Irish Fiddle  Scottish fiddle  Scandinavia  East European  Klezmer Fiddle  Middle Eastern Indian Fiddle  English Fiddle
 Chinese Fiddle  Mexican Fiddle  Cajun Fiddle  Old Time Fiddle  Bluegrass Fiddle  Western Swing Jazz Fiddle  HOME

Old Time fiddle

For the middle class, urban fiddle player of today (and let's face it, that's most of us), with a choice of fiddle style comes a bundle of ideals, values and romantic notions. For Americans, Old Time fiddling represents a nostalgic link with the country's past- a tradition rooted in the simple, honest, hardworking lives of the first rural farmers.

British settlers began arriving in the uplands of the southeast in the mid 1700's, colonising the Blue Ridge mountain and Southern Appalachian states of Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky and Tennessee. Whilst fiddlers would have existed among all the nation's settlers, it was in these isolated communities of the southeast that the tradition was best preserved.

With little help to be expected from outside, self-sufficiency was essential. The big tasks of rural life- barn raising, stone picking, apple peeling and bean stringing and so forth were communal affairs where all the neighbours would help out, the day's work invariably capped with drinking, dancing and music, for which the local fiddler was essential. He was at the same time greatly prized by the community and condemned by the churchman, who saw only idleness, liquor and licentiousness associated with "The Devil's Box". Early fiddlers could name among their ranks such diverse luminaries as the pioneer Davey Crocket and, surprisingly, the author of the declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson.

 

Fiddle Contests
Of course, the fiddle was not the only instrument available. The Jew's Harp was popular, as were the plucked or hammered dulcimers. With emancipation in the 1860's African Americans started to move into the Appalachians, bringing with them the banjo and a new style of guitar playing. These instruments gradually became incorporated into the string band tradition that we would recognise today. Harmonica, autoharp and mandolin also arrived at the turn of the century, largely via the new mail-order catalogues. The fiddle, however, remained pre-eminent, and fiddlers were by now becoming celebrities far beyond their own communities. Fiddle contests, with a history dating back to at least the 1730's, became hugely popular events, with skilled practitioners stalking the land like gunfighters in search of prize money. It was not unknown for such contests to be completely fixed: a travelling showman would arrive, propose a championship, and then watch his apparently unknown associate ride into town and scoop the prize. At the other end of the moral spectrum, Henry Ford sponsored a series of contests at his car dealerships in the mid 20's, as a way of promoting old fashioned American values and staving off the twin evils of jazz and communism.

 

 

Early fiddle recordings
With the arrival of the recording industry, national fame became an attainable for old time musicians. Seven-times Georgia fiddle champion Fiddlin' John Carson was lured into an Atlanta broadcasting studio with the promise of "a snort of engineer's whiskey", and in 1923 he recorded Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane and The Old Hen Cackled and the Rooster's going to Crow.
OKeh record label head Ralph Peer declared the result "pluperfect awful", but the release was an immediate success and Carson vowed to "quit makin' moonshine and start makin' records!"

 

 

Eck Robertson and Blind Ed Haley were prominent fiddlers in the new gold rush which was to become the massive industry of country music. Tommy Jarrell, from North Carolina, was among the most influential players, recording seven albums and, late in life, achieving worldwide recognition. Alongside commercial recording, a determined effort was made by musicologists to record and preserve old time music in its original state. Following in the footsteps of Cecil Sharp, who collected Appalachian tunes and songs from 1916-18, Alan Lomax made many field recordings in the 1930's for the Library of Congress.

As radio and the phonograph entered almost every home it became possible for many more people to hear old time music, but at the same time it was becoming commercialised, watered down, cleaned up and irrevocably changed. Local stylistic differences which had been passed down the generations were all but lost, and with the arrival of the triple threat of amplification, bluegrass and rock and roll, the writing was on the wall for old time music.

Revival of Old Time fiddle music
Fortunately, as with so many folk styles, the 60's and 70's saw a reawakening of interest by young people tired of slick but shallow commercial music. Bands such as the New Lost City Ramblers, which included Mike Seeger on fiddle, sought to recreate the original old time sound, and today there are many fine players such as Brad Leftwich, Bruce Molsky and Bruce Green. Those who concentrate solely on old time fiddling tend to have a relatively low profile (it's not a profitable business to be in!); better-known professionals whose style encompasses some old time fiddling include John Hartford and Jay Ungar.

 

John HartfordBruce MolskyBrad Leftwich

Old Time fiddle technique
Old time fiddling evolved primarily for the accompaniment of dancing. As fiddle was often the sole instrument, double stops and drones are frequently used, giving more volume and a fuller sound. Some fiddlers raised one or two strings with matchsticks allowing the possibility of triple stops. A whole series of alternative tunings may be used, allowing the strings which are not fingered to drone or ring more freely. The simplest change would be ADAE (tuning up the bottom string a tone) for playing tunes in the key of D. With the "high bass" or "dead man's tuning", both G and D are tuned up, giving AEAE. Others include the Black Mountain tuning AEACsharp, and the Bonepartes Retreat tuning DDAD.

With the fiddle in one of these tunings it is possible for a second player to "beat the straws"; little "fiddlesticks" are hammered rhythmically on the lower strings giving a strange zinging sound, whilst the fiddler is bowing on the upper strings.

Fingering tends to be quite simple, with little ornamentation beyond a few slides; what is greatly admired among old time fiddlers is an energetic and driving bowing rhythm. In old time music there is little in the way of structure to the performance of a tune. Solo breaks, the life and soul of bluegrass, would be considered egotistical and newfangled. Because they tend to be repeated many times in a row, many fiddle tunes have words to go with them, often humourous if not ribald. To ease simultaneous playing and singing, the fiddle is often held somewhere on the upper chest, tilted clockwise to facilitate heavily accented downbows.

 

Old time fiddle repertoire
Among the many tunes with words are Cripple Creek, John Henry, Cluck old Hen and Old Joe Clark. Whilst some have an American origin, many tunes can be traced back to anglo/celtic roots; thus the Fairy Dance became Old Molly Hare, Macleod's Reel became Uncle Joe, and Shepherd's Hey became Walking in the Parlour. Energetic tunes in 4/4, such as Billy in the Lowground, Cumberland Gap, and Soldier's Joy are called "breakdowns". Waltzes are also common; many of the more popular ones are recent compositions . Over the Waves was written by a Mexican dance orchestra leader named Juventino Rosas; Midnight on the Water was by fiddler Benny Thomasson's father Luke, and the haunting Ashokan Farewell, theme tune for the American Civil War TV series, was by Jay Ungar.

 

Links: