Playing IrTrad Music is “A Hobby” ???

This is kind-of a response to a post from a week or so ago -- in the thread about “Songs versus Tunes.” The gist -- songs are gaining ground against tunes.

One comment was “Relax, it’s just a hobby.”

Okay - here I go. I’m sure playing Irish traditional music can be said to be “a hobby.” And I’ve heard it characterized that way before, by a very excellent player. And I cringed when I heard him say it.

I don’t know what it is about the word “hobby” that sometimes makes me wince. I suspect it is a general interpretation of the word -- which amounts to -- ‘something a nice person does in a nice little moderate way -- when they have finished all their nice little chores like washing the dishes and vacuuming.’

I know this is all a matter of semantics -- but applying the word “hobby” to playing Ir trad music -- to my way of thinking and *feeling,* -- removes all the essences of ‘rapture’ that playing music can bestow on one who pursues it over the long course.

Okay, I guess I think music is MAGIC. A musical instrument is an instrument of pure magic. A truly magical discovery in the history of our humanity was the discovery of how to construct musical instruments. Sound is brought out of the silence, out of the realm of the invisible, in such a way that the “human instrument -- the ear” has a profound response to it.

I’m sort of “growing” these thoughts as I’m writing.

Okay -- so I guess I experience Irish traditional music as having a potential for moving me OUT of the realm of everyday experience -- and more into the realm of “myth and magic.”

Hobbies, to my way of thinking, belong in everday experience. I guess there is a way of being involved in music where it is “a hobby,” but I can’t think of going to a session, which has the potential to get really ripping, as “a hobby.” I think it is more like going to “a church” in search of a supra-ordinary experience.

Yeah -- I’m in search of more of a “religious-type of experience” when I aim to play music. That’s my hope, is to get out of the realm of the mundane for a little while. I’m in seach of *magic,* -- not *a hobby.* And in fact, after years of effort, that’s my gift to myself when I pick up the fiddle now. My playing has improved enough so I can experience some degree of magic. I’m not saying anything about being a “great player.” I’m just saying that I have come to the point where I can play some music, and I can experience some feelings of amazement, or being a participant in the making of *magic* -- while I am playing a melody on a musical instrument.

Alright --- I bet I’m gonna get “chewed up” here.

Linda

One definition of hobby is “avocation: an auxiliary activity”

It’s still following a calling to pursue avocations.

It strikes me the same way, Linda. “Hobby” seems like something you choose from a list and get a merit badge for.

It’s not a hobby, it’s a way of life.

Some activities commonly labeled as hobbies include: stamp/coin collecting, knitting and other crafts, cooking, scrapbooking, etc… Go to Hobby Lobby (do they have these outside the U.S.?) or another similar store and tell me if you see any Irish-music-related items or, in fact, any real music-related instruments and/or paraphernalia whatsoever.

One of the meanings for the word “Vocation” is a “Calling”. I guess that almost has the religious connotations but I feel my music is a calling/vocation; whereas my day job is my vocation in the sense that it is what I was trained to do for a living.
On the other hand I came across a definition of hobby that included this as its last paragraph:
“3. A subject or plan upon which one is constantly setting off; a favorite and ever-recurring theme of discourse, thought, or effort; that which occupies one’s attention unduly, or to the weariness of others; a ruling passion. ”
http://dictionary.die.net/hobby

At first it struck me the same -- I remember the post, but I really think the poster was just trying to gently (or not) tell some other posters to maybe not take themselves so dang seriously. Anyway, that was my take on it, right or wrong….I think with anything anyone does with a passion, we can get our egos far too wrapped up in the process -- I’m new-ish to ITM, as I say, but I have participated in other pursuits where I have gotten myself (and my ego) too involved and lost sight of the real goal/purpose of my endeavor…

I’m a collector of tunes.

It’s very interesting reading these various definitions of “hobby” from varied sources.

Swillybay I do believe your interpretation of the original post is on-target. It’s just that the word “hobby” seems to make the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I’m not even saying that’s justified. I’m just saying “that is my personal reaction” to the idea that playing Ir Trad music is a hobby.

I really is a matter of semantics -- but -- all we have is “words”

It’s a hobbycult.

I have to agree with Donough’s posted 3rd definition. At least it’s how I usually feel about it; though sometimes it is “…to the weariness of others” 😉

Does posting wind-ups constitute a hobby?

In the same way that “Chess Is Just A Game”. The dependent factor is how much of your person is invested, and to do it right, the investment must be HUGE.

A hobby is an avocation: something a person does in addition to a principal occupation, especially for pleasure. Often playing Irish music is something people occasionally get paid for and if their principal occupation is something else then the music becomes a lucrative hobby… or maybe just semi-lucrative depending on how good they get and what sort of fee they can command. Sometimes the income from the hobby might compete with the principal occupation and they could switch places i.e. the hobby becomes the principal occupation. Sometimes the pursuit of a hobby can have an adverse effect on one’s life and can result in the alienation of friends, family and loved ones. Careers, marriages and families can be lost or broken up leaving the hobbyist lonely and in despair. On occasion this obsession can lead to becoming delusional and going mad ending up despondent and living on the street or in an institution. When a hobby sinks to this level it becomes a vice and the hobbyist might develop unnatural and unhealthy fixations that will take over their entire reason for living and they might become suicidal.

Don’t let this happen to you or any one you love – hobbies kill. 😲

This message brought to you by The Bereaved Ladies Against Treacherous Hobbies Encroaching Relentlessly Council. (BLATHER)

I agree justjim, countries have been won and lost in a game of Chess. Very passionately played. A lot at stake. A huge investment.

I would have thought that there are some obsessions that are way out there beyond the tame term of “hobby”.

To me, at least, a hobby means something you do to relax and pleasantly fill in a bit of spare time (like reading a book, or doing a bit of sewing, gardening, or doing a bit of painting, etc.), or something that is easily put down, suspended for a while, when something else comes along … but that is kind of the inverse of the way I see the music. Playing music has to sometimes be laid aside in order to survive, and sometimes, often, it’s easy to wish it wasn’t so. For instance, something on the fiddle breaks and needs repair and has to go to the luthier and there’s this terrible yearning until you get it back. Or you get injured and you can’t play. Sometimes you can get so desperate about it, it burns you, eats you up, inside. Any number of minor catastrophies might cause you such pain that you have to come to terms with the fact that playing IrTrad is not a hobby. I’m with you fid42, its not.

Whew, PB, I never thought about it that way! I guess I’d better, um, er, (scuffing shoe on floor, looking nervously about)…….
re-examine my priorities.

Whether you’d describe something as a hobby or a passion or an obsession depends on your own standpoint. If we have empathy we’d probably use one label, if we are fairly unimpressed / uninformed we might use quite another. The choice of words probably says as much about the person speaking as the subject of those words.

I know nothing about chess or stamp-collecting. To me they seem fairly futile if harmless pursuits. I would probably describe them as hobbies - but I’d bet within those communities there’s probably just as much of a sense of passion and history as we have here.

I can see how annoying the word “hobby” might be - but you could put it down to the it being a (deliberately or otherwise) careless use of the word. I don’t think it matters what you call it, in the end.

‘Irish Folk Music: a fascinating Hobby’ by Francis O’Neill (published 1910).

Now that’s the spirit !

Just for my benefit, Linda, could you explain to me what going to church in search of a supra-ordinary experience is. And while you’re at it, maybe you could elaborate on your phrases “moving into the realm of myth and magic” and “in search of a religious-type experience”. You infer that your life is mundane and that you are looking for an escape, a magical escape, just for a little while. You see, the Island that I live in, the home of ITM, had its musical roots and traditions decimated by the very same religious zealots that you seem to champion. Religion is nothing more than oppression, that’s how it was and that’s how it still is. If you really want some myth and magic, read Harry Potter.

Channeling Hazrat Inayat Khan is a hobby of mine.

A Hobby Horse was a small wooden horse used by morris dancers.the first recorded use of the word in the modern sense was in 1676.It meant carrying out on activity for your own amusement,i.e. riding a wooden horse that doesn’t go anywhere.I agree with strayaway,the world would be a better place without religion.The Crusades,Oliver Cromwell,The Salem Witch Trials,Al Quieda,The Inquisition,The Magadalene Laundries,generations of irish boys terrorised by the Christian Brothers,the Conqustadors,the lunatic Bible Belt in the USA,Giordano Bruno,millions of women over the centuries condemned to constant pregnancy,corrupt Popes,the list is endless,all done because of a belief in imaginary beings.

If I remember correctly it was me who made the remark which has sparked this controversy.
These are my words:

Lighten up
it is only a hobby

And here is the thread:
https://thesession.org/discussions/16518

For the hard of thinking, here is the explanation. The person who made the initial comment, and obviously felt strongly enough about this to start a thread on it, reported that songs were getting 5 times as many hits as tunes, by which I presume s/he means on a google search, has in his/her bio, the following words:

Lighten up
it is only a hobby


Only Michael, our resident cynic, seemed to see the funny side.

So my remarks regarding posting this thread are:

Lighten up
it is only a hobby…about a hobby

In that case, I won’t ask Santa for hobby horse next year.

Wooden horses, hmm, Greeks and gifts come to mind and Troy won The Derby in 1979, now thats a fact!

Why is it called the Trojan Horse? The Greeks made it.

It was named after an ancient computer virus!

I believe that Hero Of Alexandria’s steam driven computer crashed because of that very problem.

Unfortunately it crashed into the Acropolis.

It is said that a Venetian shell hit a Turkish arms dump in the Acropolis, and did the damage.

But I suspect it was Greek drivers.

I think Magic Alex got the idea for the “Nothing box” from the very historical remains of that computer. John Lennon was never the same.

Rewritting history is a hobby of mine.

I rather suspect that it was Demis Roussos humping Nana Mouskouri, hobby horse style!

And people were desparately looking for answers.

http://static.flickr.com/81/233660151_47e7337459_o.jpg

He’s going to have a sore back in the morning.

Who? The bloke in the photo or Demis?

A hobby can be a more constructive / investigative one or a less so, but it practically always consumes a lot more money than it generates, and time that ought to be spent doing other things.

This has not inhibited me from pursuing various hobbies fanatically.

A lot of us here probably spent a large portion of our time being almost compelled to do things which are unsavoury, unenjoyable, unscrupulous and pretty pointless such as working for greedy employers, paying unfair taxes, subsidising the upper classes, propping up broke down banks, doing the devils work for dubya via our honourable representatives, I surely could continue, however, the point is, hobbies/pastimes, whatever, are done of our own free will, in our own time and at our own pace. They are enjoyable and they are done for pleasure not profit. A good principle, in my book, anyway.

Hey Fid42, I hear ya.

The snag here is you’re not supposed to admit any of that. Part of the Irish and Irish-American psyche is ruthless self-depreciation. You’re not making musical magic, you’re just diddling a few tunes. You’re not connecting with others on a deeper and more profound level, while expressing the deepest passions of your soul, you’re just goofing off at the pub with yer mates having some tunes and pints.

Now, as you can tell, I’m on your side.

I like video games, I consider it a hobby.

Playing the fiddle is something I wanted to do since I was 7. I didn’t choose it. It chose me. I had no choice. I heard one, I had to play it, it was over.

I was taught classical music, I hated it, I heard fiddle music, wanted to play that instead. Played a little American Old-Time, Bluegrass, heard Irish, it was all over. It clicked, there was no thought about “Well, let say I take up a nice hobby like…gee…oh, say how about Irish music?”

All of it chose me, I didn’t have to do anything. Hobby? Please.

Sure whatever, I know, I know, it’s just a few wee tunes and blah blah blah.

Fid42, as Irish-Americans, our job is to do the poetic hyperbole bit, keep it up. The ruthless self-depreciation we’ll leave to our cousins across the pond who don’t realize how wonderful and magical they all are, simply by being a part of a culture and tradition. Ying and Yang. Ego and ruthless self-depreciation.

“I didn’t choose it, it chose me” “All of it chose me, I didn’t have to do anything” poetic hyperbole? sounds more like a few soundbites from jimmy swaggart to me, you know, “caught with his pants down and money sticking in his hole” according to the great Lou Reed, one of your very own and a man not versed in hyperbole.

In case you were wondering, those lyrics come from the song Strawman from his very excellent New York album. A song whose main point of ridicule is another two-bit actor cum president cum scumbag, ronnie reagan.

It’s self-deprecation, not self-depreciation.
Unless you devalue yourself annually, I suppose.

But what would I know?

Geez Strayaway --- I was trying to create some kind of “metaphor” in language to describe that playing Irish traditional music does NOT fall into the categories mentioned in your second post -- the unsavoury unenjoyable, unscrupulous and pretty pointless -- that it “lifts me out of that unsavoury realm.” I don’t go to a particular church, although am considering the possibility of going to a Unitarian one in search of some more human community. The Unitarian church in my community doesn’t have a particular religious credo -- you can believe or not believe that you want, and still be part of a warm human community involved in trying to serve the best interests of people who live around it -- they are comprised of a number of races and ethnicities -- White, Black, Latino, gay, straight, Irish, English, fed-up Catholics and Jews, musicians, plumbers, grocery store clerks and the few nice lawyers in the world. I’m fully aware of the history of Ireland. Maybe I picked the “wrong metaphors” for YOU personally.

A lot of us here spend a large portion of our time being compelled (if we prefer eating to starving and living inside something other than a bed-bug infested homeless shelter where they steel your “eyes” if they can) to do things which are ……………………….as you say.

I burned out on Harry Potter somewhere in, I think, the fourth book. It became a bit tiresome for my taste at that point.

I don’t actually need to read Harry Potter to find magic. I can pick up my fiddle and work in a dedicated way toward playing it better -- with the intention of “making my own magic” someday.

I enjoy writing. I enjoy employing the use of metaphor. But metaphors require completion by the interprative process of the person reading or hearing them. You construed mine in ways it was certainly not intended, and didn’t construe it in ways it certainly was intended.

You have the freedom to interpret what I say however you like.

There have been a great many religions in the world studied by history and anthropology -- some of them sought ritually to escape the “mundane” and find “magic” by eating magic mushrooms or imbibing other hallucinogenic substances.

I guess I’m saying I think having a passion for some kind of artistic pursuit -- a real disciplined passion -- is a great way to escape the “mundane” at times.

WHY would you assume that I champion the Catholic Church or the Anglican church??? NO organized religion with a doctrine that has to be “believed in” is any kind of turn-on for me.

Again, I guess I just stumbled into the wrong metaphors, in a misbegotten attempt to illustrate some *feelings* about something.

My mistake -- I should have said, “the world is my cathedral. I shouldn’t have said ”going to church."
I should have said something like, “Standing on the shoreline of an ocean (not in the middle of a hurricane) and watching the beauty of a calm sea rolling to land and back away -- with sunlight glinting on the wave-crests -- that is my church.”

Linda

Incidentally, the dictionary definition of “hobby” covers my musical interest/involvement.
It doesn’t define me, but it’s hard to define me without it.
But take wood-carving. If somebody carves wood five or six times a week when they’re off work, is it a hobby, or what?

LOL Rocky Roader, it works either way. Demeaning the value of it is depreciating it!

Thanks for making my point exactly strayway, or is slagaway? 😉

Linda, thanks for your elaborate explanation, as you said in your initial posting, you were growing your thoughts as you wrote and now you’ve had a reaction, well, you said what you really meant. I’ve said before on this site that I have no problems with any persons beliefs, that’s their business. If you are going to speak metphorically, then the two examples should have parity of importance. In my own case (and only my own), givng church -going equal status with the enjoyment of musical heritage does not equate and that is what you originally said. Keep enjoying the music.

It’s not a hobby, it’s a lifestyle.

Honestly strayaway, reading this back I don’t know how else to put it.

Why does a 7 year old want to play the fiddle, and refuse to play anything else, and carry it with him his whole life? Why is it only one type of traditional fiddle music appeal to him more powerfully than any other? Isn’t it odd that the one music that appeals to him more than any other matches his exact ethnic background, and indeed, has been told countless family anecdotes detailing immigrant relatives he never knew, playing “the music” in America?

How else to explain this aside from hyperbole? Bolehype? Hyper boles? Bole in yer hyper? I have no idea. It happened, I didn’t have to do anything to make it happen, it just did, and there you go, not sure WTF else to tell ya.

Interesting thread.

It would seem there is a new etiquette I need to learn ie
How do you upset an Irish Traditional musician? Suggest s/he has a nice hobby.

At the end of the day does it truly matter whether we play because it is a hobby, an interest, or a passion. I play because without music my life would feel empty and incomplete. Equally I would feel the same without literature and art. I have no problem being accused of being a hobbyist who plays music - after all, it could be worse .. at least I’m not boring. There again, ask my family and they may have a different view! My sons couldn’t care less whether my playing is an art or a hobby - they just think I am plain weird. Having said that they would be heartbroken on my behalf if anything stopped me playing. My daughter is even more tolerant but still casts strange looks when I extoll the virtues of some obscure musician. One of the joys she has allowed me is the rare privelege between father and daughter of being able to play together. A gift and a memory I carry with me every day.

As for my beautiful wife - she is tolerance itself and endures my sulking when I play badly and my joy when I play well. She encourages me when I struggle and she quietly crochets with a teeny smile when her suggestion for my music works and I beam like a cherish cat.

So do I mind being called a hobbyist - with a family like mine supporting me it would be selfish to call myself anything else.

D

Hold tight there, SWFL, did I ever mention that my hobby is getting reactions on a mustard board? Take it easy, do what you want to do and don’t let some clown from Fermanagh spoil your fun. BTW, whats your thoughts on Frank Quinn? I think he did a great rendition of The Tan Yard Side.

Well, Strayaway -- I’m glad I clarified my misbegotten metaphors.

I willl keep enjoying the music.

As for the “elaborate-ness” of my explanation -- I enjoy writing. I hope my “elaborations” do not offend you. This is a “discussion” part of the site -- ??? I didn’t see any instructions such as “keep your discussion statements brief….. or ”stick to the bare bones, don’t elaborate."

If I’m annoying your sensibilities, you have my apology -- but I’ll probably keep on writing elaborately -- I like to explore ideas while I write out my thoughts.

Linda

LOL - After reading this thread one would believe that during the great diaspora from Ireland in the 1800s and early 1900s, all the “spiritual, soul-searching musical mystics” left for Amerikay leaving Ireland populated solely with agnostic cynics.

I would wager to say that for most of us who frequent this place, we take our music and our time spent within it very seriously. But I won’t waste my time or energy fretting over those who see it merely as a hobby. They’re more than welcome at my session too. Just no polkas please (hah! no there’s a start of a real wind-up!) 😉

ITM is overwhelmingly a polite middle class hobby these days, no two ways about it. Nothing to be ashamed of - embrace it.

Sorry Strayaway, you make one remark about me sounding like some sort of fanatical born-againer burning portraits of Darwin in front of a public school and I just lose my cool. My bad. You found my hot button. 😉

Ah Jusa Nutter, aren’t we the most vehement? Always more fanatical, as if we’re “compensating”? :/)

For example, anyone know this guy? Just read this book. Talk about your fanatical Irish-Americans.

http://www.thewildgeese.com/pages/breview.html

Let’s try that face again: 😏

Just to clarify, Linda, in my original post, I asked you to elaborate, getting what I ask could hardly offend, could it?
This is indeed a discussion forum and everyone is entitled to an opinion with nobody being more right or wrong than anbody else. Please do keep your contributions as long and elaborate as you feel necessary to make your point, no apologies to me are required. Anyway, have to go to work shortly, you know, unscru…….oh sh*t!….better not get into all that again.

Beat writer Jack Keroauc once said that good writing demands the obsession of a speed addict. I think the same goes for music or any art form.

If you’re dedicated to art, you’re an artist. Doesn’t matter if you’re paid for it or not.

Only on this board, when everyone can get on their hobby horse.

If you are a professional musician, it is work.

As they say;

“It’s not a hobby, it’s an obSESSION”

Nope.

Sorry, all.

Just a hobby.

Nothing more. I may spend thousands on instruments, years trying to acquire a repertoire of tunes, sleepless hours agonizing over style and ornamentation, wander the streets with a whistle in my pocket, let the rest of my so-called life go down the tubes while I obsess over the minutae of long-dead pipers, but --

Just a hobby.

I can deal with that.

Cheers.

(Best of luck, Linda)

If playing Irish music is more than just a “hobby” to you,

a) is it a common thing for it to cause harm to some aspect of your life, such as your relationship with others, your job, etc.
b) are you a musician of excellent or significantly above average ability?

Just curious.

It can’t be taken too seriously…..
I’ve done it for a living for yrs.,and still working on it,but I’ve found viewing it more than “ just music”, can definitely cause harm to your playing, state of mind,relationships with others,and your view on your own self worth in the world.
It’s just music.
You can still love it

It’s just more fun than rock-n-roll and more productive and entertaining than TV.

“applying the word ”hobby“ to playing Ir trad music -- to my way of thinking and *feeling,* -- removes all the essences of ‘rapture’ that playing music can bestow on one who pursues it over the long course.”

If you had-“over the long…” then it would be a hobby, but because you didn’t, it is an obsession - as it is for many fanatics all over the world.

A few helpful hints, it is Traditional, so those growing up with it spend about the same amount of time ‘picking it up’ as they do learning better English or Irish.

It is Dance music, so the Irish musician at some time or another is required to play for dancers.

Yes some people who are good ITM musician grew up outside of Ireland, but most of them did so in Irish homes.

Yes others who are very good at it didn’t either live in Ireland or grow up in an Irish home, these usually learned from an accomplished Irish musician eg Brendan Mulvihill

Is it a hobby or is it an obsession? That depends on your age when you begun learning it. In my case it was at School and we had to learn it. Later it became a hobby - once a week, usually on Saturday night or Sunday morning in kitchen gatherings.

What Fid42 is trying to get out of it is a myth! What I picked up first hand for nothing she has pay for third hand and there is no guarantee what she bought is right either.

Playing a Faerie Slde in Z minor may lead you to think you are enchanting, but to me it sounds corny!

Besides it was never for the enchantment that we played but for the Dancing and the laughter.

Take that where ever you like.

I take paid gigs to buy more time for my hobby. The more paid gigs I have -- the more time I can put into my hobby.

What Fid42 is trying to get out of it is a myth! What I picked up first hand for nothing she has pay for third hand and there is no guarantee what she bought is right either
***************************************
What in heavens name are you talking about?
There’s certainly a lot of laughter that comes along with the music -- I actually learned a “different kind of a sense of humor” from being around all the Irish music. I first learned it from the ‘old flame’ --- my doorway to the music -- and half of his family was from County Mayo.

I don’t know what you mean by “paid for third hand and there is no guantee wht she bought is right either.”

Besides that, I have taken lessons from Brendan Mulvihill on several occasions but most of them about 18 months ago; but you know what -- I’ve been listening to Brendan for 35 years. And when he lived in Baltimore, I went to some sessions in his home with D. Long there, and stood around the piano playing tunes (or mostly gaping at other people who were playing tunes in a way that made me gape). Jesse Smith was there because he lived in that house. I brought tapes back from those little sessions on several occasions and I have one of them in my tape player right now. I learned “Piping Was Never So Gay” from Brendan Mulvihill’s playing, from a tape I made at Rob Thornberg’s engagement party in Virginia, before Rob married Marianne and moved back to Ireland.

Some of the greatest music I ever heard in my life, and I was sitting in the room listening to it -- a few yards from the piano -- was played by Brendan Mulvihill, Donna Long and Seamus Egan together. That time it was at the release of Brendan and Donna’s “The Morning Dew” CD.

I sat in Kelly’s Irish Times the night Brendan Mulvihill and Paddy Keenan played a gig there together, and after the gig, there was a “session” in the street, in front of the pub, at about 3:30 a.m.

I hope I’ve listened to enough REAL Irish dance music to satisfy you.

I used to go up to Baltimore with my tenor banjo before I played the fiddle, to be one of many musicians who got up to play for the Baltimore ceilis -- which were "an INSTITUTION in Baltimore for years and years.

I hope I meet your qualifications, but if I don’t, I frankly do not give a damn.

Maybe you’re too thick to be enchanted. That’s where I think i’ll take it.

I’m usually a nice person, but I’m working on my nasty side.

Linda

fid42, making it a statement for debate kind of assumes that the statement means itm is always and only a hobby. the truth is that like any other creative pursuit, it can be a hobby, or it can be an artistic life purpose, or it can be a profession, or it can be a combination of these, or……..

some definitions of “hobby” refer only to whether or not one is paid….but other definitions of “hobby” refer to whether or not one does a thing to a high enough standard of mastery and creativity to be doing something somehow thought to be beyond a “hobby,” regardless of whether paid……so i guess you have to play “Define Your Terms!” to discuss this meaningfully. i mean, but some definitions, some of the unsurpassable greats of this music were doing as a “hobby.” if you’re milking the cows or bricklaying fulltime and playing for pints here & there, is that a “hobby” or does history do the re-write?

Fid42:

It seems you have received the same sort of response I did many moons ago. It was when I first tried to suggest any connection between the spiritual/mystical/magical and ITM.

Pray do not “sweat it.” To each their own, right?

As you observed, your critic may not experience the music in the same way you do, nor view it as (no offense intended with this word) “romantically.” But you both get what you want from playing, each in your own way, or so I hope. Good luck to you all.

Think I’ll go practice some more of the stuff I pay for fifth-hand over here in the colonies, I didn’t get it in Ireland in an Irish house from a certified Irishman, but it’s a nice tune anyway. I’ll limp along as best I can.

Cheers.

Thanks Rook. I found the “tone” of *Schlongbow’s* post to be quite abrasive, QUITE, but a kind and reasoned word which is also *wise* helps to restore my equanimity.

I’m interested in the discussion that took place before. I think I can find it, so I’ll look it up.

Honestly, all poetry and music probably has its oldest roots very close to -- or intertwined with -- some sort of ritualistic expression of a *spiritual or magical nature* --- we know about "The White Godess religions all over Europe. It’s not so far-fetched to infer some qualities or strands of a sort of mysticism in art and music -- and even dances -- which might have been performed at equinox festivals long before the Feis.

Linda

Hobby

Not

I hope there are no “hanging chads” at moment of truth.

Okay. LOL

Linda

Y’all are getting your knickers in a wad over this. Just enjoy the music and stop worrying about the word “hobby.” Life’s whatever you make of it.

Knickers-in-a-wad has a lot of entertainment value.

Maybe it has but why should Linda be patronised by a nasty arrogant boor who knows nothing about her or her experience of the music, a boor whose views on the music are paleolithic and intellectually bankrupt at best.

you guys, what does “suspended until feb 3” mean in somebody’s profile? is this a joke, or can somebody really be suspended from the site? what qualifies….just sorta uncouth language, or tacky snarkiness, or…..?

Among other things, I received an offensive email from him.

Gentles -

We still have the option of leaving this thread for now, and returning to the subject, or subjects, at a later date.

Start off fresh, so to speak.

(Ah, my morning coffee arrives!)

Cheers, all.

“Maybe it has but why should Linda be patronised by a nasty arrogant boor who knows nothing about her or her experience of the music, a boor whose views on the music are paleolithic and intellectually bankrupt at best.”

Quite right, Daniel. I didn’t mean to make light of that nastiness.

Linda---loved hearing your passionate sentiments on your
music. I suspect you have set a record for the most responses
to a topic.