Irish Music Does Not Require An Audience

Upon previewing an online excerpt from the book Focus: Irish Traditional Music by Sean Williams, a sentence reverberated with me.  In describing an Irish session, it reads, "Players face each other, not the audience if there is one, because Irish music does not require an audience".  I think this is precisely why I find Irish traditional music so compelling.

On the page before that, she (Sean Williams) wrote, "Irish music is not so much band music as it is a solo instrumental tradition that sometimes includes playing in groups for the good times and camaraderie".  I agree with that as well.

In scrolling through some of the other paragraphs and pages visible in the preview, I can see additional statements that make the think that this might be a book worth reading.  Such as (page 148), "The march, unlike reels or jigs, is not determined so much by its time signature as by its intention."

I think I will have to get this book!

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