Scottish Fiddle
Shetland fiddling
Duke Ellington said that there are only two types of music which possess swing; one is jazz, the other Scottish music. He had almost certainly been listening to musicians from Shetland. Despite their tiny size and population, these island have a distinctive, vibrant and influential style of traditional music with the fiddle at its heart. The Shetlanders have drawn on a range of musical sources, from the virtuosic if rather formal Scott Skinner to the lilting style of the Irish, the "ringing strings" of Scandinavia and the country and swing of America.
The Shetland Reel
The best known fiddle tunes are reels. They are usually played
fast, and may be ornamented by little triplets known as "shivers"
and by the occasional droning of open strings-giving a bright
ringing sound reminiscent of the hardangefele of Norway. Traditional
reels are often in simple repeated 4-bar sections, suitable for
accompanying the dancing of the 16-bar Shetland Reel. Examples
include If I get a bonny lass and Jeannie shock da bairn..
The backing, often on piano or guitar, uses a rich vocabulary
of passing chords and running bass lines more often seen in jazz.
There is a distinctive and highly infectious swing to Shetland
reels, and Willafjord, for example, is a tune full of syncopation.
To quote Tom Anderson. "If du imagines some een gaen wi
wan fit ida stank an de idder een a broo an gaein a lunk as dey
go alang, dat's da kind o' syncopated rhythm du haes to get whin
du plays dis een!" (If you imagine someone walking with
one foot in a ditch and the other on a hill, and giving a skip
as they go along, that's the sort of rhythm you have to get when
you play this one!)
Many of the tunes played today are recent compositions,
though some of the traditional ones are "Trowie tunes"
said to have been learned from Shetland's faeries.
Slow airs and waltzes are another feature of
Shetland music, requiring a rich tone and vibrato on the fiddle,
with some double stopping and sliding of notes reminiscent of
American fiddling. Two particularly beautiful airs are Da Slockit
Light and The Silvery Voe.
The acknowledged master of Shetland fiddling was Tom Anderson,
who before his death in 1991 collected and documented a great
deal of the fiddling tradition, as well as being a prolific composer.
He was the first leader of the Shetland Fiddlers Society (informally
known as Da Forty Fiddlers), and in 1983 he started Shetland's
Young Heritage, a group which has done much to ensure a healthy
future for the Shetland fiddle.
Shetland's
Young Heritage
It has been said that today as many as 10% of all Shetland schoolchildren are learning traditional fiddle. Tom Anderson also taught many of today's leading players including Catriona McDonald and Aly Bain. Aly in turn has been a great inspiration to many through his broadcasting and his work with Boys of the Lough. His TV series Down Home gave a fascinating insight into the links between Shetland fiddling and many of the American styles including cajun, western swing and bluegrass.
Catriona Mcdonald is one of six fiddle players who make up Blazin' Fiddles, a band whose members between them virtually the full range of Scottish fiddling. Their name comes from the regretable 19th Century practice of fiddle burning encouraged by the Church; a tune that all fiddlers should learn by way of retribution is Deil stick the minister!
Willy Hunter was another influential player who wrote many fine tunes, including Leaving Lerwick Harbour.
Willie
Hunter with pianist Violet Tulloch
Mainland Scottish fiddling has quite a different character; the
reels are played slower, there are more jigs, and the strathspey,
with its unique and somewhat unpredictable "snap" rhythm
is a distinctive feature. Ornamentation comes mainly from the
right hand.
The West Coast style of Scottish fiddling
is much influenced by the pipes: after the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion
many aspects of Scots culture (particularly piping) were outlawed,
and many of the pipers took up the (marginally) more respectable
fiddle. Frequent use is made of the myxolidian mode (using a flattened
seventh), which is indeed a bagpipe scale. Gracenotes and other
ornamentation also imitate the bagpipe style. Marches and jigs
make up the majority of the repertoire, though there are also
many beautiful slow airs, thought to be based on ancient gaelic
songs.
The North East style, more elegant and featuring many slow strathspeys, has been heavily influenced by its greatest exponent, James Scott Skinner (1843-1927). Starting at a young age as a traditional fiddler, he then received a classical music education and rapidly developed into an outstanding performer and prolific composer.
In both fields he stressed showy technique
and elegance, deliberately overshadowing the traditional "country"
fiddlers of the day. He crowned himself the Strathspey King and
performed in a concert setting, in full Scottish regalia, before
huge audiences. Not a modest man, his memoirs include such gems
as "I have no intention of wearying my readers with details
of my life's output of original music which, frankly speaking,
has been colossal." Whether a self-obsessed parody of Scottish
culture or a hugely talented ambassador for traditional fiddle
playing, he was extremely popular in his day, and thirty thousand people mourned his passing in Aberdeen in 1927. Skinner has certainly left a valuable legacy in his influence
on the East Coast style of fiddling, and in his huge output of
published tunes; it is said that 600 of his compositions are still regularly played, including the notoriously difficult hornpipes The
Mathematician and the accidental-packed Arthur's Seat;
the reel East Neuk of Fife and the strathspeys The
Laird of Drumblair and Bonnie Lass O' Bon Accord..
Scotland has a long history of fine fiddlers, one of the earliest
and best known being Niel Gow(1727-1807).
Though
of humble birth, he elevated fiddling to a respected profession,
mixing freely with the Scottish aristocracy. He played for Bonnie
Prince Charlie; his services were retained by his landlord the
Duke of Atholl, and he was a friend of Robert Burns. Burns put
words to one of Gow's airs, now known as the Lass O'Gowrie.
Niel's son Nathaniel Gow was another noted fiddler and
composer.
Other 18th Century Scottish fiddlers who were also composers included
William Marshall, Robert Macintosh, Captain Simon Fraser and James Oswald.
Neil Gow
Contemporary Scottish fiddling
The fiddle has been an essential part of most
mainstream Scottish folk bands such as Runrig, Capercaillie and
the Battlefield Band. John Cunningham blazed a fine trail
with such bands as Silly Wizard and Relativity, whilst Alisdair
Fraser is well known for his educational work as well as for
the richly textured and panoramic arrangements and compositions
of his group Skydance.
The recent fertility of Scottish culture has produced many exotic
blooms including The Easy Club, playing "Scottish Rhythm
and Swing", Martyn Bennett ,who incorporates traditional
fiddling and piping into modern trance and dance music, and the
magnificent Shooglenifty, who have cornered the market in "hypnofolkadelic
acid croft"
Cape Breton
And so, finally to Cape Breton Island. Before you rush to the
atlas, let me confirm that you're right, it's nowhere near Scotland!
However, some of the finest Scottish fiddling is in fact found
here.
It is a widely held view that in the 19th century Scottish fiddling
was "cleaned up" by the joint forces of the Church (which
temporarily banned it), the Government and Scott Skinner, leaving
it elegant and stately, somewhat classical in approach, but with
very little of the original ornamentation, bowing and healthy
robustness. Fortunately Scots emigrants to Nova Scotia took the
original style with them and have kept it alive and kicking to
this day. The style is highly ornamented, uses mostly short single
bows, and shows the influence both of highland bagpipes and Gaelic
singing. It has an energetic, driving rhythm well suited to the
accompaniment for dancing, and the fiddlers often sit down and
tap their feet as an integral part of the music.
Buddy MacMaster is one of the leading traditional players
from the older generation, while his niece Natalie MacMaster
has more of a folk-rock approach. She combines stepdancing with
her performance, as do many of the other young guns of the Cape
Breton fiddle such as Richard Wood and Ashley McIsaac.
Check out my London-based Ceilidh band QUICKSILVER
Chris Haigh is a London-based fiddle player. He plays many styles, but has a large repertoire of Scottish fiddle tunes, which he plays either solo (for private functions) or with his ceilidh band Quicksilver. He has written and recorded a cd of tunes in Scottish traditional style for use as TV production music; tracks from this album have appeared on programmes throughout the world.
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