This can be particularly relevant with respect to accompaniment, as accompanists contextualise the fiddler, often having the power to make a performance either traditional and conservative or unorthodox and experimental.

Negotiating when to engage in which style of music-making can be important, since subverting established conventions while performing in some contexts may be inappropriate, but acceptable in others. These categories are neither absolute nor mutually exclusive players can exist in both musical paradigms, having at times conflicting traditionalist and innovative musical personas that change according to performance contexts. If an individual is an ardent traditionalist, this is as much a conscious decision as becoming a modern innovator. Musicians are not passive products of their cultural environments, but rather shape their style based on their own personal tastes and values. Innovation or traditionalism can be seen in terms of repertoire, musical arrangements, and accompaniment. While traditionalism is highly valued among Cape Breton fiddlers today, commercialisation and experimentation are also prominent in today’s scene. A more holistic view of the complexities of the Cape Breton fiddling tradition follows from a perspective not only of the socio-musical elements that shaped the historical narrative, but also of the musical elements of this dance-oriented “old style.” Analysis will show that “listening” tunes fell into the interstices of allowable innovation, while dance (particularly step-dance) tunes demanded certain “old style” techniques. The interstices of the tradition allowed more extreme stylistic experimentation to be accepted as “traditional,” while the symbiotic social practice of dancing necessitated relative conservatism. As models were sought for younger players to emulate, pre-1971 “master” fiddlers with innovative stylistic approaches began to be identified as “old style” players. One of the most rooted and complex concepts in this narrative is that of “old style,” a term that came to represent the idealized performance practice in post-1971 Cape Breton fiddling. These contexts romanticized older practices as “authentic,” a construct that deeply impacted the narrative about the Cape Breton fiddling tradition. While this allowed for performance contexts and practices to burgeon, it also solidified certain perspectives about the “diasporic preservation” and resultant “authenticity.” This work aims to trace the seeds and developments of the beliefs surrounding the Cape Breton fiddling tradition, from the idealizations of Enlightenment Scotland to the manipulation and commercialization of the folklore and Celticism of twentieth-century Nova Scotia. With the fear of decline of the Cape Breton fiddling tradition after the airing of The Vanishing Cape Breton Fiddler by the CBC in 1971, both the Cape Breton community and ethnographers clamored to preserve and maintain the extant practices and discourse. ' The chatter and noodling in the California classroom tapered off En tant qu'ambassadrice culturelle non officielle, chaque performance de MacMaster, tant dans son île qu'à l'étranger, devient une rencontre touristique qui lie l'identité de Cap Breton à l'ethnicité blanche, au traditionalisme et à l'hétéro-normativité. La représentation qu'elle donne du caractère écossais de Cap Breton façonne les perceptions qu'ont de l'île les consommateurs non insulaires, et leurs attentes au sujet de la culture écossaise de l'île. Cet article examine la façon dont Natalie MacMaster construit son identité de genre et son identité ethnique dans une normativité typique du Cap Breton par le biais de ses spectacles, tant sur l'île qu'au niveau international. Résumé : L'identité écossaise de Cap Breton, pour ce qui est de la normativité du genre et de l'ethnicité, se construit au moyen de la performance et de la pratique de la musique et de la danse traditionnelles. As an unofficial cultural ambassador, MacMaster's every performance, at home and away, becomes a tourism encounter that ties Cape Bretonness to ethnic whiteness, traditionalism, and heteronormativity. The vision of Scottish Cape Bretonness she crafts shapes the perceptions and expectations of Cape Breton held by non-islander consumers of the island's Scottish culture. This article examines how Natalie MacMaster constructs her gendered and ethnic identities as normative and quintessentially Cape Breton through her stage performances both on the island and internationally. Normative gendered and ethnic Scottish Cape Bretoner identity is constructed through traditional music and dance performance and practice.

Natalie macmaster and friends