Celtic music and the growth of the Feis movement in the Scottish highlands

Western Folklore, Fall 1998 by McKean, Thomas

In the early days of the movement, an opportunity presented itself to make a real difference in the fortunes of the Gaelic language. The chance was not taken, partly due to the desire for numbers (participants = money), partly due to a desire to spead the gospel, and partly@it must be said-to avoid the absurd accusations of elitism often levelled at monolingual Gaelic broadcasting, public events and the like. The result has been a watering-down of the ideal of regenerating the Gaelic arts and the language itself. What we have in its place is a healthy, and growing, instrumental regeneration and a stagnant, possibly weakening, language situation. Had the movement pursued the Gaelic-medium feis ideal, we might now be seeing young instrumentalists playing in Gaelic, rather than simply playing Gaelic tunes." By playing in Gaelic, I mean thinking in Gaelic and thinking about their playing (dynamics, expression, timing, etc.) in Gaelic cultural terms, creating a confidence in the culture and in the language that will allow the adaptation necessary to the survival of both. It is the ability to play Celtic music from within Gaelic culture that is being lost, and that no amount of regenerated dance music can replace.

BUILDING CULTURAL CONFIDENCE: BRINGING Music BACK HOME

Despite the missed opportunity discussed above, inroads are being made on the home music-making front. For a few decades now, in most communities, making music has been something that someone else did, on a professional basis. And even at that, most of what was available was commercial rock and roll, and tart(an)ed up traditional music. As former Edinburgh Folk Festival director Jack Evans put it, "The problem with so much Celtic Music is that it is Irish with added digital reverb" (The Scotsman, 21.3.96). Probably the most important achievement of the feis movement, then, is the idea that people can do it for themselves. Feis Rois, for instance, had 802 local participants (aged 8 and up@ in their three feisean of 1996, with over 200 people attending follow-up classes every week thoughout the year.14 Dougie Pincock says the feisean have created a groundswell of support for traditional music. It is seen as desirable to attend a feis in the school holidays, friendships are made and maintained, and the status of both Gaelic and traditional music are dramatically enhanced. Dougie, and Val Bryan, a tutor at the Ullapool and Gairloch feisean, emphasize the importance of follow-up classes in maintaining the interest developed, and as the above numbers from Ris Rois show, some committees are making a very significant contribution on that front. A measure of their success can be seen in the number of feis "products" who continue to make music for themselves, in private or in sessions or, indeed, go on to become professional and semi-professional musicians.

To call the ffis program a "movement" makes it sound like a religious or political revival or crusade. In fact it is both. The feisean are all organized by volunteer, community-based committees, and their local identity is strong. From a single feis in Barra in 1981, there are now twenty-seven in the whole of Scotland, with many more fund-raising events running throughout the year. (Feis Rois reports over three thousand participants in its program of ceilidhs in 1996.) Young people are now far more aware, and proud, of their own cultural traditions, according to Val Bryan. There is far more traditional dance than ten years ago, Scottish step dancing and ceilidh dancing (set dancing) are making huge comebacks and follow-up classes are springing up everywhere, all of which leads to greater receptivity when the traditional arts are seen to be getting more airtime on radio and television. Val told me of one young girl learning fiddle at the fris and in follow-up classes: Her grandfather plays in his home, but is not confident enough to join in public sessions. Perhaps through the fris, she will gain the tools to learn from her grandfather. At last a type of link between generations, of the sort that existed in the days of extended families under one roof, may be restored on a small local level-a pointer to the future, perhaps. The fris has meant access, says Val: "Me music's there and it's no longer just seen as old people's MUSiC.1115