Fitting between Present and Past: Memory and Social Interaction in Cape Breton Gaelic Singing

Abstract

In ‘The Anthropology of Performance’, Victor Turner wrote that performative meaning is constructed though ‘negotiating about “fit” between present and past’. This article considers the dynamic role of memory and social interaction in the transmission and performance of Gaelic song in Cape Breton, through which a relationship between past and present is cultivated. Gaelic singers value accurate transmission of text and melody but, as my research demonstrates, they have a flexible relationship with their oral and written sources, and in some cases subvert their authority by turning instead to first-hand experience. While songs are learned through observation and repetition, just as important is the web of associations they communicate along the way. Singers and community members use an array of objects—photograph albums, clippings and recordings—to evoke a sense of previous singers, renditions and contexts. This simultaneous presence of past and present has significant implications for what it means to ‘know’ a song, and it comes to be understood as a composite of multiple memories, performances and meanings.

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