Archipelago Soundscape: Irish Music History and Vernacular Fiddle Cultures on Prince Edward Island Kate Bevan-Baker A Thesis In the Humanities Program Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Humanities) at Concordia University Montréal, Québec, Canada February 2018 © Kate Bevan-Baker, 2018 CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES This is to certify that the thesis prepared By: Kate Bevan-Baker Entitled: Archipelago Soundscape: Irish Music History and Vernacular Fiddle Cultures on Prince Edward Island and submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor Of Philosophy (Humanities) complies with the regulations of the University and meets the accepted standards with respect to originality and quality. Signed by the final examining committee: Chair Dr. Vivek Venkatesh External Examiner Dr. David Wilson External to Program Dr. Emer O'Toole Examiner Dr. Mark Fewer Examiner Dr. Jane McGaughey Thesis Supervisor Dr. Gearóid Ó hAllmhuráin Approved by Dr. Erin Manning, Graduate Program Director Thursday, March 15, 2018 Dr. André Roy, Dean Faculty of Arts and Science Abstract Archipelago Soundscape: Irish Music History and Vernacular Fiddle Cultures on Prince Edward Island Kate Bevan-Baker, PhD Concordia University, 2018 Part of an archipelago that stretches along the seaways from Newfoundland to Les Îles-de-la- Madeleine, Prince Edward Island is Canada’s smallest province. It lies “cradled in the waves,” (as its Mi’kmaq name indicates), off the east coast of New Brunswick in the shallow waters of the Northumberland Strait. Its moderate climate and rich red soil have allowed fishing and agriculture to prosper there over the centuries. The Island has been a landing-point for Europeans ever since Jacques Cartier arrived there from France in 1534. The subsequent influx of Acadian, Scottish and Irish settlers during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries laid the foundations of European settlement on the Island. Two centuries later, the cultural traits of these original settlers continue to distinguish community life on PEI. Music plays a pivotal role in the maintenance of these lifeworlds—especially, traditional fiddle music. This thesis investigates Irish traditional fiddle music on Prince Edward Island. Drawing on field interviews, transcription analyses, archive recordings, and participant-observation at various music festivals and session venues on PEI, it focuses on the performance histories of past and present fiddlers, many of whom are carriers of dual, or “bi-musical” traditions from Ireland and Scotland. Beginning with the diasporic history of Irish settlers on PEI, the thesis maps Irish “sonic” territories across the Island, and explores the cultural memory and collective sense of place that give them musical meaning. This “deep mapping” creates a textured portrait of Irish fiddle dialects on the Island; in particular, regional and individual nuances, repertoire development, bowing patterns and ornamentation techniques. Contrasting the process of Irish ethnic fade on the Island with a recent surge of musical hybridity and transculturation, the thesis argues that the Irish soundscape on Prince Edward Island is experiencing many of the same creative challenges and transformations that impact Irish traditional soundscapes in other parts of the world. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Many people have helped to bring this dissertation to fruition. I am particularly grateful to my primary supervisor, Professor Gearóid Ó hAllmhuráin, for his expertise and attention to detail. In addition, his encouragement and mentorship were fundamental in the completion of this thesis. Other members of my committee provided intuitive and supportive feedback over the course of the PhD program, and for their guidance I am most thankful: Dr. Jane McGaughey and Professor Mark Fewer. The School of Irish Studies at Concordia University provided continued support over the years by facilitating opportunities to present my work in its various forms—through conferences, graduate seminars, public performances and lectures. This project would not have been possible without financial support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Concordia University’s School of Irish Studies, department of Humanities and faculty of Arts & Science, the Canadian Federation of University Women, and the Ireland Canada University Foundation (Dobbin Scholarship). I am indebted to the five fiddlers who agreed to speak with me during the fieldwork process. Their thoughtful insights have provided a wider lens through which I now view fiddling on PEI. Furthermore, guidance and attention from librarians at Concordia University, University of PEI, University College Cork, Ireland, and the Irish Traditional Music Archive in Dublin made the research process fruitful and enjoyable. Thank you, as well, to David Widgington for creating the maps of Irish settlements and musical territories on PEI that accompany this thesis. Finally, I would like to thank my family and friends for their love and encouragement— most of all, my loving husband, Jim, for his patience and support through this journey. Also to our son, George, who was literally by my side during the writing process that was his first year of life. Finally, a special thank you to our parents who cooked countless meals and babysat hundreds of hours throughout this adventure. iv Table of Contents List of Figures vii Introduction, Methodology, Context Raison d’être: “In the Blood” 1 Theoretical Perspectives, Methodological Framework 6 Background and Inspiration: An Insider and Outsider 7 Chapter 1: Irish Migration to Prince Edward Island 9 First Settlers 10 Post-Napoleonic Exodus 11 Twentieth-Century Trickle 19 Reclaiming the Old World 21 Chapter 2: Space and Place in Musical Identity 24 Place Making through Place Naming 24 Phenomenology of Music Making 26 Transmission and Place 29 Prince Edward Island: A Sonic Habitus 32 Cultural Flow: Linking Musical Worlds 35 Spatial Genealogy of a Tune: Sheehan’s Reel 37 Chapter 3: Media Ecology 53 Pioneer Consumers: Mail-Order Catalogues 53 Sound Recording and the Sligo Masters 58 Broadcasting and the Role of Don Messer 62 The Medium is the Message 70 Music Media and Tourism on PEI 72 v Chapter 4: Performing Living Traditions 75 Traditional Fiddle Music in Context 75 Vernacular Fiddling on PEI 76 Performance Context 79 Playing Techniques 81 Form in Irish Traditional Music 85 Methods of Variation 87 Topography of Regional Styles: 89 Northeast Kings County 90 South Kings County 91 Central Kings County 92 West Prince County 93 East Prince County/Evangeline Coast 94 Queens County 95 Profiles of Fiddlers 97 Conclusion: An Island of Tradition, An Island of Change 102 Musical Place and Musical Mobility on PEI 103 The Perennial Debate: Tradition versus Innovation 104 Ethnic and Métis Space, Avenues for Future Research 107 Bibliography 109 Discography 123 Appendix A – Interview Questions 127 Appendix B – Interview Transcriptions 128 Nollaig Bonar 128 Luka Hall 134 Courtney Hogan 139 Roy Johnstone 144 Ward MacDonald 159 Appendix C – The Island Fiddler (Newsletter, September 2014) 173 vi List of Figures 1.1 John McNeil’s Reel 17 1.2 Illustrated London News 18 2.1 Irish Communities on PEI 25 2.2 Credo III, Gregorian Missal 31 2.3 Credo, Barachois, Encore! 32 2.4 Sheehan’s Reel, Francis O’Neill, Music of Ireland 38 2.5 Sheehan’s Reel, Francis O’Neill, Dance Music of Ireland 39 2.6 Sheehan’s Reel, Allan’s Irish Fiddler 40 2.7 Sheehan’s Reel, as played by Eddy Arsenault 41 2.8 Sheehan’s Reel, as played by “Young” Peter Chaisson 42 2.9 Sheehan’s Reel, as played by Charlie Sheehan 43 2.10 Sheehan’s Reel, as played by Francis MacDonald 44 2.11 Sheehan’s Reel, as played by Joe Kearney 45 2.12 Sheehan’s Reel, as played by Roland Jay 46 2.13 Sheehan’s Reel, as played by Stephen Toole 47 2.14 Joe O’Connell’s Dream, as played by Hugh Gillespie 48 2.15 Wellington’s Reel, as played by James Morrison 49 2.16 Sheehan’s Reel, as played by James Kelly 50 2.17 Sheehan’s Reel, as played by Fergal Scahill 51 3.1 Violins in Eaton’s catalogue, no. 2, c.1898 54 3.2 Bagpipes in Eaton’s catalogue, fall and winter 1918-19 55 3.3 Violins in Eaton’s catalogue, fall and winter 1918-19 56 3.4 Harding’s Collection in Eaton’s catalogue, fall and winter 1915-16 57 3.5 Player piano rolls in Eaton’s catalogue, fall and winter 1918-19 58 3.6 Gramophones in Eaton’s catalogue, spring and summer 1908 60 3.7 LP records of Irish tunes in Eaton’s catalogue, spring and summer 1926 61 3.8 The Charlottetown Guardian, March 18, 1926, page 6 63 3.9 The Charlottetown Guardian, April 1, 1926 page 1 65 3.10 Don Messer, 1965 66 vii 3.11 The Charlottetown Guardian, September 30, 1937, page 6 67 3.12 Don Messer recordings in Eaton’s catalogue, fall and winter 1948-49 68 3.13 Kiley’s Reel, transcribed from the playing of Don Messer 69 3.14 Kiley’s Reel, transcribed from the playing of Peter Doiron 70 4.1 Parts of the violin bow 82 4.2 Big John MacNeil, as played by Lem Jay 84 4.3 Big John MacNeil, as played by Elliot Wight 85 4.4 Cut – embellishment 88 4.5 Short Roll – embellishment 88 4.6 Long Roll – embellishment 89 4.7 Triplet – embellishment 89 4.8 Double Stop/Droning – embellishment 89 4.9 Map of PEI with County Divisions 90 viii Introduction, Methodology, Context Raison d’être: “In the Blood” “It’s in my blood.” This adage, which is frequently cited by traditional players, refers to musical skills and abilities that are inherited from previous generations. For many Prince Edward Islanders, genetic ties to Ireland and Scotland have produced generations of Irish and Scottish fiddlers within the province. Whether consciously understood or not, dialectic subtleties that make up one’s playing style are often attributed to one’s musical ancestors. As a child, my most cherished gifts were cassette tapes recorded for me by my aunt Kate in Scotland, after whom I was named. The highlights of family vacations to Scotland were learning new fiddle tunes from her. I was eager to learn new tunes and the music captured my imagination. It truly was “in my blood.” Irish tunes inevitably crept into my repertoire as it expanded during my teenage years. This music, too, resonated with me because of its strong idiomatic similarities to Scottish music. Growing up in a vibrant fiddling scene on Prince Edward Island (PEI) and observing the music makers who drifted in and out of it further piqued my interest in tracing the musical journeys that shaped this extraordinary island soundscape. PEI is Canada’s smallest province and lies “cradled in the waves,” as its Mi’kmaq name indicates, off the east coast of New Brunswick in the Northumberland Strait. Its moderate climate allows fishing and agriculture to prosper. The Island has been a landing-point for Europeans ever since Jacques Cartier arrived from France in 1534.1 The influx of Acadian, Scottish and Irish immigrants during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries laid the foundations of European settlement on the Island. Two centuries later, the cultural traits of these original settlers continue to distinguish community life on PEI. Music plays a pivotal role in the maintenance of these lifeworlds—especially, fiddle music. In 1996, immigration historian Donald Akenson claimed that there was a serious lack of research on Irish settlement on PEI. He noted that there was, “virtually nothing except local histories that discusses the Irish in Prince Edward Island.”2 Akenson’s call to action was answered by Brendan O’Grady, who completed a formal investigation into Irish settlement 1 Willy Amtmann, Music in Canada, 1600-1800 (Michigan: Habitex Books, 1975), 43. 2 Donald H. Akenson, The Irish Diaspora: A Primer (Streetsville, ON: P.D. Meany, 1993), 265. 1 history on the island in 2004.3 Focusing on the decline of the Irish fiddling tradition on the Island since 1970, this thesis expands on O’Grady’s historiographical research and brings together historical and musical pasts to analyze the musical present.4 While the ethnographic findings are drawn from a micro milieu within a larger island soundscape, I am keenly aware that PEI is part of a diffuse musical archipelago that stretches across Atlantic Canada from Newfoundland and Cape Breton Island to Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine, the Acadian peninsula and other riverine soundscapes along the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. A culture is often defined by its music, language and traditions that are passed down from one generation to the next.5 Beyond the remit of ethnically-defined culture, however, music is regarded as a universal language, with classical, jazz and traditional genres, etc. functioning as dialects within a broader linguistic frame. Using Irish traditional fiddling on PEI as a case study, this thesis explores these sonic paradigms as they pertain to music memory and performance practice. My primary research question asks how Irish traditional music became part of the repertoire of the province, and why it is of cultural significance today. Irish music history and diaspora form the backdrop to this question, whereas media ecologies and performance modalities are its foreground priorities. Adopting a broad-based ethnomusicological perspective, Bruno Nettl emphasized the importance of investigating music within the cultural lifeworlds of its performers—in order to achieve a comprehensive understanding of any soundscape.6 With this methodological premise in mind, my research focuses on living traditions that have been brokered by performers for over two centuries. ⁠Highlighting historical and geographic forces that shaped traditional soundscapes on PEI, diasporic cultural flows inform this research from the onset. Unlike the fast-moving innovations and cross-fertilizations of Irish traditional repertoires in urban Canada and the USA 3 Brendan O’Grady, Exiles and Islanders: The Irish Settlers of Prince Edward Island (Montréal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2004). Although O’Grady’s pioneering work addressed Irish settlement on the island, a comprehensive music history of the Island has yet to be published. Ken Perlman’s 2015 publication encompasses a broad musical exploration of traditional fiddle playing on PEI, however, an academic study has yet to be conducted. See Ken Perlman, Couldn’t Have a Wedding Without a Fiddler (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2015). 4 Ken Perlman, The Fiddle Music of Prince Edward Island: Celtic and Acadian Tunes in Living Tradition (Pacific, MO: Mel Bay, 1996), 10. 5 Lawrence Barkwell, Lean Dorion, Darren R. Préfontaine, and Audreen Houdrie, Metis Legacy II: Michif Culture, Heritage and Folkways, (Winnipeg: Gabriel Dumont Institute, 2006), 162. 6 Bruno Nettl, Theory and Method in Ethnomusicology (Illinois: Free Press of Glencoe, 1964), 9. 2