The ITM Community: Part IV, How libraries can help
An MLIS Case Study
Of all the resources available to Irish traditional musicians (ITM), perhaps the most underutilized is the library. By its very nature folk music is at odds with the literary and scholarly worlds. In 1855 the Irish music collector George Petrie wrote,
“the music of Ireland has hitherto been the exclusive property of the peasantry. The upper classes are a different race – a race who possess no national music; or, if any, one essentially different from that of Ireland. They are insensitive to its beauty, for it breathed not their feelings; and they resigned it to those from whom they took everything else. He who would add to the stock of Irish melody must seek it, not in the halls of the great, but in the cabins of the poor” (Ó hAllmhuráin, 2017, p6).
This is also evidence that surly attitudes in the ITM world are synonymous with the culture and nothing new. If you were to ask a trad musician what resources they use to learn music, they would almost certainly say recordings and Thesession.org. However, there is a lot that libraries can offer the ITM community, not the least of which is materials for learning. In this post I will examine some initiatives and services libraries are capable of and how they can be used to foster, support, and improve the ITM community.
The first and perhaps most obvious service a library can provide is simply a collection of materials. For centuries the task of collecting and preserving folk music has rested on the shoulders of individuals. The aforementioned George Petrie, born in Dublin in 1790, took it upon himself to gather more than 200 melodies and songs for publication. Nearly 50 years later the legendary Francis O’Neill, a police chief in Chicago, IL, took on the monumental task of gathering 1,850 tunes (O’Neill, 1976), and over the course of his life he would publish 6 books documenting the music, lives, and history of Irish traditional musicians. These are merely two of the numerous people who have taken on the task of preserving a tradition and culture that was nearly wiped out by imperialism. In this area Libraries can offer a tremendous boon.
One very successful example of an archive not only collecting music, but producing materials, and promoting it, is the Irish Traditional Music Archives (ITMA) Goodman Collection. James Goodman was yet another individual who took it upon themselves to gather, document, and archive more than 2,000 melodies from around Ireland. Tunes that were nearly lost to time due to the Great Famine. This particular collection is a favorite of mine as it is specifically bagpipe music, played by the pipers of the time (ITMA, 2024).
Not only has the ITMA gathered the Goodman Collection, but they have made it accessible to the world. This is the key. It is not enough for a library to simply collect works, they must make it available to the masses. In addition to producing the collection, the ITMA has worked with world class musicians to create two albums, Tunes from the Goodman Manuscripts (2012), and More tunes from the Goodman manuscripts (2020) as well as created several concerts and YouTube videos promoting them.
Another example of collection and preservation is the University of Washington’s (UW) Joe Heaney Collection.
Joe Heaney is considered by many to be one of the greatest Irish sean-nos singers ever recorded. Sean-nos is a very specific type of traditional Irish singing meaning “old style.” Born in Carna, Ireland in 1919, Joe lived in both England and Scotland before moving to Seattle to serve as a resident musician at UW. (University of Washington, 2024). It was during his time at UW that many of his songs were recorded and archived. And while there is a Spotify playlist (Heaney, 1996) of some of these songs, the archive is largely unpublished and difficult to find.
Fortunately, Joe Heaney’s music is documented well enough through other sources. However, comparing this to the well-produced Goodman collection via the ITMA, it is disheartening to know that an archive put so much effort into recording the music and yet failed to present it in a meaningful way that trad musicians can easily access and learn from.
In her paper, Finding the right notes: An observational study of score and recording seeking behaviors of music students, Kristin Dougan documented the trend of musicians increased reliance and usage of multiple searching methodologies, including online sources (2015). It is imperative for libraries to understand these trends and ensure they maintain a user-first approach to their collection development and presentation.
In addition to collections libraries have a unique position to offer something that can be quite difficult for trad musicians to find, space. One of the key takeaways from Mansfield philosophical inquiry on music and its relation to technology the need for social context (Mansfield, 2004). In the ITM world that means in person gatherings, also known as a session. It is at these sessions, or what Fisher calls an information ground (2003), that the majority of information is exchanged among the community members. Without these spaces the ITM community faces considerable challenges with regards to information exchange. In Seattle, for instance, the long-standing Murphy’s Pub Irish session (one of the longest running in Seattle’s history), faces extinction as the land the pub sits on has recently been sold (Bassett, 2024). There has been much speculation in the community about what will happen to the session if the pub is forced to close. Sure, Kenny and Waldron have proven that online ITM communities can thrive, but it is a different and less authentic experience (Kenny, 2013 & Waldron, 2016). To aid in this challenge libraries can host not only sessions, but also concerts and lectures on ITM related topics.
Going hand in hand with these events is education. According to a 2022 study by the international data and analytics company Yougov, many adults who do not play an instrument wish they did (Sanders, 2022). Personally, I teach a beginner Irish session at a local music school once a month. Of the 15-20 musicians in the group the majority are new to their chosen instruments and use the class as a means to develop their skill and confidence. Libraries can very easily step into this role by hosting classes workshops.
To summarize, at present moment, libraries play a rather insignificant role in the world of Irish traditional musicians. The history and context of ITM rebelled against such establishments by its very nature. However, libraries can make a significant impact on the community in a few key ways. Libraries can make a concerted effort to gather historical materials and, moreover, make them easily accessible to the public, impressing upon the cultural significance and relevance to modern trad musicians. They can also provide space for musicians, both to play and learn. Space is a rare commodity in the ever-changing landscape of real estate. At any moment a hallowed ground for music could be sold and dismantled by the rich elite Petrie and centuries of peasants rallied against.
Resources
Bassett, C. (2024). The oldest Irish pub in Seattle – Murphy’s pub. Gofundme.com https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-oldest-irish-pub-in-seattle-murphys-pub
Dougan, K. (2015). Finding the right notes: An observational study of score and recording seeking behaviors of music students. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 41(1), 61-67. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2014.09.013
Fisher, K. E., Unruh, K., & Durrance, J. (2003, October). Information communities: Characteristics gleaned from studies of three online networks. American Society for Information Science and Technology, 40(1), 298-305 https://doi.org/10.1002/meet.1450400137
Heaney, J. (1996). Say a song: Joe Heaney in the pacific northwest - Irish songs in the old style[Album]. UW Ethnomusicology Archives. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/29qhRUGmCFNzYoI0O4B2FH?si=1000540800f84be7
Irish Traditional Music Archive. (2024). James Goodman manuscripts. https://goodman.itma.ie/
Irish Traditional Music Archive. (2021, September 10). Goodman Trio Piping Live Concert 2021[Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIhI3OjFcz4
Kenny, A. (2013). The next level: Investigating teaching and learning within an Irish traditional music online community. Research Studies in Music Education, 35(2), 239–253. https://doi.org/10.1177/1321103X13508349
Mansfield, J. E. (2004). The musical subject, technoculture and curriculum in the postmodern condition. Research Studies in Music Education, 23(1), 42–58. https://doi.org/10.1177/1321103X040230010401
O’Brien, M., Maycock, E., Bhriain, A. (2012) Tunes from the Goodman manuscripts [Album]. Is Mise Records.
O’Brien, M., Maycock, E., Bhriain, A. (2020) More tunes from the Goodman manuscripts [Album]. Is Mise Records.
Ó hAllmhuráin, G. (2017.) A short history of Irish traditional music. O’Brien Press
O’Neill, F. (1976) O’Neill’s music of Ireland. New York: Oak Publications.
Sanders, L. (2022, August 23). Younger Americans are increasingly exposed to playing music and a wider range of instruments. Yogov. https://today.yougov.com/society/articles/43512-young-americans-increasingly-exposed-music
