Resisting Cultural Standardization: Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann and the Revitalization of Traditional Music in Ireland

7/28/2019 Resisting Cultural Standardization: Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann and the Revitalization of Traditional Music in Ireland

1/32

Indiana University Presshttp://www.jstor.org/stable/3814592 .

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

Indiana University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of Folklore Research.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 198.91.32.137 on Mon, 10 Jun 2013 15:40:24 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=iupresshttp://www.jstor.org/stable/3814592?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/stable/3814592?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/stable/3814592?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=iupress


2/32

Rachel CFleming

Resisting Cultural Standardization:

Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann

and the Revitalization of

Traditional Music in Ireland

Introduction

In the context of global musical exchange, an increasingly urban so?

cial environment, and tensions between local and national musicalstyles, the question of authenticity is central for both scholars and

practitioners of folk music. How can we balance efforts to preservetraditional music1 with the challenge of defining music that, as an

oral tradition, is inherently dynamic, unbounded, and diverse? Like

language, communication through traditional music depends uponunderstood conventions, yet these rules suggest possibilities rather

than dictate action. Here we encounter the paradox of most cultural

forms, including traditional music: they must constrain, or base them?

selves upon a set of rules, in order to allow for communication and

creativity. In the case of Irish traditional music, the tensions between

different groups struggling with this paradox appear to have aided

the survival and vitality of the music itself.

Traditional music has been characterized by its development over

time as a form of social communication in relatively isolated locali?

ties.Today,

however, thistype

of music also serves as asymbol

of na?

tional or ethnic identity for many people. National governments and

leaders of ethnic movements are increasingly interested in promot?

ing unique cultural traditions, while traditional musicians are self-

Journal of FolkloreResearch, Vol. 41, No. 2/3, 2004Copyright ? 2004 Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology, Indiana University

227

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


3/32

228 Rachel C. Fleming

conscious of their roles in preserving and passing on their music in

ways they feel are authentic. The nationalization process includes some

definition and homogenization of culture in order for individuals,movement organizers, and/or governments to claim a distinctive

national identity and establish a nation (see Anderson 1983; Gellner

1983; Smith 1989). While groups with differing views about what is

authentic may argue substantively about how traditional music is

played and performed, these struggles are as much about who has

the power to define or authenticate a particular cultural form as theyare about music itself.

State sponsorship of a folk music revitalization effort, often moti?vated by nationalism, has the potential both to authenticate a parti?cular style of music over other styles and to "reinvent"?and so alter

?traditional music (Hobsbawm 1983). Either possibility can be deeply

threatening for musicians. In reality, the line between the state and

locally based groups in a music revitalization movement is often

blurred, and sub-groups and dissension within groups are common?

place.Yet

strugglesover what folk music should be, as seen in debates

and public discourse during revitalization movements, can provide a

useful focus for analyzing questions about authenticity and gaugingthe value of state sponsorship.

In Ireland, the national government has taken an active role in the

preservation of Irish traditional music, leading to tensions between a

state-sponsored organization and musicians. My essay focuses on the

Irish-based cultural organization Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann (pro?

nounced roughly "kol-to kel-tor\ air-tm"), Irish-Gaelic for "Associationof Musicians of Ireland" and commonly referred to as CCE or

Comhaltas. Founded in 1951, the organization has been largely spon?sored by the Irish government and, through a combination of nation?

alist politics, music competitions, centralized bureaucracy, and

grassroots activism, has played an important role in preserving and

revitalizing traditional music in Ireland. Today, Comhaltas reports over

four hundred branches and a membership of more than thirty-five thou?

sand.2 Comhaltas provides a formalized social network for practitionersof Irish traditional music and is responsible for introducing thousands

of children and adult beginners to the music through music education,music-related events, tourism, recordings, and publications.

My analysis of Comhaltas's role in the shaping of contemporaryIrish traditional music is based on fieldwork conducted in Ireland



4/32

Resisting Cultural Standardization 229

during the summer of 1999. As a novice fiddle player I fell easily into

the role of a music student, participating in formal music classes and

the informal "sessions" in pubs and homes where Irish music is mostoften played. During fieldwork at music competitions, music schools,and sessions, I found that Comhaltas was the subject of intense de?

bate among musicians.3 Because Irish traditional music is based on

variation within certain musical forms and has distinctive regional

styles, musicians felt threatened by the implication of standardiza?

tion in Comhaltas's music competitions. Debates about Comhaltas

generally revolved around fears about music standardization, loss of

musical diversity, and a lack of control over how Irish traditional music

is publicly portrayed. However, the implications of these fears were,for the most part, not supported by my observations.

In this essay, I review the historical context in which Comhaltas

arose, then explore contemporary critiques of the organization and

assess whether these critiques are justifiable. Finally, I evaluate

Comhaltas's current role in light of these data and, by extension, the

value of statesponsorship

inencouraging diversity

in traditional music.

In his 1989 article on Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann, Edward O. Henryaddresses the tensions between convention and change as seen in

traditional music and concludes:

These two forces, the old and the new, are the dramatis personae in the

continuing evolution of folk music. The role of sponsorship should be

to provide the stage for the drama to be played out, to continue to in?volve people with music that speaks of their collective experience, mu?

sic that they can perform with the old/new balance they prefer. By thesecriteria [Comhaltas] has been quite successful. (Henry 1989:94)

In this article, I build on Henry's argument by suggesting that Com?

haltas not only provides a stage for these debates, but is also itself an

active?though perhaps unintentional?agent in stimulating debate

about the old and the new in Irish traditional music.

Irish Nationalism, Cultural Revival, and the Rescueof Traditional Music

Ireland's history as a colonized nation has set a precedent for locallybased resistance to centralized rule and at the same time helped to

establish the importance of a distinctive, uniform Irish identity op?

posed to that of an English "other." These conflicting ideologies may



5/32


help explain why Irish cultural symbols, like traditional music, have

often been caught up in tensions between local and national defini?

tions of Irish culture.

Beginning in the twelfth century, Anglo-Norman colonists at?

tempted to rule a fragmented Irish population whom they treated,for the most part, as a homogenous ethnic group. The Statutes of

Kilkenny, established by the Anglo-Normans in 1366, forbade Irish

laws, customs, and language, and outlawed intermarriage between

Irish and Anglo-Normans (Hutchinson 1987:51). Failed rebellions

against British overlords in the seventeenth century resulted in bru?

tal military repression led by Oliver Cromwell (Clarke 1995). This

campaign accelerated the transfer of land and wealth to a Protestant

upper class that had begun in the late sixteenth century under Eliza?

beth I and continued through the late seventeenth century. The

Penal Laws of this time also barred Catholics from holding govern?mental, legal, or military office, and greatly restricted their property

holding. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the Catholic

majority was further marginalized by successive waves of potato cropfailures and epidemics (Wall 1995). Meanwhile, urban Protestant in?

tellectuals felt alienated by English rule and organized the first major

political independence movements in the late eighteenth century(Hutchinson 1987:54-55).

John Hutchinson describes three major cultural revivals in Ire?

land?involving both Protestants and Catholics?that began in the

late 1700s and culminated in Irish independence in 1921. The lead?

ers of these revivals looked to a mythic time before Irish-English con?

flict, to the Gaelic roots of Irish civilization, including the Irish languageand traditional music, and Ireland's early involvement with Chris?

tianity as inspiration for a renewed Irish culture (55-60).Hutchinson argues that these movements were largely driven by

cultural nationalism, which he describes as an impulse originating in

diverse, locally based movements and aiming to regenerate the dis?

tinctive moral character of the nation,mainly through

literature and

art (16). Cultural nationalism, Hutchinson argues, is to be distin?

guished from political nationalism, or the modernist drive to estab?

lish a civic polity of equal citizens with a representative state (12-13).Tensions between political and cultural nationalism in Ireland's na?

tion-building process echo those between national claims to a rela-



6/32


tively homogenous Irish identity and more local, conflicting ideas

about what is authentically Irish.

While motivated in large part by cultural nationalism, the culturalrevival that occurred from 1890 to 1921 also succeeded in Irish politi?cal independence and in establishing national cultural organizationsthat would shape Ireland in the next century. Two organizations in

particular, the Gaelic League and the Gaelic Athletic Association

(GAA), revived and standardized aspects of Irish culture by promot?

ing them on a national scale. The Gaelic League, founded in 1893,

promoted the Irish language and introduced Irish into the national

school curriculum (Hutchinson 1987:185), a process that resulted in

its relative standardization (O Baoill 1988) .4 The GAA, founded in

1884, revived and in many senses reinvented the sports of Gaelic foot?

ball and hurling, which they promoted nationally by creating stan?

dard rules, a system of county teams, and national tournaments

(Cronin 1999). Gaelic sports remain the most popular sporting events

in Ireland today.

Duringthese

earlycultural

revivals,several nationalistic

organiza?tions focused on Irish traditional music, but none succeeded in a

national music revival. The Belfast Harp Festival in 1792 celebrated

traditional music and nationalism with the support of the United

Irishmen, a militant nationalist group, but the festival did not be?

come a larger or ongoing event (Vallely 1999:182). Over a centurylater, in 1897, the Dublin Piper's Club, in conjunction with the Gaelic

League, held their first feis cheoil, or music festival, which included

music competitions and performances using the uilleann pipes andthe harp, which is the oldest and perhaps most symbolically Irish of

instruments (121).5 Although the organization and its feis endured,this attempted music revival was not as successful as that of the Irish

language and sports, probably due to the lack of a nationwide institu?

tional structure and the limited appeal for musicians who did not

play the pipes or the harp.The 1930s?the early years of the Irish Republic?were heavily

influenced by the vision of Eamon de Valera, who led Ireland for

most of the period from 1932 to 1973. De Valera famously idealized

rural Ireland as a "land whose countryside would be bright with cosyhomesteads, whose fields and villages would be joyous with sounds of

industry, the romping of sturdy children, the contests of athletic



7/32


youths, the laughter of comely maidens" (de Valera 1943:1). The harpwas adopted as the national emblem and printed on currency, while

Irish Gaelic was made a compulsory subject in schools (Brown1985:113). The Catholic Church had great power and was allied closelywith the new Irish state. Influential political parties supported orga?nizations promoting Gaelic games and traditional music and dance

(113). Folklore and music were collected, and new efforts to trace

Irish history began (114).

By the 1940s and 1950s, Ireland was well established as an inde?

pendent state. Nonetheless, in a climate of poverty, emigration, and

violence in Northern Ireland, Irish citizens were hearing conflicting

messages about their culture. On the one hand, nationalist politicsmaintained that cultural symbols were important in distinguishingIrish identity from that of its historic oppressor. On the other hand,

Ireland was under pressure to modernize in order to join the Euro?

pean community economically and socially. Many Irish citizens?par?

ticularly young people?associated traditional music, like the Irish

language,with a rural, backward

wayof life. Dermot, a traditional

singer,6 relates the rejection of traditional music in the 1940s to a

crisis in national identity:

The music became associated with the Irish-speaking population. Andthe language being redundant. . . [the music] was regarded as not be?

ing of any use or backward. ... I think it was kind of the idea that [Ire?land] was a new nation state. Having a new identity . . . but you wouldhave people that would be raving nationalists and they would look down

on the Irish music and the Irish language. Which seems almost a con?tradiction in terms!

Additionally, the Public Dance Halls Act of 1935, sponsored bythe Catholic Church and the Irish government, effectively outlawed

the "house dance," a blend of music, dancing, and storytelling held

at a private home, which was a main social outlet in rural Ireland at

that time. The church claimed that unsupervised dances allowed new

dance styles from abroad that were seen as promoting licentious be?

havior; additionally, financial profit from licensing dances went to

both the church and the government (Austin 1993). Although there

is some controversy as to how effectively this ban was enforced

(McCann 2002:82), it did affect public perceptions of traditional

music. The Dance Halls Act, together with negative stigma and an



8/32


influx of American dance music in the 1940s and 1950s facilitated bynew music technology, resulted in traditional music losing social rel?

evance.7 Tom, a flute player, remembered being a young musicianduring this time: "When I went to Dublin in the early fifties there

wasn't much interest at all [in music].... I expected to maybe play a

lot ofmusic and meet a lot of musicians, but it wasn't like that. ... [I]twas called 'peasant music.'"

Signaling the beginning of a dramatic turnaround for Irish tradi?

tional music, a group of nationalists and musicians from the Dublin

Piper's Club founded Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann in 1951.8 The

founders began the Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann (pronounced "flah kae-

ole na air-un"), or "music festival of Ireland," an annual event featur?

ing music competitions. They also established a central office and

local branches for music education throughout Ireland. Fin tan Vallely,musician and music historian, writes, "The atmosphere of [Com?

haltas's] early years was urgent; 'revival' was seen as a mission to passon valued traditions and ensure their survival and enhancement for

posterity" (1999:79).Building on previous Gaelic cultural revivals, Comhaltas used a

national infrastructure and advocated nationalist sentiments.

Comhaltas's website lists the official "Aims and Objectives" of the or?

ganization, which remain unchanged since its founding (ComhaltasCeoltoiri Eireann 2002a):

To promote Irish Traditional Music in all its formsTo restore the playing of the harp and Uilleann Pipes in the National

life of IrelandTo promote Irish Traditional DancingTo foster and promote the Irish Language at all timesTo create a closer bond among all lovers of Irish musicTo cooperate with all bodies working for the restoration of Irish CultureTo establish branches throughout the country and abroad to achieve

the foregoing aims and objectives

As Henry notes, these aims reflect de Valera's cultural nationalism

and idealization of rural Irish life (1989:69).In addition to securing state sponsorship, Comhaltas also proved

successful on the local level through their branch activities and par?

ticularly through music competitions. Soon after it was established,

the Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann (known also as the "All-Ireland



9/32


Fleadh," or simply "the Fleadh" or "the All-Ireland") became the cul?

mination of several county and regional fleadhs, each with rounds of

competitions. Jerry, a button accordion player, explained the impactthese early fleadhs had on his uncle in the 1950s: "County fleadhs

were great social occasions for people like [my uncle] who were

isolated. . . . Musicians used to go and they'd meet each other and

they'd just be so happy to meet each other that the competition didn't

really matter a lot." Another older musician noted that the early com?

petitions capitalized on a competitive spirit among Irish counties al?

ready established through Gaelic sports: "In our time [the Fleadh]

was nearly like the holding of the big [Gaelic football match], for

[county] Tipperary would be supporting the Tipperary entry and

[county] Galway people would be supporting the Galway musicians

and that kind of thing. And it was good fun, it was."

Competitions contributed to the success of the Fleadhs in partbecause they encouraged musicians to gather at the festivals, where

they could compete, see others compete, socialize, and share music

by playing in sessions. Competitions also created a carnival atmospherethat attracted non-musicians and especially children; they lent na?

tional prestige to traditional music by establishing a concrete valua?

tion system and they raised the technical standards of music. The

Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann has been consistently well attended since

its founding and is still popular. The New York Times reported that the

2002 Fleadh was attended by an estimated 220,000 people (Lavery

2002:B2).

Since the 1950s, Comhaltas's efforts?in combination with manyother factors?have contributed to the growing popularity of Irish

traditional music in Ireland and abroad. Several musicians reportedthat even in the 1970s they were ridiculed by teachers and peers for

playing traditional music. Today, however, Irish traditional music is

part of many school curricula and various types of music schools are

flourishing. The international popularity of bands that play traditional

Irish music?such as Donegal-based Altan?has increased dramati?

cally in the past twenty years, and pop bands such as The Corrs now

integrate elements of traditional music into their songs. I observed

teenagers in Ireland playing in pubs for crowds of admiring tourists

and peers; I saw trendy young "trad bands" playing in night clubs;and scores of Irish musicians were making a living from their music



10/32


Fig. 1. Session in full swing during an Irish traditional music summer school.

alone. Slowly, over the past thirty years, Irish traditional music has

become not only a source of pride for Irish nationals, but it has also

become "cool."

This shift can be traced to many factors, including a growing num?

ber of children learning traditional music and an improved Irish

economy, which allows for more time and money to be spent on music

production and education. In 1999, the Irish economy was thriving,driven by a strong technology sector (Norton 1999). Additionally,the international ballad boom of the 1960s and 1970s, initiated bybands like The Clancy Brothers, and a continued interest in Irish

culture by Ireland's vast diaspora have popularized Irish music com?

mercially. Through the success of Irish recording artists and Irish-

inspired musicals like Riverdance and Lord of the Dance, Irish music

and dance have been internationally celebrated.

Clearly, multiple variables have contributed to the revitalization

of Irish traditional music in the past half century, includingComhaltas's emphasizing Irish nationalism, teaching young children,and gathering musicians together. Success, however, has brought new

questions about authenticity and standards, and new debates about

the role of an organization like Comhaltas.



11/32


Separating Local and National: The Institutional Structure

of Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann

Comhaltas laid much of the groundwork for a successful music revi?

talization movement in a crisis situation, and the organization con?

tinues to play a large role in Ireland's traditional music scene. Yet

during my fieldwork, critiques of Comhaltas permeated discussions

about the future of Irish traditional music. An analysis of Comhaltas's

institutional structure and ideological ties shows how its central lead?

ership has alienated local branch members and musicians. This rift

has led to tensions between the local and national entities of the or?

ganization and between the organization and unaffiliated musicians.

Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann has a hierarchical organization, cen?

tered in their headquarters just outside of Dublin. It oversees local

branches scattered throughout the country and abroad. As stated

above, Comhaltas today reports around four hundred branches world?

wide and amembership

ofroughly thirty-five

thousand.Accordingto promotional materials, approximately 70 percent of the branches

are located in the thirty-two counties of Ireland, with another 10 per?cent in Britain, and 8 percent in United States and Canada, with the

remaining number in Australia, Italy, and Japan.9A branch is formed when at least five people in a locality apply to

the central office to establish a branch. The institutional infrastruc?

ture then has three levels. First, a county board is formed when there

are more than three active branches within that county. Each countyboard is made up of two delegates from the local branches and annu?

ally elected officers: a chair, a vice-chair, a secretary-registrar, a trea?

surer, a public relations officer, and an auditor. Second, these branches

are organized and disciplined by a provincial council for each of the

four provinces of Ireland, consisting of the same offices as the countyboard (Vallely 1999:77; Henry 1989:70).

The organizing body of Comhaltas is the Central Executive Coun?

cil (CEC). The CEC consists of a president, a general secretary, five

vice-chairpersons, a national treasurer, a national registrar, a compe?titions officer, a music officer, a public relations officer, two delegates,and the chairpersons from each provincial council. Each year the

CEC holds a congress that includes members of the CEC, two del?

egates from each local branch, and two delegates from each county



12/32


board. Together these members meet occasionally throughout the

year to elect the CEC's president, treasurer, secretary, and registrar,

to amend the constitution, and to discuss other matters pertaining tothe organization (Vallely 1999:77-78).

The central office and local branches differ most noticeably in

terms of their institutional structure. Although the CEC is the cen?

tral body governing the organization, Comhaltas's central office seems

to be responsible for many significant decisions and is the most vis?

ible manifestation of leadership. The central office employs the Di?

rector General and other full-time, permanent, and paid officials, and

is involved in national fundraising, organizing the Fleadh Cheoil na

hEireann and other music education activities, publishing an official

magazine called Treoir, archiving music, and running various tourism-

related events. Officers of Comhaltas's local, county, and provincialboards and of the CEC, in contrast, are volunteers and at the higherlevels are elected. Branches are responsible for organizing local mu?

sic sessions, classes, and fundraisers to pay for fleadhs and other ac?

tivities in their localities.Additionally,

while the central office receives

funding from the government, local branches are not subsidized but

rather pay annual insurance and individual membership fees to the

central office.

The distinction between local branches and the central office is

embodied physically in the building that houses the central office,which is called the Culturlann na hEireann ("Irish Cultural Institute")and is located in Monkstown, a suburb of Dublin. The "Culturlann"

is considered the public face of Comhaltas and contains the mainadministrative offices, meeting rooms, a gift shop, archives, and a

concert hall where bussed-in tourist groups can attend performancesand sessions. As Henry writes, Culturlann na hEireann "is a large fa?

cility purchased and remodeled at an expense of approximately

750,000 [Irish pounds]?money raised largely by [Comhaltas] itself,

together with a State grant" (1989:82). Some controversy surrounds

this building. One music teacher remarked:

When I was coming up [in the 1970s], they were building that Culturlann.Most of the local Comhaltas branches spent their time running thingsto make money, to send to Dublin! They'd never see the inside of it halfthe time! Instead of running things to raise money to give to kids, or tosend kids off to a summer school... I wouldn't have been playing mu?sic if it weren't for the local Comhaltas branch. But I would make a very



13/32


big distinction between the local Comhaltas branch and "Head Office,"as they say.

During my fieldwork, I found that local Comhaltas branch mem?

bers and unaffiliated musicians felt resentment about the officials at

the "Head Office" because they are not elected. In particular, the

office of Director General has been held by Labhras O Murchu since

1968. Vallely writes, "The position of Director General is permanentand is not explained or rule-bound in [Comhaltas's] constitution"

(1999:78). One musician remarked:

I think [Comhaltas is] an organization that's a bottom-up organizationand it should have a democratic structure. ... It should have an electedhead that should rotate after a number of years. . . . You can't have an

organization like that that is dominated by a few personalities. It shouldhave rotated.

O Murchu has many influential ties in the government regarding the

arts. Since 1997 he has served on the Culture and Education Panel of

the Irish Senate and several other committeesinvolving

cultural is?

sues (McCann 2002:96). Musicians have often felt uncomfortable that

so many public positions regarding traditional music were represented

by only one voice.

While musicians expressed feelings of powerlessness regardingComhaltas's leadership, the financial situation seems to have fueled

further resentment among musicians because money does not trickle

down to local branches. The central office receives funding in par?

ticular from Roinn na Gaeltachta, the Irish government's departmentdevoted to the preservation of the Irish language, and from the Arts

Council.10 However, Comhaltas's financial accounts are only made

public to delegates at an annual congress, and members have re?

ported difficulty in finding out how much money goes where, or who

makes financial decisions. This apparent lack of transparency has

led to widespread speculation about vast sums of money at the cen?

tral office being diverted into various projects with little benefit to

local musicians.

Concerns regarding leadership and finances have led some musi?

cians to feel that the central office is simply unaware of local musi?

cians' concerns. One professional musician remarked, "I consider

Comhaltas an organization that has done a lot of good. But maybe,then, it got too big . . . maybe it's slightly out of touch with the music



14/32


on the ground." Other musicians, however, feel a real threat from

Comhaltas, in that they are afraid the organization has had too much

influence on funding, education, and other important aspects of musicproduction, without enough musician input. Said Shannon, a flute

teacher, "I don't know where all the money's going. ... I worry about

where the money's going. Because we're not talking about pennies?we're talking big money. But it's not even the money, I don't resent

Comhaltas getting the money. I resent them getting the control."

In his timely discussion of the Irish Music Rights Organization

(IMRO) ,n Anthony McCann addresses issues of control in music defi?

nition and authentication by focusing on the current debate about

music copyrighting. IMRO basically charges public venues an annual

fee for a blanket license to play copyrighted musical material, then

distributes royalties to its musician members. As McCann relates, the

organization has become increasingly prominent in Ireland and seeks

to become ubiquitous, but it has struggled with the issue of tradi?

tional music. Firstly, IMRO has encountered difficulties in definingand

identifyingtraditional

music,and

secondly,social norms

requirethat traditional music be shared freely.

Comhaltas initially opposed IMRO activities in 1996, then dramati?

cally reversed its position, alienating both its own members and tradi?

tional musicians throughout Ireland (McCann 2002:95-103). In 1996,Comhaltas as an organization voted to oppose IMRO's attempts to

require all venues where traditional music was played, includingComhaltas-run events, to purchase annual copyright licenses. The

situation quickly became a public relations problem for IMRO offi?cials, who were seen as bureaucrats with no understanding of tradi?

tional music but with the power to potentially affect pub sessions.

First, IMRO proposed charging pub owners for their sessions, thus

endangering many sessions; and second, copyright issues could con?

fuse musicians as to which tunes could be played. For many musi?

cians, IMRO's proposals bordered on the absurd.

In late 1998, however, Labhras O Murchu worked out a private

agreement with IMRO in which Comhaltas would pay 1,000 Irish

pounds per year for a license, and IMRO would in turn pay Comhaltas

50,000 Irish pounds per year, essentially for its support. Further, IMRO

agreed to give 25,000 pounds per year to Bru Boru, an Irish cultural

tourism center managed by O Murchu's wife (McCann 2002:95-103).When details of this agreement were made public in early 1999,



15/32


Comhaltas members felt alienated by their leader, who had acted in

opposition to their wishes, and musicians across the country felt alien?

ated by Comhaltas's attempt to speak for all traditional musicians on

the copyright issue. During my fieldwork, rumors and misinforma?

tion of all varieties regarding IMRO were circulating.Further distance between the central office and musicians has been

created by Comhaltas's canonical treatment of Irish culture in their

tourist shows. As reported by Henry, a tourist show at the Culturlann

included "farm cottages amidst green hills painted on the backdrop.

. . . An old hand-turned churn was incorporated into the act; a youngman danced in place as he mimed the butter churning. . . . One won?

ders if the young people find the nostalgic staging compelling"

(1989:82-83). I witnessed a similar show, featuring young musicians in

stereotyped peasant clothing and a comedian telling nostalgic, ruralized

jokes, at the opening concert to the 1999 Fleadh Cheoil. Many youngmusicians who win competitions are asked to perform in and tour in?

ternationally with these types of shows, exposing them to the way

Comhaltas is publicly presenting Irish culture.

Additionally, many have felt alienated by Comhaltas because of

what they see as publicly visible associations of traditional music with

particular political and religious views. Comhaltas's initial association

with Irish Nationalists, who object to British control in Northern Ire?

land, is today reinforced by its promotion of the Irish language and

by Labhras O Murchu, who has concurrently held office as a senator

in the nationalistic Fianna Failpolitical party (Vallely

1999:78) and

integrates nationalistic rhetoric into speeches and publications (OMurchu 1998). Other highly visible actions, such as the controversial

canceling of the 1971 Fleadh Cheoil to protest the detainment of

nationalists in Northern Ireland (Vallely 1999:78), have furthered this

association.

Excerpts from the speech given by O Murchu, in his capacity as

Director General of Comhaltas, at the opening concert to the Fleadh

Cheoil na hEireann, August 27,1999, in Enniscorthy, county Wexford,illustrate a glorification of peasant life relating to political ideology.In his speech O Murchu alludes to Vinegar Hill, just outside the town

of Enniscorthy, which was the site of an important battle in 1798, in

which a group of Irish rebels, mostly farmers, were defeated by Brit?

ish forces (McDowell 1995:245):



16/32


There was very little pretension down through the centuries where

[Irish] culture was concerned. It was often played in the very humble

homes of Ireland, on the crossroads and perhaps not in the most aus?picious settings if one were to judge by today's values. But having said

that, there was a deep understanding always with our people, even inthe midst of deprivation, that if we lost that culture, if we lost our

language and lost the music and the singing and the dancing, and lostour games . . . nobody would have any control, and we certainly couldhave very few goals because we would not know what our destinationwould be.

And I have no doubt in my mind that when we celebrate our Irishness

here, and the strength of our talents here this weekend, we also passedour thoughts back to those people on Vinegar Hill, who in their waycould no longer accept the yoke of slavery. They wanted to be free people,freedom of expression, have their own sovereignty, control of their own

destiny.But also here tonight I would like to say that we have visitors from

[counties in Northern Ireland], representing all politics on this Island.

Representing all religions on this island. ... I would like to say to them,

you are very, very welcome. You are among friends here in Enniscorthy.And the most important thing of all is that we will realize that our heri?

tage is stronger, richer, more powerful, and more potent than any po?litical divisions. And that is the message that should go out from thisFleadh Cheoil.

This is truly a miniscule expression of what Ireland should be, anddon't ever underestimate this strength (transcribed by the author, Au?

gust 27, 1999).

Comhaltas has also been and is today associated with Catholicism

in highly visible ways. In addition to the presence of Catholic priestsand blessings at the opening concert of the 1999 Fleadh Cheoil, an

official Catholic Mass is held at every fleadh. Also, the actions of promi?nent leaders have appealed to a conservative religious morality. For

example, in response to the 1983 referendum on abortion in Ire?

land, controversial articles in the official Comhaltas publication Treoir

advocated anti-abortion sentiments(Vallely 1999:78).

Perceivedpo?litical and religious stances contradict the organization's constitution,

which states that Comhaltas is "nonpolitical and nondenominational."

Such statements also ostracize a significant Protestant population in

Ireland that plays traditional music, while alienating those who dis?

agree with this public portrayal of Irish traditional music.



17/32


Revitalization or Standardization? Music Competition,Music Education, and Authenticity

While distance between the central office and local branches creates

controversies over funding and portrayals of Irish traditional music,Comhaltas's music competitions lie at the heart of critiques about

the organization's influence on traditional music itself. The competi?tions take place annually in county and regional rounds, culminatingat the Fleadh Cheoil in late August, and they are highly structured. Theyare divided into four age categories: under twelve, twelve through four?

teen, fifteen through seventeen, and eighteen and over, or "senior."

They are separated by instrument (for example, fiddle, accordion, or

flute), genre of music (such as reels, jigs, slow airs, or hornpipes),and number of instruments (such as solo, duet, or trio). At the 1999

Fleadh, 148 competitions in forty different categories took placeover two days, with an average often participants in each (ComhaltasCeoltoiri Eireann 1999). Many children compete in more than one

category; some have as many as eight competitions to attend on agiven day.

Informal competition has undoubtedly been a part of music pro?duction since humans began to make music, but contemporary for?

mal music competitions with judges and prizes are markedly different.

In the world of classical music, winning a well-known competition is

nearly a requirement for aspiring professionals. Competitions in folk

music and dance are less institutionalized but have flourished at reviv?

alist festivals in recent years, most often in conjunction with ethnic ornationalist movements. For example, competitions in American fiddle

music, Norwegian fiddling, Native American powwow dancing, and

Scottish traditional music and dance have all sprung up in the past fifty

years and have added great momentum to their respective cultural

movements (Goertzen 1996, 1997; McKean 1998; Parfit 1994).In a broad sense, competition in music has two effects. First, com?

petitions set standards for performance because they are judged bycertain criteria. An ideal theoretically exists, toward which competi?tors should strive and against which judges should objectively com?

pare performances. Second, competitions create social tension amongmusicians competing for recognition. Classical music competitions(while clearly incorporating many other social elements) provide an

illustration of both phenomena.



18/32


Fig. 2. (top) Street session during the 1999 All-Ireland FleadhCheoil, Enniscorthy, county Wexford. Fig. 3. (above) Oisin MacDiarmada, winner of the 1999 Senior All-Ireland Fleadh Cheoilfiddle competition, shown here during the competition,Enniscorthy, county Wexford.

To highlight the differences between a session and a competitioninvolving Irish traditional music, I will briefly relate my experience of

seeing both occur in one afternoon at the 1999 Fleadh Cheoil. First,I joined some teenaged musicians gathered in the street for a sponta?neous session. The musicians sat on crates and chairs borrowed from

a nearby pub and faced each other in a rough circle, with a crowd



19/32


standing around them. The musicians were meeting each other, play?

ing spontaneous sets of traditional tunes, and joking around. There

was an element of performance due to a crowd of onlookers andsome informal competition as newcomers' abilities were assessed, but

for the most part the atmosphere was relaxed.

In contrast, the senior fiddle competition was much more perfor?mance oriented, similar to a formal music concert. At least a hun?

dred people?parents, spectators, and competitors?were seated or

stood facing the stage in the small theater of a local school. At the

front of the room, two judges sat at a table and a lone chair stood on

the stage. The judge called the names of competitors one by one.

The room was completely silent while the competitors played their

tunes and each mistake could be heard clearly. The judges silentlymade notes and then announced the winners immediately after the

competition. For the most part, the competitors appeared nervous

and were relieved when they were finished.

Several valid arguments can be made in support of competitions.

The revitalizing effects of the early competitions on traditional musicin Ireland are still relevant today. For example, competitions providea formal reason for musicians to gather informally, as seen in the

session described above. Also, Comhaltas branch activities?includ?

ing preparing children for competition or even hosting a fleadh?

cause local adults to become involved in promoting traditional mu?

sic. Additionally, competitions aid in teaching music as they providea structured learning environment for children and motivate youngmusicians to practice. Competitions provide a social occasion for chil?dren to play music informally with peers on the fleadh weekend and

in preparation for competition, providing a music venue for children

that pub sessions do not necessarily provide. Also, winning is positivereinforcement. Winning an All-Ireland championship carries great

prestige in Ireland and abroad and can help launch a professionalmusic career.

Despite the value of musiccompetitions,

however, several musi?

cians expressed concern about the logical contradictions of imposing

rigid standards on a creative art. The most obvious source of tension

is that Irish traditional music is based on diverse, individual interpre?tations of melodies, while objective judgment relies on constant, clearlydefined standards. Adjudicators in Comhaltas's competitions judgeeach competitor using a scale of one hundred, within which there



20/32


are a suggested possible number of points or "marks" awarded for

certain musical criteria, a system geared toward objectivity.12 How?

ever, adjudicators, as musicians, may prefer certain styles or tuneswith which they are familiar. Said one adjudicator, "I like older tunes,more traditional. If I was growing up now, I'd probably love the tunes

that are played now because that would be my tradition, but theysound strange to me."

The possibility of adjudicator bias is not lost upon competi?tors: said one fifteen-year-old girl, "This one adjudicator likes 'old-

fashioned tunes,' so my brother picks those kind of tunes for her and

he always wins." The way judges are chosen reinforces fears about

competitions selecting certain styles of music over others, whether

this actually occurs or not. Musicians do not apply to be judges, but

are invited to judge competitions by a music committee overseen bythe central office. The music committee consists of approximatelyfifteen internally nominated?though rotating?musicians, accord?

ing to criteria that are not made public.In addition to concerns about

adjudicator objectivity, Comhaltas'scompetitions also require certain types of tunes, such as reels and

jigs, but do not allow competitors to play more obscure tune typesfound in specific regions.13 Many thought this practice could endan?

ger unique regional styles. One musician even described a so-called

"Comhaltas style": "It's bland, mechanical?because they all come

out of the same machine as a result of competition." Since musicians

have different teachers and personalities it is virtually impossible for

any two musicians to have exactly the same style. Yet the perception ofa "Comhaltas style" reveals fears that competitions are threateningmusical diversity. In the context of anxiety about the global commer?

cialization of Irish traditional music, these concerns begin to make

more sense.

Other musicians feel that commercial recordings and competi?tions encourage a flashy, performance-oriented style that favors cer?

tain regions, creating the potential for a "national style." In his studyof American fiddle contests, Chris Goertzen recognizes that there is

a basic tension between "nationally distributed, virtuosic performance

styles of relatively recent vintage and a relatively modern approach"and "a more old-fashioned approach" (1996:353). He found that

national styles tended to dominate in the competitions he studied.

To preserve local styles, many contests included separate categories



21/32


for older style music, in which local bands often won over non-local

(374), thereby protecting local styles to some degree. In making sepa?

rate categories, however, the style of each category was enforced by

specific rules, so they actually became more sharply defined and sepa?rated from each other (377).

Along with concerns about stylistic change, Irish musicians are

concerned that expressions of tradition become fragmented and

impoverished in competition. Competitions divide instrumental music

into categories by instrument and also separate music from singing,

storytelling, and?perhapsmost

significantly?dancing,which much

of Irish music was created to accompany. Patrick, a fiddle teacher,

insisted that in order to understand authentic Irish "tradition," a mu?

sician must know about related aspects of culture and social life as

well. He explained:

Tradition is a full package, it involves language, music, dance, the lore,the literature, all that together to get a full understanding of it. ... I think

that people that are teaching music are looking at that very seriously, youknow?. . . Rather than just teaching notes, they're beginning to bring inthe folklore side and all the rest of it, and the history side too.

Social life in Ireland has changed since the time of the house dance,

as Patrick later acknowledged, so disparate elements of "tradition"

must now be consciously connected at least partly through formal

music education. Competitions, commercial recordings, and the de?

liberate maintenance of regional styles facilitated by formalized teach?

ing methods seem to have resulted in more musicians learning music

as a performance art, with less emphasis on music as a social activity.

Mary, a concertina teacher, was afraid that formalizing the social con?

text of music education further could affect the music itself. She said,

"I think the infrastructure by which [music] is handed on, and in

which to play it, is reflected in the way the music is played. . . . And I

think we have to be very careful not to direct something that is al?

ready working verywell. . . .

Whyformalize

somethingif

youdon't

have to formalize it?"

Musicians learning Irish traditional music in a particular region

may base their style upon that of a mentor, but their style will also be

influenced through interactions with other musicians. These influ?

ences can be both personal, such as playing in sessions, or, with the

advent of recorded music, non-personal. In addition, Irish musicians



22/32


are expected to improvise and experiment with playing a given tune

slightly differently in each repetition. Although each student learn?

ing to play Irish traditional music learns from a combination of sourcesand develops an individual creativity, passing music from person to

person does perpetuate certain standards for playing.14However, learning Irish traditional music is not yet institutional?

ized, in that certain standards do not define a musician's abilities. Clas?

sical music, for example, is taught in Irish schools using a graded sys?tem, in which students must pass an examination to be allowed on to

the next grade or to learn at the next level of musical ability. Thomas,a professional tin-whistle player, notes that graded music education

and the performance style in classical music are more institutionalized

than in traditional music. He said, "[Irish traditional music] is unlike

classical music where there's much more consensus on the defined

ways and it's much more institutionalized due to this kind of music

school education. Irish music has anarchy running through it."

There are several different venues where children learn Irish tra?

ditional music today, including private lessons, group classes, infor?mal sessions at houses or pubs, and sessions run by Comhaltas, in

addition to learning from recordings. Now that sessions are mainly

played in pubs, and sessions can be something of a performance for

an audience, young children are often not accepted at pub sessions.

Some musicians, however, fear that some of the Comhaltas-run ses?

sions that do allow children to play are too rigidly structured for youngmusicians. From many accounts, Comhaltas sessions often feature an

adult musician asking each child to play one tune, each in turn, un?like a pub session where musicians play many tunes in succession in

no particular order.

Noreen, a fifteen-year-old accordion player, felt that "Comhaltas

sessions are very straight-laced. Everyone goes in a circle and playstheir tunes and they all sound the same." Many have remarked that

group lessons also make everyone sound the same, a phenomenon

certainly not restricted to Comhaltas-run lessons. Anotheryoungwhistle player complained, "Comhaltas sessions are very uptight." Ann,

the mother of two young musicians, perhaps expresses most coher?

ently the overall sentiment I found, in saying that competitions and

Comhaltas are good to a point. She explained, "There's nowhere for

kids to play if the parents don't play, but you have to get them out

before it's too late. It's good for starting, but there comes a point



23/32


when those sessions aren't interesting, they must get to the 'real mu?

sic' in sessions at pubs."

Although most of the musicians I spoke with felt that Comhaltasdid not have the power to completely standardize the music, real con?

cern surrounded the way children have been exposed to music

through the organization. For example, Comhaltas has recently es?

tablished a system of examinations for traditional music students to

assess levels of competence and a program to certify music teachers

(Royal Irish Academy of Music 1999; Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann

2002c, 2002e). Further, Comhaltas has recently published two ses?

sion tune books that each contain "220 standard traditional tunes

arranged in 74 sets as played at the Tuesday and Wednesday nightsessions in the Culturlann in Monkstown" (2002d). While some sets

of tunes are conventionally played together?often in homage to a

set made famous by a certain musician?there are no rules govern?

ing which tunes can be played together (aside from keeping the typesof tunes consistent), and musicians constantly come up with new, cre?

ative "settings" for tunes. And while there are certainly other tunebooks that influence musicians, because of Comhaltas's clout with

beginners, these books have the potential to institutionalize a certain

repertoire and specific tune versions and settings.When asked about the worst-case scenario, one teacher said, "Basi?

cally that [Comhaltas] would take control of traditional music. Over

how it's taught, over how it's funded, over how it's played, dictate how

it should be played." Below I will evaluate the above concerns and out?

line how, through public dialogue, they vitalize musical debates.

Evaluation of Critiques: Comhaltas as a Catalystfor Rebellion and Musical Diversity

The above discussion may suggest that Irish traditional music is in dan?

ger of being standardized. However, the way local branches, competi?

tions, and Comhaltas'spolitical

and financial activities actually work

appears to discourage both musical standardization and monopoliza?tion of control over music-related activities. For example, local branches

appear to be most successful when there is significant involvement bylocal musicians. The director of a rural branch remarked that branches

run by more politically motivated non-musicians generally do not sur?

vive. He said, "If you have officers who are neither musicians nor danc-



24/32


ers, it's probably very hard for them to hold interest. And the branch

dies.. .. [W]e call them'paper branches' . .. only down on paper. "Also,

local branches are financially independent and voluntary, which meansthat they are relatively autonomous from the central office and do not

have to comply with its ideological constraints.

While competitions do present dilemmas about music change, theyare also providing an effective system for music education and inno?

vation. At the same time, even though thousands of children competeeach year, dwindling numbers in competitions for older age catego?ries indicate that many children stop competing in their early teens.

Several musicians I spoke with confirmed this trend; as one musician

said, "I started to rebel around fifteen or sixteen ... it was uncool to

go into competitions after eighteen." This phenomenon can be

attributed to many factors, including negative experiences with

competition, Comhaltas's association with young children, its "old-

fashioned" image among young musicians, and basic teenage rebellion.

Young musicians who stop competing often drop music altogether,but

many joinsessions with their

peers, suggestingthat there are al?

ternative and probably preferable musical venues available to youngmusicians in Irish society. The competition system seems to be pro?

viding a forum for learning music, socializing through music, and,

ultimately, rebellion and a rite of passage into an adult musical world.

Many musicians feel that a single organization like Comhaltas,even if it were more flexible and inclusive, could not address all the

issues that are important for Irish musicians today. In fact, there is a

proliferation of other Irish traditional music organizations in Irelandand abroad, including (but not limited to) music schools, archives,record labels, radio stations, publications, and various clubs, associa?

tions, and even online communities of musicians. In addition, a num?

ber of recent academic conferences not affiliated with Comhaltas have

specifically addressed current issues in traditional music.15

Public opposition to Comhaltas appears to have some power, as

seen in a recent incident. In 1998, the Irish Arts Council asked

Comhaltas's director to prepare a report on the "State of Irish Tradi?

tional Music," largely to help the council determine the distribution

of government funds for the arts (O Murchu 1998). The public re?

lease of this report set off a heated debate in The Irish Times (Carolan

1999a, 1999b; Cranich 1999; MacAmhlaoibh 1999; Moroney 1999;Moulden 1999; Moylan 1999; Munnelly 1999; Ni Shuilleabhain 1999;



25/32


O Cuinneagain 1999; 6 Murchu 1999a, 1999b, 1999c, 1999d; Vallely1999a, 1999b), as many felt (among other sentiments) that it focused

too much on Comhaltas and not enough on other organizations orissues musicians feel are important. The council rescinded the re?

port for further review, and some of the committee members later

apologized (Moroney 1999).

Many of these alternative forums for music and debate have formed

on some level in response to Comhaltas's narrowed treatment of music

and Irish culture. For example, several popular summer music schools

have sprung up in the past twenty years. The school I attended was, as

one of its administrators emphasized, specifically "anti-competition"and seems to have been formed in many ways as a direct critique of

and alternative to Comhaltas's competition system. Unintentionally,Comhaltas has helped create circumstances in which musicians can

express fears about the future of the music, debate the role of music

in Irish society, and ultimately establish alternative forums for music,

all of which contribute to the vitality of Irish traditional music.

Conclusion: Toward an Understanding of Authenticity

The successful revitalization and continued diversity of Irish tradi?

tional music seems to be the result of an effective sponsorship strategyas well as the particular factors present in this case. First, the medium

of traditional music is somewhat resistant to standards because it is

not dependent upon an institutional system and can happen infor?

mally in virtually any location. Also, the form of Irish traditionalmusic requires innovation on basic melodies, so it tends toward di?

versity. Secondly, Comhaltas's local activities had and still have local,

grassroots support, so diverse viewpoints and music styles have been

present since the organization's founding. This support is currently

encouraged by locally based distrust and resentment of the central

office. Finally, Comhaltas's central office does not have coercive

power, as people can opt out of its systems and publicly oppose its

activities. Perhaps because of this flexibility, Comhaltas's institutions

and activities provide musicians with a valuable framework for edu?

cation, rebellion, debate, and critique.In her discussion of authenticity in Irish traditional music, Mary

Traschel notes the tension between those who look to attributes of

the music itself to define authenticity and those who see authenticity



26/32


instead in the process of passing on, performing, and reinterpretingthe music (1995:44-45). Traschel quotes musician and academic

Micheal O Sulleabhain, who writes, "The process of reworking is theimportant thing. ... It is the evolution of such a process that makes

new music out of old" (1982:915). Traschel then notes, "Within this

reworking process, O Sulleabhain emphasizes the epistemic function

of music?its capacity for discovery?as it transforms rather than merelytranslates the experience of being Irish" (1995:45). If, as Traschel

suggests, authenticity is found in "historical process," as old material

is reinterpreted for performance and social communication, debates

and controversies about Irish traditional music actually help authenti?

cate that music. And as music plays an active role in determining its

own authenticity, so Comhaltas has transformed the process of rein?

terpreting and authenticating Irish traditional music.

Both the Irish government and local musicians have a vested inter?

est in Irish traditional music; the state seeks to create an "Irish" iden?

tity, while local musicians seek to keep their music distinct, diverse,and vital. This tension is

partof the nationalization

processitself

andfeeds into struggles over identity. If, as Anthony Smith suggests, an

"authentic" national identity is unique and also self-determined (2001:29),who determines authenticity, the state or local citizens? How do people

interpret cultural symbols that have multiple meanings? Does it matter

what types of systems are used to promote particular visions? Fredrik

Barth asserts that people are constantly redefining or emphasizing cer?

tain aspects of their identity depending on the circumstances. This

type of negotiation process occurs in folk music revivals, as people workout how to interpret old material in new ways that are relevant to

their current situations. These tensions exist because people care

about the music and are perhaps where the vitality, and so authentic?

ity, of folk music is found.

University of North Carolina

Chapel Hill

Notes

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 2003 annual meeting of the North?eastern Anthropological Association in Burlington, Vermont. I would like to thank myconsultants in Ireland for their generosity, time, and energy. Also, many thanks to theanonymous reviewers, to the Journal of Folklore Research staff for their meticulouscopyediting, to Kirk Endicott, Paul Kockelman, Ted Levin, fohn Watanabe, and Robert



27/32


28/32


The instrument is symbolic of the time when Celtic kings employed filidh, pow?erful oral historians accompanied by the harp, and of the subsequent patron?age system for traveling bards who also used the harp (Trachsel 1995:28-29).Compositions by seventeenth-century bard Turlough O'Carolan are still com?monly played.

6. I have altered my consultants' names and the instruments they play, and

occasionally I have changed their gender, while trying to remain true to theirsocial contexts (as a professional musician, a Comhaltas official, a young musi?cian, etc.), so the reader may evaluate the comments accurately.

7. By contrast, in the 1940s and 1950s traditional Irish music was actuallyflourishing in London and in several American cities that had significant Irish

populations. Many prominent Irish musicians emigrated from Ireland at this

time, taking their music with them; some have since moved back to Ireland.8. For a brief history of Comhaltas's founding, please see the organization's

website (http://www.comhaltas.com/about/index.htm) and Vallely 1999:78-79.9. Branches that are not located in Ireland, such as the Michael Coleman

Branch in New York City, differ from those in Ireland in many ways, includingthe fact that they represent one cultural population among many others andare largely removed from the political climate of Ireland. Although the Irish-American population, for example, tends to participate in many "Irish" activities?

prompting one Comhaltas officer in Ireland to say proudly "Our immigrantsare more Irish than the

peopleat home!"?traditional music and

membershipin

Comhaltas branches in America are not limited to those of Irish heritage. Chil?dren learning music (and their parents) in the New York City Comhaltas branch,for example, do not necessarily identify with an Irish heritage. This is a topic foranother study, and I will only say here that the great majority of the members inComhaltas branches in Ireland are Irish, whereas Irish immigrants make uponly part of the membership in branches located in other countries.

10. Henry (1989:74) records from Treoir (16/2:1) that the 1984 annual orga?nization grant from Roinn na Gaeltachta was 110,000 Irish pounds, the enter?tainment grant from the Arts Council was 59,000 Irish pounds, and member?

ship fees forwarded to the central office totaled 22,000 Irish pounds (1 Irishpound was equal to US$1.10 in 1984). Unfortunately, I was unable to acquirecurrent financial information from Comhaltas. Although it would be interest?

ing to know today's exact figures, I would argue that perceptions about fundingare more relevant to this discussion.

11. IMRO's website describes the organization as follows:

IMRO is a national organisation that administers the performing right in copy?right music in Ireland on behalf of its members?songwriters, composers andmusic publishers?and on behalf of the members of the international overseassocieties that are affiliated to it. IMRO's function is to collect and distribute

royalties arising from the public performance of copyright works. IMRO is a

not-for-profit organisation. Music users such as broadcasters, venues and busi?nesses must pay for their use of copyright music by way of a blanket license fee.IMRO collects these monies and distributes them to the copyright owners in?volved. The monies earned by copyright owners in this way are known as publicperformance royalties. IMRO is also prominently involved in the sponsorship



29/32


and promotion of music in Ireland. Every year it sponsors a large number of

song contests, music festivals, seminars, workshops, research projects and show?case performances. Indeed, IMRO is now synonymous with helping to show?case emerging talent in Ireland, (http://www.imro.ie/about/what_we_do.shtml)

Additionally, McCann points out that traditional musicians are normally pleasedwhen other people play their compositions in sessions?often, the composer is

acknowledged in the tune's name?and perhaps even more pleased when theyare not acknowledged at all. He writes, "The attitude of Maighread Ni Mhaonaigh,fiddler with successful music group Altan [sic], is typical: 'The best thing is to

compose tunes and not have people recognise them as newly composed, that

they slip back into the tradition. For me that's the biggest thrill of all'" (2002:81).12. The fiddle-solo

adjudicationsheet's

"Suggested MarkingGuidelines" are

as follows: "style and ornamentation?50 marks; command of instrument?20marks; rhythm and phrasing?10 marks; time [tempo]?10 marks; tone and

tuning?10 marks." The concert-flute and whistle sheets differ slightly, givingtone 15 marks and command of instrument 15 marks. The adjudication sheetfor duets, trios and ceili (ensemble dance) bands reads: "style and ornamenta?tion?35 marks; balance and blend?20 marks; rhythm and phrasing?15 marks;time?10 marks; arrangement?10 marks; presentation?10 marks." There are

slight variations for other instruments and for singing competitions.13. An anecdote related to me about accordion player Jackie Daly illustrates

this point nicely (please note that I have not confirmed this story with Dalyhimself). Daly was born in county Cork and raised in the musical traditions ofthe Irish-speaking region called Sliabh Luachra, which is known for polkas andslides rather than jigs and reels. According to my source, he played polkas andslides one year at the All-Ireland Fleadh and lost, then played jigs and reels thenext year and won the senior championship (I assume this refers to his 1977

win). The year after, he reportedly came back and played polkas and slides again.Though he did not win, according to the storyteller people paid much moreattention to him that year and he was not just dismissed for playing the wrong

types of tunes. Jigs and reels tend to be associated with the western counties ofIreland, whereas other regions are associated with other tune types, such as

highlands and barn dances in county Donegal.14. It should be emphasized that Irish traditional music has been constantly

changing throughout its history, and that there is much contemporary disagree?ment about what it constitutes. In his article "Irish Music Defined" (1982),Micheal O Suilleabhain compares music to language in that it is influenced byeconomic and social change, noting that music is a more fragile system than

language, often with a shorter "life-span" (915). One musician I interviewed

agreed, saying:"[Irish] Culture is what's here [in Ireland]. So it's

continuallychanging. Culture is the houses and the lifestyle and the people and the carsand the living and the TV and the radio and pop music, bad country, and Irishmusic, traditional music, everything. Whatever happens on the island is Irishculture and that's it."

15. The conference "Whose Music? Cultural Traditions in Northern Ireland" took

place in 1989 (Crozier 1989). Comhaltas representatives did not attend this confer?ence, causing speculation about Comhaltas's political stance. The Crossroads Con-



30/32


ference, first held in 1996, took on issues of tradition and change, music in North?ern Ireland, and modern challenges such as copyright law and commercialization.Please see McCann (2002:70-73) for a discussion of copyright issues at this confer?ence. The second Crossroads Conference took place in April, 2003 and focusedon music education, addressing Comhaltas-related issues such as "fleadh cheoilstandards," "examination," and "grades" (http://homepage, eircom.net/~theflute/).

References Cited

Anderson, Benedict1983 Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism.

London: Verso.Austin, Valerie

1993 "The Ceili and the Public Dance Halls Act, 1935." Eire-Ireland 28/3:7-16.

Barth, Fredrik1969 "Introduction." In Ethnic Groups and Boundaries, ed. Fredrik Barth, 9-

38. Boston: Little, Brown.Brown, Terence

1985 Ireland: A Social and Cultural History, 1922 to the Present. Ithaca: Cornell

UniversityPress.

Carolan, Nicholas1999a Letter to the editor. Irish Times, April 7.1999b Letter to the editor. Irish Times, April 22.

Clarke, Aidan1995 "The Colonisation of Ulster and the Rebellion of 1641 (1603-60)." In

The Course of Irish History, ed. T. W. Moody and F. X. Martin, 189-203.Boulder: Roberts Rinehart.

Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann1999 "Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann 1999." Festival program published by

Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann Publications, Monkstown, Ireland.2002a "Aims and Objectives." www.comhaltas.com/about/aims.htm.2002b "Branches." http://www.comhaltas.com/branches/index.htm.2002c "Education." http://www. comhaltas. com/education/index.htm.2002d "Foinn Seisiun." http://www.comhaltas.com/seisiun/foinn.htm.2002e "Scrudu Ceol Tire (SCT) Examinations." http://www.comhaltas.com/

education/exams, htm.Cranitch, Matt

1999 Letter to the editor. Irish Times, May 19.Cronin, Mike

1999 Sport and Nationalism in Ireland: Gaelic Games, Soccer, and Irish Identity Since1884. Dublin: Four Courts Press.

Crozier, Maurna, ed.1989 Cultural Traditions in Northern Ireland: Inaugural Lecture by Roy F Foster,

"Varieties oflrishness," and Proceedings of the Cultural Traditions Group Con?

ference, 3-4 March. Belfast: Institute of Irish Studies, The Queen's Uni?

versity of Belfast.



31/32


32/32


O Baoill, Donall P.1988 "Language Planning in Ireland: The Standardization of Irish." Interna?

tional fournal for the Sociology of Language 70:109-26.O Cuinneagain, Liam

1999 Letter to the editor. Irish Times, May 3.O Murchu, Labhras

1998 Ceol Tire na hEireann; Irish Traditional Music. Report on the state of Irishtraditional music prepared for the Joint Oireachtas Committee on

Heritage and the Irish Language, 1-17. Irish Arts Council, Govern?ment Publications. Available online at http://www.artscouncil.ie/archive/future/docs ZTradirishmusicreport.pdf.

1999a Letter to the editor. Irish Times, March 24.1999b Letter to the editor. Irish Times, April 19.1999c Letter to the editor. Irish Times, April 27.1999d Letter to the editor. Irish Times, May 1.

O Suilleabhain, Micheal1982 "Irish Music Defined." In The Crane Bag Book of Irish Studies (1977-1981),

ed. M. Hederman and R. Kearney, 915-19. Dublin: Blackwater Press.

Quoted in M. Trachsel, "Oral and Literate Constructs of 'Authentic'Irish Music." Eire-Ireland (1995):30/3:27-46.

Parfit, Michael1994 "Powwow: A Gathering of Tribes." National Geographic 185/6:88-113.

Royal Irish Academy of Music1999 "Syllabus of Traditional Music Examinations." Published by the Royal

Irish Academy of Music in conjunction with Comhaltas Ceoltoiri

Eireann, Dublin.

Smith, Anthony D.1989 "The Origins of Nations." Ethnic and Racial Studies 12/3:340-67.2001 Nationalism. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Trachsel, Mary1995 "Oral and Literate Constructs of 'Authentic' Irish Music." Eire-Ireland

30/3:27-46.Urla, Jacqueline

1993 "Contesting Modernities: Language Standardization and the Productionof Ancient/Modern Basque Culture." Critique of Anthropology 13/2:99-118.

Vallely, Fin tan1999a Letter to the editor. Irish Times, April 10.1999b Letter to the editor. Irish Times, May 13.

Vallely, Fintan, ed.

1999 The Companion to Irish Traditional Music. New York: New York UniversityPress.

Wall, Maureen1995 "The Age of the Penal Wars (1691-1778)." In The Course of Irish History,

ed. T. W. Moody and F X. Martin, 217-31. Boulder: Roberts Rinehart.

Documents

Resisting Cultural Standardization: Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann and the Revitalization of Traditional Music in Ireland