Chapter 3 Passing on the Tradition ______(1) AA Pages 43-48 Learning Music by Osmosis

Chapter 3 Passing on the Tradition _______________________________________________________________________ (1) AA Pages 43-48 Learning Music by Osmosis The authors again point out that people and place are central to Irish traditional music making. In the context of learning the music, then, where one learns music, from whom, what one learns, and in what setting are very important considerations. 1. Read carefully the description of how Mary MacNamara absorbed music as a child (pp. 43-5). a. Name all the places where she remembers learning music. b. Name all the people from whom she learned. c. Compare how Mary learned accordion with how Junior Crehan learned the fiddle (review pp. 10-13) in the same area several decades before that. d. If Mary was growing up in Clare today, how might she learn the music? 2. Now read the story of how Kevin Crawford learned traditional music (pp. 46-8). a. Where was Kevin raised? b. How did come to learn traditional music? c. How was his experience of growing up with the music similar to and different from Mary MacNamara’s? d. Through an internet search, learn about the group Lúnasa, the traditional ensemble in which Kevin performs. 3. Think of a time when you picked up music simply by being around people. Perhaps it was a song you learned on the playground, one from an elder at home, in church, at an extended family gathering, or in a community setting. Use these guiding questions to create a description of that setting. a. Where were you when you learned the song? b. What was the nature of the social context? c. Who was the performer or leader? What was your relationship to that person? d. Were there others learning with you? e. What motivated you to learn it? f. How did you pick it up and remember it? g. As you reflect on the setting, what else were you learning in addition to the song itself? 4. Fieldwork Project: Interview an Irish musician in your area about how he/she learned music. Use questions similar to those in 3. to guide your interview. ________________________________________________________________________ (2) C/U Page 45 Gender, Music, and Tradition The concertina, we are told, was “more of a woman’s instrument” in County Clare. Many Clare women are known for their superb concertina playing: Mrs. Crotty, Kitty Hayes, and more recently Mary MacNamara and Sharon Shannon. 1. Review the concertina playing of Kitty Hayes (CD Track 3) and Mary MacNamara (CD Track 10). 2. Sharon Shannon Irish musician and ethnomusicologist Fintan Vallely interviewed concertina and fiddle player Sharon Shannon. He provides a biographical sketch in his book co-authored with Charlie Piggott, Blooming Meadows: The World of Irish Traditional Musicians (1998). Sharon was born in Corofin in east Clare in 1968, an exciting place to be for music at that time. She reports that it was her older brother Gary who started her on the road to performing the music when he taught her tin whistle. Later the various family members picked different instruments to play and Sharon chose the accordion. She was drawn to the concertina which was played by both sets of grandparents. The music she plays now includes influences from contact with tunes from many genres and musicians she met on her travels – swing, Cajun, French Canadian, and Cape Breton – but her sense of place roots her music where she was reared and where she learned it, in east Clare. Listen to selections from her CD Out the Gap (Green Linnet Records, 1995) or Each Little Thing (Green Linnet Records, 1997). Compare her repertoire and playing style with Kitty Hayes and Mary MacNamara. 3. Other female performers of traditional music Female soloists and groups of female artists have a high profile in the international community of Irish traditional musicians and in the media. Irish female singers came together to produce a two CD collection called A Woman’s Heart (1995). Nóirín Ní Riain has focused on bringing the worlds of traditional song and Christian chant together. You will meet Pádraigín Ni Uallacháin in a later chapter, an important contributor to the revival and dissemination of Irish song. Meanwhile women play important musical roles in some of the most outstanding traditional groups – Máire Ní Bhraonáin with Clannad and Máiréad Ní Mhaonaigh with Altan. In some cases, women form traditional ensembles such as the Irish-American group Cherish the Ladies. 4. Form groups within the class. Have each group choose one living female performer of Irish traditional music. Research her life and music. Summarize her contributions to the development of traditional music in one paragraph. Have each group present their findings. Finally, the class draws conclusions about the role and contributions of women to Irish traditional music. ________________________________________________________________________ (3) C/U Pages 45-46 Music and Place The authors point out several times in the book the important role that place plays in the formation of musicians and in the directions they take music throughout their lives. Mary MacNamara connects the style of east Clare musicians with the landscape that surrounds them – the quiet wildness and the untouched beauty. In another source, Máire Ní Bhraonáin of the Irish traditional group Clannad made a similar comment that the group's music is resonant of their native Donegal. (In Ó Súilleabháin, 1995). From the same region, renowned fiddler John Doherty (1895-1980), when interviewed about his music, spoke of the intimate connection between the local environment and the distinctive Donegal style of fiddling: "The old musicians in them days,” he said, “would take music from anything. They would take music from the sound of the sea, or they would go alongside the river at the time of the flood and they would take music from that. They would take music from the chase of the hound and the hare." (Feldman and O'Doherty, 1979). Complete Worksheet 3.1, Exploring music and place in today’s world. _____________________________________________________________________ (4) C/U Pages 48-53 Changing performances contexts and social settings The performance venues and contexts for Irish traditional music have changed from the house party to the pub session. Even with the change, the authors see similarities between the two contexts: both are social events; they proceed with the sharing of music, song and dance; and many unspoken codes of house party etiquette survive in the session. 1. List the authors’ ideas about the similarities between the performances venues and contexts and add more. Then consider the differences among these performance contexts: house party, pub, stage/concert hall. ________________________________________________________________________ (5) S, C/U Pages 48-53 Music Competitions The structures of music competitions were introduced into Irish music over a century ago, in the forum of the Feis Ceoil. As time progressed, the organization of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann in 1951 began a new era of music competitions. 1. Discuss the pros and cons of music competitions. 2. Did you ever participate in a music competition? Share your experience with the class. ________________________________________________________________________ (6) S, C/U Page 48-53 Schools of Irish Traditional Music Complete Worksheet 3.2. _____________________________________________________________________ (7) C/U Pages 49-52 Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann Fieldwork Project 1. Locate the branch of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann that is closest to where you live. 2. List the activities that take place there. 3. Conduct a phone or onsite interview with one of its administrators. 4. Create a description of the growth of the branch, and evaluate how it has served the community. 5. Interview one of the branch’s teachers, or a student. 6. Compare the activities of this branch with what you have read about Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann on pp. 49-52. ________________________________________________________________ (8) C/U Pages 7-8, 53-58 Paying Homage to the Great Piper Willie Clancy 1. Read the poem that Junior Crehan wrote in 1973 in honor of Willie Clancy (pp. 7-8). How does Crehan pay homage to Clancy? 2. In the song, “American Pie,” by Don McLean, what musician’s’ life is honored? What did the song writer mean by “the day the music died”? What line is Crehan’s poem bears a similar sentiment? 3. The Willie Clancy Summer School represents another way of honoring the piper. Identify specific ways in which it honors him. 4. Do you know of other musicians whose contributions have been honoured by immortalizing them in song or institution or scholarship? Name them and describe the honors. ________________________________________________________________________ References O Súilleabháin, Mícheál., producer. A River of Sound: The Changing Course of Irish Traditional Music. Dublin: Radio Teilifís Éireann, 1995. Feldman, A., & O'Doherty, E. The Northern Fiddler: Music and Musicians of Donegal and Tyrone. Belfast: n. p., 1979. Vallely, Fintan, and Charlie Piggott. Blooming Meadows: The World of Irish Traditional Musicians. Dublin: Town House and Country House, 1998. Worksheet 3.1 Exploring music and place in today’s world 1. Organize teams to debate the topic, some teams arguing that place is influential in the development of musical style, others against that idea. 3. Set out 4-6 points that make a strong argument for your case. Imagine any weaknesses in each point, and strengthen accordingly. In developing the points, draw on your knowledge of music in a variety of social and cultural contexts to support your ideas. 1. After 15 minutes, come back together and have a class debate on the topic. Document the main arguments on a chalkboard or flip chart. As a class, choose the most salient and strongest points and conclude with a class position statement. Worksheet 3.2 Schools of Irish Traditional Music Choose one of the following schools or institutions of Irish traditional music.

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