Research Catalog

Rugs, guitars, and fiddling intensification and the rich modern lives of traditional arts

Title: Rugs, guitars, and fiddling [electronic resource] : intensification and the rich modern lives of traditional arts / Chris Goertzen.
Author: Goertzen, Chris.
Publication: Jackson : University Press of Mississippi, 2022.

Available Online

Details

Description

1 online resource (vii, 187 pages) : illustrations (some color), music.

Summary

"What do exotic area rugs, handcrafted steel-string guitars, and fiddling have in common today? Many contemporary tradition bearers embrace complexity in form and content. They construct objects and performances that draw on the past and evoke nostalgia effectively but also reward close attention. In Rugs, Guitars, and Fiddling: Intensification and the Rich Modern Lives of Traditional Arts, author Chris Goertzen argues that this entails three types of change that can be grouped under an umbrella term: intensification. First, traditional creativity can be intensified through virtuosity, through doing hard things extra fluently. Second, performances can be intensified through addition, by packing increased amounts of traditional materials into the conventionally sized packages. Third, in intensification through selection, artistic impact can grow even if amount of information recedes by emphasizing compelling ideas-e.g., crafting a red and black viper poised to strike rather than a pretty duck decoy featuring more colors and contours. Rugs handwoven in southern Mexico, luthier-made guitars, and southern US fiddle styles experience parallel changes, all absorbing just enough of the complex flavors, dynamics, and rhythms of modern life to translate inherited folklore into traditions that can be widely celebrated today. New mosaics of details and skeins of nuances don't transform craft into esoteric fine art, but rather enlist the twists and turns and endless variety of the contemporary world therapeutically, helping transform our daily chaos into parades of negotiable jigsaw puzzles. Intensification helps make crafts and traditional performances more accessible and understandable and thus more effective, bringing past and present closer together, helping folk arts continue to perform their magic today"--

Uniform Title

Rugs, guitars, and fiddling (Online)

Alternative Title

Rugs, guitars, and fiddling (Online)

Subject

Bibliography (note)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Access (note)

Access restricted to authorized users.

Contents

Introduction. Norwegian fiddling and the three processes of intensification -- Souvenir area rugs from Southern Mexico : from floors to walls -- Steel string guitars in unprecedented variety -- Weekend sounds : the multifarious craft of American fiddling -- Intensified but traditional : an afterword in stripes and curves.

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