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An Aural Tradition with a Pause Button? The Role of Recording Technology in a North East English Folk Session

This article reports an ethnographic study which analyses the various impacts of digital recording practices on the musical and social characteristics of folk music sessions in the North East of England. The publication is a rare example of research into the contemporary performance practices of English folk music in “mainstream” ethnomusicology. It is also distinct from others dealing with the relationship between traditional music and recordings in its approach to the process of recording as a culturally expressive act, rather than focussing on culturally significant recordings. The article is based on the case studies of two specific sessions in the city of Durham, and is the result of approximately 9 years of participant-observation (a notably long period of fieldwork for ethnomusicological research in this field) and more recent, focussed interviews. Ethnomusicology is the largest-subscription journal in the discipline of ethnomusicology. The fact that the article appears in a general issue (of articles covering a wide variety of topics) is significant inasmuch as ethnomusicological research on English folk music has thus far generally been confined to dedicated special issues. This publication then represents an inclusion of research on this field within the core mainstream of ethnomusicological literature. Given the recent publication of this article, impact indicators are not yet apparent. This article has, however, resulted in the ongoing development of a research project looking at the experiencing and employing of digital materials by English folk musicians, in collaboration with the English Folk Dance and Song Society (a grant application is due to be submitted to AHRC later in 2013).