IrishMusicInfo
The Sunday Tribune Weekly Traditional Music Column by Fintan Vallely
990418
Ceol - The Irish Traditional Music Centre has opened at Smithfield in Dublin with an expenditure possibly in excess of the total public funding of Traditional music since the 1950s. But its piper is paid entirely by the private sector, Dublin businessman Terry Devey. The ideological motive comes from Dublin consultant Cel Phelan who is MD of an Englis PR company Event, and thematic consultant is Harry Bradshaw of RTƒ radio whose passion is for archive, the authenticity of the past and its faithful reproduction in the present: 'I was doubtful about the project in the beginning" he says, "but I'm more than happy now - traditional music has been done more than 100% justice". Ceol now releases him into the third dimension, and, indeed, with its five-screen cinema projection of a specially commissioned 'video' he gets to play God. Interlinked, multi-screen movie and stills projections and wrap-around sound offer 'Russian doll' levels of participation. Touch-screens lead deep into the music's people, places, tunes, song and instruments, and all can be investigated in time to the political happenings over centuries (cautiously presented as overlay rather than interweave). One can stand under sean-n—s steps slapped out on glass, mimic participation in a cŽil’ or set dance, and see everything that goes on and has gone on in social and costumed figure dance. Simultaneous screenings projected on to life-size coat and jacket plaster mouldings put dimension and distance on city and country, past and present, young and old, stay-at-home and emigrant. A vast mural denotes revival thinking from Bunting to Breathnach, photographic walls detail familiar faces, interactive instrument presentations select out particular sounds for study from the group. For children there are 'toys' galore - a pre-programmed dance floor, mechanical flute, instrument sound samplers. For the aware there is a preaching room where the politics of it all are indoctrinated from TV by modern figures that include Donal Lunny and Paul Brady with current optimism. Ceol is an easy-interface archive, a major bait to lure all intelligences among nation-hoppers, and seems to hold great potential for schools to boost inadequate teaching resources in music. But if a month could can be spent here without exhausting all its hidden potential, one wonders how copyright is applied. Are those archived voices all present courtesy of RTƒ and Ceol buy-outs, to sing and dance forever for the virtual edification of Ireland and seduction of Euros? Since greater things are planned - flesh and blood performance, with already a concert series in train - will such studio-selected perfection and commodification lure all the quality and money to one place, undermine other venues, destroy the present notion of 'music community'? This awesome presentation is a profound monument to a century that began with wind-up spring and finished with microchip. The digital Celtic cross commemorates a hundred years of revival and a thousand of music evolution.
©Fintan Vallely, IrishMusicInfo.com
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