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oa Playing with Tradition: Personal Authenticity and Discourses of Traditional Music-Making at Ethno World Gatherings

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The Ethno World program is an international network of youth ‘gatherings' focused on traditional and folk musics, wherein participants teach each other repertoire associated with their respective home countries, arrange that repertoire under the guidance of ‘artistic mentors', and then share the results of this collaborative work through one or more public-facing performances. This chapter argues that, at Ethno gatherings, the notion of folk or traditional music extends well beyond that of a style and repertoire associated with a given locale and instead comes to function as a sonic synecdoche for nationally-associated lived experience. Discourses of traditional music and music-making vary widely among members of the Ethno community and some attendees rationalize repertoire selection through a framework of ‘personal authenticity', wherein music that feels authentic to a person is by extension authentic to their nation. As a result, participants' choices regarding traditional music not only shape their presentation of national self-identity but also define traditional music in ways specific to the Ethno context. This chapter also explores how Ethno participants engage in local traditional/folk music and documents the complex relationships of Ethno participants to their nationally-associated traditional/folk music. Analysis draws on 128 interviews (N=128) conducted by members of the Ethno Research team with Ethno World organizers, artistic mentors, and participants over a two-year period from 2019-2021, and is informed by scholarship on revivals, traditional/folk music camps and workshops, and the historicization of concepts of folk and traditional in Western European and North American contexts.

Keywords: authenticity ; Ethno ; folk ; nation ; tradition

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References

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References

  1. Bendix, R. (1997). In search of authenticity: The transformation of folklore studies. University of Wisconsin Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  2. Bohlman, P. V. (2004). The music of European nationalism: Cultural identity and modern history. ABC-CLIO.
     [Google Scholar]
  3. Born, G., & Hesmondhalgh, G. (Eds.). (2000). Western music and its others: Difference, representation, and appropriation in music. University of California Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  4. Dabcynski, A. H. (1994). Northern week at Ashokan ‘91: Fiddle tunes, motivation and community at a fiddle and dance camp [Doctoral dissertation]. University of Michigan.
     [Google Scholar]
  5. Ethno France. (2021, December 9). 10 days left to apply for Ethno France 2022! Ethno World. Accessed 9 January 2022, from https://ethno.world/10-days-left-to-apply-for-ethno-france-2022/
  6. Feld, S. (2004). A sweet lullaby for world music. Public Culture, 12(1), 145–171.
     [Google Scholar]
  7. Hargreaves, T. (2017). ‘That one time at fiddle camp…’: The emergence of the fiddle camp phenomenon and its influence on contemporary American fiddle music [Senior undergraduate thesis (Division III)]. Hampshire College.42
     [Google Scholar]
  8. Higgins, L. (2020). Case study: Ethno Portugal. Crossing the threshold. Ethno Research Pilot Case Studies. York St. John University: Ethno Research. Accessed 26 January 2024, from https://www.ethnoresearch.org/publication/ethno-portugal/
     [Google Scholar]
  9. Hill, J., & Bithell, C. (2014). An introduction to music revivals as concept, cultural process, and medium of change. In J. Hill & C. Bithell (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of music revival (pp. 3–42). Oxford University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  10. Hobsbawm, E. J., & Ranger, T. O. (1983). The invention of tradition. Cambridge University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  11. JM International. (n.d.). Programs: Ethno. JM International. Accessed 9 January 2022, from https://jmi.net/programs/ethno
  12. JM International. (2021). Ethno Mobility 2021 – Open call. mubazar. Accessed 9 January 2022, from https://www.mubazar.com/en/opportunity/ethno-mobility-2021-open-call
  13. Livingston, T. E. (1999). Music revivals: Towards a general theory. Ethnomusicology, 19(2), 20–25.
     [Google Scholar]
  14. Mantie, R., & Risk, L. (2020). Framing ethno-world: Intercultural music exchange, tradition, and globalization. JM International.
     [Google Scholar]
  15. Mantie, R., Risk, L., Tironi, P., Manson-Curry, K., Li, J., & de Groot, A. (2021). The complexities of intercultural music exchange: Ethno World as cultural change agent. JM International.
     [Google Scholar]
  16. Miller, J. L. (2007). The learning and teaching of traditional music. In J. Beech, O. Hand, F. MacDonald, M. A. Mulhern & J. Weston (Eds.), Scottish life and society: A compendium of Scottish ethnology. Volume 10: Oral literature and performance culture (pp. 288–304). John Donald.
     [Google Scholar]
  17. Miller, J. L. (2018). A sense of who we are: The cultural value of community-based traditional music in Scotland. In S. McKerrell & G. West (Eds.), Understanding Scotland musically: Folk, tradition, and policy (pp. 30–43). Routledge.
     [Google Scholar]
  18. Risk, L. (2013). The chop: The diffusion of an instrumental technique across North Atlantic fiddling traditions. Ethnomusicology, 57(3), 428–454.
     [Google Scholar]
  19. Ruskin, J. D., & Rice, T. (2012). The individual in musical ethnography. Ethnomusicology, 56(2), 299–327.
     [Google Scholar]
  20. Stock, J. P. (2010). Toward an ethnomusicology of the individual, or biographical writing in ethnomusicology. The World of Music, 52(1/3), 332–346.
     [Google Scholar]
  21. Turino, T. (2008). Music as social life: The politics of participation. University of Chicago Press.
     [Google Scholar]

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