Fiddling with Technology: The Effect of Media on Newfoundland Traditional Musicians

Abstract

THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOUND technologies since the late nineteenth century has been as revolutionary for musicians as the printing press was for verbal communi-cation in the fifteenth century. By the late twentieth century, the remotest of vil-lages had access to new sounds and information from across the globe. Not unexpectedly, these processes have had a major impact on folk music traditions around the world, including those in Newfoundland and Labrador. This article will examine how media sources, such as radio, recordings, television, and printed mu-sic have transmitted new styles of music to the island and how these, in turn, have influenced the repertoire and styles of traditional fiddle players. I will focus mainly on musicians who began learning in a community context, around or before mid-century, and consider how they used multiple technologies to access and learn new styles. I will draw primarily on field research conducted between 2000 and 2002 throughout the island of Newfoundland, with a particular focus on musicians from Bay de Verde, Conception Bay. All of these fiddlers have learned local tunes from the aural tradition, and media sources have supplemented this repertoire. 2 As Herbert Halpert noted in his preface to Taft’s discography of Newfoundland music: One point should be emphasized. A vigorous folk culture is not overwhelmed by modern commercial music. It does not feel impelled to absorb all the new musical idi-oms to which it is exposed. Apparently a strong culture is able to adopt selectively from many styles only those elements that it wants, those that it can adjust to its own way of feeling. (v)

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