Narrowing Down the Scale

I've been trying to be as concise as possible about my project as I've found myself a bit lost at times. The topic of my project will be surrounding Traditional Irish Song (I'm deciding whether to incorporate tunes as they can apply to my research questions as well). 

I'm interested in the connection song has to the audience member, performer, and student within Traditional Irish Music. I will be researching the notion of reminiscence and emotional connection of feelings during and after listening or performing Irish song. I feel as though my project will be dabbling a bit into the psychological side as I find information about memory and evoking emotions and images through music. 

One "phenomena" if you would like to call it that, that I am very interested in observing and studying further is the emotional connection to songs that inspire people to become passionate about a particular event in history in which they don't have a direct connection with. When I say direct I mean physically being there or partaking in the moment/time. Examples of this could be battle or war (Battle of Aughrim, Battle of Boyne, Easter Rising, Rebellion of 1641, Nine Years War, Napoleon's Role...), political movements (Easter Uprising 1916...), strife (an Gorta Mór - The Great Famine), colonization, religious turmoil (Rebellion of 1641, Revolution of 1688...also falls into politics & battle). These are just me naming things off the top of my head.

I think an important aspect to look at also when analyzing this is how much knowledge the individual feeling this connection to the song knows about the song's story or history and whether this has to do with their connection towards it or if it represents something different for the individual. 

One note I am still working around and had written in my notes in regards to my project is the Irish-American experience and it's connection to Traditional Irish Song. I like this idea, however I have some mixed feelings and possibly reservations about it.

It's settled.

I've been thinking a bit about what I would like to do my project on and I've decided to do it on Traditional Irish Music after all. I was practicing some of my rhythms on my bohdrán for a theater collaboration I'm performing in (unfortunately it doesn't include a  bohdrán but instead a tambourine & cymbal) and I was thinking why not do my project on Irish music? I think it would be a good opportunity for me to not only look at different tune types but focus a portion of it on the bohdrán. 

I also like to sing and am a bit obsessed with Irish songs and the stories behind them so maybe I'll learn a song that includes some bohdrán. I already know of a few that I like I just haven't learned to sing and play them together yet. A few I know of are I'm Here Because I'm Here, Madam I'm a Darlin and a version of Ramblin Irishman.

I have recordings of the first two by a performer named Mark Stone, and actually already have his album The Bohdrán  that I've practiced with from time to time because he has tracks with solely different rhythms & patterns for different tune types. 

http://www.amazon.com/The-Bodhran/dp/B0013PMZNG

The version of Ramblin Irishman that I have is actually by Rósín White. The ideal thing would be not to just learn this on my own but learn from someone else who plays. This way I can stay close to the Irish music tradition of oral transmission as well as their strong tradition of student-mentor of teachings. Then maybe I can get into a session and play sometime. 

Options & Ideas

I've recently been trying to think of a few options to pick from for my research project and I've come up with a little list to further look into. 

• Western Music - specifically Chamber Music
• Traditional Irish Music
• Music within Capoeira

So far it's a pretty small list and I'd like to come up with a bit more but two I personally am very close with and would like to further look at for this project are Chamber Music & Trad. Irish Music. In chamber music I was interested in looking into concepts such as performance, power, internal hierarchies, the audience and performer relationship, meaning, language, emotion, culture status, and religion. I currently perform in a chamber ensemble or singers and have been a part of it for a few years now and I think it would be interesting having the knowledge/perspective of a performer to look in to the ensemble with a different kind of view, yet still able to use my performance knowledge. 

Traditional Irish Music is something I feel very passionate about and have personally always been interested in the stories behind different tunes, song, and dance. Currently studying Trad. Irish Music with a humanities background and performing a bit on the bodhrán and song, may make this an interesting experience and allow me to gain an different kind of insight into this music as well as grow as a performer. I would like to possibly look into the performer/audience relationship, performance setting, purpose behind the many types (tunes, song, dances), regionality, culture & class, emotion, religion, history (colonial ties and distribution), politics & nationalism, and identity. 

Music within Capoeira is an idea I had from originally looking at some photos of a Facebook of a friend of mine who practices capoeira. It's not something I know much about except that it is strongly tied to music, dance and Brazilian martial arts. So I thought it might be a good idea to look into that and learn a bit about something completely new. 

I've got some options now I've got to pick one or maybe think of another, and narrow down the many aspects available to study within that form of music.