American Folklore > Vol. 55, No. 217 (Jul., 1942), pp. 169-170
The Social Context of Irish Folk Instruments Thomas F. Johnston International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music > Vol. 26, No. 1 (Jun., 1995), pp. 35-59
Irish Folk-Song Phillips Barry The Journal of American Folklore > Vol. 24, No. 93 (Jul., 1911), pp. 332-343
Review: The Irish Diaspora Author(s) of Review: Jay P. Dolan Reviewed Work(s): The Irish Diaspora in America. by Lawrence J. McCaffrey Reviews in American History > Vol. 5, No. 2 (Jun., 1977), pp. 174-179
The Origins and Character of Irish-American Nationalism Thomas N. Brown The Review of Politics > Vol. 18, No. 3 (Jul., 1956), pp. 327-358
Websites:
http://www.irishculture.org/
http://www.allaboutirish.com/library/music/dir-music.shtm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celtic_music_in_the_United_States
http://worldmusic.about.com/od/newsarticles/tp/WeekConcerts.htm
http://www.bostonirishpubs.com/
http://www.irishmusiccentral.com/
Scholarly Articles:
Two Irish Folk Tunes James Travis The Journal of American Folklore > Vol. 55, No. 217 (Jul., 1942), pp. 169-170
The Social Context of Irish Folk Instruments Thomas F. Johnston International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music > Vol. 26, No. 1 (Jun., 1995), pp. 35-59
Irish Folk-Song Phillips Barry The Journal of American Folklore > Vol. 24, No. 93 (Jul., 1911), pp. 332-343
Review: The Irish Diaspora Author(s) of Review: Jay P. Dolan Reviewed Work(s): The Irish Diaspora in America. by Lawrence J. McCaffrey Reviews in American History > Vol. 5, No. 2 (Jun., 1977), pp. 174-179
The Origins and Character of Irish-American Nationalism Thomas N. Brown The Review of Politics > Vol. 18, No. 3 (Jul., 1956), pp. 327-358
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