Momentum Collective - new music from traditional musicians

Momentum Collective New music from traditional musicians in Scotland featuring Lori Watson, Aidan O'Rourke, Martin Green, Catriona McKay, Kevin MacKenzie, John Somerville, Innes Watson, Duncan Lyall, Shona Mooney, Lauren McColl, Jenny Gardner, Tia Files, Paul Jennings, Christine Hanson, Sharon Hasson, Ruaridh Campbell and more..

Listen to some compositions at the Myspace page www.myspace.com/momentumcollective

Innovation and Preservation

There are many different views within the traditional music community regarding the preserving, contributing, developing of our collective music.

At this point I would like to state that it is the variety in opinion, musical taste, background, interpretation, creative work and performance that is the key strength in traditional music. It is moulded by many hands and continues because of that.

The preservation view is just as important as the innovation view (and lets not simplify this by pretending that we all stick to just one view!) or for that matter the 'natural development' view or the 'middle of the road' view or the 'mixed up' or 'don't want to have a view' views....

Anyway, some comments on different perspectives:

There are those who see innovation as essential to the development of traditional music, this is smaller-scale innovation which has always been a part of traditional music and contributes to its gradual development.

There are a few who see innovation as destructive: damaging to the strands of tradition handed down to us. Who want to preserve what we have inherited. Of course what we have inherited may have been altered any number of times.

However, in the intricate structure of traditional music and its community - even the most enthusiastic champions of innovation often have strands of tradition that are important to them and want to preserve and protect them for future generations.

When we talk about a Living Tradition, I think all of these strands should be taken into account to build up a picture of the complex, moving, developing, growing entity that doesn't always agree with itself that is 'the tradition'.

My personal feeling (if it isn't already becoming obvious) is that it comes down to the treatment of tradition. If a musician isn't well informed and knowledgeable (in particular the unspoken kind) then the likelihood of their musical products being an inappropriatre treatment of tradition are high. This is one of the main ways in which we attribute value to music in the traditional idiom.

The process of music filtering down and being repeatedly moulded and sifted through by musicians with the help of their audiences is like evolution, survival of the fittest. Of course 'the tradition' not only consists of a central body of repertoire and knowledge that goes with it but all of the related music surrounding it - larger-scale works, a variety of music developed for different contexts, collections of material that come in and out of popular use (particularly in Scotland with our lengthy mix of oral and documented tradition) - and this has long been the case.

So to sum up on a personal note: make it as innovative as you like but if you don't understand and respect the sentiment of the roots of traditional music then don't pretend that what you do has anything to do with tradition.

I could say more about the apparent requisite for apprenticeship in traditional music (or any music) in order to understand and absorb enough of it to be able to express yourself adequately through it, but I think that is for a different post!

The Innovation Spectrum

This is a term I have been referring to in my work and thought I would have an extra think about what I mean when using it.

Innovation Spectrum

The axis along which examples of music making by traditional musicians can be placed depending on how 'traditional' or 'new' they sound/are.

A way of mapping the musical products of traditional musicians with reference to how conventional or how 'traditional they sound' and how innovative they are or how 'new' they sound.


Conventional --------------------------------------- Innovative

Participants in my work have commented freely on 'barriers', 'boundaries' and 'the spectrum' and placed some of their (and my own) work 'outside of tradition'. Another example - 'well my barriers are right at the free improvisation...and there’s nowhere left to go after that to be honest'.


The Innovation Spectrum has helped me to visualise where different music projects and compositions 'fit in' to what we have already.

Far Out

A participant in my research recently described a part of my creative practice as 'fitting into things that are going on outside of tradition' and later they mused that as 'people get further out, the more of this sort of thing that traditional musicians do the further out they get...when they approach traditional music'.

I am wondering if that is always the case?

I don't think it is the case for me. It is true that I explore ways of being creative that take me completely outwith the traditional idiom, and my work can be placed at different points all along the convention - innovation spectrum, but equally I can approach a traditional tune (or tune within the traditional idiom) in a historically informed way and can achieve a very traditional sounding result. Yes my eyes are open to many creative possibilities and I have an expanded set of skills to apply but I consciously choose the musical outcome of my interpretation/arrangement/composition/performance.

However, perhaps it can be said that the more experimental and alternative approaches that traditional musicians explore, the more of these they can continue to employ in their practice, without necessarily impeding on their 'traditional' output?

Any thoughts?

multiple musical hats

I would like to think more about the different roles that traditional musicians play.

My favourite being the preserver/contributor/innovator trichotomy closely followed by composer/performer and the lesser importance of composer control.


On any day I can be in a single capacity or a combination. I can think and act separately or as a multi-faceted whole.

Border fiddler.
Scottish fiddler playing west highland style strathspeys, old Shetland tunes or Irish polkas.
Contemporary fiddler and tune writer sounding just like myself.
Ballad singer.
Contemporary singer/songwriter.
Experimental musician/composer working with free improvisation.
Champion of traditional music.
Innovator exploring and expanding the boundaries of tradition.

Some of these roles are close to conflict - how can I champion tradition yet enthusiastically influence the traditional musicians I work with and their practice towards more experimental approaches?

Goodness

What makes music good?
How do we assess value?
What qualities do we associate with success?
And how is success measured?

please respond!

"Sounds really great (first clip on website)!...Is it any good? Who knows. It tends on the perspective I suppose. From the performers point of view – if he is happy with it that is all that counts. I think you should only make music for yourself and if you believe in the end product that’s the most important thing. If the public like it and buy it in its millions that’s an aside. ‘What makes something good’ is too wide a question...Maybe the question should be ‘Can anything be bad’!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" (Simon Thoumire)



Obviously, the goalposts move depending on which group of people or person are reacting to what articles/song/object on any given day. I am interested in how traditional musicians attach value to different kinds of music making in different contexts. And also how the differences relate to the different roles these musicians take on.

For example, a musician who sees him or herself as a traditional musician and also as an innovative composer might see value and quality in experimental approaches to music making but if these approaches infringe in any way on a strand of traditional that the musician feels is important, they might strongly disagree with it and possibly feel angered by it.

I find it interesting the way musicians negotiate their way through these differences of opinion and identity.

Piece For 4 Traditional Musicians III

Here is an early attempt at one of the graphic scores. It is performed by 4 fiddlers from Border Fiddles
1. Innes Watson
2. Rachel Cross
3. Carly Blain
4. Shona Mooney

You will hear that the musicians veer off the score especially in in the improvised sections. They were sight-reading the piece and I didn't give them very much instruction, I wanted to see what they would make of it.

I actually envisaged that they would stick to the same pulse and make it more of a traditional jig sound but I think the idea of an experimental piece and the instructions to improvise pushed the musicians to perform not as themselves. It was interesting that in a subsequent take the musicians wanted to pick another fiddle player to play as - they made it into role play. I really wanted them to be themselves...

This practice run has given me a clearer idea of how I will approach the piece, what information needs to be provided and how it might be received by traditional musicians.



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