THE ASSOCIATION of landscape and the built heritage with traditional music was a compelling force for musicians, Dr Fintan Vallely, a musician and traditional music writer, told the Merriman Summer School in Ennis yesterday.
He said the older music places still had magic, "not for the presence of living legends, but to do with the sense of difference and otherness. The magic is informed by prior knowledge," he said.
In his lecture, entitled Taste, Tourism and Tyranny - is Clare the special Place for Traditional Music at all?, he said the county's competitiveness with other counties in tourism arguably depended on its association with music.
"While that in itself does not make the music any better, the value to the head space of the local players and aficionados of traditional music does, ultimately create a reputation for Co Clare and, indeed, Ireland."
This "head space" was rarely discussed, except in crisis, he said, when "the delicate balance between the player and the publican, the equilibrium of unwritten code versus trust, occasionally does break down".
Traditional musicians felt their music spaces being threatened by pubs' broadcasting of popular global culture "or the perpetual hype and gloom of news".
"But the trust may also break down on account of ignorance, the absence of basic manners."
While island-wide, traditional music and its aficionados had remained in a minority, Clare's popularity for traditional music was helped by a beautiful and accessible coast, with beaches close to the birthplace of its heroes.
"Certainly it was easier for an aspiring piper to entice the family to Miltown Malbay for a summer week, where they could take to the sea day after day . . .rather than to Killavil, or to Gurteen where there was little accommodation, dining or diversion."
He added Clare's popularity had boosted the confidence of local musicians, and of locals, in their music."It has attracted in players of stature, and developed the considerable reputation abroad, which is of such commercial value to the county and to the businesses which benefit from it." But he said that while the diehard local music punter at a session might now be as easily a tribunal solicitor or hospital registrar as a farmer, the majority of local people entertained themselves with videos and FM radio.
"In Miltown Malbay, the bars are being closed to raise pension funds by supplying their licences for pubs and off-licences in metropolitan centres where the cream of rural talent migrates in search of bright lights and other music."
What were left were buildings, the older music places which still appealed to musicians because they were imbued with personal or reported associations with music.
"The old buildings are intense memorials to music-making, composition, mirth, particular events and dates, and to personalities . . . their moral force now impels music learning by demanding respect for the past."
The summer school concludes today with a memorial session on the former president, the late Dr Patrick Hillery. The session will be presented by Dr John Walsh, Peter Feeney and Bishop Fiachra Ó Ceallaigh, the son of the former Clare TD Seán Ó Ceallaigh.
Dr Walsh, a researcher at the Centre of Contemporary Irish History in Trinity College, is the author of a forthcoming official biography of Dr Hillery. Mr Feeney is head of public affairs policy in RTÉ and is a co-producer of a documentary on Dr Hillery.