History
"Singing and drinking have probably happened together from ancient times, but evidence is fragmentary until the sixteenth century. In Shakespeare's Henry IV, Hal and Falstaff discuss drinking and playing the tongs and the bones, and their favourite band "Sneak's Noise". There are good depictions of pub singing in paintings by Teniers (1610-1690) and Brouwer (1605/6-1638) but the best ones are by Jan Steen (1625/5-1656). By the eighteenth century we can distinguish the songs of illiterate peasants (traditional songs collected by Thomas Percy (1721-1811) from sophisticated literary political lampoons ("Cavalier Songs and Ballads of England from 1642-1684" edited by Charles Mackay)."
From 1800 to 1950
"The 1830 Beer Act abolished the levy on beer and quickly doubled the number of pubs in England. The number peaked in the 1870s and declined after 1900. One of the most popular drinking songs, "Little Brown Jug," dates from the 1860s. By 1908 Percy Grainger had begun to record folk singers, but not in their natural habitat -- the pub. In 1938 A.L. Lloyd persuaded his employers at the BBC to record the singers in the Eel's Foot pub in Eastbridge, Suffolk. In 1947 the BBC made more recordings there and broadcast them as "Anglia Sings" on 19th November 1947. Almost all of the participants were in their 50s and 60s. Six years later the first folk club opened in Newcastle upon Tyne, and the average age was in the 20s."
So it looks like the Irish probably picked up the ‘Session’ habit - from the ENGLISH!
According to Hammy Hamilton:
“The session as we know it today is a much later development, in the majority of cases not being common until the 1950s! The earliest date that I can establish for a pub session is in the late 1930s and I think this would have been very unusual at the time.””
See: The Irish “Session” (Part 1) by Stewart Hendrickson:
Interesting question. I'm pretty sure the use of the word session to describe either a recording session or a jazz "jam" predates its use in Irish music, though. That would lead me to think that it probably got applied first in the US, where it was being used in the jazz world, and then applied to to Irish. However, I'm guessing.
P Molony the Comisar Of Oirish Musak and current champion of bored middle aged Welsh men!
once claimed that the word 'session' is a corruption of the word 'cessation'. Meaning that people gather about and with little know how murder unsuspecting tunes until they are so embarrassed by their drunken din they all cease go home to sleep it off, or whatever it was they came out to murder.
There was a dispute over this timing, TheDon, but in the end the best known version gives the time AT 10.48PM. Some diehards still argue in favour of 10.49pm, but they have been mostly discredited.
My own hypothesis without a lick of actual evidence to support it is that when asked to describe what took place the participants and/or observers might have said it was a "jam session" since that described similar events taking place elsewhere involving other kinds of music. Then when thinking about it later they might have realized it gave the impression that people were improvising similar to the way they do at said other events, so they removed the word "jam" for clarification.
That’s my hypothesis, it belongs to me… you can’t have it.
No, a "session" in common parlance, especially in Ireland, means/meant a drinking session. If there was music at it it was a music session, be it Jazz, ITM or whatever.
Now Phantom Bottom you very well know that only kids have 'jam sessions' and that as soon as the pot is empty they all go and be sick all over the kitchen floor, so that ain't the right answer!
In German the word Session (pronounce with s not sh in the middle) refers to the 5th season of the year - carnival, which is on its peak this weekend. It means sitting down for some serious drinking. And a lot of the time listening to Irish songs with new Cologne-dialect lyrics (I'm a rover = isch ben ene räuber).
So the descriptions are about right.
a session or "sesh" in Australia has always meant, and still means, drinking to most people.
As is well known, the patrons of Kelly's Cellars in Belfast were arrested at 02.14 am on 17 August 1824 , charged with treason and possession of drums and transported to Australia, where customs promptly confiscated the offending untreated wood and animal skin
Shouldn't we be talking about a Séisún? Since 'crack' got transmorgified into craic for reasons not unlinked with illeagal substances . . . perhaps it would be better to ue Séisiún and leave session to the topers and jazzers and other uncouth.
I remember when I was a wee lad, growing up in Peru, of all places, my parents used to host what was called "peñas", and basically they sat around drinking, singing and playing (mom on the piano and dad on the guitar....I found out later in life (after learning to read) that local drinking establishments also hosted these "peñas"....pub owners would write in their billboards that so-and-so (insert famous local trad music person) would be hosting said "peñas" on that particular night. I didn't make the connection until many years later, in Ireland, after learning how the tradition got started, that is, in people's homes (kitchens)....if we go back far enough, sessions, seisiùns or peñas", or whatever they're called in any other language probably began the moment the first caveman blew a note out of a hollow thighbone while sitting around the hearth, in company of fellow cave-dwellers, most likely at exactly 10:48 pm on 17 August 10,000 BC...the rest, as they say is, well..history
Zoukmike -- you're absolutely right. I forgot about that connection. In the mid 70s I was deeply involved with Chilean exiles that were trying to establish a commune in the Central Valley to hold up until they could get their country back out from under CIA control. They would have these "peñas," and it was indeed very similar to a session. The difference, at least for me, was the serious political overtone on account of the dire political and human rights conditions that existed at that time. But they were essentially the same sort of social gathering that celebrated Chilean music and culture in a non-formal setting the same way an Irish session does.
At the time I had no experience with Irish music, so I couldn't see the similarity. Years later, when my interests shifted to ITM, there was an event in the Bay Area where these two cultures intersected. Consequently the Irish pub that co-sponsored it was smack up against the other co-sponsor, a Chilean pub that’s called "La Peña." Of course there was both Chilean and Irish music at this event, and they shared many of the same political concerns at the time. I also noticed a lot of similarities with the people of both countries after becoming more familiar with Ireland.
After becoming obsessed with ITM I spent a lot of time around Irish people here in SF and I took multiple trips to Ireland. I also realized as I became more familiar with Irish history that the two countries shared a similar past involving oppression from foreign governments and attempts to destroy their cultures -- including the music. I believe it only served to make the music and culture that much more powerful in both cases. They both have a similar joie de vivre and attitude towards time and punctuality among other things.
So when I reflect back on it, (after being reminded by you today,) I'm realizing that the Irish pub is smack up against another pub that's called, "The Session," only in Spanish.
First use of the term "Session"?
First use of the term "Session"?
Pub Sessions are a fairly new practice but was the term "session" used before the modern day "pub session"???
# Posted on February 16th 2007 by JPcares
Re: First use of the term "Session"?
In a musical context? Or in any context?
# Posted on February 16th 2007 by CreadurMawnOrganig
Re: First use of the term "Session"?
Specifically In the Irish music tradition
# Posted on February 16th 2007 by JPcares
Re: First use of the term "Session"?
JPcares - I hope the following helps a little:
In any context:
Origin Latin, from sedere ‘sit’
http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/session?view=uk
14th century. Via French < Latin session- "a sitting" < sess- (see sessile)
http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/features/dictionary/DictionaryResults.aspx?refid=1861719188
In an Irish context:
The Irish "session"
http://www.standingstones.com/session.html
History
"Singing and drinking have probably happened together from ancient times, but evidence is fragmentary until the sixteenth century. In Shakespeare's Henry IV, Hal and Falstaff discuss drinking and playing the tongs and the bones, and their favourite band "Sneak's Noise". There are good depictions of pub singing in paintings by Teniers (1610-1690) and Brouwer (1605/6-1638) but the best ones are by Jan Steen (1625/5-1656). By the eighteenth century we can distinguish the songs of illiterate peasants (traditional songs collected by Thomas Percy (1721-1811) from sophisticated literary political lampoons ("Cavalier Songs and Ballads of England from 1642-1684" edited by Charles Mackay)."
From 1800 to 1950
"The 1830 Beer Act abolished the levy on beer and quickly doubled the number of pubs in England. The number peaked in the 1870s and declined after 1900. One of the most popular drinking songs, "Little Brown Jug," dates from the 1860s. By 1908 Percy Grainger had begun to record folk singers, but not in their natural habitat -- the pub. In 1938 A.L. Lloyd persuaded his employers at the BBC to record the singers in the Eel's Foot pub in Eastbridge, Suffolk. In 1947 the BBC made more recordings there and broadcast them as "Anglia Sings" on 19th November 1947. Almost all of the participants were in their 50s and 60s. Six years later the first folk club opened in Newcastle upon Tyne, and the average age was in the 20s."
So it looks like the Irish probably picked up the ‘Session’ habit - from the ENGLISH!
According to Hammy Hamilton:
“The session as we know it today is a much later development, in the majority of cases not being common until the 1950s! The earliest date that I can establish for a pub session is in the late 1930s and I think this would have been very unusual at the time.””
See: The Irish “Session” (Part 1) by Stewart Hendrickson:
http://www.stolaf.edu/people/hend/VictoryMusic/TheIrishSession1.html
# Posted on February 16th 2007 by Ptarmigan
Re: First use of the term "Session"?
Interesting question. I'm pretty sure the use of the word session to describe either a recording session or a jazz "jam" predates its use in Irish music, though. That would lead me to think that it probably got applied first in the US, where it was being used in the jazz world, and then applied to to Irish. However, I'm guessing.
# Posted on February 16th 2007 by kris
Re: First use of the term "Session"?
Ptarmigan - none of your examples actually indicate that any of these gathering were actually called sessions, though.
# Posted on February 16th 2007 by kris
Re: First use of the term "Session"?
erm... I'll just say "actually" once more, if I may....
# Posted on February 16th 2007 by kris
Re: First use of the term "Session"?
Ah but kris, didn't you know - the Irish invented Jazz:
http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display/10654
# Posted on February 16th 2007 by Ptarmigan
Re: First use of the term "Session"?
If they found music on Mars Paddy Moloney would claim an Irish conection!
# Posted on February 16th 2007 by dafydd
Re: First use of the term "Session"?
The first mention of the word "session" in regard to music was in Kelly's Cellars in Belfast on 16th August 1824 at 10.48pm.
# Posted on February 17th 2007 by bodhran bliss
Re: First use of the term "Session"?
P Molony the Comisar Of Oirish Musak and current champion of bored middle aged Welsh men!
once claimed that the word 'session' is a corruption of the word 'cessation'. Meaning that people gather about and with little know how murder unsuspecting tunes until they are so embarrassed by their drunken din they all cease go home to sleep it off, or whatever it was they came out to murder.
# Posted on February 17th 2007 by Schlongbow
Re: First use of the term "Session"?
I could have sworn that is was 10:49pm
# Posted on February 17th 2007 by woops
Re: First use of the term "Session"?
There was a dispute over this timing, TheDon, but in the end the best known version gives the time AT 10.48PM. Some diehards still argue in favour of 10.49pm, but they have been mostly discredited.
# Posted on February 17th 2007 by bodhran bliss
Re: First use of the term "Session"?
My own hypothesis without a lick of actual evidence to support it is that when asked to describe what took place the participants and/or observers might have said it was a "jam session" since that described similar events taking place elsewhere involving other kinds of music. Then when thinking about it later they might have realized it gave the impression that people were improvising similar to the way they do at said other events, so they removed the word "jam" for clarification.
That’s my hypothesis, it belongs to me… you can’t have it.
# Posted on February 17th 2007 by Phantom Button
Re: First use of the term "Session"?
No, a "session" in common parlance, especially in Ireland, means/meant a drinking session. If there was music at it it was a music session, be it Jazz, ITM or whatever.
# Posted on February 17th 2007 by bodhran bliss
Re: First use of the term "Session"?
Now Phantom Bottom you very well know that only kids have 'jam sessions' and that as soon as the pot is empty they all go and be sick all over the kitchen floor, so that ain't the right answer!
# Posted on February 17th 2007 by Schlongbow
Re: First use of the term "Session"?
In German the word Session (pronounce with s not sh in the middle) refers to the 5th season of the year - carnival, which is on its peak this weekend. It means sitting down for some serious drinking. And a lot of the time listening to Irish songs with new Cologne-dialect lyrics (I'm a rover = isch ben ene räuber).
So the descriptions are about right.
# Posted on February 17th 2007 by kuec
Re: First use of the term "Session"?
I love the 'informal' definition "a period of heavy or sustained drinking" weeeehawwww
# Posted on February 17th 2007 by breandan
Re: First use of the term "Session"?
a session or "sesh" in Australia has always meant, and still means, drinking to most people.
As is well known, the patrons of Kelly's Cellars in Belfast were arrested at 02.14 am on 17 August 1824 , charged with treason and possession of drums and transported to Australia, where customs promptly confiscated the offending untreated wood and animal skin
# Posted on February 17th 2007 by Bren
Re: First use of the term "Session"?
Shouldn't we be talking about a Séisún? Since 'crack' got transmorgified into craic for reasons not unlinked with illeagal substances . . . perhaps it would be better to ue Séisiún and leave session to the topers and jazzers and other uncouth.
# Posted on February 17th 2007 by Alancorsini
Re: First use of the term "Session"?
Someone else with sound knowledge on this site? Welcome Yon Bad Learner. You are absolutely right, although not too many people know that.
# Posted on February 18th 2007 by bodhran bliss
Re: First use of the term "Session"?
I remember when I was a wee lad, growing up in Peru, of all places, my parents used to host what was called "peñas", and basically they sat around drinking, singing and playing (mom on the piano and dad on the guitar....I found out later in life (after learning to read) that local drinking establishments also hosted these "peñas"....pub owners would write in their billboards that so-and-so (insert famous local trad music person) would be hosting said "peñas" on that particular night. I didn't make the connection until many years later, in Ireland, after learning how the tradition got started, that is, in people's homes (kitchens)....if we go back far enough, sessions, seisiùns or peñas", or whatever they're called in any other language probably began the moment the first caveman blew a note out of a hollow thighbone while sitting around the hearth, in company of fellow cave-dwellers, most likely at exactly 10:48 pm on 17 August 10,000 BC...the rest, as they say is, well..history
# Posted on February 19th 2007 by zoukmike
Re: First use of the term "Session"?
Zoukmike -- you're absolutely right. I forgot about that connection. In the mid 70s I was deeply involved with Chilean exiles that were trying to establish a commune in the Central Valley to hold up until they could get their country back out from under CIA control. They would have these "peñas," and it was indeed very similar to a session. The difference, at least for me, was the serious political overtone on account of the dire political and human rights conditions that existed at that time. But they were essentially the same sort of social gathering that celebrated Chilean music and culture in a non-formal setting the same way an Irish session does.
At the time I had no experience with Irish music, so I couldn't see the similarity. Years later, when my interests shifted to ITM, there was an event in the Bay Area where these two cultures intersected. Consequently the Irish pub that co-sponsored it was smack up against the other co-sponsor, a Chilean pub that’s called "La Peña." Of course there was both Chilean and Irish music at this event, and they shared many of the same political concerns at the time. I also noticed a lot of similarities with the people of both countries after becoming more familiar with Ireland.
After becoming obsessed with ITM I spent a lot of time around Irish people here in SF and I took multiple trips to Ireland. I also realized as I became more familiar with Irish history that the two countries shared a similar past involving oppression from foreign governments and attempts to destroy their cultures -- including the music. I believe it only served to make the music and culture that much more powerful in both cases. They both have a similar joie de vivre and attitude towards time and punctuality among other things.
So when I reflect back on it, (after being reminded by you today,) I'm realizing that the Irish pub is smack up against another pub that's called, "The Session," only in Spanish.
# Posted on February 19th 2007 by Phantom Button