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Paddy Cronin: Musical Influences on a Sliabh Luachra Fiddle Player in the United States

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 October 2010

MATT CRANITCH
MATT CRANITCH*
Affiliation:
[email protected]
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Abstract

In the world of Irish traditional music, Paddy Cronin from Sliabh Luachra in the southwest of Ireland is regarded as one of the tradition's exceptional fiddle players. Although his music exhibits many characteristics of the Sliabh Luachra tradition, it also has other elements and features, primarily from the Sligo style. A pupil of Pádraig O'Keeffe (the “Sliabh Luachra Fiddle Master”), Cronin emigrated to Boston in 1949 and lived there for approximately forty years. Before he left Ireland, he had been familiar with the music of the Sligo masters, such as Michael Coleman and James Morrison, who had gone to the United States many years before him. In Boston Paddy met and played with many of the great Sligo musicians, and also had the opportunity to hear music in other styles, including that of Canadian musicians, whose use of piano accompaniment he admired greatly. This article considers his music before and after he left Ireland, and compares him to Coleman and Morrison by considering their respective performances of the reel “Farewell to Ireland.”

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Society for American Music , Volume 4 , Special Issue 4: Irish Music in the United States , November 2010 , pp. 475 - 489
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Music 2010

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References

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Discography

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Radio Program

Cronin, Paddy. Airneán. Program 1 of 2, presented and produced by Peter Browne. RTÉ Radio 1, 23 October 1992.Google Scholar

Field Recording

Cronin, Paddy. Interview by Matt Cranitch, recorded on video in his home, Killarney, County Kerry, 21 May 1999.Google Scholar