Why is it that....

[Chuck_Clark]

A very common C&F topic begins "Which X tunes do we need to know?"

In high school band (my only official musical instruction) we had music stands on the concert stage and lyres on the field and on parade.

Every orchestra from three year old Suzuki students to the New York Philharmonic has their music in front of them when playing publicly.

But in folk (dulcmer) or Trad (whistle) your entire repertoire seems to be perforce committed to memory.

Anybody know why (this is not a trick question - I really want to know)?

[MTGuru]

Because you play 'em the same way you learned 'em, no?

The phrase "committed to memory" doesn't seem quite right. When you have achieved learning of a tune - by ear, of course, and from another tradition bearer or surrogate - the tune is in your memory. The learning and memory are one and the same. And that's only the first step to incubating the tune and making it your own with the kinds of personal variation allowed and suggested by the tradition.

The process of learning and playing art music from written notation couldn't be more different in many ways; where the ideal goal is note-perfect reproduction of the learned piece from performance to performance, within very narrow bounds of variable expression and personalization.

[rebl_rn]

Thinking about it, it's mostly just classical, orchestral performances where you see music on stage (at a professional level). Even a classical string quartet or some such smaller group often have their pieces committed to memory. Classical pianists usually have memorized. And bands - from rock to country to r & b to jazz - I've never seen one of them on stage with music stands, unless it's to hold a set list and a beverage and maybe some cigarettes. (And in my high school band, we had to memorize our marching band pieces. Our memorization of them was part of our grade).

So, orchestral pieces would be the odd duck out, really, and that I think is just the nature of the beast. When you have that many people all playing together, you really need to be sure you are all on the same page. And no improvising.

[Carey]

What they said...

Folk music comes from the "folk" or person, and orchestral music comes from the page. Granted the conductor and players put some spin on it, but the piece started with the notation no? Folk has only recently been written down, and so many times you'll hear people say that you can't capture the music in notation. Especially ITM. There's no notation that I'm aware of that could capture it.

The dots help me remember how a tune that I've not played for a long time goes, but I only need a measure or two. Also, what is written is most times not what is played. It's just the bones. The rest comes from the player.

[fearfaoin]

Every orchestra from three year old Suzuki students to the New York Philharmonic has their music in front of them when playing publicly.

Actually, the Suzuki method makes you
memorize your music for recitals, and
the beginners start learning by ear before
learning to read.

[straycat82]

But in folk (dulcmer) or Trad (whistle) your entire repertoire seems to be perforce committed to memory.

Anybody know why?

The simple answer is that they are aural traditions. Many tunes were written down after-the-fact by collectors but that process was neither the nature nor the tradition of the music.

[Azalin]

Don't forget about the sessions... sessions are a big part of irish music, and in a good session people will play sets and will switch tunes on the fly sometimes randomly, sometimes not, but imagine if you had to have all musicians in the sessions open their book and tell people in advance what they were going to play so that people can have the pages ready on time... yerk, that would kill the fun part of sessions, and keep the chemistry at the lowest level.

[straycat82]

Unfortunately that scenario is a reality in some parts 'round here. Makes for a boring and craic-less session IMO. You can't talk me into going to those sessions if you tried.

[Azalin]

Unfortunately that scenario is a reality in some parts 'round here. Makes for a boring and craic-less session IMO. You can't talk me into going to those sessions if you tried.

You'd need to bring me there at gun point... or that 'session' would need to host a darn attractive, hot, single woman! (Can't say smart, she'd be playing from sheet music from frak sake!!)

[straycat82]

Unfortunately that scenario is a reality in some parts 'round here. Makes for a boring and craic-less session IMO. You can't talk me into going to those sessions if you tried.

You'd need to bring me there at gun point... or that 'session' would need to host a darn attractive, hot, single woman! (Can't say smart, she'd be playing from sheet music from frak sake!!)

It is certainly an unfortunate trend that has emerged as of late; luckily there is only one session birthed out of it so far (though one session too many!). We seemed to get a swell of classical players who could sight read and who got themselves tune books. They call out page numbers and pass around set lists and that's how they "session." For some reason they don't seem to want to learn the tunes by ear but they constantly solicit the other session players (who play trad) to join them. I guess they have fun and that's all that matters to them.

[mutepointe]

I don't play ITM and I don't go to sessions, so I don't know about that stuff.

What I do know is church music. We use sheet music. We don't play songs often enough to have them memorized. And even the songs we play at every Mass, well, we still use the sheet music. Once a sheet music user, always a sheet music user.

Although a lot of folk music is aural tradition, I've been on camping trips and family picnics. I keep a binder of songs, that way, if someone is there to join us, they know what we're doing. When someone is there who didn't bring sheet music to share and they're playing songs that I can't join, then I get the pleasure of listening.

[straycat82]

Once a sheet music user, always a sheet music user.

If that is your mindset then it may be true for you but I've witnessed otherwise (difficult as it may have been for the individual). Though sheet music may be a rigid crutch for many who stumble into the tradition from elsewhere, remembering the tunes, listening to the music, and learning by ear are skills to be learned if you have any real respect for the traditional music or if you ever intend to do it any justice.

Although a lot of folk music is aural tradition, I've been on camping trips and family picnics. I keep a binder of songs, that way, if someone is there to join us, they know what we're doing. When someone is there who didn't bring sheet music to share and they're playing songs that I can't join, then I get the pleasure of listening.

That, IMO is one of the biggest errors that folks make when stepping into this music. They assume that they can just take everything they knew about other music practices and translate it (or fake it) to Irish Trad. This is most definitely not the case. The group of musicians I spoke of before are mostly new to the music or were bluegrass players who thought Irish music was close enough that they could play by sheet music without really learning it. These folks started out coming by our sessions and didn't last long because they never learned any of the tunes (and the tunes in their books didn't always mesh with ours). They wanted to sing pub songs, play the slow Carolan tunes and the same five hornpipes and polkas they've known forever so they started their own session. As I said, if that makes 'em happy then more power to them but they claim to be an "Irish session" which is misleading to someone wanting to find a place to hear or play trad music... and annoying when they show up at parties where the musicians came to play Irish music.

[mutepointe]

Music is different things for different people. I think there is room for everyone, especially if folks are in different places. Singing pub songs were they?

[Blaydo]

LOL I can just imagine the silence and raised eyebrows if someone was to walk into a pub in Ireland and sit down to join a session with sheet music. It's not that difficult to memorize a tune, after you've played it 2 or 3 times it should be in memory. If it's not even in memory then you don't know the tune, if you're playing it from the sheet all you are doing is playing a series of notes which will sound dull and never fit in with a real Irish trad session. This might be ok for church music or an orchestra that might have a ton of material to learn in a short space of time, but for ITM it will not work. Imagine a rock band like U2 getting on stage with sheet music, what would everyone think? That they've never played the tune before and never bothered to practice it, well that's exactly what trad musicians would think if you sat down beside them with sheet music. I can't think of anything that annoys them more than people joining in on tunes they don't even know.

[MarkP]

I can't think of anything that annoys them more than people joining in on tunes they don't even know.

...although joining in (quietly) is also one of the ways you're most likely to learn a session tune in the aural tradition. I keep a 'quiet' whistle with me at a session, as well as the loud one and the flute, for just that purpose.