Cape Breton fiddle music : the making and maintenance of a tradition

Abstract

Cape Breton fiddle music is an art form rooted in Scottish Gaelic tradition. Because of an economic restructuring in Scotland between the late 1700s and mid 1800s, more than 30 000 Scottish Gaels emigrated to the island of Cape Breton, off Canada's east coast. Since then, many elements of the island's Gaelic culture have thrived and survived, including fiddle music. Although limited studies are available, an overview combining a social history of the music with an assessment of its current status is long overdue.

The thesis traces four basic periods to show how Cape Breton fiddling has evolved in response to many changes from the time of its origins in Scotland until the year 2004. The history section surveys the influence on fiddling of traditional supports like the Gaelic language, Gaelic bagpiping and song, step-dancing, accompaniment, rural isolation, and so on. But the thesis is mainly concerned about the contemporary status of the music. With the help of surveyed respondents from today's representative fiddlers, the major chapters deal with how well the music copes with recent changes like the drastic loss of Gaelic, the adoption of the tradition by non-Gaels, global musical influences, and commercial success. The thesis confronts directly the controversial topic of the technical means of maintaining the traditional Gaelic sound in a de-Gaelicized context.