This is not about River Dance or the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. This isn’t the popular culture, sensationalized spectacle of 80,000 dancers or bagpipes and kilts.
“What is less understood is the soloistic aspect of the tradition,” said Eliot Grasso, creator and teacher of a summer course in Irish traditional music.
“Think of Bach or Mozart or Miles Davis or someone – there are certain individuals who need be studied because they were geniuses in music, and that is the approach we take to the traditional music course,” Grasso said.
Today is the beginning of Grasso’s exploration of the politics, history, and, more importantly, the music of traditional Irish culture. This class has never been offered before at the University.
“It’s fantastic music that is a rich and artistic tradition that’s worth studying,” Grasso said.
Grasso received his masters in ethnomusicology at the University of Limerick in Ireland. While there, he researched current and past perspectives to traditional Irish music to compile a rare collective body of knowledge.
“This was sort of the course I wanted to take, but that wasn’t actually offered,” Grasso said.
What sets Grasso apart is the addition of practical application to his knowledge. Both of Grasso’s parents were amateur traditional musicians. He has been playing Irish music since he was seven years old, and he has dedicated the greater part of his life to recording, studying, practicing and performing Irish music on a professional level.
“Eliot is also a formidable practitioner of Irish music. He grew up with the sound of traditional music in his ear, and is now a world-class performer on uilleann pipes,” Julia Heydon, Associate Director of the Oregon Humanities Center, wrote in an e-mail, referring to the national bagpipes of Ireland. “He also plays flute, whistle and fiddle. His playing is brilliant and imaginative, and his knowledge of this music (and of music in general) is both broad and deep.”
The class is not intended to be a history course, nor is it a class intended only for musicians, Grasso said. It’s more an evaluation of traditional Irish music, working its way out from the music to context. Students will create a comparative analysis of two Irish recordings and go to an Irish musical performance in Eugene.
“It’s actually a really fascinating mix of music listening, musicology, history, politics and sociology all sort of meeting at this nexus of the CD,” Grasso said.
The course, MUS 399, is one of the more unique classes offered in the short, four-week term this summer. Since the influx of Irish people into the United States in the 19th century, American culture gained a large Irish influence, Grasso said. Traditional Irish music has had a sizable impact on, and deep roots within, American music and culture, he said.
The course will search through this Irish influence and grant students access to Grasso’s knowledge and experience.
“The course he is offering this summer,” music professor Anne McLucas wrote in an e-mail, “while short, is jam-packed with wonderful music and the chance to access some of its history and performance practice.”
Students will get to listen to a variety of traditional Irish recordings, as well as see and listen to musical demonstrations by Grasso.
“This is a rare opportunity for students who love Irish traditional music to learn more about it from a true master,” Heydon wrote.