Traditional Music

Question 1

History

Answer 1

• living tradition (18c onwards), conservative tendency
• oral music in transmission and composition (to change in the 20c!)
• community based, localized, historically solo, with rural origins
• amateur, typically domestic/private settings, and a shared repertoire

Question 2

Pub session beginnings

Answer 2

• Post-War diaspora
• living patterns changing from rural to urban
• tourism increase and uptick in commodification
• dilution of dancing music for dancing!

Question 3

Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann and CCE

Answer 3

• formation of importance systems of competition/organization for traditional music

Question 4

Actors in pub sessions

Answer 4

• tourists: consumers
• musicians: performers, paid
• pub owners: benefit from increased pub traffic
• Doolin, Clare!

Question 5

Commodification/social contract

Answer 5

• sessions are ‘unstaged’ with various actors
• managed still, whether implicitly or explicitly
• some spontaneity, even with paid sessions developing in the 1980s

Question 6

Doolin

Answer 6

• session model
• lots of national and international tourism, especially for the culture (‘authenticity’)
• commodified and commercialized
• structured paid sessions, tacit cultural understandings

Question 7

Pre and Post 1900

Answer 7

• pre: solo/domestic setting
• 1893 –> Gaelic League founded and beginnings of a cultural revival!
• post: gradual shift to public settings and ensemble performances

Question 8

More dates

Answer 8

• 1893: Gaelic League
• CCE: 1951
• 1950s-60s: Western folk music revival
• 1990s: globalization

Question 9

Forms of ensemble

Answer 9

• ceili bands!
• pub sessions
• Ceoltoiri Cualann (Kinsella)

Question 10

Ceili band development

Answer 10

• social dance spaces created as dancing was moved to halls
• ceili dance was created in 1897 (event and ensemble dance repertoire)
• recording technology developed, radio stations as a media format (2RN, RE)
• competitions through the Fleadh Cheoil