Traditional music updates
A CO Mayo man has just won three gold medals at the Violin Society of America bow-making competition in Cleveland, Ohio.
Gary Leahy from Newport makes bows for a variety of string instruments. He won gold at the biggest violin and bow-making competition in the world for his viola bow, violin bow and cello bow. (Irish Times) >>>
Three State agencies have a role in promoting traditional music, so what do they do abroad? Culture Ireland says it has identified traditional arts and music as a priority area for “strategic, proactive promotion”. Besides providing grants to musicians, Culture Ireland connects musicians with programmers of Celtic music festivals and brings Irish performers to international arts events. But Madeline Boughton, Culture Ireland’s director of projects and promotions, agrees that there are gaps in the chain promoting traditional music. “One thing that’s missing, for instance, is an independent organisation to promote, develop and push the case for traditional arts, to galvanise and unite the community,” she says, citing Dance Ireland in comparison. “People probably feel they are on their own and have to sell themselves. If there was a more united front from the community we couldn’t but be pleased. They would make their case and Culture Ireland and the Arts Council would have to respond.”
Culture Ireland also publishes listings of upcoming events around the world that are happening with its support. It hopes to overhaul its website soon to make it more user-friendly.
Tourism Ireland in Germany says it wants to promote Irish music more as part of its marketing strategy. “In 2011 we’ll be putting traditional music in the foreground as research shows it is a trigger for German tourists,” says Barbara Wood, Tourism Ireland’s manager for central Europe.
And what about Comhaltas Ceoltóiri Éireann? On its website it claims to “promote traditional Irish music and culture around the world”, but the reality is sobering. The organisation is dependent on the initiative of volunteers to set up local branches and do the promotion. In Europe the organisation has branches in France, Finland, Luxembourg and Italy. As for Germany, the organisation’s Bernard O’Sullivan says there was a Munich branch but it is no longer active. “We don’t have the resources to go on the ground,” he says. “The interest has to come from the region itself.”
That interest can be dampened when it becomes clear that Comhaltas is not able to provide financial assistance yet would like volunteers who set up branches to pay a €16 membership fee.
In addition to State agencies, Riverdance has acted as a useful surrogate for satisfying interest in traditional Irish music in recent years. And many Irish embassies have cultural attachés performing good work with limited resources. But, more often than not, long-term promotion abroad falls to Irish and non-Irish volunteers, driven by their passion for Ireland.
In Germany, Christian Ludwig makes the case for a website like Celtic Music Net, with user-generated content as a one-stop resource for all Irish traditional music bands and fans. Equally important, he argues, is a steering group in Ireland to co-ordinate the existing efforts of Culture Ireland, Comhaltas, Tourism Ireland and the Arts Council. “When you talk to people in these organisations individually they’re always very open to ideas, but you can never get them together.”
In Berlin, members of Cirrus, the band recently formed live on the TG4 series, Lorg Lunny , are enjoying a drink after their set. They are now dealing with the challenges that face all new bands: selling their first CD and getting bookings and attention. But they are getting little assistance. “People in Ireland think of traditional music in pubs as something that’s always there and always free, like tap water,” says fiddle player Tara Breen.
Moya Brennan, one of our best cultural ambassadors for the last 30 years, wants a change in official thinking: away from subsidies for companies that come and go and towards long-term financial support for young traditional bands such as Cirrus.
“We have a bank in Ireland called culture, so rich that other countries would dearly love to be able to draw on it,” says Brennan. “It’s a treasure chest that hasn’t been opened yet.” (Times) >>>
Traditional music and academia may seem strange bedfellows, but Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at UL is challenging certainties while helping to keep the music alive, writes Siobhán Long
Cúl Aodha sean nós singer Iarla Ó Lionáird, a member of the groundbreaking Afro Celt Sound System, needs no convincing of the benefits of bringing traditional music within reach of academia. A PhD Programme in Arts Practice commenced in September 2009, attracting internationally renowned performers including Ó Lionáird.
“My reasons for pursuing an academic route are purely personal,” he admits. “I like learning. It isn’t really about having hard and fast opinions. It’s about having a place where everybody can have diverse opinions.
“Where that is a challenge to oral-based traditions is to their sense of some overarching or underlying truth,” Ó Lionáird continues. “Some might consider that our traditional arts are laden with certainties. They have shaped us through generations and are the root of who we are. The academic gaze challenges those precepts, and for some that might be de-stabilising, but I find it enlivening.”
“There are younger musicians who are less inclined to feel the need to support this bulwark of notional truths: a mythic ancientness. Now, I can assure you that I’m not doing my work to devalue my tradition. I have an abiding love for my tradition, but there are people who would say I display scant regard for it, and perhaps endanger it with my creative frolics.
“But this is the beautiful thing about academic discourse. It allows for different opinions. You have to state your case and you have to be prepared to be gainsaid by better proof, if it’s there. I think that’s very valuable. I have no time for sacred cows myself anyway.”
Donal Lunny:
“I think we have to accept that the oral tradition is vanishing, and it’s vanishing everywhere,” he notes, “but I don’t think that the existence of these courses is accelerating it. There are pros and cons, but the pros are that the students are acquiring a great deal of knowledge, even if it’s not of the same cultural depth. I feel that a lot of the gaps will be filled in, in time. A lot more people will be carrying the tradition with them into the future.
“It also gives substance to the whole notion of pursuing traditional music as a career, rather than making it up as you go along – which is what I did!” “I have to confess that there were huge gaps in my knowledge about traditional music around the country, even though I’ve been involved for years and years. My first few years of teaching consisted of back-pedalling from the beginning of the lesson to the end,” he laughs. “It’s been a revealing process for me, because teaching is a skill; being able to see things from the learner’s point of view.” (Times) >>>
Thought this was a good summary, from Steve Twigger of Gaelic Storm, currently at the Michigan Irish Music Festival, of the importance of the North American diaspora to Irish music:
“There are more Irish-Americans than residents of the Republic of Ireland, Twigger said, and cultural groups like Riverdance helped revive interest in the heritage. “People really like to seek out and identify with that part of their heritage,” he said. “It’s great to hear that it’s such a popular culture that a 16th (of a bloodline) is such a big influence on people’s lives.”” [From MLive.com >>>]
