Na Píobairí Uilleann

Chairman, NPU

An Píobaire

3

9 3 22 20130712 22 ~ REVIEW ~ SEODA CEOIL 1 & 2 SEODA CEOIL 1 & 2 Willie Clancy, John Kelly, Seán Ó Conaire, Séamus Ennis, Seosamh Ó hÉanaí, Seán Keane, John Joe Gannon (Gael Linn CEFCD 203, €14.99, available from www.gael-linn.ie) F OR ME, the music on these two CDs is as fresh – and as important to all of us who profess to play traditional music – as it was back in the ’60s when I heard it for the first time, both on the original LPs and played live by these self-same musicians. With the excep- tion of John Joe Gannon, whom I never had the pleasure to meet, I had various degrees of fa- miliarity with all the other performers on these recordings and spent many hours enjoying their music. This puts me a somewhat different po- sition compared to those other reviewers whose pieces I’ve seen, who perceive the perform- ances as important historically; while they wel- come the re-release it is hard to avoid the feeling that they are more impressed with the ‘music celebrities’ than they are with the won- derful musical content. Given the longer view and listening to the music here raises quite a few issues for me, forcing me to contrast this music with what I hear played today. Admit- tedly, many of the recorded performances on these CDs don’t exhibit the polish and profes- sionalism to be heard on current recordings. I would argue that much of today’s music has a surface sheen derived from practicing the recorded pieces over and over, as well as avail- ing of all the helpful facilities in the modern recording studio. The musicians in these CDs were caught in a moment in time performing a music that had been part of their life from birth – they were traditional musicians. This, of course, immediately begs the question: tradition?; traditional music?; Irish traditional music? As pipers we all play it. But what is it? What makes our music traditional? Look for a formal definition and we find it is as long as a piece of string. There is, however, a simple – maybe simplistic – way to resolve the issue. Tradition has to do with the handing down of customs, ideas and activities from one genera- tion to the next. In that context, Irish traditional music is the music passed down from each gen- eration of Irish musicians to the next. Sadly, I would have to say that most of what I hear today seems to reference current icons, who in turn reference the ‘pop stars’ of today’s “Tradi- tional Music scene” – more current icons. Ad-

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