Dear colleagues,
We're delighted to let you all know that the first issue of our new Open Access journal, The International Journal of Traditional Arts is now published!
There are three fantastic peer reviewed articles, one fascinating shorter
policy piece and an inaugural editorial. I do hope you find some interesting
reading. And of course it's free to read, to anyone at any time,
anywhere--please do share and do consider us for your next research article
or shorter policy or national briefing paper.
Thanks for the support and especially to the peer reviewers who have been
putting in their time on these articles,
all the best,
Simon & Simon (McKerrell & Keegan-Phipps).
Co-Editors The International Journal of Traditional Arts.
(supported by Newcastle University, UK).
The International Journal of Traditional Arts
Vol 1, No 1 (2017)
Table of Contents
http://tradartsjournal.org/index.php/ijta/issue/view/1
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Inaugural Editorial
Simon Keegan-Phipps, Simon McKerrell
Articles
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Vital Signs: Toward a Tool for Assessing Music Vitality and Viability
Catherine Grant
ABSTRACT
The effects of globalisation have challenged the music practices of many peoples, particularly those of Indigenous and minority groups. In the context of renewed scholarly interest in the sustainability of music traditions (and other intangible forms of cultural expression), this article reports on a survey, based on the 12-part “Music Vitality and Endangerment Framework”, which gathered data on the vitality and viability of 101 music traditions around the world. The primary aim of the study was to evaluate the validity, reliability and usability of the survey instrument itself. This article provides an overview of the findings, assesses the advantages and limitations of carrying out assessments of music traditions in this way, and reflects on implications for ongoing efforts to support the sustainable future of music traditions across the world.
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Peter’s Tapes: Private collections and mid-century Cape Breton musical culture
Stephanie Conn
The late Peter MacLean’s private collection of forty-eight reel-to-reel tapes is a connoisseur’s archive of Gaelic and English songs, fiddle music and radio shows, and a resource that sustained MacLean’s own practice in his later years. This article makes a preliminary survey of the collection and considers it as a significant piece of Cape Breton musical history. Personal recordings of house parties are a source of rare performances and windows into an individual’s musical experience. They also reveal much about céilidh culture in mid-20th-century Cape Breton, providing material to carry that culture into the future.
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Resonances of Swissness in Switzerland’s Streichmusik
Andrea Lieberherr Douglass
This article investigates the current resurgence of folk music in Switzerland using the localized practice of Streichmusik (string music originating in the Appenzell and Toggenburg regions) as an example. I examine the linkage between Streichmusik and Swissness, a concept used in marketing Swiss products and culture. Swissness highlights contemporary Swiss national anxiety around shifting global, political, and economic dynamics as a rise in nationalism encourages identity politics. I argue that Streichmusik is a sonic resonance of Swissness and has been valorized by cultural tourism both locally and nationally through the notion of Heimat (homeland) and the trope of nostalgia.
Policy and Briefings Section
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English Folk Law: A Brief Introduction to Pub Licensing
Tim Knowles
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The International Journal of Traditional Arts
http://www.tradartsjournal.org
Co-Editors
Dr Simon McKerrell (Newcastle University, UK)
Dr Simon Keegan-Phipps (University of Sheffield, UK)
