I've realized in the last couple years that I've developed a kind of musical-instrument A.D.D. If it makes any kind of sound that can be used in some way to make music, I want to play it. But coming here has taken this to a whole new level!
Taking mandolin lessons and starting to play some proper Irish tunes has been great, but I'm already branching out into new instruments. A friend in the MA Trad Performance program noticed me playing mandolin in a session one evening, and then offered to let me borrow her bouzouki. Its a Greek instrument that has been altered and integrated into Irish music, and is basically the bass version of a mandolin. Since picking that up last week I've been attempting to adapt what I'm learning on mandolin onto it. I've also started taking weekly African Drumming classes on wednesdays. The man teaching is has traveled all over Africa studying and playing music, and he's a great facillitator of these classes of 40+ people. Everyweek we focus on different regional and tribal styles. These classes have come as a savior, as my classes are growing in intensity and it gives me a place to productively pound the hell out of something! I've also started messing around with different open-tuning systems on guitar.
As far as Irish music goes, I've begun playing in sessions a couple times a week with the students from the MA performance program. These players are insanely talented!! There's a few All Ireland winners in there, as well as a few rising stars in Irish music! I guess thats bound to happen when you start playing before you're potty trained. I'm doing my best to get back into the groove of playing tunes again, as well as trying to figure out the intricacies of how Irish Trad culture works. As a part of that, I'm starting research on the integration of non-traditional instruments into Irish music, how they are integrated, resisted, and the feelings regarding them. I'll be working with an American cellist who is in the program here, as she is one of the very few to play cello in Traditional Irish music. She'll be a case study which will allow me a direct, and contemporary look into non-traditional instrument integration. I'll also be looking at it through my own experiences of playing mandolin, and now bouzouki (basically a bass mandolin), as they are both of Greek origin and somewhat accepted, but not completely.
Some of you may know that I had interest in working with a university project called the Sanctuary Initiative when I came here. Well, I am now the student representative for the program on campus. The Sanctuary Initiative is aimed at working with refugees, immigrants, asylum seekers, and even those on work visas, with an intent to help maintain displaced communities through music. We work with an NGO (non-government organization) based in Limerick by the name of Dorus Luimní that is focused on doing the same through utilizing music, film, dance, art, etc. We had our first event two weeks ago here at UL in celebration of national Ghandi Day. We had three amazing performers: Ustav Lal, a 17 year old piano prodigy who has adapted classical Indian Ragas to piano; a classical Indian dancer, Tilottama Nandy; and a sitar player Dara O'Brien. In combination with a concert, all the artists - who now live in Ireland - give workshops for music and dance students. I went to all three of them, and the concert, and was completely blown away!! I had no idea how complex Indian classical music is, and how transcendental it can be. After an extremely successful day I immediately came home and started looking online for Indian drone machines and even sitars (just out of curiosity). We're planning on three events per semester, so we'll see how much worse my musical A.D.D. can get!!
On another note, my program here is insane. I don't get to bed before 2am, ever. Reading is my life. I've got a couple fieldwork projects going on. One with the cello and Irish music, the other starts tuesday doing preliminary reconnaissance on the Irish punk scene to see what's going on. My thesis could end up being on the Irish punk scene, but we'll see. I found out when I got here that Ireland has been declared the most globalized nation in the world!!! Lest to say there's a lot out there, and a lot going on!!
Thats all for this installment. Next time I'll tell you about my new found ability to accidentally switch from Scottish to Irish to English accents in sometimes poor, but brilliant fashion!
Cheers!
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