Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann (The Irish Musicians' Association) and the Politics of Musical Community in Irish Traditional Music
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City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 2-2015 Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann (The Irish Musicians' Association) and the Politics of Musical Community in Irish Traditional Music Lauren Weintraub Stoebel Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/627 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] COMHALTAS CEOLTÓIRÍ ÉIREANN (THE IRISH MUSICIANS’ ASSOCIATION) AND THE POLITICS OF MUSICAL COMMUNITY IN IRISH TRADITIONAL MUSIC By LAUREN WEINTRAUB STOEBEL A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Music in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York 2015 ii © 2015 LAUREN WEINTRAUB STOEBEL All Rights Reserved iii This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Music in satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Peter Manuel______________________________ ________________ _________________________________________ Date Chair of Examining Committee Norman Carey_____________________________ ________________ _________________________________________ Date Executive Officer Jane Sugarman___________________________________________ Stephen Blum_____________________________________________ Sean Williams____________________________________________ Supervisory Committee THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iv Abstract COMHALTAS CEOLTÓIRÍ ÉIREANN (THE IRISH MUSICIANS’ ASSOCIATION) AND THE POLITICS OF MUSICAL COMMUNITY IN IRISH TRADITIONAL MUSIC By LAUREN WEINTRAUB STOEBEL Advisor: Jane Sugarman This dissertation examines Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann (The Irish Musicians’ Association) and its role in the politics of Irish traditional music communities. A revivalist organization founded in 1951, Comhaltas today is an educational and activist organization whose mission includes the preservation and promotion of Irish traditional music. Its numerous programs—from local music classes to a national festival drawing thousands of participants—intersect at some point with the musical lives of nearly every Irish traditional musician. Because of this widespread activity, Comhaltas interacts, often contentiously, with many of the different musical communities through which Irish traditional musicians define themselves both publically and privately. These include local communities defined by parish, family, or geography; a national and/or nationalist “Irish music community”; and international communities enabled by diaspora, technology, and travel. Through methodologies including archival research, participant observation, and ethnographic interviews, this dissertation argues that an understanding of Comhaltas’ activities can inform current ethnomusicological understandings of the concept of “musical community.” Based on existing literature and my own research, I have chosen to define musical community as the musical performance of collective selfhood. My definition is based on three main themes that v appear frequently in research on musical community, including my own: plurality and multiplicity, individuality and collectivity, and process and change. These themes highlight the nuanced ways that musicians “perform themselves into” (or out of) various collectivities over time, often contradicting public extremes of discourse associated with these communities. Chapters cover Comhaltas’ role in Irish cultural policy debates and defining a national(ist) traditional music community, the Comhaltas branch and the role of place/geography in local musical communities, Comhaltas’ impact on the teaching and transmission of traditional music and community, Comhaltas in the United States, and the clash of performance and community at Comhaltas’ annual All-Ireland music festival. In each of these areas, the intensely public and activist nature of Comhaltas’ mission makes questions of identity and cultural politics explicit, challenging musicians and others to define and reevaluate their relationships, statements, and performances. This tension, in turn, demands an understanding of musical community acknowledging that it is flexible, porous, and evolving. vi Acknowledgements This dissertation is the product of the efforts of many hands and hearts. While it is impossible to thank by name everyone whose words and performances animate the thoughts and ideas in this document, I am eternally grateful to the musicians and others who have spoken with me about Comhaltas and Irish music, on the record and off, over the past decade. Thank you for welcoming me into your homes, classrooms, archives, offices, pubs, and theaters for stimulating conversation, lots of tea (or a few pints) and, frequently, some great tunes! There are also many who offered practical support above and beyond for this research. These generous souls include Siobhán Ní Chonaráin and Breandán Ó Nualltáin from Comhaltas for the extra help with archives and introductions; the staff at the Irish Traditional Music Archive in Dublin; Deirdre Ní Chonghaile and Paolo Cerato for the crash space in the West; and Paul Keating and Maureen Donachie from Comhaltas in the United States for documents, facts, and introductions. My growing understanding of the sounds and performance practices of Irish traditional music has been nurtured by many patient workshop instructors, session leaders, and friends, but I am especially grateful to have shared tunes with Bill Ochs and Mike Rafferty (RIP), whose tutoring on the tinwhistle and flute, respectively, launched my love of trad in all its many forms. I am eternally grateful for the patient guidance and probing questions of my advisor Jane Sugarman, as well as the insightful comments from First Reader Stephen Blum. Committee members Sean Williams and Peter Manuel also posed helpful questions on issues from Irish history to musical competition. Of course, this dissertation would also not have happened without years of guidance in the wheres, hows, and whys of musical scholarship from Professors Manuel and Blum, as well as Ellie Hisama, Mercedes Dujunco, Ana Ochoa, and others at the vii Graduate Center and NYU whose courses on a range of concepts and topics provided an extremely strong grounding in musical research. And there were also some fellow students whose general academic collegiality and/or informal conversations and comments on this project made this whole journey a lot more fun: thank you to Tes Slominski, Jennifer Jones Wilson, Angelina Tallaj, Jean Grotewohl, Sydney Hutchinson, Nicol Hammond, and many other friends. Finally, I am grateful to the CUNY Graduate Center, whose financial support in the form of a Gilleece Fellowship, funding from the Baisley Powell Elebash Fund, and student travel research funds was truly indispensible. Last but not least, my gratitude to my family for their emotional and practical support over the (many) years of work on this dissertation knows no bounds. Thank you especially to my parents Alison and Richard Weintraub for encouraging my love of music and pursuit of higher education with unwavering support, to my Mother-in-Law Judy Rose for nurturing my growing family in these final years of writing, and, most of all, to my husband Daniel Stoebel: the best research assistant, therapist, cheerleader, dancing partner, sounding board, roommate, defacto funding agency, travel buddy, and co-parent a gal could ask for. viii Table of Contents List of Images………………………………………………………………………………….....x Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………1 Introducing Comhaltas: Nationalism vs. Community…………………………………….3 Defining Musical Community…………………………………………………………….9 Exploring Musical Community: Three Core Themes……………………………………12 Plurality and Multiplicity………………………………………………………...12 Individuality and Collectivity……………………………………………………16 Process and Change……………………………………………………………...17 Dissertation Chapters and Major Themes……………………………………………….18 Chapter 1: Musical Community and Policy/Politics…………………………….19 Chapter 2: Musical Community and Place………………………………………20 Chapter 3: Musical Community, Performance, and Transmission………………21 Chapter 4: Musical Community and Diaspora…………………………………...22 Chapter 5: Musical Community, Performance, and Competition………………..23 Fieldwork and Methodology……………………………………………………………..25 Chapter 1: Comhaltas, Cultural Policy, and Community in the Public Sphere…………………...……27 Introduction: 1951………………………………………………………………………..27 CCÉ: Precedents and Early Years………………………………………………………..30 Times of Transition: 1968-1999…………………………………………………………38 Meanwhile: Traditional Arts and the Arts Council 1951-1999………………………….48 Setting the Scene: The Arts Policy Debates……………………………………………..51 Irish Traditional Arts Policy Debates: An Analysis……………………………………..61 Why “Politicize” Traditional Music? Representation and Recognition……….64 Defining Traditional Music……………………………………………………...66 How to “Manage” Traditional Music: Assistance and Resistance………………69 After the Debates: Separate Paths……………………………………………………….74 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………76 Chapter 2: Local Branches, Local Musical Communities: Situating Comhaltas Branches in the Irish Musical Landscape………………………………..……………………………………………79 Comhaltas Branches and the Musical Geography of Ireland……………………………82 Community Within a Community: