The Geography of Traditional Irish Music in the Golden Age of Irish Music in New York City 1921-1938 (2009)

Undergraduate: Andrew Magill

Faculty Advisor: Scott Kirsch
Department: Interdisciplinary Studies

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Place, identity, and music share an intimate relationship. Identity is constructed upon a rooted-ness in the familiar, which logically speaks to the physical space by which we habitually pattern our lives. Music has a significant role in influencing the habituated space where we construct place and ultimately identity. The relationship between place and music has particular relevance to the re-formation of Irish ethnic identity in New York City from 1921 to 1938. This period is widely acclaimed the “Golden Age” for Irish traditional music in New York City. A wave of post-WWI immigrants embraced the American dance hall craze and established the Irish dance hall as the uncontested primary medium of Irish socialization. These dance halls, along with private house music sessions, were the principal places for Irish traditional musical activity in New York City. By analyzing the spatiality (both public and private) of Irish traditional music in New York City during this era, we can understand how place, identity, and music converge in the diasporic Irish experience. My case study deconstructs and recasts popular conceptualizations of place into a musical spatiality. My research examines the geography of Irish traditional music and its contingency to the Irish musical renaissance, the Golden Age. I pay particular attention to how this urban geographic component facilitated an unprecedented type of Irish social integration.