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Fiddle music was considered\u00a0by a few speakers at this year’s excellent Musica Scotica conference held at the Glasgow Museum of Religious Life and Art. There was also talk, over coffee, of the exciting project getting underway today: Nathaniel Gow’s Dance\u00a0Band. This, as I understand it is an ensemble of crack fiddlers who will use baroque violins to explore hand-picked pieces from the\u00a0eighteenth century fiddle collections to see what happens. This is the kind of practical research that I love hearing about and can’t wait to enjoy the results\u00a0of their efforts. I have suggested that the rehearsals should be recorded fly-on-the-wall style and the files archived for future academic use. Its probably too late now, but\u00a0it would also be valuable to interview the performers (separately and\/or together) on their expectations of the project before, or at an early stage, in the project with a view to a further survey after the experiment has matured.<\/p>\n
Many traditional music revivals have been strongly focused on placing renewed attention on the older “period” versions of the instruments involved. The clarsach world has,\u00a0since the early 1980s been greatly concerned with the old ways of the wire strung harp and in piping we have seen the revival of the bellows-blown pipes and reconstructions of early sets of Highland pipes. Both of these movements\u00a0have led to a greater appreciation of the early repertory, styles and creative potential of the instruments.<\/p>\n
Perhaps because of its dominance\u00a0in Western music\u00a0and its centrality in Scotland’s music \u00a0there has been relatively little such attention paid to the violin. At last there is some movement.<\/p>\n
As I mentioned in a very early posting here (http:\/\/www.blogs.hss.ed.ac.uk\/revival-fiddle\/old-rosin See foot of page), I have been dabbling a little with an old eighteenth-century Scottish fiddle strung with gut and played with a baroque bow.<\/p>\n
To me, it is potential for producing low-key, intimate,music that is proving to\u00a0be the greatest revelation. As a folk fiddler without any\u00a0formal strings training (classical or traditional) I find it an absolute pleasure, and something of a relief to escape from the demands of the dance and folk band and the expectations of up-front technical accomplishment associated with the violin,\u00a0and\u00a0play within the ‘restrictions’ of the old instrument. That said, I can’t wait to hear the Gow Band’s handling of the more up-tempo material.<\/p>\n
The following rather rough and ready home recordings are some of my first explorations:<\/p>\n