Ch 5 in Passing the Time
I meant to post this earlier. I find it so fascinating how Glassie descibes perfection in the arts and culture. A perfect performance doesn't mean that the musician or story teller hits every note or memorizes every detail. Perfection is achieved when the contributor is able to show his/her audience that he/she cares enough about the material being presented to have invested their beings into it. The performance is just as meaningful, if not more, to the presenter as it is the the audience. Carson emphasizes a similar approach in LNF when he describes the traditional Irish musician is one who does not play by the book. Instead, they make the tunes they know their own while keeping the inheritance passed down to them.
posted by Esther @ 8:25 AM
1 comments
1 Comments:
Great idea posting about this, Esther! Personally, I think it's great that the traditional Irish music, folklore, and culture has not become something that is meticulously studied out of a textbook and scrupulously regimented through hours of unforgiving practice. I think Glassie and Carson both respect the fact that imperfection is what maintains the purity of the music (or story). People generally underestimate the quality of good traditional music simply because it isn’t the Mozart they’re used to analyzing. For example, I was speaking with one of my professors today and he said something along the lines of “I think all Irish music sounds the same.” Another said once that “I don’t understand why people study it so hard. Especially around here.” It really disappointed me…especially coming from people for which I have a great deal of musical and professional respect. Just because the music isn't learned from a notated score and is judged more on the effect it produces than it's technical precision doesn't make it any less valuable. Even though Glassie and Carson are both very educated in the subject, I’m glad that they chose to write about how much of an art-form it really is.
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