Beginning with a review of the literature, I explore the definitions of puirt-a-beul put forth by Gaelic scholars, song collectors, folklorists, and ethnomusicologists their assertions regarding the origins, history, use, and value of puirt-a-beul are also summarized. It is based on participant-observation as well as twenty-eight interviews conducted in Toronto and Cape Breton January-August 1998. Although puirt-a-beul originated in Scottish Gaelic culture, this thesis is primarily an ethnographic study of puirt-a-beul in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. In actual fact, however, puirt-a-beul are used for a variety of reasons within Cape Breton Gaelic culture. Puirt-a-beul (pronounced poorsht-uh-bee-uhl), or “mouth music” as they are known in English, are generally defined as a Gaelic vocal song genre sung to accompany dance in the absence of instruments. These sociolinguistic and musicological analyses are supplemented with ethnographic evidence. The current attitude towards Gaelic in Cape Breton is traced through the history of language policy in Scotland and Cape Breton. Detailed musical and lyric analyses of three Gaelic songs are provided to illustrate the connection between language and music attitudes. Gaelic language learners and native/fluent speakers in Cape Breton articulated distinct and opposing attitudes towards the song genre of puirt-a-beul, and these attitudes are examined in relation to those towards the Gaelic language and compared with their response to eight-line songs, a literary Gaelic song type. The author demonstrates how Scots Gaelic language attitudes in Cape Breton (where a few hundred people still speak the language) have developed, and considers the possible interplay with current attitudes towards two particular Gaelic song genres. This article assumes that language and music attitudes are related as different expressions in and of a common cultural context. In this article, the author considers the effects of language attitudes, a sociolinguistic concern, on musical practice. A more holistic view of the complexities of the Cape Breton fiddling tradition follows from a perspective not only of the socio-musical elements that shaped the historical narrative, but also of the musical elements of this dance-oriented “old style.” Analysis will show that “listening” tunes fell into the interstices of allowable innovation, while dance (particularly step-dance) tunes demanded certain “old style” techniques. The interstices of the tradition allowed more extreme stylistic experimentation to be accepted as “traditional,” while the symbiotic social practice of dancing necessitated relative conservatism. As models were sought for younger players to emulate, pre-1971 “master” fiddlers with innovative stylistic approaches began to be identified as “old style” players. One of the most rooted and complex concepts in this narrative is that of “old style,” a term that came to represent the idealized performance practice in post-1971 Cape Breton fiddling. These contexts romanticized older practices as “authentic,” a construct that deeply impacted the narrative about the Cape Breton fiddling tradition. While this allowed for performance contexts and practices to burgeon, it also solidified certain perspectives about the “diasporic preservation” and resultant “authenticity.” This work aims to trace the seeds and developments of the beliefs surrounding the Cape Breton fiddling tradition, from the idealizations of Enlightenment Scotland to the manipulation and commercialization of the folklore and Celticism of twentieth-century Nova Scotia. With the fear of decline of the Cape Breton fiddling tradition after the airing of The Vanishing Cape Breton Fiddler by the CBC in 1971, both the Cape Breton community and ethnographers clamored to preserve and maintain the extant practices and discourse.
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