Cruinneachadh Chaluim

Scottish Tradition Series, 2015

Detailed liner notes, containing introductory and contextual information, from the two-CD set Cruinneachadh Chaluim: Field Recordings of Gaelic Music and Song from the Highlands and Islands by Calum Maclean. The CD, issued by Greentrax in the Scottish Traditions series, was launched in 2015 to celebrate the one-hundredth anniversary of the birth of Calum Iain Maclean in Raasay. The first CD focusses on songs, including a variety of genres from mouth music to ballads, and the second one offers instrumental music, including tunes on the pipes and fiddle as well as ceilidh dance bands. Included in the notes are transcriptions and translations of song or narrative items from a variety of outstanding performers from throughout the Highlands and Islands as recorded by Calum Maclean during his work as a fieldwork collector, initially employed by the Irish Folklore Commission and then by the School of Scottish Studies, established at the University of Edinburgh in 1951.

Oral Tradition, 2018

A good deal of water has flowed under the bridge since James Ross published "A Classification of Gaelic Folk-Song" in 1957. 1 Ross's study was typical of a time when scholars favored a clinical and taxonomical approach to oral traditional culture, before modern theories about text, context, and genre began to raise good questions about the application of scientific methods to the analysis of cultural activity. The search for answers to these questions has greatly advanced the way ethnographers and ethnomusicologists understand culture, including the cultures of the Gael. 2 After six decades, it seems fitting to revisit Ross's classification system, and to examine whether the effort of constructing such a system is still worthwhile or not. In The Anthropology of Music, Alan Merriam (1964:209) suggests that we understand musical activity by considering the uses and functions that music serves within a given culture: In the study of human behavior we search constantly. .. not only for the descriptive facts about music, but, more important, for the meaning of music. We wish to know not only what a thing is, but, more significantly, what it does for people and how it does it. Merriam defines the uses of music as "the ways in which music is employed in human society. .. the habitual practice or customary exercise of music either as a thing in itself or in conjunction with other activities" (210), suggesting that the uses of music can be understood in terms of how musical activity is manifest in daily life-in what social contexts it occurs, and to what utilitarian purposes it is deployed. Function, on the other hand, "concerns the reasons for Oral Tradition, 32/1 (2018):71-140 1 I owe a deep debt of gratitude to a number of colleagues whose help and advice have sustained me in pursuing this rather tricky project. My thanks to the organizers of the 2012 Rannsachadh na Gàidhlig conference in Glasgow, who provided a platform for work-in-progress; to colleagues in Celtic and Scottish Studies, University of Edinburgh, including Drs. John Shaw and William Lamb, both of whom were kind enough to comment upon a revised draft of this paper; to Dr. Cathlin Macaulay, Archivist of the School of Scottish Studies Archives, for offering guidance about the use of archive recordings; to Dr. Heather Sparling of Cape Breton University, who read and commented on an early draft; to Dr. Dòmhnall Uilleam Stiùbhart of the University of the Highlands and Islands, who provided help with the subject of Gaelic bawdry; and to Dr. John MacInnes, who has allowed me to pick his brains and mine his memory on occasions too numerous to count. I would also like to thank the two anonymous reviewers assigned to read the original draft of this paper on behalf of Oral Tradition. Their queries, objections, and suggestions have, I hope, greatly strengthened the arguments advanced here, and saved me from many a clanger. Tapadh leibh uile.

(singer) and Pat Mackenzie in Gleeson's Bar in Coore, County Clare. Our main interest has always been traditional song and associated arts, traditional music, tales and folklore. We were singers at and organisers of folk clubs from the late 1960s to the early 1990s, booking not only singers but musicians such as piper Tom McCarthy and fiddler Bobby Casey from West Clare, who were living in London then. We first met in London in 1969 as members of The Critics Group, a singers' workshop run by charismatic singer, songwriter, actor, playwright and collector, Ewan MacColl, a formative influence on us both. In 1973, we chanced to hear a radio review of a recently-published book which included a chapter written by Wexford Traveller 'Pop's' Johnny Connors. Johnny was camped on a site in West London, just a few miles from our home. Finding Johnny set us on a course of recording songs and talk from Irish Travellers in and around London, which was to continue for nearly thirty years. This was not a difficult task. We had no idea just how many Irish Travellers there were in London and we were somewhat overwhelmed by the number of singers with songs. Finally we felt it necessary to concentrate on two only in order to record not just the songs and stories, but also information on Travelling life and lore. All the Travellers we met were incredibly generous and humorous people, despite living in somewhat poor conditions and meeting frequently with harassment from the authorities. After they had established we were neither police nor social workers, they took to referring to us as "the students" and that is what we were, learning about Travelling life and lore. A selection of Traveller songs, stories and talk can be heard on the double C.D, 'From Puck to Appleby', issued by 'Musical Tradition Records', England in 2003. I973 also saw us on our first recording trip to County Clare, work which we carried on in tandem with our collecting from Travellers right up to the present day, though nowadays not as productively as most of the older generation of singers have passed on. Again, songs were the main impetus which led us to such as Ollie Conway in Mullagh. Ollie not only sang for us but brought other singers to his pub to meet us and give us their songs, a tremendous start to our recording in Clare. At a music session in Quilty, fiddle player Junior Crehan approached us when he noted our interest in the music and offered to give us "a few tunes" one evening at the Crosses of Annagh; he also gave us songs, stories and much talk on that and many succeeding occasions. We had been unable to meet up that year with the singer Tom Lenihan from Knockbrack, whom we had been told about by friends back in England, so we determined to return at a later date. This we did in 1974, when we came for the second Willie Clancy Summer School and, luckily, met up with Tom Munnelly, a collector for the Folklore Department at UCD. Tom organised the marvellous Friday afternoon sessions with the older singers during the W.C.S.S. and he kindly took us out with him on several of his collecting trips around West Clare and introduced us to some of his singers. We were immediately impressed that, rather than being intimidated by intrusive collectors armed with modern technology, as had been suggested to us on several occasions, the singers we met had no problem whatever in dealing with two sets of microphones and tape-recorders and took them in their stride.

Scottish Language, 1993

2019

Caoimhín Mac Aoidh is a fiddle player, researcher and author whose work has concentrated dominantly on the fiddle tradition of County Donegal. He has played with and collected the music of many of the iconic performers of the county. He is a founder member of Cairdeas na bhFidiléirí, an organisation committed to the development and promotion of the Donegal fiddle tradition through the principle of education. His published works include both textual documentation of the tradition as well as a number of collections of tune transcriptions.

2005

Scottish Tradition Series 28 (Greentrax Recordings Ltd.), 2019

In Scotland today, traditional dancing is commonly accompanied by instruments like the fiddle, accordion and bagpipes. In the past, instruments were not always available for dances, or even preferred. Amongst the Gaels, dances were often accompanied by songs. Such ‘dance-songs’ or puirt-à-beul [‘mouth-tunes’] served multiple purposes – including dandling children, facilitating work or transmitting instrumental tunes – but their principal association was with dancing. This booklet provides a short introduction to the genre, lyrics and translations of the CD audio, biographies of the contributors, and a bibliography of references and relevant publications.

2012

Since the first Scottish Gaelic-speaking settlers arrived in Nova Scotia in the late 18th century, their Gaelic singing tradition has been an integral part of life in communities on Cape Breton Island. With the waning of the Gaelic language, however, came efforts to collect and preserve the song tradition, and the intention to pass it along intact. This dissertation eschews the consideration of Gaelic singing as a monolithic tradition with a common repertoire and experience, and instead examines it as a multifaceted process enacted by individuals in three main sites: home, public performance and the archive. It examines the various ways the practice manifests itself, concluding that memory and individual agency are constants, both for singers and listeners. Through interviews, participant-observer activity and archival research, this study demonstrates that Gaelic singers have been far from passive culture-bearers but have instead actively shaped their song practice by choosing repertoire, melody variants and texts. It also discusses the dynamic role of memory and social interaction in the transmission and performance of Gaelic song. Memories of other singers, discussion of the text, and contextual iii details draw singers and listeners into a community that is both synchronic and diachronic. This practice is chiefly oral, but is supported by recordings and printed songbooks as well as an array of objects-photo albums, clippings, tapes-which evoke the sense of previous performances and their singers. Despite their intention to transmit the songs with little or no change, singers have a flexible relationship with the material and in some cases subvert the authority of recorded or printed sources by turning instead to first-hand experiences. This simultaneous presence of past and present has tremendous implications for what it means to know a song, and one comes to understand it as a composite of multiple memories, performances and meanings. My heartfelt thanks to those in Cape Breton who shared their music and stories, friendship and homes, and thus made this work possible. I first visited the island looking for songs but found you all instead, and it made all the difference. I especially thank the amazing Peter MacLean for his songs and great company, and Paul MacDonald for continually pushing me to challenge my assumptions about Cape Breton culture. Thanks to those who shared their music and observations: Rod.

Our main interest has always been traditional song and associated arts, traditional music, tales and folklore. We were singers at and organisers of folk clubs from the late 1960s to the early 1990s, booking not only singers but musicians such as piper Tom McCarthy and fiddler Bobby Casey from West Clare, who were living in London then. We first met in London in 1969 as members of The Critics Group, a singers' workshop run by charismatic singer, songwriter, actor, playwright and collector, Ewan MacColl, a formative influence on us both. In 1973, we chanced to hear a radio review of a recently-published book which included a chapter written by Wexford Traveller 'Pop's' Johnny Connors. Johnny was camped on a site in West London, just a few miles from our home. Finding Johnny set us on a course of recording songs and talk from Irish Travellers in and around London, which was to continue for nearly thirty years. This was not a difficult task. We had no idea just how many Irish Travellers there were in London and we were somewhat overwhelmed by the number of singers with songs. Finally we felt it necessary to concentrate on two only in order to record not just the songs and stories, but also information on Travelling life and lore.

Tá ceisteanna teanga agus oidhreachta i gceartlár an aonaigh ar fud an domhain sa lá inniu. Cluinimid go rialta go bhfuil suas le trí mhíle teanga den sé mhíle atá ar marthain ar fud na cruinne inniu i mbaol a gcaillte in am ghairid. 1 Chomh maith leis an chogadh armtha atá ar siúl, tá cogadh idé-eolaíochta le braith idir an Domhan Thiar agus an Domhan Thoir, bunaithe ar a dtuiscintí éagsúla ar eitic, ar mhóráltacht agus ar fhorbairt an domhain. Tá ceist na forbartha féin i gcroí lár aon díospóireachta a dhéanfar ar ghnoithe teanga agus oidhreachta amháin. Tá an focal "cultúr" á lua le go leor den na díospóireachtaí sin fosta. 2 Meafar talmhaíochta is bun don fhocal cultúr, is é sin, an aire agus an cúram a bheirtear do bharraí ó théid siad i dtalamh nó go mbíonn siad aibí, le bheith cinnte go dtiocfaidh toradh fiúntach orthu 3 . Glactar leis an chúram agus leis an aire seo mar riachtanais nach mbeadh mórán de fhómhar ag an fheirmeoir gan iad. Ach ar dhóigh, níl an meafar sin freagrach don tuigbheáil a bhí ag daoine ar a gcultúr féin san am a chuaigh thart. Féadaim a rá nár smaointigh daoine beag ná mór go minic ar an fhocal cultúr, mar rud ann féin. Ghlac siad leis go raibh dóigh áirithe ann le cineálacha éagsúla oibre a dhéanamh agus iompair áirithe a chur i gcrích, gnáis a leanadh den chuid is mó agus a dtiocfadh athrú air de réir a chéile, de réir mar a fuarthas níos mó eolais fá dhóigheanna a b'fhearr ná iad. Bhain sé le gach gné den saol ach má bhain, níor ceistíodh é an oiread sin nó gur tharraing lucht bailithe an bhéaloidis aird air. 4 Nuair a tháinig athrú mór coinníodh sa tseanchas é -an lá a tháinig an chéad tae, nó an chéad charr, nó an chéad bhád innill agus mar sin de chun an phobail. 5 Mhéadaigh luas an athraithe in imeacht na mblianta go dtí an lá inniu nuair a deir go leor daoine go bhfuil an saol ag dul thart "ar 1 Ó Laoire, mire" -is é sin, tuigeann daoine go bhfuil athruithe an tsaoil ar shiúl óna smacht féin, agus is ionann sin do go leor daoine agus an saol a bheith ar buile.