Today I remembered a condensed version of Tony MacMahon’s paper for the 1996 Crossroads conference is posted on his website.
The Language of Passion. It’s a goods read and makes several points worth thinking about in the light of ongoing discussions on these forums.
it starts at:
http://www.thepuredrop.info/passion.html
a no fuss printer friendly version without the pictures sits at:
Peter, thanks for that. It really is fascinating, thought-provoking reading. I especially liked this statement:
"It involves an awareness of the natural ,internal rhythm of a piece as distinct from its speed, it involves attention to the smallest detail of a tune or a song and most importantly it involves care and discernment when deciding to add one’s own embellishment to a piece of music that has its own local integrity and has stood the test of time. "
And this, which made me rethink several bands of whom I’ve been a fan:
"On the basis, then of BREANDAN BREATNACh’s definition of Irish Trad. Music, which is the one I care to use, I wouldn’t regard the bulk of contemporary ensemble treatment of this music either as traditional or interesting . I find much of it boring, repetitive, mechanical …cavorting and jostling its way along the entertainment superhighway in search of a comfortable stall in the market-place. "
And finally this, which answers those who say that pure drop without all the change and innovations is stagnant stuff:
"Nobody should misinterpret this as opposition to change or developement. I’m suggesting no such constipation of the imagination , no objection to putting electric light into a historic building, provided you don’t tunnel cables through foundations, stained glass and ceiling cornices. What I am saying is this : before anyone sits down to carry out a programme of structural or cosmetic improvement on a piece of music or a song that carries the footprint of generations , that person should have the integrity to let his or her life press down into that rich soil of tradition, down through the layers of loam of the Irish experience…and it is only in honourable interaction with that soil ..and only out of the depths of that personal experience can true innovation be created. "
Thanks again, Peter. Loved it.
Susan
I have the book but it was yourself Susan who is to blame for this, drawing my attention to the website after you found the Martin Rochford pic on it [to my surprise] last year. 
I read this after following your link on the U.P. board.I recommended it to everyone who participated in that board,because 99.99% of Pipers will be into the ‘Pure drop’,IMHO.
I found the paper to be very thought provoking-Tony MacMahon is no stranger to controversy-and I must admit to agreeing with him (though what do I know?).
I don’t think that MacMahon is being snobby or eliteist-he states that ITM isn’t his favourite kind of music(now),and enthiuises about traditional Moroccan music.
What he is against is the turning of a traditional culture into a marketable commodity-as marketable as Green Beer on Saint Patricks day and the worldwide ‘Irish Pub’(sic) marketing phenomenon.
I listen to all sorts of music,Jazz,Blues,Rock,folk,Baroque,etc.,but I like my Irish to be the ‘Pure drop’-it doesn’t need ‘African drums’,synthesizers,'Trance’tape loops or a Rock backbeats to be interesting.IMHO,the various crossover,supergroups,call them what you like,playing at light speed just don’t carry the musical,cultural and emotional weight of the old style soloists-I’d trade a whole C.D. library of the ‘new’ stuff for a track of Canny,Casey,Cooley or Clancy (and thats just the 'C’s in my ITM). collection.
In Irtrad today nothing is more important than restating its uniqueness, its beauty, its originality BY slowing down what has been trivialised in a breakneck speed stampede to sell everything from a to z on the back of half remembered echoes of the genius of the likes of Coleman, Cooley etc.
Its not so much that the traditiion is being hijacked, rather it is that the Tradition is already dead and buried. Today it is celebrated under a pile of egos, Euros and Committees. See Mr Burns and his infernal archives here in the USA for a great example of that.
This most motivates the new school of Irish musicians to work on again opening the doors of creativity, inspiration and awakening. We are not mourning the past so much as celebrating the present! Let the dead rest in peace and the living be! Mr Mc Mahon your point of view reminds me of the forgotten but still relevant battle over ‘rolls’ between the Sligo stylists and the rest . The meanies won and guess what - we were robbed of the heart of the best Irish fiddling that has ever been!
Please then let us keep what we LIKE because that is how our ancestors did it.
Toasty, good post.
–James
Thank you, Peter.
Good stuff Mr. Laban.
It’s nonsense to say that. Those who had it, who were it’s focal point like Micho Russel, Junior Crehan, Martin Rochford never stopped playing, their music was passed on and is carried into the future. The tradition is pretty much unbroken and alive. Where I live young people and old people sit together and play music learning off eachother. That interaction has never disappeared, the music is being passed on as it always was, in fact it’s more alive and healthyand more appreciated than ever before.
For those wanting to read further, Tom Munnelly’s paper to the same conference is very entertaining and at least as thought provoking. As far as I know it is not available on line but it’s in the Crossroad Conference book pp 140-147
Crossbhealaigh an Cheoil : The Crossroads Conference 1996 : Tradition and Change in Irish Traditional Music / ed Fintan Vallely, Hammy Hamilton […et.al]. - Dublin : Whinstone Music, 1999. - Distributed by Ossian Publ, Cork
Talking about music isn’t music, so all the words don’t mean much. (To me anyway) Like you say Peter, players still sit down, interact and play tunes. All the commercialisation is a natural by-product of a culture in demand… Good, bad and ugly, it’s all part of the game.
Dave
Well, a friend of mine recently made me a gift of the Crossroads book—isn’t it nice to have friends like that?—so I just read the full version. Very interesting, although I must say that just about every paragraph raised at least one question that could be the topic of a thread on the ITM board. I read it once through without too much scholarly attention but I tried to do two things. I tried to let it wash over me and just get a feel for how Tony Mac Mahon feels about the music. That much was easy and very enjoyable. Taken in isolation, again and again he said things that touched an emotional and/or intellectual chord. But he was also mounting what looked like a sustained argument for something. I want to know what that something is exactly, and just how good his argument is. This bit I found much harder to pin down. So let me just raise a few questions that will help me with this aspect.
A lot of this piece concerns the music played in, and the attitude expressed by the producers of, a TV series called A River of Sound. I gather there’s also a CD. Am I alone in not having seen the series or the CD? If I knew who is on it, apart from Niall Vallely who I like, I’d have a better picture of just who is arousing Tony’s hostility. (If Van Morrison is ponitificating on ITM then I would see Tony’s point, but I’d still be puzzled why something that silly would be seen as a threat.) So, how many people who have commented approvingly have seen the series or heard the CD? I’m not being sarcastic, I want to know what it is that Mac Mahon is reacting to, but the fact that nobody has mentioned either makes me a bit suspicious.
Certainly, as Kevin points out, Mac Mahon is against the commercial exploitation of the musical soul of Ireland if that involves trivialising, diluting or illicitly appropriating it. Whoever does this is fair game I take it: artists, producers, critics, fans … I have a lot of sympathy with this attitude. But I’m wondering who exactly are the musical targets. I had the feeling that he had a shifting target. At times ensembles are the target, I take it anyone working in the Planxty, Bothy Band tradition is in that bag. But that inlcudes Molloy and O’Flynn who get mentioned aprrovingly. At other times it seems to be worldbeat fusion outfits—I suppose Moving Hearts and now the Afro Celt Sound System would fit in there, especially the latter. But Iarla O Lionaird who sings with the ACSS gets mentioned approvingly. Sometimes the music itself seemed to be the target, although never the musicians personally. At other times it seemed to be simply the suggestion that this is ITM that was offensive. At still other times it seemed to be just the suggestion that these areas are where the current ITM innovation is to be found which was offensive and, this idea is probably mainly coming from marketing. (Ask Donal Lunny if Moving Hearts were pointing the way for ITM in the next century and he’d think you were mad.)
My view, based on other forms of folk music, is that popularisation does much more good than harm … on balance. It results in all cases in some absolutely laughable products. But does anyone seriously think that people who mistake the ersatz for the real would ever have listened to pure drop anyway? And what about all those people who only got to hear pure drop because they heard the watered down stuff and sought out the real thing? You don’t believe me? Well, try convincing me that the records of ‘pure drop’ blues musicians currently to be found in just about every music store would be there if it hadn’t been for the popularity (and partial honesty) of bands like the Rolling Stones 30-40 years ago.
You are OC talking about Clare - not Ireland. Where I recall dozens of fiddlers and fluteplayers, not one is left - all dead and buried. Most localities where trad was nurtured and developed in small farm communities are also gone. Ireland has changed so much that today the grandchildren of those who put life into the the dead dreams of the Gealic League are growing up in towns/cities all over the world. The few that remain in Ireland are playing grundge music in Irish urban homes not farms.
But if you think I am ripping the Clare tourist trad scene - I’m not. In fact having been to similar regions around the globe I have the good sense to leave well enough alone. “With Government funds to aid great dreams and sleepings ‘folk’ industries soothe the traveller with long tested and tried aural potions designed to settle them into the local slumber!” Another Guinness there for Aimin Togetajob - the fiddler! And so on. Nowadays the Dole industry of Ireland failing to find suitable candidates at home have begun to import them- leading to some of the complaints that Mr Mc Mahion vented, rhythms and drums etc etc. Its an industry, a place to sell homes to weary travellers, retirees. Its artificial to the world where dirges like Rakish Paddy emerged. In fact the people who made that kind of thing would not recognize what is today called Irish Traditonal Music be it pure drop or otherwise.
So the Irish kid with an electric guitar is as much playing Irish music as his ancestors did on the first violins that came into the country and what they then played was most certainly NOT Irish, but that is another days work.
Ireland has changed a lot, yes. In fact if you’d go to any music weekend, scoil eigse or summerschool you’d find that the larger part of those learning music are young irish children and highly talented ones too. Maybe a smaller part comes from farming communities than in the past [altough a rural community like the one I live in can support a concert where around 150 local children play music] but often suburban middle class ones. That’s the Tiger economy for you, Ireland is no longer a rural economy but I think you’ll find there are more young people playing Traditional music than ever before.
Your area must enjoy great support for where my sister lives there is nothing of the sort happening and she lives in the country.