Towards a Regional Understanding of Irish Traditional Music

The geography of Irish traditional music is a complex, popular and largely\nunexplored element of the narrative of the tradition. Geographical concepts such as the\nregion are recurrent in the discourse of Irish traditional music but regions and their\nprocesses are, for the most part, blurred or misunderstood. This thesis explores the\ngeographical approach to the study of Irish traditional music focusing on the concept of\nthe region and, in particular, the role of memory in the construction and diffusion of\nregional identities.\nThis is a tripartite study considering people, place and music. Each of these\nelements impacts on our experience of the other. All societies have created music. Music\nis often associated with or derived from places. Some places construct or reinforce their\nidentity through the music and musicians through which they are associated. The thesis\nchallenges conventional discourse on regional styles that construct an imagined pattern of\nregions based on subtle musical differences that may, though are not always, shared by\npeople in that region and focuses on the social networks through which the music is\ndisseminated. The thesis also challenges the abandonment of regional styles and the\nconcept of regions in understanding the complex geographies of Irish traditional music\n(Morton, 2001). It seeks to find a middle ground between discourse analysis, musical\nanalysis, the experience of music and place, and the representation of music and place.\nThe dissertation is divided into three parts. Part one considers the development of\nmusic geography, noting and critiquing the abandonment of useful paradigms in both\ngeography and ethnomusicology in search of new ways of understanding. Of particular\ninterest is the concept of the region but it also considers the study of landscape and the\nhumanist approach in cultural geography. The second part focuses on the discourse and\nstudy of regions in Irish traditional music and the various agents and processes that shape\nthe concept of the region in Irish traditional music. The final part presents a case study of\nthe Sliabh Luachra region combining and applying the various perspectives and\nparadigms drawn from geographical, ethnomusicological and anthropological sources. It\nattempts to generate an understanding of Sliabh Luachra as a region in the Irish traditional\nmusic narrative that is based on a combination of musical, socio-cultural and\nlocational/environmental factors.