I�m sitting here listening to a CD of Scottish music I picked up at the conference in Miami after getting into a long conversation with a guy who works for the Smithsonian Folkways label. As a classically trained violinist and amateur (Irish) fiddle player, I�ve always been partial to Celtic music, but I�ve found Scottish music a little hard to get a handle on.

Most people I know who aren�t Celtic music freaks can�t tell the difference between Scottish and Irish music, but to me they sound extremely different.

The easiest way for me to explain the difference is to tell you about a couple of musical experiences I had on the greatest vacation of my life that I took a six or seven years ago. One of my best friends from college was getting married in Fyfe, Scotland and I was to play violin in the wedding. I�d also always wanted to go to Ireland, and despite a number of years spent living in England, I had never been there. I decided to take several weeks off, and spent a week on my own in Dublin, a week biking with my mom along the west coast (mostly in Galway) and then flew to Scotland for the wedding. I flew to Dublin alone and stayed in a hostel housed in a former convent for a week. I explored the city both by hitting tourist spots (The Book of Kells at Trinity College, shopping on O�Connell Street, etc.) and by seeking out music wherever I could find it. Usually when I travel in Europe, I find music in churches. Dublin was no different, and I hit a couple of nice Evensong services with boys from local choir schools. But what really amazed me was that nearly every pub (and there are many) had live music every night. Most of these performances were seisuns, or informal gatherings of musicians. People bring their instruments down to their local pubs instead of bringing a book, a newspaper or a deck of cards to pass the time. (An added advantage, as I discovered when whipping out my own fiddle, was that musicians often drink for free). While the exact size and form of the ensemble varied from place to place and night to night, the instruments included were pretty predicatable: fiddles, flutes, bodhrans (a type of frame drum, Uillean pipes (Irish bagpipes), guitars, banjos and bazoukis. If the pub had a piano, that might be included as well. Foot tapping, clapping and occasional vocal interludes are also important parts of the soundscape of an Irish seisun.

While I was in Dublin, there was a great debate going on at the CCE (the Irish national music organization) about whether or not the bazouki was permissible in Irish music. How and when the bazouki became commonplace in Irish music is unclear, but the instrument was, at some point in time, imported from the middle east. The instrument, however, is functionally a really big mandolin and Irish musicians use it like a bass banjo � the only bass instrument I ever saw at a seisun. To modern listeners accustomed to hearing bass in most of the music we listen to, the bazouki adds an almost contemporary sound, despite the fact that it is one of the oldest instruments in the room.

The reason the bazouki was controversial was the instrument�s Middle Eastern provenance. Although the way the bazouki is played in seisuns and caeli bands was clearly very Irish, the instrument was not included on the list of indigenous instruments prescribed by the CCE. For the Irish, the preservation of a specific state of their indigenous culture is extremely important. Their indigenous culture had been wiped out nearly completely on several occasions by their neighbors to the east and the current body of repertoire, instruments and performance techniques that make up Irish music today have been carefully resurrected over time. Irish musicians compose new tunes, but it is the way they perform the old traditional tunes that mark their quality as musicians. And at seisuns, the old tunes are pretty much all you hear.

Yet despite a repertoire that is frozen in time, it is a living art, not a museum performance. Anyone who�s every participated in an Irish seisun either in Ireland or abroad � I�ve played in seisuns in New York, San Francisco and all over the greater Chicago area as well as in Ireland � knows that it is a lively, active and interactive experience. To some degree the rigidity of the notion of �authenticity� of the music creates a community. Any player of Irish music with moderate ability can go to any Irish music seisun in any corner of the globe that has one, and sit down to play. The traveling musician will know the tunes and the basic operation of a seisun. While there are a few things that vary from place to place � Are there paid lead musicians? Are the leads miked (in which case you no one will be able to hear you anyway and you can relax and make all the mistakes you like)? Are fiddles expected to choose and start tunes (this is frequently the case with seisuns without lead players)? -- the basics are predictable. Playing in a local seisun can be a great way to meet other musicians while traveling.

It is with caeli bands that a little more variety creeps in. Caeli bands are not pick-up groups. They rehearse and perform for a variety of situations (weddings, parties, etc.) and thus are free to have a somewhat more expansive repertoire, although they are still governed by requirements of traditional dance (dance steps require predictable structures in jigs, reels, etc.). I only encountered one caeli band on my trip to Ireland, although I�ve seen many in the U.S. My mom and I were biking through a small town in County Galway on the morning of the 4th of July and stopped for lunch at a pleasant-looking local pub. It turned out that the pub owner was originally from upstate New York and had immigrated 20 years ago and married an Irish woman. The pub had an annual �Yankee Independence Day� celebration (�The Irish,� as the pub-owner pointed out, �were very sympathetic with the American Independence day,�) and he was thrilled at the possibility of having actual Yankees in attendance. He phoned up his sister-in-law to have her put us up for the night in her spare room and we were the guests of honor at the night�s festivities. The whole town was there, from the oldest grandfather to the youngest baby. The band, which had been imported from Dublin for the occasion, included traditional instruments as well as keyboards and electric guitar. Most of the time they stuck with traditional repertoire, but they threw in a few tunes of their own in a traditional vein. They also did a rendition of Yankee Doodle Dandy that had us dancing in the aisles.

Hmm. This is getting quite long. I think I�ll continue in another entry. It may have to wait until tomorrow, as I should probably get some work done. Stay tuned!

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