Article

From Ethnic to Sonic Irishness: The Reception of Irish Traditional Music in Germany

Felix Morgenstern

Published in: Ethnomusicology Ireland 6 (2020)

Pages: 61-80 | Published Online: July 2020

https://doi.org/10.64208/VVWI2843

Abstract

This article explores factors that inform the perception and performance of Irish traditional music by German practitioners, for whom transcultural exchange and post-ethnic configurations of musical practice appear to have reshaped historically rooted notions of ethnic-national identity, expressed through European folk music genres in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Tracing historical transcultural musical affinities between Germany and Ireland, as amplified in late 20th century German folk music revival movements, the article also uncovers modern identity politics among German Irish traditional musicians. For these individuals, the idea of ‘Irishness’ in Irish music has become re-contextualised in post-ethnic configurations of ‘Irish’ sonic markers, in references to locality, and the possibility of musical relocation. These discursive changes recursively shape the participatory frame of German Irish music sessions. Here, transitions from ethnic to musical and sonic identity markers appear to entail shifts in the gatekeeping regulations of musical prowess, inclusivity, and session etiquette.

Keywords: Irish traditional music, folk music, Germany, identity, ethnicity, authenticity, session

Author: Felix Morgenstern