Article

Commercialisation, Celtic and Women in Irish Traditional Music

Tríona Ní Shíocháin

Published in: Ethnomusicology Ireland 7 (2021)

Pages: 110-122 | Published Online: April 2021

https://doi.org/10.64208/GULT8975

Abstract

This paper considers the creative practices of female musicians and singers before the widespread growth of the professional sphere and the subsequent commodification of Irish traditional music. In particular, the key role of performance in domestic music-making settings is considered, and the aesthetic, cultural and creative practices associated with pre-revival music-making in late nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century contexts is explored. This is contrasted with the subsequent relative marginalisation of women performers in professional contexts, and the erosion of key tenets of traditional music practices since the revival. It is argued that women’s traditions, understood here as subjugated knowledges (Foucault 1980), represent a radical alternative to professionalism and the culture of the market in high modernity. Through a renewed exploration of creative practices associated with two iconic female performers, Elizabeth (Bess) Cronin from County Cork and Mrs Elizabeth Crotty from County Clare, it is proposed that the concept of “mother music”, denoting socially embedded performance practices and immersive modes of musical learning, aids our appreciation of the sophisticated arts practices that these women mastered and fostered. In addition it is argued that mother music offers an alternative model of cultural practices that can counterbalance the market-oriented values of the professional sphere.

Keywords: Women, oral tradition, ‘mother music’, embodied knowledge, creative practice, subjugated knowledges

Author: Tríona Ní Shíocháin