Jerry Kerlin

The Transmission of Song Among the New York Irish: Teaching, Learning, and Irish Sensibility Jerry Kerlin

The Irish Arts Center in New York City provides arich context for the transmission (teaching andlearning) of song, dance, and instrumental music. Classes in amhrán (song) include the basic class ofIrish Song with a Performance Class or Singers'Circle to follow. Classes in rince (dance) covercouple dances and waltzes, céilí dance, set dance,and the exhibitionistic step dance. Classes in ceol(instrumental music) cover bodhrán, tin whistle,fiddle, banjo, mandolin, bazouki, and guitar, with achance to play in house bands. This book describesthe author's experience teaching the Irish Song classand Singer's Circle while in search of "folkpedagogy". Over thirty invited singers, mostly bornin Ireland, presented classes for IAC students andthe community. Ethnographic data from these singersand their interactions with students, includinginvestigations of song parameters and processes of"passing it on", are compared throughout. Fournarrative voices-those of songs, singers, students,and the author-are interpreted toward capturingmeaning, feelingfulness, and Irish worldview embeddedin the processes of teaching and learning.