Great playing and power play

Flashback 2004/Traditional music: The Arts Council published a welcome strategy for nurturing the traditional arts - although, writes Siobhán Long, it was a year that confirmed the vitality of the forms.

Curiouser and curiouser. Shades of Alice through the looking glass permeated events in traditional music last September. The Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, John O'Donoghue, wholeheartedly endorsed the Arts Council's Report of the Special Committee on the Traditional Arts only to find that Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, a key player, chose to make a distinctly mean-spirited response to the publication.

Comhaltas's main reservation, insofar as it could be ascertained, appeared to centre on its assertion that the report failed to represent the views of two committee members, Una Ó Murchú and Mícheál Ó hEidhin. Their allegation that the committee's report was changed after they signed off on it failed to gather momentum among the broad church of traditional musicians, largely because such reservations fixated on form over content and hinted at subterranean power plays that perhaps inevitably afflict many art forms as they lurch and falter towards maturity.

Traditional music flourished rather than burned while Comhaltas's Nero fiddled. Musicians across the country, young and old, seasoned and neophyte, welcomed a document that offered the first concise definition of the traditional arts, recognised the complementary relationship between music, song and dance, identified the need for the reinstatement of the role of traditional music officer at the Arts Council and boldly declared the integral links between music and the Irish language, not to mention the need for more money.

All is still to play for in terms of budgetary commitments from the Arts Council and elsewhere, but for the first time the broad consensus across traditional music is that this report sets much of the tradition's considerable achievements on their firmest footing ever and adds further (welcome) momentum to a vibrant traditional arts in Ireland.

Tiptoeing between the duelling sabres, there was plenty to inspire, challenge, startle and, just occasionally, disappoint.

Tony MacMahon's collaboration with San Francisco's Kronos Quartet was not just a reinterpretation of such traditional standards as the sublime west Kerry slow air Port Na bPúcaí but also an unapologetic stretching and bending of boundaries, so that traditional and classical dialects could occupy the same wavelength and engage in real conversation.

The Irish-American box player Joe Derrane reminded us of what it is to let the music infuse every vein and artery of one's being, with his well-deserved National Heritage Fellowship, and it was a timely reminder of the vigorous health of the US arts environment.

Ironically, no Irish musician can claim kinship with a like-minded awards system at home, although TG4's Traditional Music Awards have gone some way towards initiating a culture of celebration of our tradition here.

At this year's ceremony Seán Keane of The Chieftains, traditional musician of the year, reminded us in his characteristically low-key way what virtuosity really means when he stilled no less than 1,000 people at the Irish World Music Centre, in Limerick - proof that making a solid contribution to ensemble playing requires a formidable ability as a solo performer.

A welcome surprise came in the form of unexpectedly spirited venues. Dingle's St James's Church, renowned for its summer concert series, and basking in the warm glow of a generous refurbishment programme, much of it funded by the concerts, drew enthusiastic audiences, who benefited from the peninsula's unfailing hospitality - not to mention its enviable stock of local tunes and songs.

The Village, in Dublin, was transformed into an intimate theatre venue in anticipation of Kate Rusby's arrival (see panel, right), and its makeover was a luscious success. The refurbished concert hall at Liberty Hall has given us some of the most memorable gatherings, notably James Keane's homecoming concert in November.

Amid the wonderful highs there was but a handful of lows. News of the passing of Sliabh Luachra's pre-eminent box player, Johnny O'Leary, caused ripples from Knocknagree to Killybegs, the Gneeveguilla man's charisma and musicianship mourned by musician and music lover alike. Never one to hoard tunes, O'Leary knew he'd left a store so rich that there's fodder for countless musicians to try to follow in his wake.

Memories jostle for space; highs outnumber lows by the bucket load; and our appetites haven't so much been sated as primed for next year's onslaught. Let the music begin.

Take five . . .

. . . magical moments

1 We knew we were in for a good year when Planxty reunited in January and wowed those of us too short of tooth to have caught them first time round. Liam O'Flynn's life-affirming piping was the greatest surprise; he took gracious repossession of everything from Tabhair Dom Do Lámh to Sí Bheag Sí Mhór and An Buachaill Chaol Dubh.

2 Lúnasa stirred and shook us all up with characteristically buoyant performances in the outdoor theatre of Co Down's Castlewellan and in the sweaty confines of Temple Bar Music Centre.

3 The Nuevo Tango Quartet quickened our pulses by introducing us to the music of the magnificent Argentinian tango master Astor Piazzolla.

4 The much-anticipated and long overdue visit from Kate Rusby and her band delivered more spark and spitfire than our wildest dreams might have suggested.

5 Mary McPartlan, the women who resurrected the art of live performance with panache, vim and vigour, celebrated the release of her début CD, The Holland Handkerchief, with a brace of feisty performances.