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authority. At all European Scottish festivals, the kilted male is at the centre of attention. And yet this does not mean that women are absent. They are there, either impersonating Scottish men, inventing their own female identities and thus expanding the Scottish dreamscape – or as spectators, dressing up their men, encouraging them to perform as manly Highlanders for their pleasure. The Scottish dreamscape is a world of male heroism, but women participate in its re-enactment. Methods and structure The twenty-first-century memory boom is one of action and performance
accepting such conventions; what is involved is a process of engagement with them, or as Berliner puts it: ‘ . . . from the outset an artist’s ongoing personal performance history entwines with jazz’s artistic tradition, allowing for a mutual absorption and exchange of ideas’ (1994: 59). This set of conventions, which Berliner terms ‘the formal structures of jazz’ (ibid.) constitutes the model, in Nettl’s sense, with which improvisers work. In very general terms, improvised ‘solos’ must conform in acceptable ways to the harmonic progression and formal structure of the
formal concert, perhaps by an African-American choir, and harmonised according to the conventions of nineteenth-century European art music? Or the versions regularly produced by thousands of English rugby union fans (who have adopted the song) at international matches? Some might argue that the former is a ‘real’ or ‘correct’ rendition, citing the performance history of the song, and the traditions of black music. Yet, firstly, such an argument nicely illustrates Becker’s point that ‘ . . . the general choice of the convention by which works will be recognised results
inscribed on the streets, as is the subversion of that ambition by less reputable theatre establishments. Manchester, like many other British provincial cities and towns, has a rich performance history, professional and amateur, commercial and subsidised, popular and radical, street- and building-based, dating back to the mid-1700s.24 The city’s first permanent theatres were built between 1753 and 1845, scattered across what was then a town centre – the Marsden Street theatre (1743–75); the first Theatre Royal at the junction of York Street and Spring Gardens (1775