It's a Balancing Act. That's the Secret to Making This Music Fit in Today
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“It’s a balancing act. That’s the secret to making this music fit in today”: Negotiating Professional and Vernacular Boundaries in the Cape Breton Fiddling Tradition by Ian Hayes A thesis submitted to the School of Graduate Studies In partial fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Music Memorial University of Newfoundland January 2015 St. John’s, Newfoundland Abstract Originating from the music of early Gaelic immigrants, Cape Breton fiddling has been a thriving musical tradition for more than two hundred years. It eventually rose to prominence in the 1990s, receiving international recognition in the music industry. As the “Celtic boom” faded and major record labels lost interest in the tradition commercially, Cape Breton traditional musicians continued to maintain a presence in the music industry, though their careers now enjoy more modest success. All the while, Cape Breton fiddling has remained a healthy, vibrant tradition on the local level, where even the most commercially successful musicians have remained closely tied to their roots. This thesis examines how Cape Breton traditional musicians negotiate and express their musical identities in professional and vernacular contexts. As both professional musicians and tradition bearers, they are fixtures in popular culture, as well as the local music scene, placing them at an intersection between global and local culture. While seemingly fairly homogenous, Cape Breton fiddling is rich and varied tradition, and musicians relate to it in myriad ways. This plurality and intersubjectivity of what is considered to be “legitimate” culture is evident as the boundaries of tradition are drawn and change according to context. Musicians engage with, and critically evaluate cultural discourses surrounding the tradition which are influenced by power, cultural capital, social group, ethnicity, and region. These discourses and representations of the tradition are sometimes upheld or even celebrated, while at other times, they may be challenged or subverted. One’s musical identity is not necessarily expressed verbally, but is performed and demonstrated musically. Repertoire and musical arrangements can be profoundly meaningful, ii representing a musician’s cultural values. The decisions of how to frame oneself within the tradition influences how musicians relate to each other socially and professionally, potentially having profound effects on issues such as intellectual property rights. In addition, audio technology plays a significant role in how the tradition is presented, understood, and experienced. Commercial recordings embrace socially constructed notions of “liveness,” while live performances rely on amplification practices that connect musicians to global popular culture while simultaneously upholding local musical aesthetics. iii Acknowledgements There are many people whose help and generosity have made this thesis possible. First and foremost, I would like to thank my informants, both those who I have interviewed, as well as those who I have spoken with informally while in the field. This is a research project about you, and I tried to represent you all as accurately as I could. I am particularly indebted to Jason Roach, Chrissy Crowley, and Colin Grant for our many long, frank, and often late night conversations about my research. In addition, I am appreciative of Fred Lavery and Sheppy of Lakewind Sound Studios, Darren Van Niekerk of Sonic Temple, Jamie Foulds of Soundpark Studios, and the members of Sprag Session for allowing me to observe and research in their places of work. This project began, at least conceptually, during my master’s degree. The faculty at University of Louisville have done a great deal to encourage and inspire me to continue on to my Ph. D. I also offer my heartfelt thanks to Sean Mulhall, Cathy Wilde, Larry Green, Rachel Blanton and the rest of the folks at the Molly Malone’s session for welcoming me into the Irish session scene in Louisville and sharing your tunes with me. There are, of course, many more people in the world of academia I must thank, including the faculty, staff, and my fellow students at Memorial University of Newfoundland – you have all made my time in St. John’s educational and thoroughly enjoyable. I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Holly Everett, and committee members, Dr. Philip Hiscock and Dr. Beverley Diamond for their support and keen insight. Thanks to Dr. Christopher McDonald of Cape Breton University for the use of the piano transcriptions I made during my time as his research assistant. The funding I iv received from MUN’s School of Graduate Studies and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) was also instrumental to my research. Thank you to my family. You have all been tremendously supportive and encouraging throughout the duration of my studies. To my lovely wife, Laura – what can I say? You’ve been my editor, proof reader, and unofficial advisor, and you inspire me everyday. I love you. Last, but certainly not least, I would like to thank you, the reader, whoever you may be. Thanks for taking this off the shelf (or opening this PDF) and reading my work. v Table of Contents Title Page i Abstract ii Acknowledgements iv Table of Contents vi List of Figures ix List of Appendices x Chapter 1 Introduction: Context and Approach 1.1 - Introduction 1 1.2 - Scope and Objectives 2 1.3 - Methodology 4 1.4 - Key Informants 11 1.5 - Theoretical Framework 15 1.6 - Overview and Chapter Breakdowns 20 Chapter 2 Historical Background and Literature Review 2.1 – Introduction and Historical Background 23 2.2 - A Brief Explanation of the Cape Breton Fiddle Style 28 2.3 - Defining Cape Breton Fiddling 33 2.4 - Economic Realities of Contemporary Cape Breton Fiddling 34 2.5 - Critiquing Histories of Cape Breton Fiddling 38 2.6 - Position Within Existing Literature 42 Chapter 3 Setting the Scene: Cultural Capital, Ethnicity and Region 3.1 - Introduction 53 3.2 - The Struggle for “Legitimacy” 55 3.3 - The History of the Gaelic College 58 3.4 - The Gaelic College Programming Debate 62 3.5 - Competition as a Non-Gaelic Construct 72 3.6 – Social Capital, Cultural Capital, and Lineage 75 3.7 - The Significance of Region 77 3.8 - Ethnicity 83 vi 3.9 - Gaelic and Cape Breton Fiddling 89 3.10 - Conclusion 94 Chapter 4 “How traditional do you want to sound?”: Negotiating Traditionalism in Repertoire, Accompaniment, and Arranging 4.1 - Introduction 96 4.2 - Conception of Tradition 97 4.3 - Repertoire and Tradition 105 4.4 - “Traditional” Compositions 110 4.5 - “Contemporary” Compositions 116 4.6 - Arranging 124 4.7 - Accompaniment 132 4.8 - Conclusion 144 Chapter 5 “You have to strike that balance between sharing and charging”: Cape Breton Fiddling and Intellectual Property Rights 5.1 - Introduction 146 5.2 - Commodification and Ownership 148 5.3 - Mechanical Rights and Cape Breton Fiddling 153 5.4 - Commodity Versus Gift 162 5.5 - SOCAN and Performance Royalties 171 5.6 - Copyright Infringement 176 5.7 - Conclusion 178 Chapter 6 “Our fiddles sound big. That’s the way I think it should be”: Cape Breton Fiddling and Amplification Practices 6.1 - Introduction 181 6.2 - Discourses on Audio Technology and Music 183 6.3 - Amplification and Cape Breton Fiddling 186 6.4 - Critiquing and Negotiating Current Conventions 199 6.5 - Conclusion 208 Chapter 7 “Holy Jeez. I can hear everything”: Liveness, Hyper-reality, and Imagination in Cape Breton Fiddle Recordings 7.1 - Introduction 210 7.2 - Contrasting Conceptions of Liveness 212 vii 7.3 - Liveness in Cape Breton “Dance Tapes” and Commercial Recordings 217 7.4 - Liveness and Realism in On-location Recordings 222 7.5 - Liveness and Violin Tone at Lakewind Sound Studios 226 7.7 - Liveness and Hyper-reality in the Studio 231 7.8 - Audio Editing and Liveness 234 7.9 - Conclusion 237 Conclusion and Final Thoughts 239 Bibliography 247 Tune Books and Music Collections 263 Selected Audio Recordings 266 Personal Interviews 270 Appendix 1 272 Appendix 2 292 viii List of Figures Figure #1: Map of Cape Breton Island 11 Figure #2: “Muileann Dubh” – Scottish Traditional Reel 113 Figure #3: “Jenny Dang the Weaver” – Scottish Traditional Reel 114 Figure #4: “Ryan’s Fancy Arriving” (A Section – measures 1-8) – by Emile Benoit 115 Figure #5: “The Green Gates” (A Section – measures 1-8) – Irish Traditional Reel 115 Figure #6: “Genesis” (A Section – measures 1-8) – by Jason Roach 118 Figure #7: “Tamerack’er Down” (A Section – measures 1-4) 118 – by Donald Angus Beaton Figure #8: “Mabou Pizza Boy” (A Section – measures 1-8) – by Colin Grant 119 Figure #9: “The Doppelganger” (measures 13-24) – by Chrissy Crowley 120 Figure #10: “Mabou Pizza Boy” (measures 17-20) – by Colin Grant 121 Figure #11: “Amegerous Time on a Fork” – by Jason Roach 122 Figure #12: Piano Accompaniment by Mac Morin 130 Figure #13: Formal description of “The Gwanwitcha” (Introduction) 131 – by Sprag Session Figure #14: Piano Accompaniment by Joey Beaton 134 Figure #15: Piano Accompaniment by Jason Roach 135 Figure #16: Piano Accompaniment by Troy MacGillivray 136 Figure #17: Piano Accompaniment by Troy MacGillivray 138 Figure #18: “The Young Alumnus” – by Andrea Beaton 140 Figure #19: L. R. Baggs violin pickup 187 Figure #20: Colin Grant playing his fiddle equipped with an L. R. Baggs pickup 196 Figure #21: Buddy MacMaster playing his violin with a DeArmond pickup 204 ix List of Appendices Appendix 1 – Compositions Appendix 1-1 “Ryan’s Fancy Arriving” by Emile Benoit 272 Appendix