{"id":963,"date":"2014-12-17T15:23:21","date_gmt":"2014-12-17T15:23:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.blogs.hss.ed.ac.uk\/revival-fiddle\/?p=963"},"modified":"2014-12-17T15:24:05","modified_gmt":"2014-12-17T15:24:05","slug":"963","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.blogs.hss.ed.ac.uk\/revival-fiddle\/2014\/12\/17\/963\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Wilson, American Fiddleologist"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was introduced to the important work of Mark Wilson the other day by Dr John Shaw of Edinburgh University. Of course, I was familiar with Wilson in passing but had not been aware of the scale of his contribution to fiddle studies until I read this article<\/a> by him. I am particularly drawn to the following lines which relate to revival:<\/p>\n

…Just as importantly from the viewpoint of\u00a0musical psychology, a “folk musician” typically expects to find his or her audience\u00a0locally as well–a fiddler strives to play for the local dances, not to appear in\u00a0vaudeville or the concert hall; a singer’s ambitions reach only as far as singing for\u00a0her children or for fellow miners during a lunch break. This basic modesty of intent\u00a0is closely connected, in my opinion, with much of the music’s charm.<\/p>\n

…As one who likes to fiddle a bit himself, I am cheered by\u00a0the vigor of these enthusiasts, but it is an unfortunate fact that these efforts\u00a0sometimes have the inadvertent effect of pushing genuine traditional music into\u00a0even deeper obscurity (rather, I’m afraid, as the “cover” recordings of Pat Boone\u00a0temporarily eclipsed Little Richard’s originals). Indeed, because the “revivalists”\u00a0are usually better equipped to promote themselves successfully, one often\u00a0encounters a situation in Appalachia today where “folk festivals” are largely\u00a0dominated by these groups, even if excellent traditional musicians may live nearby.\u00a0To my ears at least, the music of the revivalists has become rather ingrown, for\u00a0they learn mainly amongst themselves, and frequently lacks the virtues that supply
\ngenuine traditional music with its special elan. For example, the fiddle playing one
\noften hears in these circles ranges from the bland to the pointlessly frenetic,
\ninterpretations that all grow from a failure to appreciate the intrinsic subtleties of
\nthe American dance tradition.<\/p>\n

… I have been disheartened by the attitudes current among\u00a0professional folklorists who, because of unhappy intellectual trends in academia,\u00a0often regard honest recording work as mildly contemptible. Thus the folklore unit\u00a0at a university where I recently taught found it far more worthwhile to probe the
\nattitudes–they call them “social constructions”–towards “things Irish” of the
\nmiddle-class burghers of Dublin, Ohio rather than spend any time capturing the old\u00a0fiddle tunes that can still found in the countryside.<\/p>\n

… misapprehensions are largely the artifact of conducting ones research
\nlargely in the library rather than the field.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was introduced to the important work of Mark Wilson the other day by Dr John Shaw of Edinburgh University. Of course, I was familiar with Wilson in passing but had not been aware of the scale of his contribution … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-posts"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.blogs.hss.ed.ac.uk\/revival-fiddle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.blogs.hss.ed.ac.uk\/revival-fiddle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.blogs.hss.ed.ac.uk\/revival-fiddle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.blogs.hss.ed.ac.uk\/revival-fiddle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/54"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.blogs.hss.ed.ac.uk\/revival-fiddle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=963"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.blogs.hss.ed.ac.uk\/revival-fiddle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/963\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":965,"href":"http:\/\/www.blogs.hss.ed.ac.uk\/revival-fiddle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/963\/revisions\/965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.blogs.hss.ed.ac.uk\/revival-fiddle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.blogs.hss.ed.ac.uk\/revival-fiddle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.blogs.hss.ed.ac.uk\/revival-fiddle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}