Trad Nation focuses on Irish traditional instrumental music and recounts women musicians’ stories, whether they belong to the LGBTQ+ community or are musicians of colour, raising their voices and challenging any ethnic nationalist approaches that have left them out of the spectrum of academic analysis. As a sound intervention within ethnomusicology, historical and cultural musicology, this book brings welcome insights and lived experiences from both well-known and sidelined community members, which help paint a better picture of a musical space with intricate qualities. Coinciding with the emergence of the Black Lives Matter and MeToo movements, Slominski's narrative attests to the dynamics of the Irish traditional music scene and aspires to soothe the path for future generations to effect change.
The feelings of connection and the sense of community that have been shaped over the years around Irish music reveal several sensitivities and questions about gender, sexuality, race and ethnicity, which Slominski deftly treats through her postnationalist approach and consciously activist lens. Based on archival research, oral history, written accounts and interviews with some of her fieldwork participants, she explores their impact, suggesting a separation of ‘sounds and social practices from ethnicity’ in and beyond Ireland (p. 5). Although acknowledging and overlapping with the singing scene, her main aim is to discover these intersubjectivities and their reception in Irish traditional music (or ‘trad’, as per her abbreviation) and among its musicians, particularly between Ireland and the United States. Since ethnic nationalism - in primarily white countries, as Ireland is - has already introduced several false impressions across different eras through identity-based discriminations, her ethnomusicological background also adds valuable evidence into historiography, musicology, anthropology, social, cultural, gender and performance studies.
The discussion starts with the relationship between gender and nationalism during the 19th century (Chapter 1), where only few women had access to instrumental music. By revealing raw grounds of sexism in the scene, the author takes O'Neill's Irish Minstrels and Musicians (Reference O'Neill1913) as a primary source and counter-element to delineate women's perspectives and to bring their voices and presence back. This revival of historical memory also reinforces the woman-to-woman communication, which seems to have been left out of the framework for a long time. Yet the question about musicians who have not attracted public attention or have not followed specific norms (visual, behavioural, social and/or demographic) remains, and takes significant nuances when it comes to queer musicians and musicians of colour, as it underlines the lack of inclusiveness established by ethnic nationalism.
Such an example is Treasa Ní Ailpín, a Limerick fiddler of the early 20th century, who the author wisely brings to her readers’ attention (Chapter 2), as a case that demonstrates how ethnic nationalistic ideas and mechanisms could easily muddle the importance of gender, class, national and musical identity in Irish traditional music. Highlighting Ní Ailpín's sudden disappearance from conventional history, despite her performative and educational contribution, Slominski spots a contradiction, both in historical and musicological terms, which apparently invites a reconsideration of what an ‘authentic’ performance is and who a ‘traditional’ musician might be. Her respectful emphasis on what rather than who is eventually part of a broader whole which raises a set of questions and adds constructive remarks about ‘authenticity’ and ‘traditionality’, while debate remains as to the criteria used for such a qualitative classification.
Chapter 3 proceeds with the life of Julia Clifford (1914–1997), a renown fiddler from Sliabh Luachra, and touches on issues of role and gender in biography. The interplay between the biographer and the biographee juxtaposed with the moral and professional standards of a given space or time seem to considerably affect musicians’ identity, reception and historical presence, which become more complicated for non-normative players, women, queer and nonwhite trads, as the narrative indicates. In a male-dominated scene, Clifford was among those who did not follow ‘the idealized Irish womanhood’ (p. 129), but finds several of her peers in Aurebach's, Shehan's, Sugarman's and Koskoff's perspectives, which enrich trad and music subjectivities with cross-cultural references. Saariaho's and Scabbia's careers are also meaningful examples of recent quasi-discriminatory tendencies, through which Slominski illustrates the performative conventions in the current international music scene, amplifying their repercussions and her argument.
The next two chapters move to another level of qualitative research and include ethnographic descriptions of the ‘music itself’ (Chapter 4), as emanating from the author's contemplation, and the role of aesthetics (Chapter 5), which help shape an awareness around gender, sexuality, race and ethnicity in Irish musical tradition. Whilst this shift may come a bit sooner than expected and its set timeframe has a considerable distance from her previous analysis, Slominski's (auto)ethnographic lens embraces concerns about inequalities, racism, discriminatory practices and sexual harassment against women, queer musicians and musicians of colour in today's trad, which are further reinforced by her fieldwork interlocutors in Chapter 5. Their wishful thoughts go beyond the Irish locale and ‘transcend any boundaries of race and nation’ (p. 153), initiating transformations for ‘a more equitable trad scene’ (p. 154), where shared loved for music and human values will enable connection, participation and expression in a thriving field.
Having thus covered a generous range of questions, this book constitutes a substantial contextualization of the presence of women musicians, queer musicians and musicians of colour in the Irish traditional music scene, over the past two centuries. Slominski's critical thinking manages to engage her readers with its content, while flagging up issues of paramount importance in musicians’ lives. Although the structure of the book could have been a little more polished to help a smoother transition among its parts and some further interview examples would have enriched its narrative, the author's approach provides a fair interpretation and promising instance about this topic. Her notes and index also guide the readers to effectively use this work and underline its strong potential to open a fruitful dialogue thereon. Overall, Slominski's contribution is a valuable source for scholars, activists, students and the wider audience on interdisciplinary grounds, as it is a thought-provoking tool of awareness of human rights, which still require protection and appreciation.
