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CROSBHEALACH AN CHEOIL- 1996 - THE CROSSROADS CONFERENCE
Tradition and Change in Irish Traditional music
Launch speech by Nicholas Carolan for Crosbhealach An Cheoil - the Crossroads Conference selected proceedings book at Willie Clancy summer School formal reception, Spanish Point, Co. Clare, July 2, 2000.
" Most books begin life in a boring way - theyÕre written by people sitting in a room by themselves. But this one was born in blood and controversy. In 1995 a television series called River of Sound was shown on RTƒ and BBC television. It was about Irish Traditional music and it had been devised, organised and filmed by Philip King and Nuala OÕConnor of Hummingbird Productions. It was largely written and entirely presented by M’che‡l î Sœilleabh‡in who had recently become the first Professor of Music in the University of Limerick. The series was hugely expensive, it was very expertly made, it was visually rich, using archival footage and a wealth of newly-created footage, it was full of insight and new angles on the music, and it placed a heavy emphasis on recent developments and new musical trends in Traditional music. This was the mistake. The makers found that they had inadvertently wandered into an accident waiting to happen, and that they had provided a focus and target for the very many people who were uneasy or upset or angered by these very same developments. Abuse rained down on their heads, and the ceiling generally fell in upon them. What was going on really was a battle in the permanent artistic war between tradition and innovation. This is a tension that always exists in any art form, and traditional music, like any other art form, is always held in some kind of equilibrium between the people who are pushing forward and the people who are puling back. This is a natural, and necessary condition of art. In public, the case for tradition was championed by Tony MacMahon, an innovative accordion player and an innovative radio and TV producer. One of the main benefits of the controversy was the organising of a three-day conference on the subject of tradition and innovation, in Dublin on a weekend in April, 1996. Called Crosbhealach and cheoil, the Crossroads Conference, it was organised by Fintan Vallely, Cormac Breathnach, Liz doherty, colin Hamilton and Eithne Vallely, all traditional musicians, and describing themselves as Òoutside traditional musicÕs established structuresÓ. It was a memorable sand successful occasion, and took place int eh new Temple Bar Music Centre, a modern piece of architecture worthy of a controversy in its own right. There were forty speakers, with keynote addresses by M’che‡l «î Sœilleabh‡in, Tony MacMahon and tom Munnelly. It was like a three-ring circus with papers being presented simultaneously; it wasnÕt therefore possible for the hundreds who attended to hear every paper delivered. So even those who were there will welcome this publication of thirty one papers delivered at the conference. There is a wide variety of topics from Music in the Mesolithic to Riverdance and beyond, contributions from the diaspora and about the diaspora - two hundred and forty one pages, in a striking cover by Brian Bourke, edited chiefly by Fintan Vallely, who was simultaneously working also on the Companion to Traditional music at that time. Thanks are due to him for the thankless task. You must buy it if you havenÕt already.
Nicholas Carolan is Director of the Irish Traditional Music Archive, Dublin