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The Cape Breton Fiddling Narrative

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The Cape Breton Fiddling Narrative THE CAPE BRETON FIDDLING NARRATIVE: INNOVATION, PRESERVATION, DANCING by JESSICA HERDMAN A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES (Music) UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) August 2008 © Jessica Herdman, 2008 Abstract With the fear of decline of the Cape Breton fiddling tradition after the airing of The Vanishing Cape Breton Fiddler by the CBC in 1971, both the Cape Breton community and ethnographers clamored to preserve and maintain the extant practices and discourse. While this allowed for performance contexts and practices to burgeon, it also solidified certain perspectives about the “diasporic preservation” and resultant “authenticity.” This work aims to trace the seeds and developments of the beliefs surrounding the Cape Breton fiddling tradition, from the idealizations of Enlightenment Scotland to the manipulation and commercialization of the folklore and Celticism of twentieth-century Nova Scotia. These contexts romanticized older practices as “authentic,” a construct that deeply impacted the narrative about the Cape Breton fiddling tradition. One of the most rooted and complex concepts in this narrative is that of “old style,” a term that came to represent the idealized performance practice in post-1971 Cape Breton fiddling. As models were sought for younger players to emulate, pre-1971 “master” fiddlers with innovative stylistic approaches began to be identified as “old style” players. The interstices of the tradition allowed more extreme stylistic experimentation to be accepted as “traditional,” while the symbiotic social practice of dancing necessitated relative conservatism. Analysis will show that “listening” tunes fell into the interstices of allowable innovation, while dance (particularly step-dance) tunes demanded certain “old style” techniques. A more holistic view of the complexities of the Cape Breton fiddling tradition follows from a perspective not only of the socio-musical elements that shaped ii the historical narrative, but also of the musical elements of this dance-oriented “old style.” iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................... ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................................ iv LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................ vi PREAMBLE............................................................................................................................ 1 CHAPTER ONE: The Roots of Invented Tradition .................................................................. 4 The Invented Scottish Tradition ............................................................................................... 5 The “Art” and “Folk” Music Dichotomy .................................................................................. 9 The Anglophone Narrative .................................................................................................... 12 Immigration and Continued Constructions ............................................................................ 13 Tourism and Tartanism in Nova Scotia .................................................................................. 15 The Suppression of Gaelic Traditions in the Gaelic Craze ..................................................... 18 Tourism in Cape Breton ........................................................................................................ 20 CHAPTER TWO: Cultural Innovation .................................................................................. 23 Diasporic Cultures and Acculturation .................................................................................... 23 The Cape Breton Scottish Diaspora: Authenticity Preserved................................................... 25 “The ‘Myth’ of the Vanishing Cape Breton Fiddler” ............................................................ 28 Reformation of the Tradition: Social Remodeling .................................................................. 35 Innovation: Theories of Social Practices and Cape Breton Fiddling........................................ 37 The 1920s-1930s: Records, Radios and the “Boston States” .................................................. 39 The 1940s-1950s: Promotion ................................................................................................. 42 The 1960s: Television and Recorded Reiterations ................................................................. 44 The 1970s: Where have all the fiddlers gone? ........................................................................ 46 The 1980s-1990s: Boom! ...................................................................................................... 49 The Present: Awareness ........................................................................................................ 51 Revivals, Interstices, Legitimized and Proscribed Innovation ................................................ 53 CHAPTER THREE: Cultural Preservation and Tradition ...................................................... 57 Tradition: the Basis of Authenticity and Cultural Preservation ............................................... 57 “From Away”: Insider/Outsider Folk Idealizations ................................................................ 60 Tradition and Tartanism......................................................................................................... 62 “Restoration”: Selection ........................................................................................................ 65 Dancing in Plain Sight ........................................................................................................... 69 iv CHAPTER FOUR: The “Old Style” ...................................................................................... 71 The Paradox of the Discourse on “Old Style” ........................................................................ 71 Duality in the post-VCBF Usage of the “Old Style” .............................................................. 71 Duality and Globality in Cape Breton Fiddling: Contexts ...................................................... 72 Innovative “Old Style”: post-VCBF ...................................................................................... 79 CHAPTER FIVE: Dancing and “Old Style” Technical Retention .......................................... 83 An Historical View of Social Dance and Step Dance from the Old to New World.................. 84 Transformations of the Dancing Tradition in Twentieth Century Cape Breton ....................... 88 Dancing and “Old Style” Performance Practice ..................................................................... 93 Practical Demands Dance Fiddling ........................................................................................ 95 Techniques Facilitating Dance Fiddling ................................................................................100 CHAPTER SIX: Comparative Case Studies: Step Dance Tunes Necessitating “Old Style”....110 Fiddler and Tune Selection ...................................................................................................112 “King George IV Strathspey” ...............................................................................................117 “The King’s Reel” ................................................................................................................122 Conservatism vs. Innovation in Idealized “Old Style” post-VCBF Fiddlers ..........................125 “Christie Campbell Strathspey” ............................................................................................128 Inter-Generational and Cross-Role Continuation of the “Old Style” .....................................131 CONCLUSION: Preservation, Innovation, and Social Contexts ............................................133 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................................138 DISCOGRAPHY ..................................................................................................................146 APPENDIX A: Bill Lamey – “King George IV Strathspey” .................................................147 APPENDIX B: Buddy MacMaster – “King George IV Strathspey” ......................................148 APPENDIX C: Ashley MacIsaac – “King George IV Strathspey” ........................................149 APPENDIX D: Robbie Fraser – “King George IV Strathspey” .............................................150 APPENDIX E: Bill Lamey – “The King’s Reel” ..................................................................151 APPENDIX F: Buddy MacMaster - “The King’s Reel” ........................................................152 APPENDIX G: Ashley MacIsaac – “The King’s Reel” ........................................................153 APPENDIX H: Robbie Fraser – “The King’s Reel” .............................................................154 APPENDIX I: Angus Chisholm – “Mrs. Scott Skinner” .......................................................155 APPENDIX J: Angus Chisholm – “Christie Campbell Strathspey” .......................................156 APPENDIX K: Ornamentation and Style Notation Key .......................................................157 APPENDIX L: BREB Ethics
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