Abstract
A documented history of cultural competitions and contests in Gaelic Cape Breton is being deliberately forgotten. Drawing on Paul Connerton’s theory of social forgetting, the author suggests that this has happened for ideological reasons involving the construction of Gaelic culture as participatory and inclusive, characteristics that many Cape Bretoners find irreconcilable with competitions. By examining historical evidence demonstrating that cultural contests and competitions existed in Cape Breton at various times and in various places, and how they relate to a broader, international context of competitions in “Celtic” cultural communities, the author concludes that present-day claims about the absence and insignificance of contests are inconsistent with the historical record.
References
Bergfeldt-Munro, Wendy. 2015. Tuned In: Radio, Ritual and Resistance: Cape Breton’s Traditional Music, 1972–1998.” MA research project, Athabasca University.
Bithell, Caroline, and Juniper Hill. 2014. The Oxford Handbook of Music Revival: Oxford University Press (UK).
Campbell, John Lorne. 1990. Songs Remembered in Exile. Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press.
Caplan, Ronald. 1978. A Milling Frolic on the North Shore. Cape Breton’s Magazine, December, 39–46.
Connerton, Paul. 2008. Seven Types of Forgetting. Memory Studies 1 (1): 59–71.
Costello, Éamonn. 2019. Oireachtas na Gaeilge and Sean-Nós Song Competition, 1940–2012: Regionalism, Nationalism, and Gaelicness. Éire-Ireland 54 (1): 160–87.
Costello, Éamonn Seosamh. 2015. Sean-nós Singing and Oireachtas na Gaeilge: Identity, Romantic Nationalism, and the Agency of the Gaeltacht Community Nexus. PhD dissertation, University of Limerick.
Davies, Charlotte Aull. 1998. “A oes heddwch?” Contesting Meanings and Identities in the Welsh National Eisteddfod. In Ritual, Performance, Media, 141–59. Ed F. Hughes-Freeland. New York: Routledge.
Dembling, Jonathan. 2006. Gaelic in Canada: New Evidence from an Old Census. In Cànan & Cultar / Language & Culture: Rannsachadh na Gàidhlig 3, 203–14. Ed. W. McLeod, J. E. Fraser, and A. Gunderloch. Edinburgh: Dunedin Academic Press.
Doherty, Liz. 2015. The Cape Breton Fiddle Companion. Sydney, NS: Cape Breton University Press.
Foley, Catherine E. 2020. Steps, Style and Sensing the Difference: Transmission and the Re-contextualisation of Molyneaux’s Traditional Set Dances within the Irish Traditional Dance Competitive Arena. Research in Dance Education 21(3): 312–27.
Foley, Catherine E. 2013. Step Dancing in Ireland: Culture and History. Farnham, UK: Ashgate.
Gibson, John G. 2002. Old and New World Highland Bagpiping. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press.
Gibson, John G. 2017. Gaelic Cape Breton Step-Dancing: An Historical and Ethnographic Perspective. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press.
Gifford, Paul M. 2010. Henry Ford’s Dance Revival and Fiddle Contests: Myth and Reality. Journal of the Society for American Music 4 (3): 307–38.
Giroux, Monique. 2013. Music, Power and Relations: Fiddling as a Meeting Place Between Re-Settlers and Indigenous Nations in America. PhD dissertation, York University.
Giroux, Monique. 2018. Silencing the Other Within: Metis Music at Manitoba’s Old-Time Fiddle Competitions. Ethnomusicology 62 (2): 265–90.
Goertzen, Chris. 1988. The Transformation of American Contest Fiddling. The Journal of Musicology 6 (1) :107–29.
Giroux, Monique. 1996. Balancing Local and National Approaches at American Fiddle Contests. American Music 14 (3): 352–81.
Giroux, Monique. 2003. Galax, Virginia’s “Old Fiddlers Convention”: The Virtues and Flaws of a Giant Fiddle Contest. The World of Music 45 (1): 133–47.
Giroux, Monique. 2008. Southern Fiddlers and Fiddle Contests. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.
Giroux, Monique. 2012. Texas Contest Fiddling: What Modern Variation Technique Tells Us. In Routes & Roots: Fiddle and Dance Studies From around the North Atlantic 4, 98–111. Ed. I. Russell and C. Goertzen. Aberdeen: Elphinstone Institute, University of Aberdeen.
Graham, Glenn. 2006. The Cape Breton Fiddle: Making and Maintaining Tradition. Sydney, NS: Cape Breton University Press.
Hall, Frank. 2008. Competitive Irish Dance: Art, Sport, and Duty. Madison, WI: Macater Press.
Hill, Juniper, and Caroline Bithell. 2014. An Introduction to Music Revival as Concept, Cultural Process, and Medium of Change. In The Oxford handbook of music revival, 3–42. Ed. C. Bithell and J. Hill. New York: Oxford University Press.
Hornby, James John. 1979. The Great Fiddling Contests of 1926. The Island Magazine. Fall-Winter, 25–30.
Hua, Anh. 2005. Diaspora and Cultural Memory. In Diaspora, Memory, and Identity, 191–208. Ed. V. Agnew. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
James, Simon. 1999. The Atlantic Celts: Ancient People or Modern Invention? Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
Jarvie, Grant. 1988. A Sociological Analysis of the Scottish Highland Games. PhD dissertation, University of Leicester.
Johnson, Sherry. 1999/2000. If You Want to Win You’ve Got to Play It Like a Man: Music, Gender, and Value in Ontario Fiddle Contests. Canadian Journal for Traditional Music 27: 10–19.
Johnson, Sherry. 2006a. “If You Want to Win, You’ve Got to Play it Like a Man”: Music, Gender, and Value in Ontario Fiddle Contests. In Play It Like It Is: Fiddle and Dance Studies from Around the North Atlantic, 94–101. Ed. I. Russell and M. A. Alburger. Aberdeen: Elphinstone Institute, University of Aberdeen.
Johnson, Sherry. 2006b. Negotiating Tradition in Ontario Fiddle Contests. PhD dissertation, York University.
Kennedy, Michael. 2001. Gaelic Nova Scotia: An Economic, Cultural and Social Impact Study. Halifax: Nova Scotia Museum. http://gaelic.novascotia.ca/sites/default/files/files/Gaelic-Report.pdf (accessed October 18, 2023).
Livingston, Tamara E. 1999. Music Revivals: Towards a General Theory. Ethnomusicology 43 (1): 66–85.
MacAulay, Donald. 1992. The Celtic Languages: Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
MacArthur, Kelly. 2011. Letter to the Editor: The End of an Era at the Gaelic College. WGO Magazine: Cape Breton’s Go and Do Guide. December 9. http://www.whatsgoinon.ca/letter-to-the-editor-the-end-of-an-era-at-the-gaelic-college (accessed October 18, 2023).
MacDonell, Rev. Malcolm. 1947–48. The Early History of St. Francis Xavier University. Canadian Catholic Historical Association Report 15: 81–90.
MacGillivray, Allister. 1981. The Cape Breton Fiddler. Sydney, NS: College Cape Breton Press.
MacGillivray, Allister. 1988. A Cape Breton Ceilidh. Sydney, NS: Sea Scape Music.
MacKinnon, Richard. 2009. Victorian Parlour Instrument Meets the Celtic Fiddle: The Dynamics of the Cape Breton Piano Style. In Discovering Cape Breton Folklore, 30–43. Sydney, NS: Cape Breton University Press.
MacLeod, Murray. 2007. Gold Medal Controversy Casts a Shadow over Mod Performances. The Scotsman. October 18.
McDonald, Chris. 2013. Traditional Piano Accompaniment in Cape Breton. Canadian Folk Music / Musique folklorique canadienne 47 (2): 12-13.
McKerrell, Simon. 2005. Scottish Competition Bagpipe Music: Sound, Mode and Aesthetics. PhD dissertation, University of St Andrews.
McKinnon, Ian. 1989. Fiddling to Fortune: The Role of Commercial Recordings Made by Cape Breton Fiddlers in the Fiddle Music Tradition of Cape Breton Island. Master’s thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.
Melin, Mats. 2015. One with the Music: Cape Breton Step Dancing Tradition and Transmission. Sydney, NS: Cape Breton University Press.
Newton, Michael. 2003. “Becoming Cold-Hearted Like the Gentiles Around Them”: Scottish Gaelic in the United States 1872–1912. e-Keltoi: Journal of Interdisciplinary Celtic Studies 2: 63–131.
Perlman, Ken. 2015. Couldn’t Have a Wedding without the Fiddler: The Story of Traditional Fiddling on Prince Edward Island. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press.
Post Record. 1950. Clan MacLean Chieftain Will Attend Gaelic Mod. January 12.
Post Record. 1953. Gaelic Mod Drew 8,000 People. August 25.
Rosenberg, Neil V. 1994. Don Messer’s Modern Canadian Fiddle Canon. Canadian Folk Music Journal 22: 23–35.
Scott, Catriona Mairi. 2005. The Scottish Highland Dancing Tradition. PhD dissertation, University of Edinburgh.
Shaw, John, ed. 2000. Brìgh an Òrain. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press.
Shears, Barry. 2008. Dance to the Piper: The Highland Bagpipe in Nova Scotia. Sydney, NS: Cape Breton University Press.
Sparling, Heather. 2011. Cape Breton Island: Living in the Past? Gaelic Language, Song, and Competition. In Island Songs: A Global Repertoire, 49–63. Ed. G. Baldacchino. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press.
Sparling, Heather. 2019. Taking the Piss Out: Presentational and Participatory Elements in the Changing Cape Breton Milling Frolic. In Traditional Musics in Canada: Contemporary Expressions and Cultural Resonances, 114–44. Ed. A. Hoefnagels, S. Johnson and J. Klassen. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press.
Thompson, Marie. 2006. The Myth of the Vanishing Cape Breton Fiddler: The Role of a CBC Film in the Cape Breton Fiddle Revival. Acadiensis 35 (2): 5–26.
Trew, Johanne. 2002. Conflicting Visions: Don Messer, Liberal Nationalism and the Canadian Unity Debate. International Journal of Canadian Studies 26: 42–57.
Turino, Thomas. 2008. Music as Social Life: The Politics of Participation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
- The author retains copyright over the work.
- The author grants the journal owner (The Canadian Society for Traditional Music / La Société canadienne pour les traditions musicales) an exclusive license to publish the work.
- The author may post a pre-print or post-print version of the work (see definitions below) on a personal website for up to twelve months after the work is published in MUSICultures. After twelve months, the pre-print version must be replaced with the published version.
- The author may deposit the published PDF of the work in a non-commercial online repository twelve months after the work is published in MUSICultures, or any time thereafter.
- Any such deposit must include a link to the work on the MUSICultures website, e.g., https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/MC/article/view/19996
A pre-print is a work-in-progress—a contribution not yet accepted, or perhaps even submitted, to MUSICultures.
A post-print is the version of a contribution after peer review and acceptance by MUSICultures, with revisions completed.
The published version is the PDF file of a contribution as it appears in MUSICultures.
Please note that academia.edu and ResearchGate.com are both for-profit repositories; authors may not deposit the published PDF of the work in these repositories until after the journal’s embargo period.
For permission to reprint or translate material from MUSICultures, please contact Heather Sparling, General Editor of MUSICultures (heather_sparling@cbu.ca).