3 ms·

Fiddle player for the last 18 years: can confirm that this is pretty much what most traditional music circles sound like (especially their endlessness).

by andkon 11y ago

stcredzero 11y ago
At a workshop I attended, American piper Kieran O'Hare was once decrying the typical American "intensification" pattern as applied to seisiúns. It becomes about people's egos and shoehorning in their sets or showing that they can keep up with the best. Really, it should be about friends socializing and sharing music. Tunes-tunes-tunes-tunes is antisocial and a bit mechanical when it comes down to it. At another workshop, Kevin Creehan (Junior Creehan's grandson) noted how it was strange for seisiúns to end up in pubs. Originally, they were in people's houses. They were intimate gatherings of family and friends, and some of the heights of artistry in Irish trad music clearly stem from this quieter and more intimate context. For the most part Bay Area seisiúns seem to include a healthy dose of socializing and human interaction. Haven't been down to Mountain View yet. I hear those guys play fast. O'Flarety's in San Jose is pretty raucous, but even so, they manage to get in a good amount of socializing. You techies that show up to The Plough and the Stars sessions -- know that you are in one of the premier sessions in North America, both for the skill of musicians and the health of the community that surrounds it. Don't expect to be entertained, like it's a show for you. It's a gathering for the musicians to share music with other musicians. If you like Irish trad, listen carefully, because the very best music comes out when it's musicians sharing with their friends. (Also listen patiently, because there's still a certain diversity of musicianship.) Also, when someone is singing a slow air, then it's good manners to be quiet and listen! (And very bad manners if you don't!)
- talideon 11y ago
  You're missing an 'i' and a fáda: it's 'seisiún'.
  - stcredzero 11y ago
    Thanks, but it's too late to edit.
    - dang 11y ago
      I added it, hoping you don't mind.
- colomon 11y ago
  In Newfoundland, anyway, it wasn't just the tunes that used to be in people's homes, it was the dances, too: "Mostly they'd have a dance in the kitchen. It was all wooden floors. Some of the kitchens was a bit small so they'd have to take out the stove, lift it outdoors in the yard for to make more room for dancing...and they'd play all night and in the morning they'd bring in the stove again for to boil the kettle and have a cup of tea." (Vince Collins)
  - stcredzero 11y ago
    Was also once the pattern for Irish traditional dancing, with even more wrinkles on top of that. (Churches building the parish halls, and forwarding Ceili dancing as a more chaste form of social dancing.) Newfoundland has benefited in terms of the preservation of its cultural heritage through a degree of isolation.

Fiddle player for the last 18 years: can confirm that this is pretty much what most traditional music circles sound like (especially their endlessness).

by andkon 11y ago

Fiddle player for the last 18 years: can confirm that this is pretty much what most traditional music circles sound like (especially their endlessness).

stcredzero 11y ago

At a workshop I attended, American piper Kieran O'Hare was once decrying the typical American "intensification" pattern as applied to seisiúns. It becomes about people's egos and shoehorning in their sets or showing that they can keep up with the best. Really, it should be about friends socializing and sharing music. Tunes-tunes-tunes-tunes is antisocial and a bit mechanical when it comes down to it. At another workshop, Kevin Creehan (Junior Creehan's grandson) noted how it was strange for seisiúns to end up in pubs. Originally, they were in people's houses. They were intimate gatherings of family and friends, and some of the heights of artistry in Irish trad music clearly stem from this quieter and more intimate context. For the most part Bay Area seisiúns seem to include a healthy dose of socializing and human interaction. Haven't been down to Mountain View yet. I hear those guys play fast. O'Flarety's in San Jose is pretty raucous, but even so, they manage to get in a good amount of socializing. You techies that show up to The Plough and the Stars sessions -- know that you are in one of the premier sessions in North America, both for the skill of musicians and the health of the community that surrounds it. Don't expect to be entertained, like it's a show for you. It's a gathering for the musicians to share music with other musicians. If you like Irish trad, listen carefully, because the very best music comes out when it's musicians sharing with their friends. (Also listen patiently, because there's still a certain diversity of musicianship.) Also, when someone is singing a slow air, then it's good manners to be quiet and listen! (And very bad manners if you don't!)

talideon 11y ago
You're missing an 'i' and a fáda: it's 'seisiún'.
- stcredzero 11y ago
  Thanks, but it's too late to edit.
  - dang 11y ago
    I added it, hoping you don't mind.
colomon 11y ago
In Newfoundland, anyway, it wasn't just the tunes that used to be in people's homes, it was the dances, too: "Mostly they'd have a dance in the kitchen. It was all wooden floors. Some of the kitchens was a bit small so they'd have to take out the stove, lift it outdoors in the yard for to make more room for dancing...and they'd play all night and in the morning they'd bring in the stove again for to boil the kettle and have a cup of tea." (Vince Collins)
- stcredzero 11y ago
  Was also once the pattern for Irish traditional dancing, with even more wrinkles on top of that. (Churches building the parish halls, and forwarding Ceili dancing as a more chaste form of social dancing.) Newfoundland has benefited in terms of the preservation of its cultural heritage through a degree of isolation.