Modern Performance Practice and Aesthetics in Traditional Scottish Gaelic Singing

Modern Performance Practice and Aesthetics in Traditional Scottish Gaelic Singing Erin K McPhee MPhil University of Edinburgh 2008 I certify that this thesis has been composed entirely by me and is my own work. Erin McPhee University of Edinburgh December 2008 i Abstract Performance practice and aesthetics is an under-researched area in Scottish Gaelic song. Previous studies have focused on text rather than context, and there is a significant lack of information from the singers themselves, in their own words, as to how they view their own tradition of singing and performance. The objective of this study is to present an overview of modern performance practice and aesthetics in Scottish Gaelic singing, based primarily on what singers believe to be important. The scope is not meant to be exhaustive; rather the purpose is to serve as a preliminary study of Gaelic singing and promote discussion in the topic. Located in the field of ethnomusicology, it will consider not just the musical sounds produced, but the performance as a whole, and consequently the research is divided into the four topics of aesthetics; singing styles and vocal techniques; performance contexts; and repertoire selection and transmission. The data were collected primarily through fieldwork, combining interviews with fifteen Gaelic singers of different ages and experience in Gaelic song with participant-observation at céilidhs, formal concerts, and Gaelic singing classes. The information gathered is revealing, indicating that, although singers have a clear sense of what is important to them in their singing, there is no universal set of criteria with which every singer agrees. Certain aspects of singing might inspire very definite opinions in some singers, and ambivalence in others. But one prominent theme to have emerged, that appears to pervade throughout modern Gaelic singing, is the juxtaposition of preservation versus innovation. This manifests itself in many different ways, such as the contrasting contexts of céilidh and concert hall; the contradictory opinions of how much ii interpretation is acceptable; whether or not singers choose songs based on the traditional criterion of the poetry, or for the melody; whether or not accompaniment or choral singing has a place in traditional Gaelic song; and whether or not their repertoire selection is affected by the taste of modern, often non-Gaelic-speaking, audiences. All of this certainly reflects the state of change in which the world of Gaelic singing finds itself, with more external influences than ever before, and facing the question of whether or not it can survive if it is not relevant for modern singers and audiences. iii Acknowledgements There are many people I would like to thank for helping me during the course of this thesis. Thank you to my supervisors, Dr John Shaw and Dr Neill Martin, for giving me support, guidance, and encouragement throughout; for keeping me on track, offering countless suggestions and believing in the project. I would also like to thank Dr Katherine Campbell, whose additional support (whether it was reading chapter drafts or providing an excellent source of advice) was very much appreciated, and I am grateful for her help. Thank you to Dr John MacInnes for taking the time to read an early draft and share his vast knowledge of Gaelic song. Thanks also to Dr Peter Cooke, who provided encouragement and recommended some very interesting avenues of research, and to Prof. Akiko Takamatsu, for sending me a copy of her paper on Scots Traveller singing. I would like to thank the University of Edinburgh Small Project Grants fund and the Scottish International Education Trust for their financial assistance. These grants were instrumental in allowing me to travel to the Hebrides to conduct fieldwork, and present my research at the 2005 Celtic Folk Studies Conference in Cardiff. This project could not have existed at all without the help of all the wonderful Gaelic singers whose words make up the heart of this thesis. I would like to thank each of them for sharing their thoughts and feelings with me; I learned so much from them and had a wonderful time in the process. iv And most importantly, I would like to thank my family: my husband, Chris, for his incredible support and belief in me, and my son, Fionn, who was born halfway through my studies and who has shown me what is really important in life. v Table of Contents Page Declaration i Abstract ii Acknowledgements iv Table of Contents vi Chapter One: Introduction 1 Definitions and delimitations 1 Objective of study 3 Previous approaches 4 Methodology 11 Singer demographics 16 Thesis outline by chapter 19 Chapter Two: Aesthetics 21 Approaches to the study of musical aesthetics 23 ‘Good singing’ – cross-cultural perspectives 28 Communicating the text and story 31 Communicating the emotion of the song 32 Aesthetics of poetry and melody 34 Singing and narrative 37 Changing aesthetics 42 Chapter summary 44 Chapter Three: Singing Styles and Vocal Techniques 46 Singing styles 46 Vocal quality and intonation 52 Ornamentation, variation, and improvisation 57 Phrasing, tempo, and treatment of rhythm 65 Chapter summary 72 Chapter Four: Performance Contexts 74 Overview of historical and modern contexts of Gaelic singing 75 Performance setting 92 Performance wardrobe 97 Performer-audience relationships 98 Performance etiquette 106 Chapter summary 109 vi Chapter Five: Repertoire Selection and Transmission 112 Repertoire selection 112 Transmission 124 Chapter summary 139 Chapter Six: Conclusion 142 Reflections on fieldwork 142 Emergent themes 144 Suggestions for further research 145 Bibliography 148 Appendix 1: List of Recorded Interviews 162 Appendix 2: Sample of Fieldwork Questionnaire 163 vii CHAPTER ONE Introduction The concepts of performance practice and aesthetics in singing are fascinating ones, and have been very seldom previously investigated in the Scottish Gaelic tradition. Considering how much study has been devoted to Gaelic song, it is very surprising that so little examination has been done on how Gaelic singers actually sing; questions such as what makes a ‘good’ Gaelic singer, what makes Gaelic singing unique among other traditional musical cultures, and what features of the singing style are considered to be important, have largely been ignored. Most importantly, there is a significant lack of information from the singers themselves, in their own words, as to how they view their own tradition of singing and performance. This study will attempt to redress the balance of Gaelic song scholarship that has mainly focused on text rather than context. Definitions and delimitations The term ‘Performance practice’, derived from the German Aufführungspraxis, is one that is most often associated with Western art music, where it is concerned mainly with the ‘authentic’ reproduction of historical compositions through focus on such aspects as notation, ornamentation, instruments, tuning, and the size of ensembles (Kennedy 2004:555). For non-Western or traditional music, the study of performance practice is much less specific, covering, as Benjamin Brinner writes, the ‘conventions that govern music-making and accompanying activities… [which] delimit a range of appropriate choices in 1 performance, and, increasingly, are understood to be situated, negotiable and often gendered’ (Brinner n.d.). He goes on to say that these conventions are usually unwritten, sometimes unarticulated, subject to change, and are exceedingly dependent on context and relations between performer and audience (Brinner n.d.). The discipline of aesthetics is one that has occupied scholars and philosophers for centuries, extending into all areas of the arts and beyond (see Hospers 1969; Gaut 2002 for a selection of readings on aesthetics). While the study of aesthetics can raise many profound philosophical questions, this study is not rooted in philosophy but in ethnomusicology; consequently the examination of aesthetics in this case concentrates on the taste and values that singers have regarding Gaelic song. This aspect of aesthetics in relation to Scottish Gaelic singing will be discussed in much more detail in Chapter Two. The word ‘traditional’ is used throughout this work, and it is necessary to clarify its meaning as it is employed here. In the Scottish Gaelic context, ‘traditional’ refers to the nature of the rich singing culture that has been transmitted orally through families and communities, encompassing not only songs, but singing styles, aesthetics, and conventions as well, all of which will be discussed over the course of the thesis. However, the main focus of the fieldwork, and of the thesis, is to investigate the current state of Gaelic singing; not as it has been in the past, but how modern Gaelic singers of traditional songs are interpreting the tradition they have inherited and are passing it on. In some cases, this may differ from customary traditional Gaelic singing as discussed in previous scholarship. But by their very nature oral traditions are fluid, not static, and thus not fixed in any particular time period. These modern singers are certainly singing traditional Gaelic songs and 2 perpetuating Gaelic singing, and so it is appropriate to refer to their singing as traditional, albeit the modern or contemporary form. Consequently, in all discussions of present-day Gaelic singing it will be made explicit that it is the contemporary manifestation of the tradition that is being examined. It is also necessary to clarify the definition of ‘poetry’ as used in the fieldwork and in the thesis. When singers were asked about their opinions on song poetry in the interviews (such as the relationship between poetry and music in a song and which of the two elements they feel is more important), ‘poetry’ was referring to the song texts. It is of course true that there is much more to the song texts than simply the words; bards employ great artistry in their choice of metre, rhyme structure, use of poetic techniques such as metaphors and similes, and in marrying the poetry with a suitable air.

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